Trello popularized Kanban for project management, but at 61/100 in our rubric, every alternative on this list outscores it. If your team has outgrown boards and cards, these AI-powered tools pick up where Trello leaves off.
| Rank | Tool | Score | Starting Price | Best For |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | ClickUp | 94 | Free / $7/user/mo | Maximum features + AI |
| 2 | Taskade | 89 | Free / $4/user/mo | Simple + AI-native |
| 3 | Wrike | 87 | Free / $10/user/mo | Enterprise scale |
| 4 | Airtable | 79 | Free / $20/user/mo | Custom database PM |
| 5 | monday.com | 78 | Free / $9/seat/mo | Visual step-up from Trello |
| 6 | Zoho Projects | 76 | Free / $5/user/mo | Budget PM with AI |
| 7 | Notion Projects | 76 | Free / $10/user/mo | Docs + tasks workspace |
| 8 | Jira Software | 75 | Free / $8.15/user/mo | Engineering agile teams |
| Ref | Trello | 61 | Free / $5/user/mo | Simple Kanban boards |
Scores based on our 100-point rubric evaluating AI capabilities, ecosystem quality, UX, governance, and value.
Trello made project management accessible by reducing it to boards, lists, and cards. That simplicity is genuine, and millions of teams still rely on it. But as teams scale, three gaps become acute.
Trello is a board. You can add Timeline and Calendar views in Premium ($10/user/month), but the tool was designed around one metaphor. When you need Gantt charts with dependencies, workload views, or portfolio dashboards, you either stack Power-Ups or switch tools. Competitors like ClickUp (15+ views) and monday.com (6 views) build these natively.
Trello's AI comes through Atlassian Intelligence (AI writing, card suggestions) and Butler automation (rule-based triggers). Neither is autonomous. In a market where ClickUp's Super Agents execute multi-step work, Taskade's agents orchestrate other agents, and Wrike's ML predicts project risks, Trello's AI feels like 2023 technology.
Trello's Dashboard view (Premium) provides basic charts. There are no advanced analytics, no cross-board reporting, no audit logs in Standard or below. Enterprise teams need governance features that Trello only partially addresses even at its $17.50/user/month Enterprise tier.
Key differentiator: Multi-model Brain (GPT-5, Claude, o3) that autonomously generates standups, creates subtasks, writes updates, and answers workspace questions. Trello's Butler automates simple rules; ClickUp Brain reasons and acts.
Pricing: Free (unlimited tasks). Unlimited at $7/user/month. Business at $12/user/month.
Best for: Teams that love Trello's Kanban approach but need more views, deeper AI, and the ability to scale without hitting walls.
Key differentiator: AI agents with memory and personality that handle 700+ task types. Genesis App Builder creates custom PM applications from a single prompt. Multi-agent orchestration where agents invoke other agents. The AI is included in the free tier with limited credits.
Pricing: Free (limited AI). Pro at $4/user/month. Teams at $8/user/month.
Best for: Small teams that want Trello's ease of use with AI agents that actually do work, not just suggest it.
Key differentiator: ML-powered risk prediction via Knowledge Graph and AI Agents with multi-action chaining. Enterprise governance (ISO 27001/27017/27018/27701, HIPAA, SOC2) that Trello's SOC2-only certification cannot match. Three consecutive years as Gartner Leader in CWM.
Pricing: Free tier. Team at $10/user/month. Business at $24.80/user/month.
Best for: Growing teams (50+) that started on Trello and now need portfolio visibility, resource management, and enterprise-grade AI across departments.
Key differentiator: Relational database with 6+ views including a Kanban board. AI assistants generate apps from natural language. Automations handle up to 25,000 runs per month in the Team plan. Where Trello cards are flat, Airtable records are dimensional.
Pricing: Free (1,000 records/base). Team at $20/user/month. Business at $45/user/month.
Best for: Teams tracking structured, interconnected data alongside projects. Product operations, content teams, and anyone who has hit the limits of Trello Custom Fields.
Key differentiator: The most natural migration path from Trello. Same visual, intuitive philosophy but with multiple view types, stronger automations, and AI. Cross-functional appeal across marketing, HR, sales, and product teams.
Pricing: Free (2 seats). Basic at $9/seat/month. Standard at $12/seat/month with AI.
Best for: Teams that love Trello's visual approach but need timeline views, automations, and basic AI without a steep learning curve. Check our Monday.com alternatives guide for further comparisons.
Key differentiator: Dollar-for-dollar, Zoho Projects provides more PM capability than any tool at its price. Zia AI with NLP search and predictive insights, Agent Studio with 700+ actions, and 70+ language auto-translation for global teams.
Pricing: Free (3 users). Premium at $5/user/month. Enterprise at $10/user/month.
Best for: Teams that chose Trello primarily for cost and want a proper PM tool at the same price point.
Key differentiator: Unified docs-and-tasks workspace with AI Q&A across the entire knowledge base. Block-based architecture adapts to any content structure. AI Autofill populates project properties from existing content automatically.
Pricing: Free for individuals. Plus at $10/user/month with AI. Business at $18/user/month.
Best for: Teams that need to consolidate task tracking and documentation into one AI-searchable workspace.
Key differentiator: Direct migration path from Trello (same company, native importer). Deepest agile methodology support in the market. Free for up to 10 users, matching Trello's cost for small teams while providing professional engineering workflows.
Pricing: Free (10 users). Standard at $8.15/user/month. Premium at $16/user/month.
Best for: Engineering teams currently using Trello who need real sprint management and agile tooling. The Trello-to-Jira migration within Atlassian's ecosystem is the simplest upgrade path available.
This matrix shows which Trello features each alternative preserves and which new capabilities they add.
| Feature | ClickUp | Taskade | Wrike | monday | Zoho | Notion | Jira |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kanban Boards | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Drag-and-Drop Cards | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Gantt / Timeline | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dashboards | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| AI Autonomous Agents | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Sprint Management | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Time Tracking | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Free Tier | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Power-Up / Extension Market | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
Key insight: Every alternative preserves Trello's core Kanban board functionality. The differentiators are what they add: ClickUp and Wrike add the most traditional PM features; Taskade adds the deepest AI; Zoho matches Trello's price while adding substantially more.
ClickUp (94/100) is the best overall Trello alternative. It includes Kanban boards plus 14 additional views, autonomous AI, and built-in docs at $7/user/month. For simplicity with AI, Taskade (89/100) at $4/user/month offers the best balance of ease-of-use and AI capability.
Yes. Taskade includes AI in its free tier with limited credits. ClickUp has a free plan with unlimited tasks (AI requires the $7/user/month plan). Linear provides basic AI features free for up to 250 active issues. See our best free AI PM tools guide for the complete list.
Common triggers: needing Gantt charts (limited in Trello), dashboards and reporting (basic), sprint management (not native), resource management (absent), or deeper AI (Trello's Atlassian Intelligence is basic compared to ClickUp, Taskade, or Wrike). Trello's board-only architecture works for small teams but constrains growth.
monday.com (78/100) scores substantially higher than Trello (61/100). It offers more views, stronger automation (200+ recipes), and AI features. Monday.com costs $9/seat/month for Basic vs. Trello's $5/user/month Standard. The trade-off is simplicity: Trello is easier to learn, but monday.com is more capable.