What is Trello?
This Trello review breaks down everything you need to know about this popular task management tool that millions of people use every day. Trello works like a digital bulletin board where you can organize anything—from your daily to-do list to big team projects. You create cards for each task, organize them into columns, and drag them around as work progresses. It’s that simple.
In this detailed Trello review, we’ll walk through the four pricing plans (including a completely free option), explain every feature in plain English, and tell you exactly what works and what doesn’t. You’ll learn how Trello connects with tools you already use like Slack and Google Drive, who should actually use it (spoiler: it’s not for everyone), and whether spending $5 to $17.50 per person monthly is worth it. We tested Trello for six months with real projects, talked to actual users, and we’re sharing the truth—the good stuff and the annoying parts. Whether you’re a freelancer juggling clients, a small team trying to stay organized, or a big company needing serious project tracking, you’ll know if Trello fits your needs by the end.
Freelancers, Small teams, Marketing agencies , Software developers, Content creators, Sales teams, Startups, Teachers and students, Nonprofits
Key Features
Boards, Lists, and Cards (The Basic Setup)
You make a board for each project (like "Website Redesign" or "Wedding Planning"). Inside each board, you create columns called lists (like "To Do," "Doing," and "Done"). Then you make cards for each task and drag them between lists as you work. Each card can have details, files attached, checklists inside it, colored labels, and deadlines. You literally see your whole project at once and can drag cards around with your mouse or finger.
Power-Ups (Extra Tools You Add)
Power-Ups are like apps you install on each board to add new abilities. Want a calendar view? Add the Calendar Power-Up. Need to track time? Add a time tracking Power-Up. There are over 200 options connecting Trello to tools like Slack, Google Drive, and dozens more.
Automation
This feature (called Butler) does boring repeated tasks for you without any coding knowledge. You set up simple "when this happens, do that" rules. Like "when I move a card to Done, automatically send a message in Slack" or "every Monday morning, create a new card called Weekly Review.
Atlassian Intelligence
On Premium and Enterprise plans, you get an AI assistant built in. It helps you write card descriptions faster, creates entire boards from a simple description you type, summarizes long comment threads so you don't have to read everything, suggests what you should do next, and learns how you work to give better recommendations.
Custom Fields
Beyond the normal stuff cards have, you can add your own data fields. Create dropdown menus (like priority: high, medium, low), checkboxes, text boxes, number boxes, or date fields. Track budgets on each card, client names, project phases, priority ratings, or anything unique to your work.
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Anyone can use it in minutes - No training needed. You literally just start making cards and dragging them around. Even people who hate tech figure out Trello instantly. The visual setup just makes sense to human brains.
- The free version is actually good - Most tools give you a useless free version just to tease you. Trello's free plan is genuinely useful with unlimited cards, unlimited add-ons per board, and 10 boards per workspace. Many freelancers and small teams never need to upgrade.
- Fits however you work - Use it for literally anything: tracking sales leads, planning a wedding, managing software development, organizing your novel, coordinating volunteers, planning meals, whatever. You make Trello work your way instead of learning "the one correct way" some software forces on you.
- Everyone sees changes instantly - No "did you get my update?" confusion. When someone moves a card or adds a comment, everyone sees it immediately. Real-time collaboration that actually works.
- Grows with you - Start free as one person, upgrade to Standard when you're a 5-person team, move to Premium at 20 people, get Enterprise at 100+. The experience stays familiar while adding what you need as you grow.
Cons
- No built-in time tracking - You can't track hours worked on tasks without adding extra tools. If you bill clients by the hour or need to know how long things take, this is annoying. You have to find and add a Power-Up for this.
- Can't easily show task dependencies - Trello doesn't show "Task B can't start until Task A finishes" relationships well. Traditional project management tools make this obvious. Trello needs workarounds that aren't elegant.
- Weak reporting and charts - Trello doesn't give you good automatic reports about progress, who's doing what, time spent, or trends. The Dashboard view in Premium is basic. If you need detailed analytics, you'll need to add extra tools or export data to Excel.
- Automation limits run out fast - The free plan's 250 automated actions per month sounds like a lot but disappears quickly if you have multiple boards with automation. Active teams hit this limit and either pay to upgrade or stop automating things.
- No resource management - Trello doesn't help you balance team workload or see who's overloaded versus who has free time. There's no capacity planning or "Sarah has 40 hours of work assigned this week" visibility. You need other tools for this.
Pricing Plans
Free plan
- Make as many task cards as you want (no limits)
- Create up to 10 project boards per workspace
- Grab tasks from your email, Slack, or Teams automatically
- Inbox to collect tasks before organizing them
- Add unlimited tools and features to each board
- Store as many files as you want (but each file must be under 10MB)
- Run 250 automated actions each month
Standard
- Everything the free plan has, plus:
- Make unlimited boards (no more 10-board limit)
- AI helps you grab tasks from email, Slack, and Teams smarter
- Better planning tools built in
- Mirror the same card on different boards (no copying needed)
- Run 1,000 automated actions monthly
Premium
- Everything Standard has, plus:
- AI assistant helps write, summarize, and organize for you
- See your work 5 different ways: Calendar, Timeline, Table, Dashboard, and Map
- See multiple boards at once in Table or Calendar format
- Boss controls and security settings
Enterprise
- Everything Premium includes, plus:
- Create unlimited workspaces
- Control permissions across your whole company
- Make boards visible to everyone in your organization
- Invite outside people to multiple boards
How It Compares
Asana
Trello is way easier to learn—you can start working in 5 minutes instead of watching tutorial videos. Trello's free plan actually works for real projects while Asana's free version is very limited. Trello's Standard plan costs $5 per person, which is half what Asana charges at $10.99.
Monday.com
Trello has a real free plan that actually works. Monday.com makes you pay just to use basic features. Trello's interface is way simpler and you can set it up in minutes versus spending hours configuring Monday.com. At $5 per person for Standard, Trello costs almost half of Monday.com's cheapest paid plan.