project management tool · head to head
ClickUp vs Trello
Comparison Summary
ClickUp scored 7.4 and Trello scored 6.0 on our project management tool test script.
ClickUp and Trello are both free to start, but ClickUp's free plan does far more in our project-management test. ClickUp gave us list, board, calendar and Gantt views, priorities, dependencies, a recurring task and a CSV import without paying. Trello's free plan is the board alone: calendar and timeline are Premium, priorities have to be colour labels, there are no dependencies and no CSV import.
Trello is simpler and lighter. Pasting a list creates cards, its free automation rule fired within a second or two, and the Store app uses about 0.6 to 0.85 GB of memory against ClickUp's 1.7 to 2.2 GB. But adding hundreds of cards is slow, capped at 100 at a time, and we lost 13 cards on a reload. ClickUp imported 500 rows with all their fields in under two minutes.
Choose Trello if you want a clean Kanban board and a few automations. Choose ClickUp if you need dates, dependencies, imports and more views on a free plan.
Key differences
ClickUp
Trello - Our 8 scripted tasks
- ClickUp:6 passed, 2 partial
- Trello:7 partial, 1 failed
- Views on the free plan
- ClickUp:List, board, calendar and Gantt
- Trello:Board only
- Priorities and dependencies
- ClickUp:Both free
- Trello:Colour labels only; no dependencies
- CSV import
- ClickUp:200 and 500 rows with all fields
- Trello:No import; titles by paste, 100 at a time
- Automation
- ClickUp:Free, 100 actions a month
- Trello:Free, limited runs; fired in 1–2 s
- AI
- ClickUp:Chat trial: summary, subtasks, overdue
- Trello:Card checklists only, paid
- Memory and cold start
- ClickUp:1.7–2.2 GB; about 14 s
- Trello:0.6–0.85 GB; about 7 s
- Paid plans from
- ClickUp:$9 per user a month, billed yearly
- Trello:$5 per user a month, billed yearly
- Left after uninstalling
- ClickUp:About 275 MB and a broken startup entry
- Trello:Nothing
Editor's Verdict
Choose ClickUp if…
Best for: Small teams that want lists, boards, Gantt charts, automations and AI in one free workspace and do not mind a busy, heavy app.
- Every view we needed is free: list, board, calendar and Gantt, with no upgrade prompt
- Automation, dependency and recurring task all worked on the free plan
- Pasting a multi-line list creates one task per line
Choose Trello if…
Best for: Small teams and individuals who want a simple, visual Kanban board with a few automations.
- Pasting a multi-line list creates one card per line
- Free automation rules: ours moved a completed card within a second or two
- A recurring card rolls itself to next week when completed
Head to Head
Task by task
The same prompts, pasted word for word into each app on a clean Windows 11 PC. On the 8 tasks both apps were graded on, ClickUp completed 6 and Trello completed 0.
| Task | ClickUp | Trello |
|---|---|---|
| P1 · Build a project | Pass≈ 200 actions | Partial≈ 20 min |
| P2 · Views | Pass≈ 2 min | Partial≈ 3 min |
| P3 · Rules | Pass≈ 7 min | Partial≈ 8 min |
| P4 · 200-row import | Partial≈ 12 min | Fail≈ 5 min |
| P5 · Scale | Pass< 2 min import | Partial≈ 10 min |
| P6 · Permissions | Pass≈ 5 min | Partial≈ 3 min |
| P7 · AI | Pass≈ 1–1.5 min each | Partial≈ 20 s |
| P8 · Leave | Partial≈ 7 min | Partial≈ 4 min |
ClickUp ran on its Free Forever plan; a new Trello account starts on a 14-day Premium trial, and we noted where Trello's results depend on it.
Measured on the same PC
| Measurement | ClickUp | Trello |
|---|---|---|
| Install time | ≈ 45 s | ≈ 71 s |
| On disk | 643 MB | 368 MB |
| Starts with Windows | Yes, by default | No |
| 40-task project | ≈ 200 actions | ≈ 20 min |
| Views on the free plan | 4 / 4 | 1 / 4 |
| 200-row CSV import | 200 / 200 | Not possible |
| Cold start | ≈ 14 s | ≈ 7 s |
| Memory | 1.7 – 2.2 GB | 0.6 – 0.85 GB |
| CSV export | 771 / 771 | 53 rows |
| Left after uninstall | ≈ 275 MB | Nothing |
Pros and cons
ClickUp
+ What works
- Every view we needed is free: list, board, calendar and Gantt, with no upgrade prompt
- Automation, dependency and recurring task all worked on the free plan
- Pasting a multi-line list creates one task per line
- 500-row CSV import in under two minutes, and the 500-task board opened in under a second
- Brain² summarised our project accurately, answered “what is overdue?” correctly and asked before adding subtasks
- Full CSV export in under a minute: all 771 tasks, with comments and subtasks
- Removing someone's access took effect immediately
− What falls short
- Heavy: about 14 seconds from launch to a usable list and 1.7–2.2 GB of memory
- The CSV import matched none of our seven columns automatically and needed status values mapped by hand
- The import offers to invite everyone whose email is in the file
- Starts with Windows by default and leaves about 275 MB and a broken startup entry after uninstalling
- Free AI chat is a one-off trial that does not reset
- The export drops dependencies and recurrence settings
- Busy setup: nine onboarding screens, a phone-number request, an invite nudge and an AI pop-up for every new list
Trello
+ What works
- Pasting a multi-line list creates one card per line
- Free automation rules: ours moved a completed card within a second or two
- A recurring card rolls itself to next week when completed
- The Store app installs in about a minute without admin rights and uninstalls without leaving anything behind
- Quick to learn, with a clean board
− What falls short
- Free plan: board view only; calendar, timeline and table are Premium
- No priority field (we used colour labels) and no task dependencies
- No CSV import: we could only paste titles, at most 100 cards at a time
- Bulk card creation is slow, and 13 of our 500 cards were lost when we reloaded before it finished
- No AI chat for summaries or overdue tasks; AI checklists are a paid feature
- A new account starts a 14-day Premium trial; free workspaces are capped at 10 boards
Privacy and security
What we saw on our own test PC. Each review also lists what the vendor states about data handling, training and certifications.
ClickUp
Starts with Windows
The installer adds ClickUp to Windows startup without asking. It adds no services or scheduled tasks and only listens on the PC itself.
Contacts are pushed, not required
Setup asks for a phone number for promotional calls and messages, and the CSV import pre-fills the file's email addresses as invitations. Both can be skipped.
Full deletion is opt-in
Deleting a workspace keeps it recoverable unless you tick a separate box to delete it and its third-party data permanently.
Left after uninstalling
A 133 MB profile folder, a 143 MB updater cache, the clickup:// link handler and a startup entry pointing at the removed program.
Trello
Store app
Installed and removed through the Microsoft Store, with no startup entry, services or leftovers.
Silent card loss
Cards still being created when we reloaded the board were lost without a warning.
Deletion is two steps
A board must be closed before it can be permanently deleted, so closing alone keeps the data.
Features & Pricing
| ClickUp | Trello | |
|---|---|---|
| Web | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows | ✓ | ✓ |
| macOS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Linux | ✓ | — |
| iOS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free plan | ✓ | ✓ |
| Paid from | $9/mo | $5/mo |
ClickUp plans
- Free Forever$0
- Core$9/user/mo
- Business$17/user/mo
- EnterpriseCustom
From ClickUp's pricing page, checked Oct 29, 2026.
Trello plans
- Free$0
- Standard$5/user/mo
- Premium$10/user/mo
- Enterprise$17.50/user/mo
From Trello's pricing page, checked Oct 30, 2026.
Who makes them
- Company
- ClickUp:ClickUp (Mango Technologies, Inc.)
- Trello:Atlassian (Trello)
- Headquarters
- ClickUp:San Diego, California, USA
- Trello:Sydney, Australia (Atlassian); Trello based in New York
- Founded
- ClickUp:2017
- Trello:2011
- Funding
- ClickUp:$400 million Series C in October 2021 at a reported $4 billion valuation.
- Trello:Acquired by Atlassian in 2017 for about $425 million.
Timelines, official links and sources are in each review: ClickUp · Trello.
FAQ
Which is better, ClickUp or Trello?
ClickUp scored higher in our tests because its free plan covers views, dates, dependencies and imports. Trello is simpler and lighter but keeps most of that behind Premium.
Which has the better free plan?
ClickUp. Trello's free plan has the board view and automation; calendar, timeline, custom fields and AI need a paid plan.
Can I import a spreadsheet into Trello like ClickUp?
No. ClickUp imported our CSV files with all their columns; Trello has no CSV import and only lets you paste up to 100 titles at a time.
Read the full reviews
This page compares the two side by side. Each full review has the complete test log, every screenshot, the scoring notes, pricing, security and company details.
ClickUp reviewRecommended 7.4 ClickUp passed every step of our project-management test on the free plan: all the views, a working automation, dependencies, recurring tasks, a 500-row import and an AI that got the facts right and asked before changing anything. It is heavy, though: the Windows app needs about 14 seconds and up to 2 GB of memory, and the import and setup make you do more by hand than they should. Read the full review → Trello reviewSituational 6.0 Trello is still the quickest way to put a list of tasks on a board, and its free automation rules work well. But it is a Kanban tool first: on the free plan you get the board only, priorities have to be colour labels, there are no dependencies, no CSV import and no project-wide AI, and adding hundreds of cards is slow and capped at 100 at a time. Read the full review → Project Management Alternatives
Notion Situational Individuals and small teams who want tasks living next to their docs and wiki, and who are happy to build their own setup 6.9 Read reviewReview 
Airtable Situational Teams who want a flexible database behind their projects, with automations and reliable CSV in and out 6.8 Read reviewReview 
Asana Situational Teams ready to pay for Starter or Advanced who want a polished, fast-to-learn project tool with strong import and export 6.7 Read reviewReview 
