Trello vs. Jira: Which Is Better for Agile Project Management?

Trello and Jira are two of the most popular agile project management tools on the market today, but which one is better? In this article, we’ll walk you through pros and cons, key features, common use cases, and comparisons to help you determine if Jira or Trello is the right app for your team.

Now that you have a little more information on the two programs, let’s get a little more in depth on Trello vs. Jira, their key differentiators, use cases, and how well they do the job.

Task management is the core of every project, no matter how big or small. To be successful, your team members must know what they have to do, when they have to do it, and what they’re waiting on to do each task. Without effective task management, you could end up with a massive backlog of tasks, simply due to miscommunication.

Trello’s task management system is a Kanban-based three-part hierarchy. That sounds complex, but it’s really pretty simple. Basically, when you start a project, you’ll create a Trello board. In your board, you can create interactive cards that you can drag around to better visually organize your project. On each card, you’ll add lists of assignments and milestones to achieve along the way. You might, for example, create a board for Project X with three cards: To Do, In Progress, and Done. In this simple example, you can add your full task list to the “To Do” card and assign tasks with deadlines. As tasks are completed, users will move them to “In Progress” and “Done.” So, for example, let’s say you’re creating an email campaign. When your writer finishes the copy, they’ll add it to the “Done” card. This action can then trigger a notification for your graphic designer to use the copy to work on the email’s graphics.

Trello’s Kanban-style boards, cards, and lists are extremely flexible, and the platform lends itself well to a wide variety of project types. However, it’s not always the most efficient system, especially if you’re managing large projects with a lot of moving parts. While Trello does have a number of project templates, it lacks pre-built workflows, which can be frustrating when project managers have to build out processes from scratch. If you choose Trello, we recommend creating a few blank workflows as templates that you can then copy and use for similar project types.

In some ways, Jira’s task management features are very similar to Trello. With Jira, you’ll build projects in boards with “swim lanes” to show tasks that haven’t been started, are in progress, or that have been completed. Jira is a little less flexible than Trello, as it is designed almost entirely for agile software development projects. If you’re designing and developing a new app or program, Jira has a lot of pre-built workflows and templates to help you get up and running quickly. If you’re working on a non-software-related project, you might have to build out your own workflows. However, this really isn’t any more difficult than creating new boards, cards, and lists in Trello.

Winner: Jira (especially for software development teams)

Agile teams focus their work on iterations and updates to planned software releases. While the agile framework can work for non-software-related industries and projects, it’s important to understand that teams developing software and building websites with an agile approach often rely on agile-specific features. Agile project management is made a lot easier with features that streamline things like planning scrums and sprints, tracking issues and bugs, and maintaining a cloud-based code repository. While Trello is extremely flexible, it doesn’t include a lot of features that scrum masters and project managers look for in agile project management software. Trello does, however, have several integrations with other programs and platforms that include these features. So, if you love the way Trello looks and feels, you can customize your experience with Power Ups to better fit agile projects.

Jira, on the other hand, does include a lot of agile-based features. The software supports multiple views and approaches, with options to build projects in kanban-style boards, with a scrum-based methodology, or with a mix of the two styles. Roadmap views help participants stay up to date on the latest changes in their project’s progress and direction. Likewise, Jira’s sprint view gives users a clear idea of a project’s progress and scope. Plus, Jira’s reporting features are all based on an agile approach, making it easy to track when projects are running efficiently, where they need help, where the scope of a project may be creeping, and other factors.

Winner: Jira

Moving tasks forward on an in-progress project is obviously critical, but so is collaboration. Teams developing new apps, websites, and programs must work together, even if, physically, they’re miles apart. The creative team can come up with all kinds of incredible designs and ideas to enhance the user interface (UI), but the backend development team must be able to make those designs a reality. The user experience (UX) team needs to be able to give feedback on how the interface works, whether it’s user-friendly, and how it might be improved. In an agile project, progress is often not very linear, but the project can be kept on track with streamlined collaboration capabilities. That’s why a lot of teams turn to collaboration software like Confluence, but with the right project management software, you could solve your collaboration challenges with the same software you use for your task management and reporting.

As far as collaboration goes, Trello starts out strong. Team members can invite as many people as they want to the same board. There, all team members can see the project’s status, including tasks that are to be done, in progress, and completed. Anyone with access to a board can leave comments and tag other team members to draw their attention to specific issues or challenges. If a team member is assigned to a specific card in a board, they’ll receive notifications whenever there’s an update to their card. This, however, is essentially where Trello stops with its collaboration features and tools. If you just need to notify other team members when tasks are complete, or when a card needs attention, Trello does the job, but it lacks some more advanced collaboration tools.

Jira includes all of the collaboration features that Trello offers, such as notifications, task assignments, tagging team members, file storage and sharing, and direct messaging, but Jira goes a step (or two) further than Trello in terms of collaboration. Along with all that, Jira has automated reporting features that make it easy for team members to visualize project progress in a centralized location, without wading through a dense spreadsheet. Access to a visually appealing dashboard with graphical representations of project progress makes Jira the clear winner here.

Winner: Jira

While it seems like most teams are moving to cloud-based solutions for their project management software, some still prefer an on-premise option. Remote teams and teams that do a lot of traveling need remote access to their project management software, making a cloud-based platform the obvious solution. However, with the prevalence of cyber attacks (especially ransomware), many teams want to at least have an on-premise backup that they can access in case of a breach or outage. Trello is solely cloud-based, while Jira offers cloud and on-premise hosting.

Winner: Jira

This is one area where Trello is the clear winner. Jira is extremely effective as a project management and productivity tool for software development, but its specialization makes it harder to adapt to other types of projects. Trello, on the other hand, is a lot more open-ended, making it easier to manage different types of projects. Trello can be used to create a household chore chart as easily as it can function as a project management tool for an advertising agency. 

Winner: Trello

Both Trello and Jira offer free versions for individuals and small teams. Trello’s free version has no specific user limit, but projects are limited to 10 boards per workspace. Jira’s free version is limited to 10 users, but includes unlimited boards and cards. Along with standard project management functionalities, Jira’s free version also includes backlog and timeline features to help teams keep track of future tasks. Plus, Jira includes some reporting and insights, even with its free version. One area where Trello’s free version seems to win over Jira is storage. Trello offers unlimited storage, whereas Jira only offers two gigabytes of storage for free subscribers. With that in mind, Trello’s unlimited storage has a limitation: files must be 10 megabytes or smaller. This may not be an issue for some teams, but if you’re working with graphics files and building out applications, you may need more freedom to upload larger files.

Both platforms also offer standard and premium subscriptions. Trello has a slight advantage here, as its standard and premium packages cost $5 and $10 per user per month, respectively. Jira charges $7.75 per user per month for a standard subscription or $15.25 per user per month for the premium subscription. Starting with the standard package, Trello users get unlimited boards, advanced checklists, custom fields, and up to 1,000 workspace commands per month. At the same level for a couple dollars more per user per month, Jira offers 250 gigabytes of storage, advanced user roles and permissions, audit logs, data residency, and anonymous access. 

At the premium level, Trello offers multiple workspace views, including timeline, table, dashboard, and map. While Trello’s premium pricing is lower than Jira’s premium rate, Jira offers multiple views and customizable workflows at every subscription level. This seems to be the trend across the board for Trello’s features. While each package is slightly less expensive than Jira, Trello tends to offer fewer features with its less expensive subscriptions. So, while you’ll pay less per user with a standard Trello subscription than a standard Jira subscription, you’ll get more value from the Jira subscription.

Winner. For teams with very tight budgets, Trello wins. For teams looking to get the most value for their budget, we would choose Jira.

Trello’s animation tool, Butler, is extremely useful when it comes to streamlining project creation and management. Users can call on Butler to stitch together and execute a series of tasks based on user-generated rules. When you create a rule, you’ll set a trigger that will then set one or more actions in motion. 

So, for example, when a team member moves a card to the “done” board, this could be the trigger for Trello to mark the task as complete, check off all to-do list items in the card, and remove members from the card. You’ll need to be selective with your rules, though, as Trello limits command runs based on your subscription level. The free version includes up to 250 command runs per month, and you don’t get unlimited command runs until you commit to a premium subscription.

Jira has a similar rules-based automation system, and it also limits the number of command runs that users can perform per month. Jira’s free plan includes up to 100 multi-project or global rules per month. The standard plan includes 500 rules per month, and the premium plan allows for up to 1,000 rules per month. So, in this case, Trello gives you more bang for your buck if you plan to do a lot of automating. 

Winner: Trello

So, which program is easier to set up? If you’re managing a small project that doesn’t have a lot of moving parts, Trello is as simple as it gets. You can start creating boards and cards immediately. Assigning due dates and tasks is extremely easy with Trello’s intuitive interface. With that said, Jira is also fairly straightforward when it comes to setting up simple projects. If, however, you have a more complex project with a series of sprints and planned releases, you may have a different experience. Trello will still allow you to perform the tasks you need, but it doesn’t include the same functionalities that Jira specializes in. This is a bit of a double-edged sword when it comes to setting up and running the software. While Trello has a more streamlined experience when building out projects, and Jira has a bit of a learning curve, most software development project managers find that it’s worth the time to learn Jira’s ins and outs.

Winner. For simplicity, Trello. For functionality, Jira.

So, which is the better alternative? In general, if you’re an agile project manager, you need a tool that helps you run agile projects, with features like scrum planning and reporting to help you govern ever-changing projects. If you’re planning multiple releases and updates to a piece of software, you need a project management platform that will keep all of your collaborators on the same page, while helping you stay on top of directional changes. With all that in mind, Jira is our choice for agile project management. If you’re looking for a project management tool for smaller, simpler projects, you may find that Trello does the job better, but in terms of running large, highly complex software development projects, Jira emerges as the top competitor.