Whether you’re a solo entrepreneur or manage multiple projects at a large corporation, project management software can help you complete tasks, communicate with project members and delegate tasks. Two popular project management tools are monday.com and Trello.
While both are formidable options, the tool most suitable for you depends on what you need in a platform. Forbes Advisor discusses the strengths and weaknesses of each system so you can make an informed decision.
Featured Partners
1
monday.com
Yes
From $8 monthly per user
Zoom, LinkedIn, Adobe, Salesforce and more
2
ClickUp
Yes, for unlimited members
$7 per month
Slack, Microsoft Outlook, HubSpot, Salesforce, Timely, Google Drive and more
3
Wrike
Yes
$10 per user per month
Salesforce, Adobe, Miro, Netsuite, Quickbooks, SAP
4
Smartsheet
Yes, for one user and two editors
$9 per user per month
Google Drive, Slack, Tableau, Miro, Zapier and more
monday.com vs. Trello: At a Glance
While Trello works as a project management tool, its strength lies in its Kanban board—team members can see, at a glance, the status of each piece of work in real time. It’s perfect for individuals or small teams. This visual representation allows full clarity of any project. While monday.com also offers Kanban boards, Trello’s are more intuitive.
If you need project management-specific features like budgeting, time tracking, e-commerce options, marketing, sales pipeline management, use monday.com. Set up is a little more difficult than Trello, but you can follow many knowledge base tutorials for walk-throughs.
Overall, Trello and monday.com have similar features, but monday.com offers more.
monday.com
Free Version Available
Yes
Assign Roles
Yes
Budgeting Tools
Yes
Yes
Yes
Yes
- Has Gantt charts
- Unlimited boards and docs with every plan
- Track time spent on tasks
- Steep learning curve
- Pricing can add up because you pay per seat
- Limited storage
Trello
Free Version Available
Yes
Assign Roles
Yes
Budgeting Tools
No
Yes
Yes
No
- It’s easy to use
- Unlimited storage—even with its free plan
- Unlimited add-ons per board (called Power-Ups) with every plan
- No Gantt charts
- Team members can alter cards
- Can only track time with a third-party app
How the Services Stack Up
| monday.com | Trello | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free to $19 per seat, per month (minimum three seats per plan) under annual billing | Free to $17.50 per month under annual billing |
| Software Integrations | Yes | Yes |
| Gantt Charts | Yes | No |
| Desktop Version | Yes | Yes |
| Set Due Dates | Yes | Yes |
| Kanban Boards | Yes | Yes |
| Guest/Client Access | Yes | Yes |
| Learn More | ||
| Read Reviews |
Both monday.com and Trello have free plans that offer distinct features. Both software has an iOS and Android app. There’s not much overlap between free features, otherwise. Trello gives ten boards, unlimited storage, unlimited cards and custom backgrounds and stickers. With monday.com, free plans offer unlimited boards and docs, over 200 templates and up to two team members.
Paid plans start at $5 per user per month and go up to $17.50 per user per month for Trello (billed annually), and $8 per seat per month up to $16 per seat per month for monday.com (billed annually). Both options also offer Enterprise plans. Only Trello provides an upfront estimate on Enterprise plans, whereas you must contact a sales team for pricing with monday.com.
Both software offer integrations to extend the functionality of your projects. These apps include Slack, Dropbox, Jira and Zapier. Before signing up for either service, check out their list of integrations to see which one provides the apps you need.
Gantt charts provide a way to view project schedules or data, whereas Kanban charts illustrate workflow. While you can technically get Gantt charts with Trello using third-party apps, only monday.com offers it natively within the software. The caveat is monday.com only offers these charts on its Standard plan, much to users’ frustration as it’s the mid-tier plan.
Each software allows you to set due dates, have Kanban boards and allow guest/client access to projects or tasks. Trello provides unlimited storage with each of its plans—even the free one. On the other hand, monday.com has limited storage of up to 100 GB.
One notable issue Trello has is the inability to lock data on its project cards. Let’s illustrate why this is a problem. Say you’re the owner of the project and have assigned a card to a team member. This team member can alter the due date, change checklists and manipulate any other data with the card. Sure, this can happen by accident and have no malicious intent, but it’s still an issue. While Trello recognizes this as a common complaint, it hasn’t provided a solution to issues with user permission.
Trello works great when you only have a handful of projects, but it can get more cumbersome to manage a large volume of them. This is why it’s best to use monday.com for larger-scale operations.
Bottom Line
Although monday.com has a higher rating than Trello in our rankings, that doesn’t mean it’s the best solution for project management software. We recommend monday.com for larger organizations with a lot of projects to track, or for those that need budgeting, invoicing and marketing tools built-in. Use Trello if you’re a small team or a solo entrepreneur, such as a freelance writer who needs to keep track of deadlines.
Further Reading:
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the best project management software for small businesses?
Small businesses should select a project management software based on their needs and budget. Several other factors go into selecting the best solution, which is why we created this guide to the top software for project management. When creating the guide, we considered many aspects including cost and fees, features and functionality, ease of use, reviews and customer support.
Are there different types of project management software?
Individual project management software is set up by one person with one view, such as a spreadsheet. Collaborative project management software allows team members to work on their own terms and within their specific roles. Integrated project management software allows for the tracking and management of multiple projects.
Why do you need project management software?
Project management software helps you to plan, organize, budget and track the progress of a company project. It also unites a team around shared goals so all are working toward successful project completion. In dispersed teams, growing businesses or across multiple departments, this can be difficult to do without software people can join and access from their own devices wherever and whenever they work.
Is project management software secure?
Like most types of software, the best project management software programs offer many levels of security. When choosing this type of software, you want to look for security features like two-factor authentication (2FA) or multifactor authentication (MFA), documentation that shows frequent security updates and patches, intrusion detection, the monitoring of user activities, data encryption and privacy protection.
