22 Alternatives to Trello for Simple Project Management

Table of contents

• Trello
• Codegiant
• Asana
• Jira
• ClickUp
• Wrike
• Airtable
• Basecamp
• MeisterTask
• Monday
• GitHub
• Microsoft Project
• Workzone
• Process Street
• ActiveCollab
• Mavenlink
• ProofHub
• Kanbanize
• ProProfs
• FreedCamp
• OpenProject
• Taiga
• Redmine

Trello

• Boards, lists, and cards for better project management and collaboration.
• You can upload files straight from Dropbox, Box, or Google Drive.
• The Trello Gantt charts are known as “TeamGantts.” They are part of Trello Power-Ups, where you can find more apps, plugins, and integrations to make your kanban workflow smoother.
• Drag and drop.
• Search filters.
• Trello email notifications are available as well.
• High-level security standards — the administrator can set access permissions and define board privacy.
• Trello tutorials and demos are available. You can just google them up, and a dozen will show.
• Trello markdown format.
• Trello software is available on any platform: you have a web app, desktop app, and mobile app (for Mac and Android). Trello’s desktop app seems to be the best as it comes with native notifications, powerful enhancements, and other cool features.
• Trello offers a seamless GitHub integration so you can integrate your commits easily.
• Trello pricing has three tiers: Free, Trello Business Class, and Trello Enterprise. The Business Class offers 14-day free trials. For the Trello Enterprise plan, you need to contact sales.

“There is something that troubles me. Sometimes when I am organizing the boards I put one in another category by mistake, because it is a too much sensitive process.”

Asana

• Boards and lists.
• Assignees.
• Deadlines.
• Seamless communication.
• Comments.
• Project templates.
• Reports.
• Portfolios.
• Integrations with other apps like Slack, Salesforce, and Microsoft Outlook.

• Asana’s mobile app works fantastic. You can use it on the fly to capture random thoughts and ideas, get updates from coworkers, or adjust your to-do list.
• Real-time updates are available. Keep your team in the loop 24/7.
• When comparing Trello vs Asana, Trello is easier to grasp, but Asana offers a broader set of features.
• You can invite others to your workspace.

• Tasks can only be assigned to one person. Other software solutions allow projects to have multiple assignees on a single task.
• It does not have a time tracking feature. You need to install additional browser extensions.

“Fantastic for cross-team collaboration.”

Jira

• Good workflow visualization through Kanban and Scrum boards.
• Roadmaps are great; they provide better clarity over your projects.
• Comprehensive reports on performance and progress.
• To-do lists.
• Custom fields.
• Swimlanes.
• Search.
• Android and iOS apps.

• With Jira, you can create customized workflows that can fit any of your projects.
• The support team is very good — responsive, and puts your problems first.
• Jira integrates with tons of third-party tools to make software development simpler and easier.

• The mobile app of Jira feels a bit clunky compared to the web app, according to users.
• No specific idea management features are available to keep track of ideas and plans.
• Requires some training to get used to Jira, especially if you are a non-technical person.
• When comparing Jira vs Trello, Trello is more straightforward and a better option for small teams or projects.

“Really good for automating workflow so you can assign tasks, track progress and allow follow-up. Useful reporting features can be “sliced and diced” based on views you can customize.”

ClickUp

• Task assignments and statuses.
• Alerts.
• Task toolbar.
• Users can assign comments and tasks to an individual or multiple team members.
• Projects can be viewed using an Agile dashboard.
• The “priorities” feature helps users focus on the most essential tasks.

• ClickUp desktop app is fantastic; it runs flawlessly.
• The free version is quite satisfactory as it offers a lot of features.
• ClickUp pricing plans are affordable as well.
• It delivers improvements, which suggests that ClickUp is constantly evolving into a better project management app.

• It’s slightly complicated. You can use the ClickUp tutorials to get started.
• The UI may look a bit clunky because ClickUp boasts so many features.

“Finally — We found a Task Management App that thinks like WE do.”

Wrike

• Personalized and free kanban boards.
• It has a built-in approval tool that allows for faster review and approval of images, videos, PDFs, and more.
• Customizable dashboards and reports that allow users to monitor progress close for deeper insights.
• Wrike includes custom workflows, custom fields, and custom project folder structures to make teams more efficient.
• Wrike desktop app is available to both Windows and Mac users. You can find Wrike on Android and iOS as well.
• Free customizable project templates are available. You’ll be able to hit the ground with new projects immediately.
• Integrations with other productivity applications, such as Salesforce, Tableau, Microsoft Teams, OneDrive, Gmail, Google Drive, Github, Jira, Slack, and more.

• Gantt charts are great for visualizing deadlines and critical paths.
• If we compare Wrike vs Trello, Wrike is more suitable for enterprises, whereas Trello works better for smaller businesses.

• It’s expensive for small teams, and the free plan includes very basic features.
• There’s no live chat function yet.
• There’s a steep learning curve.

“Good project management tool once you move past the learning curve.”

Airtable

• Store, collaborate and organize information.
• Hundreds of templates.
• Create custom views like Excel, Google Sheets, Calendar, Kanban, etc.
• Airtable apps.
• Airtable automations.
• Integrates with all your favorite tools.
• Desktop app.Mobile app — Android and iOS.

• You can customize your workflows based on your business easily.
• You can share data by providing shareable links with various viewing permissions.
• Airtable brings excellent collaboration features to the table, making your team communication more efficient.

• Requires training to understand all functionalities.
• It’s relatively limited from an accounting perspective.

“Great Amalgamation of a Spreadsheet & Database.”

Basecamp

• To-do lists.
• Assignees.
• Notes.
• File attachments.
• Comments.
• Customizable message boards.
• Schedules.
• Share documents, files, and images.
• Real-time group chat.

• The learning curve is flat; you can hit the ground running in a matter of minutes.
• You can send direct messages to coworkers in the form of private conversations.
• Robust reports are available to provide deep insight into the team’s progress and performance.

• There’s no time tracking features.
• It lacks advanced features in project management like milestones and schedule charts.

“Centralized location for our to-do lists and follow ups.”

MeisterTask

• Set deadlines and milestones for tasks. You can do it manually or automatically.
• Task prioritization.
• Projects can be mapped out with milestones, deliverables, due dates, and interdependencies.
• Track issues at different “view” levels and manage resolutions.
• Extensive integrations with popular tools such as Slack, Zapier, and GitHub.
• You can add privacy to your tasks and projects.

• Friendly user interface and flat learning curve. You’ll have a smooth user experience navigating through the UI.
• Automate various functions, so you don’t have to do tedious and repetitive tasks over and over again.

• No Gantt charts nor time-tracking features.No timeline view of tasks.
• At times, MeisterTask may run slowly, and you won’t be able to download attached files because of its unresponsiveness.

“Simple and complete tool for managing tasks and projects.”

Monday

• Centralized project management.
• Clients can be invited as guests to view and track the team’s progress in real-time.
• Checklists.
• Subtasks.
• Automate various tedious tasks and streamline workflows.
• Advanced search through images, updates, projects, and assignments with no date limit.
• Monday apps — mobile and desktop.
• Monday provides integrations with various third-party apps to streamline data flow and teamwork.

• Built-in time tracking feature to analyze the team’s productivity and bill clients accurately for the work done.
• You can customize your projects easily.
• Gantt charts are available to make your projects more clear.
• Trello and Monday have a significant degree of overlap as project management tools. Still, Monday is better than Trello due to its advanced functionality.

• Tracking project goals is not easy.
• Pricing can be a bit expensive compared to other tools.
• The basic plan lacks many essential features that are typically included in every paid level, like private messaging, advanced search, and integrations.

“Monday can grow with your business needs from simple organization to a complete ecosystem.”

GitHub

• Create issues fast and easy.
• Labels.
• Milestones.
• Tasks.
• Assignees and mentions.
• Notifications are available.
• Codespaces — code, build, test, debug, and deploy with an instant cloud development environment.
• Pull requests — review code and confidently merge code changes with automated status checks.
• GitHub Actions — a built-in CI/CD tool.
• GitHub pages let users host static websites by simply assigning HTML pages to another, separate repository.
• Provides two-factor authentication for stronger security.

• Project management on GitHub is actually fairly easy; it has quite a simple UI.
• It offers a great documentation feature. You’ll be able to create robust documents to make development and team management easier.

• It’s quite limited in features from a project management perspective.
• It’s hard to push unresolved merge conflicts as a bad push is painful to reverse.
• Lacks first-party support for mobile applications.

“It’s easy for multiple team members to work on the same project and merge changes (often) seamlessly.”

Microsoft Project

• Kanban boards for better workflow visualization.
• Great task prioritization — focus on essential tasks first.
• Project managers can assign activities to their team members easily.
• Birds-eye view with timeline views.
• Great collaboration features.
• Provides resource management to manage requests easily.
• Team calendar — get notifications about upcoming team meetings and events. Synchronize your work schedule with your team’s workflow.

• Microsoft Project’s Gantt charts are designed very simple, so you can understand at a glance the pace your team is moving with.
• The UI is quite simple.
• It integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft products — it’s a great option for Microsoft users.

• Not suitable for small organizations as the cost is high.
• It works only on Windows devices.
• It comes with a steep learning curve — it can be quite frustrating to users who have never tried Microsoft before.
• Not ideal for collaboration and data sharing as it requires a significant degree of manual effort.

“It has become a standard in regards to setting up a better framework for idea manufacturing.”

Workzone

• The dashboard is super clean, granting your team a birds-eye view of your projects.
• It offers project collaboration, document management, task management, customizable reports, resource, and time tracking.
• Up to date project status information can be received through automated email reports.
• Users can share files through the cloud.
• Seamless integrations with DropBox, Teams, Google, One Drive, Slack, and HipChat.

• Individual to-do lists for team members to manage their work.
• The dashboard’s simplicity makes it easy to manage your entire workflow from one single place without bouncing between various 3rd party apps.
• The customer support is merely excellent.

• There’s no free version. Trello, on the other hand, has a free version.

“Our projects have never been more organized.”

Process Street

• Collaborative process workflows.
• The software is easy to grasp even for non-technical people.
• Track your progress from the main dashboard easily.
• Move checklists with drag and drop.
• Structured data can be captured through forms.
• Activity feeds.

• Create dynamic checklists through conditional logic so you can keep track of every single task in your workflow.
• The support team is fast and extremely helpful. You’ll rarely experience serious issues with Process Street.
• Integrations with Zapier and other 1000+ apps. Manage your entire workflow from one place.

• The free version lacks essential features such as administrative controls.
• It can’t move or color-code lists.
• No option to print the code lists.

“Good for simple checklists; Bad for complex processes.”

ActiveCollab

• Assign tasks.
• Set due dates.
• Track progress.
• Notifications.
• Comments.
• Reminders.
• File attachments.
• Filter tasks.
• Time-estimates.
• Invoices.
• Integrations with Slack, QuickBooks, Xero, PayPal, and Google Drive.

• Users can access their tasks in different views: Kanban boards, timelines, calendars, or task board lists.
• It has a great dashboard granting you a bird’s-eye view of your projects; people say it’s better than Trello in that way.
• With ActiveCollab, you can set automatic payment reminders.

• A lot of features means a steep learning curve.
• No free version, just a trial.
• Android and IOS apps are not well developed and maintained.

“Pretty robust feature set. Simple to access and easy to invite collaborators in & out of my company.”

Mavenlink

• Integrations with a CRM tool of your choice.
• Drag and drop.
• Clone functionality to create similar tasks.
• Alerts.
• Permission settings.
• Templates.
• The free version is available with unlimited projects and users with 500MB storage.

• Integration with Google, Microsoft, and Salesforce. Manage your workflow from one place.
• Advanced analytic features and robust reports so you can get better insights into your team’s performance.
• Bring team members on the same page quickly with tags.

• The interface is a bit clunky.
• The cost is pretty high compared to Trello’s pricing.

“Mavenlink is one of the best tools for team collaboration, time tracking system, team communication, file sharing, financial management and resources management etc.”

ProofHub

• Single platform for managers, team members, and clients.
• Gantt charts.
• Add tasks.
• Assign tasks.
• Task prioritization.
• Recurring events.
• Real-time collaboration.
• Project reports.

• Unlike the Trello app, ProofHub allows users to add custom roles and customize their teams and clients’ access levels.
• The learning curve is relatively short; you can get used to it pretty quickly.
• Users can set automatic reminders for important events.

• No free version.
• Notifications can be disturbing.
• Lack of integrations.

“With Proof Hub I am able to run task and project management effectively. ProofHub creates beautiful Gantt charts for easy project tracking, and you can track time spent on projects.”

Kanbanize

• Customizable Kanban boards.
• Timeline.
• Swimlanes.
• Roadmaps.
• Milestones.
• Integrations with Zapier, Trello, Google Drive, and Box.
• Track and report billable hours.

• Easy to set up and has a user-friendly UI.
• All existing dependencies, processes, and interactions can be automated.
• The multi-layered Kanban boards are extremely helpful when you want to keep a clear overview of your projects.

• There are no Gantt or burndown charts available.
• The mobile app runs badly; better use the web app.

“Kanban boards on a whole new level.”

ProProfs

• Tasks and subtasks.Shared calendars.
• Colored and labeled tasks.
• Recurring tasks can be automated.
• Users can assign tasks to individuals.
• Client reports.

• ProProfs’ Gantt charts can help you understand whether your team is moving behind or ahead of schedule.
• You can discuss files, projects, and tasks in one place.
• Generate invoices for clients and calculate billable hours instantly.
• Automated payment reminders are available, as well.

• The UI can be a bit overwhelming if you haven’t used ProProfs before.
• Reports are pretty basic, without any in-depth information.
• There’s a steep learning curve.

“The support has been excellent and there are constant improvements being added.”

FreedCamp

• Tasks and subtasks.
• Kanban boards.
• Set goals and deadlines.
• Task grouping.
• You can keep personal tasks private.
• Tracks users’ time and billable hours for clients.
• High-level security — password manager.
• There’s a free version you can try.

• Freedcamp provides you with many team collaboration features; you can bring your team on the same page easily.
• Managing documents and keeping track of all your doc versions is quite simple as well.

• It can be hard to grasp at first.

“We used Freedcamp for its free trial, and were left fairly satisfied with the product overall. It’s a very solid and feature-rich project management system that’ll fit most small-medium teams.”

OpenProject

• Project objectives.
• Roadmaps.
• Reports.
• Assignees.
• Project wikis.
• Budgeting.
• Data security.

• You’ll get access to insightful reports for your team’s performance and project progress.
• Gantt charts are incredible. You’ll be able to look at your projects from a different, more clear perspective and make more accurate and better decisions.

• There’s a steep learning curve.

“Fantastic GANTT implementation. Great ways to group / sort data while maintaining the GANTT view.”

Taiga

• Kanban board.
• Scrum board.
• Swimlanes.
• Users can customize issue types, severities, and priorities.
• Search filter.
• If you’re switching from another PM tool, you can easily import your data to Taiga.
• Team permissions and roles.
• Reports.

• Switching from Kanban to Scrum, and vice versa, is easy. Overall, the UI is pretty slick and pleasant to use.
• It’s mainly geared towards smaller teams and individual users.
• The mobile app runs smoothly as well; you’ll be able to stay in the loop regardless of your location.

• Lacks features for more complex projects.
• Tutorials are scarce.
• The conference call feature freezes during calls.

“For startups or designers working with agile methods like scrum or kanban. Very customizable — you can adjust everything.”

Redmine

• Issue tracking system.
• Gantt charts.
• Calendar.
• Wikis.
• Email notifications.
• Custom fields for time entries, issues, projects, and users.
• Supports various SCM integrations, including (Git, CVS, SVN, Mercurial, Bazaar, and Darcs.Multi-project tracking support.

• The tool is quite straightforward; you can organize and manage your projects without any hassle at all.
• It’s definitely great for personal use.

• There’s a steep learning curve; you’ll need to train yourself and your team first to use this tool without any friction at all.
• The UI gives you an outdated look.
• It’s not a good pick for non-tech people.

“Redmine was the first project manager / team planner we used and it was helpful in order to control task completions, progress and term deviations.”

Codegiant

• The intuitive issue tracker offers Kanban and Scrum boards.
• Drag and drop.
• Tasks and subtasks.
• Comments.
• Linking tasks.
• Priority.
• Time tracking.
• Story points.
• Seamless integration with Slack.
• It offers a detailed documentation guide for its API.
• Fully integrated workflow for software developers.
• Git repositories with a web IDE.
• Codegiant Flow: a built-in CI/CD.
• Documentation tool that makes documentation easier. It has a super robust search engine.

• Codegiant is free for teams with up to 5 members.
• Affordable pricing — suitable for both startups and enterprises.
• The simplicity of the interface is unmatched.
• Great documentation tool where users can collaborate, write and publish their documents online.

• There’s currently no mobile app available.
• We don’t offer a lot of integrations as well at the moment.

“Easy to use with amazing UI! Boosts the software dev process!”

Conclusion