Ask a project manager, and they’ll tell you that running a project is like trying to solve multiple Rubik’s cubes at once.
Many factors are at play. But one factor that can make the difference between resounding project success and catastrophic failure is your project management software.
With so many solutions to help you manage your tasks and projects, from simple to-do apps to build-it-yourself no-code platforms, the options are endless. Choosing one becomes tricky and the stakes are high.
Let’s help you decide which project management tool is best in 2024.
To do so, we’ve put two market leaders—Trello and ClickUp—head to head.
We’ll go over everything from their features to their pricing and public reviews on platforms like Reddit—all this so you can get an honest picture of both the project management tools and pick the one that suits you best.
Trello Vs. ClickUp: Which Project Management Tool Works Best in 2024?
- What is ClickUp?
- What is Trello?
- ClickUp Vs. Trello: Features Compared
- 1. Kanban Boards
- 2. Automations
- 3. Project Management
- 4. Collaboration
- 5. Reporting and Analytics
- 6. Pricing
- ClickUp vs. Trello: Who Wins? Who Loses? You Decide
- ClickUp Vs. Trello on Reddit
- ClickUp Vs. Trello: The Better Project Management Software
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat is ClickUp?
ClickUp is a customizable collaboration, project management, and workspace management platform. With extensive features like task tracking, goal setting, document editing, wikis, and CRM functionalities, it offers project managers everything they need, in one tool.
The all-in-one productivity software platform has several use cases for professionals in all domains: brainstorming ideas, collaborating with teammates, creating documents and presentations, tracking project progress, and more.
ClickUp is one of the most collaborative and customizable tools on the market, flexible enough to suit all project management frameworks.
From simple features such as Kanban boards, task management, and time tracking to advanced automation, built-in workflows, and genAI-powered apps, the platform has many features to make project management easier.
ClickUp Features
Let’s look at some of ClickUp’s best project management features and how they help you manage your goals, tasks, and resources well.
Kanban boards
Kanban is among the oldest and most loved project management frameworks. It’s simple to use and easy to adapt. Most importantly, it helps you visualize your entire project on one screen, making progress tracking infinitely easier.
ClickUp offers Kanban boards right from its Free plan. The view comes with features like custom groups (where you can view your tasks by groups like assignee, due date, and more), drag-and-drop (to move tasks across columns), and Everything View (a dashboard to see all your boards in one place).
Automation
One of the many benefits of using project management software is time savings. Tools like ClickUp let you eliminate busy work by automating repetitive tasks—whether that’s status updates, deadline reminders, or project handoffs. ClickUp offers 100+ automations so teams can focus on tasks that move the needle.
With over 50 triggers and a high level of customization, you can create automated workflows in minutes. Plus, ClickUp AI comes with features such as task summaries and subtask creation to streamline project management—without you lifting a finger.
Task Management
Task management in ClickUp caters to both organization and collaboration needs. Create subtasks to break down bigger tasks into manageable steps; use custom fields to add relevant task information; let checklists keep you on track to accomplishing your goals; use custom statuses to update task progress; and employ filters to view your tasks the way you want.
Further, ClickUp’s collaboration features like video recording, comments, and ClickUp Chat make it easy for everyone to stay on the same page.
Finally, project owners can allocate resources better by assessing timelines and priorities using ClickUp’s time tracking and dependency tagging features.
ClickUp Pricing
- Free Forever
- Unlimited: $7/month per user
- Business: $12/month per user
- Enterprise: Contact for pricing
- ClickUp AI is available on all paid plans for $5 per Workspace member per month
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat is Trello?
Trello is a project management tool built for teams who swear by Kanban boards. In 2017, it was acquired by Atlassian, a company known for building other collaboration software suites like Atlas, JIRA, and Confluence.
Trello is best suited to small teams and freelancers and is known for its intuitive interface and simple task tracking.
The key features in Trello include Views (to view your projects as a timeline, board, calendar, etc.), Templates (for everything ranging from product launches and lead tracking to buying a house), and Power-ups (plug-ins to link Trello with other tools).
Trello Features
Let’s take a deeper look at some of Trello’s popular features and how they help project managers simplify task management and keep projects on track.
Trello Boards
Boards are Trello’s core feature and can be used to create Kanban-style projects. It comes with three main blocks: Boards for a birds-eye-view of the entire project, Lists for a group of related tasks, and Cards with details of each individual task.
The simplest Kanban board template in Trello Boards are “To Do”, “Doing”, and “Done,” which help you track the different stages of tasks in a project. You can drag task cards to each list as the task progresses. You can also add due dates, descriptions, attachments, and members to each task.
Butler Automation
Much like ClickUp, Trello also comes with a no-code automation tool called Butler. It allows users to create custom rules to perform certain actions like moving a task card to a different list and assigning it to a user.
Butler can also integrate Trello with other apps like Slack or email. If you want to run your automation manually, you can create a button and add it to a task card. When clicked, the button will initiate the custom automation.
Task Management
Task management in Trello is akin to working with a to-do list app. You add tasks to the list, set priority levels for each task, add labels where needed, and use the comments feature to update team members on the progress of a task.
You can also view your tasks in different ways, using the Calendar, Map, or Table views.
Trello Pricing
- Free
- Standard: $5/month per user
- Premium: $10/month per user
- Enterprise: $17.50/month per user
Summarize this article for me pleaseClickUp Vs. Trello: Features Compared
Before we compare the features of ClickUp and Trello, here’s a TL;DR version of what each tool does best.
ClickUp is best known for
- Advanced task management: ClickUp comes with extensive task management features such as tasks, subtasks, checklists, task scheduling, and Agile methodologies
- Customizable project dashboards: You can customize your dashboard with 50+ widgets like charts, sprints, and more to get in-depth insights on various complex projects
- Real-time collaboration tools: You can communicate via multiple channels in ClickUp, including task comments, email, video clips, and instant chat
- Reporting and goal tracking: ClickUp Goals allows project managers to set weekly targets, OKRs, and sprint cycles to measure progress
- Resource management tools: Features like time-tracking and task dependencies enable project teams to estimate task durations and allocate resources accordingly
- Built-in workflows and automation: ClickUp comes with 100+ built-in workflows and automation to handle repetitive tasks, such as changing task statuses, assigning tasks, and more
ClickUp ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.7/5 (9,200+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (3,900+ reviews)
Trello is best known for:
- Kanban boards: The easy-to-use, drag-and-drop boards feature makes it easy for even first-timers to create Kanban boards and track projects
- Easy task management: Trello’s task features like lists and cards make it easy to organize tasks and track their progress
- Automation and plug-ins: Butler by Trello makes it easy for users to create custom functions and integrate Trello with other work and team apps like Gmail, Slack, and more
- Workflow visibility: In the paid plans, users can use Board collections to group boards based on different criteria and get visibility into workflows
- Templates: Trello comes with 100+ project management templates for all teams and use cases, which can be used as a starting point when creating new projects
Trello ratings and reviews
- G2: 4.4/5 (13,400+ reviews)
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (23,000+ reviews)
Now, let’s explore the feature-by-feature comparison of ClickUp and Trello to see how they fare against each other.
Summarize this article for me please1. Kanban Boards
Kanban tools are a must-have for any project management software. ClickUp and Trello both offer Kanban views, although the experience and functionality differ.
ClickUp
ClickUp comes with robust Kanban features like boards, custom project views, and even a workspace-level “Everything view” of all your projects in one pane. You can also use ClickUp AI to generate Kanban boards automatically with the right columns and subtasks for your projects.
Trello
Kanban Boards is the default project view in Trello, which allows you to track any project using a combination of lists and task cards. You can also use labels to determine the priority or status of each task. You can even use board collections to group boards together.
Which tool has better Kanban boards: ClickUp or Trello?
There are no two ways about it—ClickUp is the clear winner here and for multiple reasons. It has a powerful AI assistant; the Everything View gives you an overview of all your projects easily; and most importantly, ClickUp provides unlimited boards in its Free plan. Trello only provides five boards in its Free plan.
Summarize this article for me please2. Automations
Automated workflows and integrations go a long way in improving the efficiency of a project team. Both ClickUp and Trello enable teams to automate several actions.
ClickUp
In ClickUp, there are two ways to automate work: using built-in automation or using ClickUp AI. Apart from the built-in automation contained in the ClickUp library, you can build custom automation tagged to 50+ triggers and actions within ClickUp. Finally, you have integrations that connect ClickUp with third-party apps to automate workflows between apps.
You can use these automations to handle repetitive tasks like changing statuses, associating tasks to lists, and reminding assignees about deadlines.
If you want assistance with creative tasks, try ClickUp’s AI assistant, which is trained to write task updates, generate summaries of comment threads and documents, create subtasks, and more.
Trello
You can use Butler by Trello to manage your automations within Trello. With features like rules, buttons, and scheduled commands, Butler allows users to create custom automations to automate recurring tasks, archive completed tasks, and more.
You can also use Butler and Trello power-ups together to integrate Trello with third-party apps like Slack, email, and more.
ClickUp vs. Trello: Which tool offers more powerful automations?
This round also goes to ClickUp. There are two main reasons: its built-in workflow automation library and generative AI capabilities. They make automation in ClickUp so much more customizable and powerful than in Trello.
Summarize this article for me please3. Project Management
For market leaders like ClickUp and Trello, the bar is high when it comes to project management features.
Let’s take a look at how both tools streamline project management.
ClickUp
ClickUp approaches task management in an ‘all-in-one’ way—you get extensive features such as subtasks, checklists, time tracking, and more within a single platform, no other app required. ClickUp also provides a variety of views like Gantt charts, Kanban, Sprints, Timelines, and other custom views to stay on top of project progress at all times.
Trello
Trello has a simpler approach to project management and sticks to basic task management capabilities and a Kanban framework. Trello offers different views as well, like calendars and tables, but lacks the extensive range offered by ClickUp.
ClickUp vs. Trello: Which one’s the powerhouse for project management?
The winner is—no surprises here—ClickUp! 🥇
The reason? Extensive task management features and the capability to support different project management frameworks, not just Kanban.
Summarize this article for me please4. Collaboration
Most teams use their project management application to communicate status updates, get clarifications, and address dependencies or blockers. And good project management software should make it easy for teams to collaborate—both in real-time and asynchronously.
ClickUp
As ClickUp is a combined project and workspace management tool, it has evolved to provide a variety of built-in communication features: comments, @mentions, ClickUp Chat, email (within ClickUp!), and native video clip recording. You’ll never have to switch to another app just to send an email update or record a quick explainer video!
Trello
Trello provides a comment thread for each task to track progress and communicate updates. However, you need to use a third-party Power-up for advanced communication options, like chat, approvals, or voting.
Which tool should you choose for collaboration: ClickUp or Trello?
ClickUp definitely has more built-in collaboration tools. However, Trello almost makes up for that with its multitude of third-party communication power-ups. The key word here is almost because while Trello has a lot of options, integrating tools can prove to be painful, not to mention expensive, as most of the plugins are paid.
So, ClickUp wins as a collaboration tool, albeit with a slight edge.
Summarize this article for me please5. Reporting and Analytics
Whether you’re tracking team OKRs or sprint progress, reports and analytics are essential to gauge the success of any project.
ClickUp
ClickUp comes with custom charts, task targets, progress roll-ups, true/false conditions, and more to help project managers track the progress of their goals and projects. Track these targets on a single platform using custom Dashboards in ClickUp.
Trello
Trello doesn’t offer any built-in reporting and analytics features. However, you can integrate with third-party tools to receive your project analytics.
ClickUp vs. Trello: Which tool is better for project reporting?
ClickUp wins here by default since Trello doesn’t offer native reporting features.
Summarize this article for me please6. Pricing
As we inch closer to the final verdict in the case of ClickUp vs. Trello, it’s time to find out which tool provides better value for your money.
ClickUp pricing plans
- Free Forever: Even with the Free plan, you get access to unlimited Kanban Boards, Sprint Management, Guests, Calendar View, in-app chat and video recording, and collaborative docs
- Unlimited ($7/month per user): Enjoy unlimited storage and integrations, Gantt charts, email, and time tracking in addition to all features in the Free plan
- Business ($12/month per user): Enhance the Unlimited plan with features including unlimited teams, advanced customizations, timesheets, mind maps, and workload management
- Enterprise (Contact for pricing): Unlock conditional logic in forms, unlimited custom roles, and team spaces with ClickUp’s Enterprise plan
ClickUp AI is available on all paid plans for $5 per Workspace member per month
Trello pricing plans
- Free Forever: Access 10 boards per workspace, unlimited Power-ups and storage, and activity log
- Standard ($5/month per user): Upgrade to advanced checklists, single-board guests, and custom fields
- Premium ($10/month per user): Unlock advanced features such as views, board collections, and simple data export
- Enterprise ($17.50/month per user): Enjoy unlimited workspaces, organization-level boards, multi-board guests, and attachment permissions over and above the Premium plan
Summarize this article for me pleaseClickUp vs. Trello: Who Wins? Who Loses? You Decide
While Trello is priced lower than ClickUp, it’s important to note that it offers far fewer features (and storage) than ClickUp. This is true for all plans.
ClickUp also provides document and team management tools in all its plans, while Trello functions only as a project management software tool. To access other valuable tools, you must subscribe to other Atlassian products, such as Confluence or JIRA, at an added cost.
You also get 24/7 support for all paid plans in ClickUp, while Trello offers 24/7 support only to its Enterprise customers.
All things considered, ClickUp definitely provides you with a greater value for each dollar spent. 👑
Summarize this article for me pleaseClickUp Vs. Trello on Reddit
And now for the final, unfiltered test—user reviews. What do Trello and ClickUp users say about their experience with these tools on Reddit? Let’s find out!
There are comparisons based on flexibility and customizability:
“For me/us it’s the flexibility. Our team members have their own preferences on how they wish to interact with the information, and ClickUp provides options that fit almost everyone. Of course, someone will always think of something that doesn’t quite work for them, but it gets really close to offering something for everyone. Some would say this is what makes it tricky to learn, and I think that can be true. — Previously we had teams at Trello, Asana, Basecamp, Flow, and just in misc Google docs.” (Source)
Bang for your buck? Reddit favors ClickUp:
“We are a small CMS and app dev company using Trello> Jira> ClickUp after throwing linear and height within the mix. I would say ClickUp is the best bang for the buck regarding features and customization on the market.” (Source)
Users seem to want more than just a Kanban board, and that’s where ClickUp shines.
“Trello is the best for a kanban/board view, but that’s all you get. They’ve added no significant features over the years. Most of the good plugins are 3rd party paid, which for Clickup, would be already fully integrated. We’ve just migrated from Trello to Clickup and the entire team has been 100% happy with the change.” (Source)
Most users seem to want more out of their apps than just project management:
“When you do not need any of the features like docs out of the box, Trello is a blessing, also it is super easy to teach new coworkers how to use it. The downside if it even becomes a problem is the lack of complexity.” (Source)
It looks like the Reddit community has reached a unanimous decision: Trello ticks all the boxes when it comes to simple, kanban-style project management. However, you’ll need to pick a different tool for anything more elaborate.
ClickUp is a favorite Trello alternative for thousands of users who’ve made the switch as their businesses grew.
Summarize this article for me pleaseClickUp Vs. Trello: The Better Project Management Software
It’s time for the final verdict: which project management tool is the best in 2024?
*drumrolls* It’s ClickUp! 🌟
While Trello has been around for a longer period, its limited useability may have led it to stagnate over time. Modern project management simply has more advanced needs.
The lack of customization also makes Trello unsuitable for fast-growing businesses and larger enterprises.
ClickUp, on the other hand, is feature-rich, with tools like a custom AI-powered assistant suited to your role, whiteboards and mind maps for brainstorming, and the ability to email from within ClickUp. All this makes ClickUp ideal for remote and hybrid teams as well as brick-and-mortar offices.
ClickUp is also way ahead on customer success and support with webinars, courses, and 24/7 support for all users—yes, even those on the Free plan. So go ahead and give ClickUp a try and bid your project management woes goodbye.
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