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10 Best Trello Alternatives In 2023 (Free & Paid Options)

Best Trello Alternatives Shortlist

In this review, we examine the following software:

  1. 1. monday.com — Best Trello alternative for customization features
  2. 2. ClickUp — Best free plan for a Trello alternative
  3. 3. Height — Best for its free guest accounts and multiple views
  4. 4. Zoho Projects — Best price for freelancers and small teams
  5. 5. Miro — Best for built-in brainstorming & diagramming
  6. 6. Kanban Tool — Best Trello alternative for visual project management
  7. 7. MeisterTask — Best Trello alternative for automation capabilities
  8. 8. Breeze — Best combination with a full project management suite
  9. 9. ProjectManager.com — Best Kanban board tool with reporting features
  10. 10. Hubstaff — Best project management software for agile capabilities

Trello is arguably the most popular kanban tool on the market. Ever since its release in 2011, it has been one of the go-to platforms for managing project requirements through visual boards. However, our use of software evolved, and Trello stopped satisfying the basic requirements of PM software for a bit, pushing people to find a Trello alternative.

Thankfully, the beginning of 2023 brought a major upgrade with it, and now the tool offers a competitive feature set. Regardless, this post is for those of you who think Trello is too expensive, not as intuitive, too simple, or just doesn’t match your needs.

What is Trello?

Trello is a team collaboration software based on the Kanban method. It helps you manage tasks with cards on boards. This tool is renowned for being highly user-friendly, allowing users to get started within a few minutes and offering straightforward, easily understood tools and functionality.

Trello offers a free plan with limited functionality but robust enough for individuals to use. Their Standard plan starts at $5/user/month (billed annually) and increases the file size limit of what you can store in the tool. The Premium plan starts at $10/user/month and it is at this tier that you unlock other views, including Calendar, Timeline, Table, Dashboard, and Map. Finally, the Enterprise plan starts at around $17.50/user/month and offers additional administration and security features.

The Best Trello Alternatives For 2023

Here are a few of the best Trello alternatives and a description of what makes them special.

1

monday.com

Best Trello alternative for customization features

monday.com, an award winning platform, is one of the few tools that prides itself in ‘not being a project management tool’! They’ve done away with a lot of the trimmings of typical tools and focused on simple structures that help clarify the sequence of work that needs to be done.

This tool is a great Trello alternative that can actually offer quite a bit more than Trello can. monday.com features include multiple views of work—view as a list, on a map, on a Kanban board, in a spreadsheet, and other views. Users can upload and attach files to cards, make comments, mention teammates, and more. It also offers a great project reporting dashboard that can collect data from multiple boards, allowing better tracking abilities of progress.

Some standout features of this tool include tools to automate certain processes, as well as customizable task boards that let users manage tasks by cards, assignees, due dates, hours spent, etc. Overall, it’s a highly customizable tool that lets you work in whatever methodology—kanban or otherwise—that fits your project and team.

monday.com’s integrations include project management apps like Slack, Google Drive, Gmail, Google Calendar, Jira, GitHub, Trello, Dropbox, Typeform and many more, accessible via Zapier.

monday.com costs from $6/user/month and comes with a free 14-day trial. They offer a free plan for up to 2 users.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.7 8599

14-day free trial + free plan available

From $8/user/month (billed annually, min 3 seats)

2

ClickUp

Best free plan for a Trello alternative

ClickUp is a project management software and Kanban tool with powerful features for managing and completing all your team's projects in one platform. Users can plan projects, schedule tasks, and manage resources in a centralized workspace on Kanban boards, as well as calendars, Gantt charts, timelines, and more.

Task management features include task checklists, subtasks, and task templates, as well as the ability to filter, sort, search for, easily reorder, and view tasks in the manner most convenient for the team. Users can also create Gantt charts, calendars, and timelines to visualize tasks.

ClickUp also includes features for creating, sharing, and collaborative editing for Wikis and documents. Users can comment on documents and tasks, assign comments, and chat with other team members for increased communication and collaboration. Reporting features include the ability to create custom dashboards, as well as six built-in report types for team reporting.

ClickUp offers native integrations with Slack, G Suite, Dropbox, and many more tools, as well as over 1,000+ integrations through Zapier.

ClickUp's free plan is robust and includes all primary features. The unlimited plan starts at $5 a month per user and offers additional functionality.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.7 4135

Freemium plan available

From $9/user/month

3

Height

Best for its free guest accounts and multiple views

Height is the all-in-one project management tool that can be used as a Trello alternative because of its unlimited guest accounts and included visualizations like Spreadsheet (table), Kanban, Calendar, and Gantt. Something you would only get in Trello’s premium plan.

Kanban boards specifically are great for visualizing the state of your team’s work in one clear place. You can drag and drop multiple tasks from one column to another and easily add new tasks right from your board. They also let you choose how long to keep completed tasks on your board for, meaning you can keep done tasks on there for the work week and then they magically hide themselves away the start of the next week.

With Height, you can keep collaborating in real-time, thanks to its chat per task. This chat feature ensures that all conversation about work happens in context, is searchable, and only notifies the people for whom the info is relevant.

Its robust offering includes a command menu where you can customize keyboard shortcuts for almost anything you can think of, macOS and Windows apps, and SOC 2 Type II compliance for data protection.

Integrations include Notion, Slack, Discord, GitHub, GitLab, Sentry, Zendesk, Figma, Slab, Fivetran, and many more through Zapier.

Height's pricing starts at $6.99/user/month and comes with a free 30-day trial. One last thing, guest accounts are free in all paid plans.

30-day free trial

From $8.50/user/month

4

Zoho Projects

Best price for freelancers and small teams

Zoho Projects is an award-winning project management and collaboration tool from Zoho. It offers flexibility and customizations to suit the needs of traditional project managers as well as agile teams.

Drag and drop kanban cards towards completion. The cards can be sorted as per status, priority, completion percentage or even across task lists.

The dashboard can be fully customized according to user preferences. And with Zoho’s Analytics integration, these capabilities can be extended - users can generate 50 plus charts and reports with this integration.

All aspects of the UI from theme colors to arrangement and visibility of the various modules can be changed to suit a user's preferences. By converting projects into templates, users can reuse previously created timelines and assignees for future projects. Zoho projects also offers free onboarding for its customers, free support and a comprehensive online help guide for all users.

Being part of the Zoho's ecosystem allows Projects to connect to several of Zoho's own services such as Zoho Books, Zoho CRM and Zoho's finance suite. The new Zoho marketplace allows 3rd party integrations as well. Integrations via Zapier and Zoho Flow are also supported.

Starts from $4/user/month billed annually. Also has a freemium model is available. Free trial/Freemium terms: '10 days free trial. No credit card is required.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.2 286

Free trial available

From $5/user/month

5

Miro

Best for built-in brainstorming & diagramming

Miro is a collaborative online whiteboard with over 1,000 templates including mind maps, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, product wireframes, research boards, and flowcharts. It’s trusted by 99% of the Fortune 100, and used by teams at TransUnion, HP, Upwork, Cisco, Qlik, and Atkins. Miro’s visual platform is built for hybrid work, and has robust resources for continuous learning like Miro Academy, online events, and a community forum.

Miro has an intuitive Kanban template that will totally replace Trello for you. One of its key features is that it comes with visualization and collaboration features that Trello doesn’t have for brainstorming and diagramming your ideas and project workflows. Try Miro’s Meeting Agenda Template for daily standups or the Likert Scale Template for employee feedback.

At The Digital Project Manager, we use Miro to map out content clusters and to visualize content workflows from start (brainstorming ideas) to finish (publishing the content on our site).

Miro has integrations with a whole suite of tools, including Zoom,

Figma, Asana, Microsoft Teams, Jira, Slack, Google Drive, Box, Airtable, Notion, Azure, and Webex. Some integrations are limited to paid plans only.

Miro is free to use for unlimited members with up to 3 editable boards. Paid plans start at $8/user/month (billed annually).

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.8 3414

Free plan available

From $10 /user/month

Pros

  • Free forever plan available
  • Intuitive and easy setup
  • Built-in communication features for streamlined collaboration

Cons

  • Visitor/guest accounts locked to paid plans only
  • Zooming can be jumpy on larger projects
  • Free version does not allow high-quality export to pdf
6

Kanban Tool

Best Trello alternative for visual project management

Named after the concept of Kanban, this tool provides a user-friendly, visually appealing interface on which teams can collaborate. While it doesn’t offer a complete suite of project management features, it offers ample tools to ensure every kind of team can derive use from it. Similar to Trello, upgrades called “Power-Ups” allow users to access additional features. This is a lightweight tool with easy onboarding and a relatively low cost compared to other tools.

If tools like Breeze are on one end of the spectrum as a fully fledged management suites, Kanban Tool marks the other end of the spectrum with a more focused set of core kanban features. This is a reliable tool for teams who want “more kanban and less frills”.

Kanban Tool costs from $5/user/month. It also offers a free version limited to 2 members and 2 boards, as well as free trials of its various paid versions.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.8 58

14-day free trial

From $5/user/month

7

MeisterTask

Best Trello alternative for automation capabilities

MeisterTask is a beautifully designed and incredibly intuitive alternative to Trello. Its Kanban boards can be customized to fit any workflow, from software sprints to sales funnels, and from editorial calendars to your company’s onboarding process. Teams can collaborate on one simple platform, where they can communicate, work together on tasks, and easily track the time they spend on them.

With MeisterTask, you can not only visualize processes but also automate them in various ways. Creating recurring tasks, adding predefined checklists, notifying stakeholders when a task is completed, or ensuring that tasks are assigned and tagged correctly when they are moved to a specific section — all of this can be done automatically. Larger teams will find MeisterTask’s sophisticated roles and permissions management as well as the insights gained through various statistics and reports particularly useful.

MeisterTask offers an extensive online help center, free webinars for new users, and fast email support in case you need to talk to a real person. However, thanks to MeisterTask’s focus on simplicity, even companies who are just getting started on their journey to digital organization are usually able to get productive within minutes after signing up.

MeisterTask integrates with the mind mapping app MindMeister where you can brainstorm and plan with a mind map and then export it onto a Kanban board. MeisterTask comes readily integrated with popular tools such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, GitHub, Zendesk, Harvest, and various email apps. In addition to these native integrations, you can use Zapier or IFTTT to connect your projects with hundreds of other tools.

MeisterTask costs from $8.25/user/month.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.6 171

Free trial available

From $8.25/month (billed annually)

8

Breeze

Best combination with a full project management suite

Breeze is one of the few Kanban boards online that offers a full suite of project management tools, including everything from budget management and time and expense tracking, to milestone tracking, project planning, and portfolio management.

It has a simple interface, and, although it does provide a wider scope of tools than many platforms, Breeze makes a point of not being a “feature factory”, keeping only the features that are critical. For it’s simplicity, it’s a bit pricey, but if you want something clutter-free, lightweight, and streamlined, it’s worth the price.

Because Breeze wraps a kanban project management tool inside of a full management suite, the added functionality—and correspondingly higher price—isn’t a great fit for simpler projects.

On the other hand, the all-encompassing nature of this platform is a major advantage for some teams, as you may save time, resources, and headache by managing everything in one place.

Breeze does come with built-in Google Drive and Dropbox integrations, but compared to the integrations offered by other similar tools on the market, it could up its value by offering a few more.

Breeze costs from $29/user/month and offers a free trial version.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.8 132

14-day free trial

From $29/user/month

9

ProjectManager.com

Best Kanban board tool with reporting features

Marketing itself as the “Ultimate Kanban Board Tool”, ProjectManager.com delivers just about everything you need in a Kanban board, along with real-time reporting, collaboration, and time and expense management features. If you’re looking only for a Kanban board, this software provides way more than you need. However, if you want a whole project management ecosystem around your Kanban board, ProjectManager.com is a great choice.

ProjectManager.com’s Kanban boards feature the ability to attach files to cards, make comments, assign tasks, assign work-in-progress limits, and get an overview of your progress in the dashboard view.

The reporting feature is above average, letting you pull various types of pre-set reports with just a click or create your own custom reports. The only thing it doesn’t do as well as other tools is to build automated workflows. However, it does provide a really useful viewing feature which can help you visualize your workflow, as you can toggle easily between different task views (Gantt chart, list, board).

ProjectManager.com comes with integrations with GoogleApps (like Drive, Gmail, and Calendar), Microsoft Office and Microsoft Project. For other integrations, you can use Zapier.

ProjectManager.com pricing starts at $15/user/month, with their basic “Personal” plan requiring a minimum of 5 users. They offer a 30-day free trial (a credit card is required).

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.4 90

30-day free trial

From $16/user/month

10

Hubstaff

Best project management software for agile capabilities

Hubstaff Tasks is a visual project management tool with several features that simplify team collaboration and accomplishing tasks. It uses Kanban-style boards with tasks represented as Kanban cards and project stages represented as columns.

Hubstaff Tasks lets you move tasks from one project stage to another with a drag-and-drop mechanism. You can create checklists within tasks for easy progress tracking, as well as attach files and add tags to them. Mentioning team members in comments on task cards will send notifications to them, ensuring your team stays on top of all updates.

The tool's Agile Sprints feature allows users to organize and prioritize tasks and projects into sprints. You can see all assigned tasks in current and future sprints as well as tasks in the backlog. As a result, you'll be able to meet deadlines and avoid workflow impediments more easily. Users can also set up custom workflows and automations that automatically assign tasks to team members and move projects forward.

Hubstaff Tasks has a free plan for up to 5 users and 10 projects. The premium plan costs $7/user/month, and includes a 14-day free trial.

This is an aggregated rating for this tool including ratings from Crozdesk users and ratings from other sites.
4.3 392

14-day free trial

From $7/user/month

Need expert help selecting the right tool?

We’ve joined up with Crozdesk.com to give all our readers (yes, you!) access to Crozdesk’s software advisors. Just use the form below to share your needs, and they will contact you at no cost or commitment. You will then be matched and connected to a shortlist of vendors that best fit your company, and you can access exclusive software discounts!

Best Trello Alternatives Comparison Chart

Here is a table where you can compare all the alternatives we just covered in the overviews.

Tool Free Option Price
1
monday.com

Best Trello alternative for customization features

14-day free trial + free plan available

From $8/user/month (billed annually, min 3 seats) Visit Website
2
ClickUp

Best free plan for a Trello alternative

Freemium plan available

From $9/user/month Visit Website
3
Height

Best for its free guest accounts and multiple views

30-day free trial

From $8.50/user/month Visit Website
4
Zoho Projects

Best price for freelancers and small teams

Free trial available

From $5/user/month Visit Website
5
Miro

Best for built-in brainstorming & diagramming

Free plan available

From $10 /user/month Visit Website
6
Kanban Tool

Best Trello alternative for visual project management

14-day free trial

From $5/user/month Visit Website
7
MeisterTask

Best Trello alternative for automation capabilities

Free trial available

From $8.25/month (billed annually) Visit Website
8
Breeze

Best combination with a full project management suite

14-day free trial

From $29/user/month Visit Website
9
ProjectManager.com

Best Kanban board tool with reporting features

30-day free trial

From $16/user/month Visit Website
10
Hubstaff

Best project management software for agile capabilities

14-day free trial

From $7/user/month Visit Website

Other Trello alternative tools

Here’s a list of a few more alternatives to Trello that are worth your consideration.

  1. Taskworld

    Best large variety of robust features

  2. ZenHub

    Best for agile project management within GitHub

  3. Kanban Zone

    Best cross-portfolio Kanban board

  4. Planview LeanKit

    Best for lean project management

  5. Kanbanize

    Best Trello alternative for agile project & portfolio management

  6. Hygger

    Best for software development

  7. SwiftKanban

    Best for customized card types & attributes

  8. SAM9000

    Easier project management powered by AI. Tasks, Kanban, emails, file sharing and guest uploads, in one cross-platform app

  9. Blossom

    Best for software development

  10. Clarizen Go

    Fully-featured, flexible PM tool easily configured to support Kanban and agile methodologies

How I Picked The Best Trello Alternatives

Picking the best Trello alternatives started with selecting the most popular project management tools that have a board view and offer extra features that make them superior options. Then, I narrowed down the list based on my experience using Trello and what I missed when using it. Finally, I picked the top contenders and defined the criteria below to inform my evaluation process.

User Interface (UI)

Is the user interface clean and attractive, even when navigating complex projects? A Trello board is visually appealing for its colorful cards and custom backgrounds. Therefore, the alternatives should provide a similar experience.

Usability

Here, I’m looking more at the user experience. The alternative should be intuitive and easy to navigate, supported by training videos, thorough documentation, or a project template library.

Integrations

How do these tools expand their capabilities? I look for simple integrations, like helping you import a Microsoft Project file to the ones syncing information across platforms. Further, I will give you information on any available API to build custom integrations.

Pricing

I look at the tool’s paid plan structure and starting prices. Additionally, I check the availability of free trials or free versions of the software.

What key features do Trello alternatives need?

I believe the key features should at least match what you can do in the tool you are trying to switch from.

  1. Views: You should be able to see your project tasks in different ways. After the latest upgrade, Trello offers a board view, timeline, calendar, table, and map view. Choose a software that has the views you need.
  2. Automation: This feature lets you program recurring tasks so they continue to happen without your intervention. These automations involve anything from assigning a task to a person, changing a status, to entire approval workflows.
  3. Card actions: Different ways to sort cards (alphabetically, due date, assignee) in a drag-and-drop environment.
  4. Template library: Templates make your job easier, sometimes. Nothing like starting with a board that already has the status columns we need to track project progress and start arranging our cards.
  5. Other features: Work-in-progress limits, time tracking integration within task views, bottleneck and task dependency flagging.

How To Choose The Right Trello Alternative For Your Team

As with anything involving project management, there are a few things to consider before making your selection among workflow apps. In your decision, account for these important considerations:

The Size Of Your Team

Which app is going to best suit your team, and will it scale properly to suit a growing team over time? When you think of scale, also think of price. A small team may not be a problem, but these tools can get expensive as your team grows.

Which Tools It Should Integrate With

Maybe you’re using GitHub, Slack, Asana, or other team management tools, or maybe you need it to work across multiple devices, including mobile. Make sure the tool you choose covers all your needs—or is customizable enough that it can be upgraded later.

Project Workflow

Not all tools can handle the volume of projects some businesses produce, so check how many projects you will easily be able to manage at once. Does the tool allow you to create unlimited projects and have multiple projects running at the same time?

Set-up Time And Cost

How soon can it be installed, or is it immediately available on the cloud? What kind of ongoing support do they offer? Is it a hosted solution or will you have to maintain the infrastructure?

Ease Of Onboarding

How simple is the platform to start using right away, and how much training will be needed to get everyone up to speed?

Trello FAQ

Here are some common questions about Trello that we thought we would answer.

trello alternative logos list

What Do You Think?

What other Trello alternative has worked for you? Is it worth staying with Trello now that they’ve increased their features? Let me know in the comments.

Other alternative posts:

If you want to learn about alternative ways to approach your work as a DPM instead, subscribe to our Insider Membership newsletter! We bring tips and tricks, webinars, and all things DPM to your inbox every week.

By Ben Aston

I’m Ben Aston, a digital project manager and founder of thedpm.com. I've been in the industry for more than 20 years working in the UK at London’s top digital agencies including Dare, Wunderman, Lowe and DDB. I’ve delivered everything from film to CMS', games to advertising and eCRM to eCommerce sites. I’ve been fortunate enough to work across a wide range of great clients; automotive brands including Land Rover, Volkswagen and Honda; Utility brands including BT, British Gas and Exxon, FMCG brands such as Unilever, and consumer electronics brands including Sony. Ben's a Certified Scrum Master, PRINCE2 Practitioner and productivity nut.

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7 Comments

  • The best Trello alternative is, in my opinion, kanbantool.com . It's easy to use, it has all the features I need, it's not expensive (or even free, if the plan consisting of 2 boards for 2 people is enough for you). I like it, I think it's worth trying.

    Reply

  • Nice post, I'm just a bit dissapointed I didn't find Kanban Tool (kanbantool.com) in here. Complete, funcional and very personalizable tool that's worth trying. Time tracking makes you keep up on working and lets you improve your productivity :)

    Reply

  • Thank you for the suggestions! Personally, I don't think Trello is all that great, I couldn't get used to it. But I love kanbantool.com and I'm glad you mentioned it. It's such a useful and user friendly tool.

    Reply

  • Thank you for the article, it is totally great you mention my favourite kanbantool.com I use it since several years.In my business I used to try different softwares but everyday work has always been easily organized with Kanban Tool indeed so I decided to stay with it. More, its friendly and fast responding customer service is of great value. Recommend! :)

    Reply

  • For our company, a primary requirement is data security. We prefer the data to be hosted on an internal server if at all possible. Restyaboard offers this, Trello does not. Which other tools allow an internal data storage?

    Reply

  • Hi Ben! Thank you for the mention of Hygger! Another great feature that differentiates it from Trello - is built-in prioritization, that allows you to focus on the strategically essential features.

    Reply

  • Hi Ben - I was surprised that Digite' SwiftKanban was not on your list. Did you not know about them? They are definitely worth looking at and putting on your list since they directly compete with the likes of Planview/Leankit

    Reply