Any work that involves a substantial amount of time and has multiple changing tasks needs to be managed. This can be in the form of simple notes, and an e-mail trail in the case of simple tasks. When handling larger projects involving more people, it can prove to be difficult to keep track and coordinate without the assistance of proper project management tools. A common misconception is that project management tools are only used for large projects, and in turn are inevitably expensive and difficult to run.
Trello was one of the first online management tools that become popular, for its ease and competitive pricing scheme, as well as its efficiency in terms of project management. Kanban Boards are tools that help visualize work-in-progress and maximize efficiency. The concept is surprisingly simple, yet effective. Large multinational companies turn to this method of Project Management time and time again to boost efficiency with their employees.
The rationale behind this method of project management is splitting up tasks and sub-tasks into different lists, to-do, in progress, completed, for review etc... and having them easily visible.
Therefore, the question to be answered now is which is the ideal tool that uses Kanban Boards to facilitate project management. One of the most well-known products is Trello.
Trello focuses on Kanban Boards and does so very well. Each card can have subtasks, viewing rights are also customizable and users can split up separate boards to keep track of tasks better.
In order to produce an accurate and fair comparison, we will need to do so in terms of the requirements of the users. Whilst Jira does have Kanban boards as part of it's out of the box solution, it does offer slightly more functionality.
The basic difference
Jira supports several agile methodologies including Kanban boards and Scrum boards. Users can have workflows that are configurable according to the boards, this is typical when you have multiple boards covering different parts of the workflow in situations where different departments would be involved.
Trello is designed to facilitate collaboration using Kanban Boards, The software is easy to use and is typically favored by individuals who are after a basic software solution for project management.
In summary... With Jira, you get the best of both worlds:
The intuitive ‘board’ style of Trello, which is easily customizable according to your preferred project management process (whether it’s Kanban, Scrum or waterfall),
additional logic and features. A great UX / UI with the task management power behind it that Trello just doesn’t have.
On the other hand, Trello relies on its simple design and user experience. When stacked against Jira’s combination of a great user interface with powerful functionality, Trello has no chance.
Reporting requirements
When dealing with multiple projects, users typically also require a level of reporting abilities to extract numerous metrics. Trello offers very little in terms of reporting, whereas Jira has a multitude of standard reports (versions, epics, sprints, issues etc), with the ability to create your own custom analytics.
Integration requirements
Whilst Trello has a number of integrations, it cannot be compared to Jira... which has hundreds of integrations to many other systems.
There are far too many integrations to list for Jira, however, we've listed the main ones for Trello below.
Jira integrations
Trello Integrations
Pricing requirements
Both Trello and Jira can be used FREE of charge - to a certain extent. Trello's free plan includes most of its core features and also allows one power-up per board (https://trello.com/power-ups ). This can be sufficient for small projects with limited users and are after something basic to share with their team as it does offer unlimited personal boards and unlimited cards. The free version The paid plan increases the attachment size from 10MB to 250MB as well as gives access to 10 team boards. That’s plenty for those who want a quick task management system or only need something basic to share with their team (https://bit.ly/2RJKFV3). The monthly plans start from approx $10 per month, per user.
Jira is currently also offering its product for free, for up to 10 users, when opting for cloud hosting (https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing ). With this, you'll have access to Scrum & Kanban boards, backlog, agile reporting, workflows, roadmaps with 2GB of storage. Paid plans start from $7 dollars per user per month, offering 250GB of storage, audit logs, anonymouse access, and advanced permissions.
Overall
Again, it all does depend on the requirements and general needs. If you are a small company that is only looking for a way to visualize and assign certain tasks whilst having a good overview of a project, then Trello is the best option. It is easy, free, and can be used immediately once downloaded. The boards can also be linked to a number of other programs such as Gmail.
For those companies looking for a more comprehensive solution, Jira is a clear choice. Not only is Jira a more robust solution from the get-go, but it is also scalable and the software of choice for 85% of Fortune 500 companies. Paired with Confluence, and service-desk, Jira is the market's go-to software solution for project management. It was originally developed for software development, to facilitate collaboration and structured projects, however, was then developed and evolved into a complete project management tool.