Jira vs Trello: Battle of the Project Management Software

Jira vs Trello – Which is Best?

Jira and Trello are both great choices for teams managing projects, but Jira is the better software tool overall. Jira scores higher for customer support (4/5) than Trello (1.8/5), as well as task management (4.3/5 to Trello's 3.4/5), workflow creation (3.8/5 to Trello's 3.5/5) and data visualization (5/5 vs Trello's 1.8/5).

Jira has multiple ways to view projects on all plans, including Gantt charts, Kanban boards, and a spreadsheet-style view with formulas. Trello doesn't offer Gantt charts on its free or standard plan, nor a spreadsheet-style view (which is available on the Premium and Enterprise Trello plans, but without those useful formulas Jira offers).

Another huge difference is data visualization. Trello offers virtually no tools to visualize data on its free plan or Standard plan, with no custom or preset charts and no widget builder. Dashboards and preset charts are only available Trello's pricier plans. Jira, on the other hand, offers data dashboards, custom chart, and a widget builder on all of its plans.

• Trello is best for independent workers or personal projects since it has a free tier with unlimited personal boards
• Jira is better for visualizing project data and better for data-intensive projects
• Trello is best for large teams that require easy ways to integrate with email, and want a flexible and customizable tool
• Jira is best for teams working in software development or IT departments, with great issue-tracking features
• Trello is better for basic task management and a minimalist approach
• Jira is better for teams who want to centralize their workflows around a singular app

Jira vs Trello: Pricing

Before you make a decision on any new software, you need to know how much it costs. In the tables below, we'll show you exactly how much Jira and Trello will cost your business, from pricing plans to features. Take a look to get a better idea of how these two providers stack up when it comes to pricing.

Jira Review Summary

• A very simple approach appeals to some organizations
• Designed with software projects in mind
• Great tools for displaying project data on the free plan
• Very economical pricing for small teams of up to 10
• Wide variety of third-party add-ons
• Roadmap view helps teams keep their projects on schedule

Jira was initially popular among software development businesses – a fact that becomes obvious once you dig into the product. Other companies have turned to Jira because their IT department is already using it, but nowadays, it's got a much wider application and over 65,000 companies have signed up with Atlassian to use it.

Jira scores 4/5 for workflow creation, with custom project templates and pre-built and custom automation for streamlining the mundane parts of your workflows. Jira scores 5/5 for data visualization, with chart customization options all the way from the free to the enterprise plan, but doesn't have as many collaboration features as the likes of Teamwork, which scores 4/5 for collaboration thanks to features like a project message board and instant messenger, which Jira (2/5) doesn't have.

Jira's integration with Confluence, plus its document templates under the Pages tab, provides easy ways to add necessary documents to a project. It also supports helpful features such as “at mentions”, which can draw a colleague's attention to a document. Jira supports nearly 2,000 app integrations created by third parties, while Confluence has about 874.

Trello Review Summary

• The free tier makes it easy for single users or small teams to get started
• Limited access to add-ons and data display tools with free tier
• Supports automations to complete basic tasks and housekeeping more efficiently
• Supports email-to-task conversion
• High average customer score of 4.3/5 
• Some fundamental project management features require add-ons, and are not enabled by default

Trello has a similar card-and-board interface to Jira, but makes it much easier to get up and running and most things can be edited pretty easily with a couple of mouse clicks. For that reason, Trello is often the better choice for smaller businesses that just need a barebones project management program, rather than a more complex offering such as Jira.

Trello itself is very easy to understand, and any team choosing the free tier will probably find themselves frustrated with it unless their needs are simple.

You'll be able to choose from a multitude of different views, but as one of our researchers put it on their testing notes, it is “less competitive with the more in-depth aspects of project setup” such as budgeting. This is one of the reasons Trello only scored 3.1/5 for features (along with its 1.8/5 scores for both collaboration and data visualization). ClickUp, on the other hand, scores 4.5/5 overall for features – and it's first paid plan is $5 per user, per month, the same price as Trello (check out our full ClickUp review for more info).

Most companies will probably want to turn to at least the business tier, which costs $5 per user, per month (billed annually). For that money, the service includes custom fields for inputting anything you data you please, plus 1,000 automations (which Trello calls “workspace command runs”) to improve the efficiency of your workflow. It also supports Google single sign-on.

Jira vs Trello: Team Sizes

How big your team is will be a key decision-making factor in which project management software is right for you. Whether you're an individual looking for a productivity boost or an enterprise-level business in need of some serious organization and collaboration tools as well as complex task management functions, finding the right software to fit your staff numbers is crucial.

Jira is better than Trello for Small Teams

For small teams of less than 10 users, Jira is the better choice if your project is complex and you'll need advanced project management features. However, if what you need is effectively a glorified to-do list, then Trello's uncomplicated interface will be your best bet.

Jira and Trello both offer free plans with user limits of 10. However, Jira's free plan has a much larger array of features across almost all areas of project management, from task management to collaboration. So, if you have a small team, don't want to spend anything at all on project management, and want the most features, then Jira is your way to go.

Compare Jira and Trello to other suites – see our guide to the Best Project Management Software

Trello is better than Jira for Large Teams

Where Jira is more suited for small teams that might not need too many resources to help them communicate, Trello understands that larger teams might need some tools that bigger teams can use to stay on top of their progress.

Trello is more flexible than Jira, and will have you up and running quickly. It's also simple enough that the onboarding process can be accomplished rather quickly. The automations feature with the Butler add-on is also helpful for keeping teams organized by simplifying basic operations, such as notifying the entire team when a task is moved to the Done column.

Large teams paying for the enterprise tier also get access to more advanced automation features, as well as unlimited use of Butler. Business Class users, however, can only use 1,000 automation runs per team. At the Enterprise level, you can also get the key features that larger teams need – such as SAML IdPs – while admins have control over which Power-Ups a team can use.

Another feature that large teams will find handy is the ability to forward email messages directly to a Trello board, automatically turning it into a task. While people complain a lot about email, it's still the fundamental way many large teams communicate. Easy integration with Trello is a big plus.

Jira is better than Trello for Teams Working with IT

For companies that are already invested in Jira for bug tracking, developing a company website, or creating products, using Jira as an extension of that makes a lot of sense. This is especially true for teams that have to work closely with the software development team. Using the same tool makes it easier for teams to communicate, and to understand how their project management workflow is structured.

Jira is purpose built for software development, but it's still flexible enough to work as a general project management tool. The only thing you'll have to do is add some of the features that you feel are missing, such as Gantt charts or calendars. Jira marketplace apps typically cost money, but if you're careful about how many you add, it still offers very good value.

Once you start adding apps, Jira becomes a little more complicated, and you can tell that many of the apps feature instructions and designs aimed at software developers. That may be a downside for some, and for those people, Trello may be the better choice.

Trello is better than Jira for Independent Workers

Since it offers a free tier with unlimited personal boards, there's no question that Trello is the best choice for freelancers working alone. It also supports up to 10 team boards, meaning you can invite colleagues – or even clients – when a team effort is required.

For a singular user, Jira might feel somewhat overwhelming – it's got so many settings and features that a solo freelancer just wouldn't get much use out of. Trello is less intimidating and is likely to have everything you need to organize your work.

A downside of Trello’s free tier is that file attachments are limited to 10MB each, while the paid tiers support a maximum of 250MB per file attachment – although this is unlikely to affect those working solo or freelancers as much as it might multiple team members trying to work together. You'll just have to store your files locally or on a cloud drive.

Alternatives to Jira vs Trello

Jira vs Trello isn't the only project management head-to-head you should be thinking about – in fact, there are providers out there that scored better than both of them on our last round of testing.

Our best project management software tool is ClickUp, not only because it scored the best for features (4.5/5 – including 4.9/5 for task management and 5/5 for data visualization), but also because it's just $5 per user, per month for the Unlimited plan. monday.com provides one of the best user experiences with loads of opportunities to customize the software, but is slightly more expensive than Trello and Jira, with its first paid plan available for $9 per user, per month.

Wrike's pricing plans are also a bit more expensive than both Jira and Trello, but it has a free plan with no user limit and scores higher than both (4.5/5) overall, with great task management options. Compare Jira vs Trello and various other matchups using our table below:

Jira vs Trello: About our Project Management Research

At Tech.co, we conduct extensive research into all the software, services, and products that feature in our reviews and head-to-heads. We have a research team that devises testing criteria to put the best providers on the market through their paces and then utilizes it during all-encompassing usability tests.

When they tested and assessed the top 14 project management software solutions, the team focused on five key areas: Value for Money, Usability, Customer Support, Customer Score, and Features. Within the “features” criterion, each project management software application was given a score for collaboration, task management, data visualization, and workflow creation.

Although we do have commercial partnerships with some of the providers we write about, insights from our research team mean we can be editorially independent. All of the conclusions we draw in our articles are based solely on our own research – which is the way it'll always stay.

Jira vs Trello: Frequently Asked Questions