The Top 6 Trello Alternatives
Great project management doesn’t happen by accident! Juggling deadlines, dependencies, and timelines takes plenty of coordination, skill, and planning. It’s a delicate task. In today’s remote-first workforce, it’s also usually happening virtually. That makes a project management tool essential. It keeps everyone organized, in touch, and collaborating seamlessly. One of the most popular options out there is Trello. Users love this Kanban-style system for its simplicity and a rich suite of features, but that doesn’t mean it’s the right choice for you. That’s where Trello alternatives come in.
Whether you’re looking for a project management tool that’s more advanced, more entry-level, or just different from Trello, you’ve come to the right place.
Here are the top six Trello alternatives, along with pricing, key drawbacks, and best use-cases for each.
Asana: Best overall Trello alternative
Asana is one of the most popular Trello alternatives out there, and for good reason. It’s a flexible, powerful tool for collaboration, communication, and managing all different types of projects.
Within Asana, you’ll be able to oversee and track workflow and processes, both within individual projects and across your entire organization. Unlike Trello, which only offers a Kanban board-style way to view your projects, Asana lets you see what you’re working on in plenty of different ways, from Gantt-style timelines to lists and calendars.
Drawbacks
Once you’ve made a project in Asana, there’s no easy way to duplicate it, so it’s not ideal for recurring projects that follow the same basic process, like website development.
Some users also have a gripe with the number of emails they get from Asana. Depending on your notification settings, you might get tons of pings, such as multiple reminders leading up to a task deadline.
There’s also no way to assign tasks to more than one person, although you can certainly make identical tasks for multiple people.
It also offers fewer integrations than Trello, but not by much. And, because it’s a pretty powerful, feature-rich solution, you will need to expect a bit of a learning curve.
Pricing
Asana’s free plan is pretty generous. It allows up to 15 users and gives them access to basic workflows and unlimited essentials like projects, tasks, comments, and storage.
They also have two paid options. With Premium ($10.99 monthly per user), you’ll get four project views, automated workflows, and some reporting functionality. The Business plan ($24.99 monthly per user) offers advanced workflow reporting, personalized support, and Portfolio as well as project views.
ProofHub: Best for Trello alternative enterprise
ProofHub is a super-powerful option for project management that’s used by big-name companies like Nike, Google, and even NASA.
Designed to replace multiple tools, ProofHub offers advanced features like built-in chat, project and workload reporting, and time tracking, which you can export to accounting software like Quickbooks.
You can also assign different roles and access levels to different users — pretty important for large organizations needing a true all-in-one solution.
It’s a robust, comprehensive system that’s designed to replace multiple apps.
Drawbacks
If anything, it’s almost too powerful. ProofHub is definitely not a good fit for small businesses or solo entrepreneurs.
You also can’t pause notifications, and some users feel that ProofHub’s interface could be more intuitive. But overall, Proofhub is a well-liked solution and its users are generally happy.
Pricing
ProofHub is priced per month, depending on how many users you have.
You’ll pay $45/month for 1-5 users, $90/month for 6-10, and $135/month for 11-50 users.
Basecamp: Best Trello alternative for beginners
If you’re looking for something that’s simple, accessible, and gets the job done, Basecamp is a great basic option.
Think of Basecamp as a highly elevated to-do list. It doesn’t offer a Kanban-style view like Trello. Instead, it displays lists of upcoming tasks that you can sort by project, user, or due date.
It also includes a chat function, called Campfire, and commenting for every task. It’s also affordable! Unlike many other options on this ist, Basecamp doesn’t have a per-user pricing model, which makes it nice and scalable,
Drawbacks
Look elsewhere if you want slick, colorful graphics. While Basecamp isn’t confusing, the design is super basic. Since there’s no Kanban view, calling this a Trello alternative could be considered a stretch, although they can certainly be used for similar purposes.
Pricing
Basecamp’s free Personal plan allows up to 3 projects, 20 users, and 1GB of storage space.
If you need more capacity, but you don’t want to worry about the price changing whenever you add more projects or people, their Business plan is a great option. It’s $99 per month and includes their complete suite of features, unlimited projects, and as many users as you like.
Workzone: Best mid-range Trello alternative
In addition to project management, Workzone can handle workforce management, time tracking, and workload management. That makes it perfect for agencies, or nearly any team made up of more than five people.
It’s an excellent middle ground between entry-level tools like Trello and Basecamp, and more advanced ones like ProofHub and Microsoft Project.
On Workzone’s Project Dashboard, you’ll get a big-picture view of everything your organization is working on, which you can then break down into personalized to-do lists and workspaces. It also offers more advanced tools like budget management and forecasting, reporting, and cloud file storage.
Users also have lots of great things to say about Workzone’s customer support.
Drawbacks
Like Basecamp, Workzone doesn’t offer a Kanban view, so look elsewhere if that’s a must-have for how you work.
Workzone offers fewer integrations than Trello and no free plan.
Pricing
Workzone offers three paid tiers: Team ($24), Professional ($34), and Enterprise ($43). All are billed per user, per month. If your team has fewer than five people, you’ll pay a flat monthly rate of $200. They also offer volume discounts for very large teams.
Jira: Best Trello alternative for software development
Think of Jira as Trello’s techier, more specialized older sister. They’re made by the same company (Atlassian), but instead of being suitable for all types of projects, Jira is specifically designed for software development.
At first glance, Jira can seem super similar to Trello in that you’ll view your project on a Kanban-style board. but beyond that, it’s a lot more powerful, not to mention more expensive.
It comes with some dev-specific tools, like bug mapping, agile reporting, and version release planning, as well as literally thousands of integrations.
Drawbacks
Obviously, Jira has a highly specific use case, so don’t bother with it if you aren’t doing software development. Additionally, Jira’s mobile phone app isn’t the best, so if you rely on your phone to check in on work, you’ll want to look elsewhere.
You also can’t download Jira’s reports as images or PDFs, only view them in-app. A minor inconvenience, but one that could definitely get annoying.
Pricing
Jira is free for up to 10 users.
Their paid tiers are Standard ($7.50/user per month) and Premium ($14.50/user per month). They offer varying features and functionality for one site (Jira’s workspaces). Their Enterprise plan is available for organizations with over 800 users and allows unlimited sites to be worked on.
Airtable: Best for moving beyond spreadsheets
If your projects include tracking, storing, and managing data, Airtable could be just the Trello alternative you need. It’s a bit like a next-generation spreadsheet, only much easier to use and more versatile.
However, you can also view your project in plenty of other ways, including as a Kanban board. Like Trello, Airtable also offers plenty of integrations, as well as excellent search and filtering functions.
Drawbacks
Again, Airtable works best as a leveled-up spreadsheet. So if that doesn’t make sense for the projects you’re running, another tool might be a better fit.
The user roles and permissions within Airtable aren’t as customizable as they could be, and like Jira, some users feel the mobile app leaves something to be desired.
Pricing
Airtable offers a fairly generous free plan for up to 5 users. Their two paid plan, Plus and Pro, cost $10 and $20 monthly perusers, respectively. They offer more integrations, features, and storage. There’s also an Enterprise option with custom pricing.
Don’t get board: try a Trello alternative
As you can see, there are so many options for project management tools on the market.
If Trello isn’t the ideal choice, there’s no need to use it! Whether you’re developing software or overseeing an international enterprise, there’s a perfect Trello alternative for you.
The right tool puts your focus back where it should be — working, collaborating, and communicating, not wondering if your project is aligned and on track.