Trello popularized the drag-and-drop Kanban board for mainstream users, and more than a decade after launch — and several years into Atlassian ownership — it’s still the simplest visual project tool in this roundup. In 2026 it’s added a handful of AI features to its paid tiers, but the core experience is unchanged: boards, lists, and cards.
Core Features
- Boards, lists, and cards — the original drag-and-drop Kanban interface, still the easiest to learn of any tool covered here.
- Power-Ups — integrations and add-ons (calendar view, voting, custom fields) that extend a board’s functionality.
- Butler automation — a no-code rules engine for automating repetitive actions (“when a card is moved to Done, archive it in 3 days”).
- AI features (new for 2026) — AI-powered quick capture (turning notes into structured cards) on Standard, and AI content generation on Premium.
Trello Pricing in 2026
| Plan | Price | Key limits/features |
|---|---|---|
| Free | $0 | Unlimited cards and users, but capped at 10 boards per workspace; unlimited Power-Ups |
| Standard | $5/user/month billed annually ($6/user/month billed monthly) | Unlimited boards, custom fields, 250MB file storage, 1,000 Butler automation runs/month |
| Premium | $10/user/month billed annually ($12.50/user/month billed monthly) | Calendar, Timeline, Table, Dashboard, and Map views; workspace-level templates |
| Enterprise | From $17.50/user/month billed annually (50-seat minimum) | Unlimited workspaces, org-wide admin controls, SSO via Atlassian Guard, 24/7 support |
Pros
- Still the easiest tool in this list to onboard a non-technical team onto — most people understand a Kanban board within minutes.
- The Free plan is one of the most generous in the category: unlimited cards and users, unlimited Power-Ups.
- Standard at $5/user/month is the cheapest paid entry point among the tools reviewed here.
- Butler automation is genuinely powerful for a no-code tool and is included even on Standard.
Cons
- No Calendar, Timeline, Table, or Dashboard views without upgrading all the way to Premium — the Free and Standard plans are Kanban-only.
- The 10-board-per-workspace cap on Free will frustrate teams running more than a couple of active projects.
- Native reporting and data visualization are thinner than ClickUp or Notion — Trello has never tried to be a full analytics tool.
- Enterprise has a hard 50-seat minimum, making it a poor fit for mid-sized teams that need SSO but aren’t yet at that scale.
Who Should Use Trello
Small teams and individuals who think visually and want the lowest-friction way to track a simple workflow — content calendars, hiring pipelines, personal project boards — are the best fit. If you need built-in reporting, timelines, or resource planning without paying for Premium, ClickUp’s Unlimited plan (also $7/user/month) is a reasonable side-by-side comparison.
Verdict: 4/5
Trello hasn’t tried to become everything to everyone, and that restraint is still its biggest strength. For straightforward Kanban tracking it remains excellent value, especially at the Standard tier. Teams that need more structure will hit its ceiling quickly and should budget for Premium or look elsewhere.
Pricing verified against multiple independently-tracked, recently-updated pricing sources and cross-checked for consistency, July 2026.
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