project management tool · head to head
monday.com vs Trello
monday.com
SituationalAhead on 4 of 6 scored axes
Read the full monday.com review →Comparison Summary
monday.com scored 6.5 and Trello scored 6.0 on our project management tool test script.
monday.com: monday.com did nearly everything in our script well: a clean 200- and 500-row import, working dependencies and automations, and the most accurate AI assistant in this category so far. But almost all of it ran on the automatic Pro trial. The free plan is two seats and three boards with no automations, no calendar or Gantt and no AI, so most teams will be paying.
Trello: 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.
Editor's Verdict
Choose monday.com if…
Best for: Teams ready to pay for a polished, flexible work-management tool with strong imports, automations and AI.
- Excellent CSV/Excel import: 200 rows in about 10 s and 500 in about 20 s, with statuses, dates and priorities
- Strict dependencies that move dependent tasks when a date changes
- Automations fired in about a second and a half
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, monday.com completed 3 and Trello completed 0.
| Task | monday.com | Trello |
|---|---|---|
| P1 · Build a project | Pass≈ 15 min | Partial≈ 20 min |
| P2 · Views | Partial≈ 4 min | Partial≈ 3 min |
| P3 · Rules | Partial≈ 7 min | Partial≈ 8 min |
| P4 · 200-row import | Pass≈ 3 min | Fail≈ 5 min |
| P5 · Scale | Pass≈ 2 min | Partial≈ 10 min |
| P6 · Permissions | Partial≈ 3 min | Partial≈ 3 min |
| P7 · AI | Partial≈ 3 min | Partial≈ 20 s |
| P8 · Leave | Partial≈ 5 min | Partial≈ 4 min |
Measured on the same PC
| Measurement | monday.com | Trello |
|---|---|---|
| Installer | 97 MB | Microsoft Store |
| On disk | 330 MB | 368 MB |
| Starts with Windows | No | No |
| 40-task project | ≈ 15 min | ≈ 20 min |
| Views on the free plan | 2 / 4 | 1 / 4 |
| 200-row CSV import | 200 / 200 | Not possible |
| Cold start | ≈ 9 s | ≈ 7 s |
| Memory | 1.1 – 1.3 GB | 0.6 – 0.85 GB |
| Automation rule | ≈ 1.5 s | ≈ 1–2 s |
| Left after uninstall | ≈ 92 MB | Nothing |
Pros and cons
monday.com
+ What works
- Excellent CSV/Excel import: 200 rows in about 10 s and 500 in about 20 s, with statuses, dates and priorities
- Strict dependencies that move dependent tasks when a date changes
- Automations fired in about a second and a half
- Sidekick AI summarised the board, answered “what is overdue?” correctly and created real subtasks
- Instant Excel export with subitems and dependencies, plus a full account export
- Clear roles, including free view-only Viewers
− What falls short
- Free plan: 2 seats, 3 boards, no automations, no calendar or Gantt, no AI
- A new account silently starts a 14-day Pro trial
- Calendar and Gantt views showed nothing until we refreshed the app
- The import's default column types mangled our descriptions and kept tags as one label
- The installer is signed with a code-signing certificate that expired in August 2025
- Heavier than most: about 1.1–1.3 GB of memory and a 9-second cold start
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.
monday.com
Expired signing certificate
The installer is signed by monday.com Ltd with a certificate that expired in August 2025, so Windows reports the signature as not valid.
No background services
The app added no startup entry, services or listening ports.
Admin by default in sign-up
The sign-up wizard's invite step sets new members to Admin and allows automatic sign-ups from your domain unless you change it.
EU data storage
Our account's admin page showed data stored in the European Union.
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
| monday.com | Trello | |
|---|---|---|
| Web | ✓ | ✓ |
| Windows | ✓ | ✓ |
| macOS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Linux | — | — |
| iOS | ✓ | ✓ |
| Android | ✓ | ✓ |
| Free plan | ✓ | ✓ |
| Paid from | $9/mo | $5/mo |
monday.com plans
- Free€0
- Basic€9/seat/mo
- Standard€12/seat/mo
- Pro€19/seat/mo
- EnterpriseCustom
From monday.com's pricing page, checked Oct 30, 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.
Cost for your team
- Trello$300per year
- monday.com$540per year
Cheapest paid plan × seats × 12, at list price. Annual discounts and volume deals not included. monday.com and Trello also have a free plan.
Who makes them
- Company
- monday.com:monday.com Ltd.
- Trello:Atlassian (Trello)
- Headquarters
- monday.com:Tel Aviv, Israel
- Trello:Sydney, Australia (Atlassian); Trello based in New York
- Founded
- monday.com:2012
- Trello:2011
- Funding
- monday.com:Public on Nasdaq (MNDY) since 2021.
- Trello:Acquired by Atlassian in 2017 for about $425 million.
Timelines, official links and sources are in each review: monday.com · Trello.
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.
monday.com reviewSituational 6.5 monday.com did nearly everything in our script well: a clean 200- and 500-row import, working dependencies and automations, and the most accurate AI assistant in this category so far. But almost all of it ran on the automatic Pro trial. The free plan is two seats and three boards with no automations, no calendar or Gantt and no AI, so most teams will be paying. 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
ClickUp Recommended Small teams that want lists, boards, Gantt charts, automations and AI in one free workspace and do not mind a busy, heavy app 7.4 Read reviewReview 
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 
