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What is Trello

Trello is a visual collaboration tool that helps teams and individuals organize their projects and tasks. It uses a system of boards, lists, and cards, which is based on the Kanban methodology for managing work. The main purpose of Trello is to provide a simple, flexible, and visual way to see who is working on what and what the status of a task is. Trello was created by Fog Creek Software in 2011. It later became its own company before being acquired by Atlassian in 2017. The platform is known for its user-friendly interface, making it popular for personal task management, small team projects, and simple workflows.

Trello Features

Trello offers several features to help with project organization:

• Boards: A board represents a project or a workflow. You can create a board for anything, like a new website launch, a content calendar, or personal goals.
• Lists: Inside a board, you create lists. These lists represent stages in your workflow. Common examples are "To Do", "In Progress", and "Done".
• Cards: Cards are the basic unit of a board and represent individual tasks. You can move cards from one list to another as the task progresses.
• Card Details: Each card can contain a lot of information. You can add descriptions, checklists, due dates, file attachments, and comments.
• Members: You can add team members to boards and assign them to specific cards so everyone knows who is responsible for a task.
• Labels: Use color-coded labels to categorize cards. This helps you quickly see the type of task or its priority.
• Butler Automation: Trello's built-in automation tool, Butler, can perform actions automatically. You can create rules, buttons, and commands to automate repetitive tasks, like moving a card when a due date is met.
• Power-Ups: These are integrations that add extra features to your boards. You can connect Trello with other apps like Slack, Google Drive, and Jira.

Trello Pricing Plans

Trello has several pricing plans for different needs:

• Free Plan: This plan is for individuals or small teams just starting out. It includes the core features like unlimited cards and up to 10 boards per workspace, but has limits on automation and Power-Ups.
• Standard Plan: Designed for small teams that need more collaboration tools. It offers unlimited boards, custom fields, and advanced checklists. It also has higher limits for automation.
• Premium Plan: This plan is for larger teams that need to track multiple projects. It includes all features of the Standard plan, plus different project views like Calendar, Timeline, and Dashboard. It also provides more administrative and security features.
• Enterprise Plan: This plan is for large organizations that require company-wide controls and security. It offers unlimited workspaces, organization-wide permissions, and dedicated support.

Trello Free Plan

Trello offers a comprehensive Free Plan. This plan is not a trial and can be used for as long as you want. The free plan includes:

• Unlimited cards
• Up to 10 boards per Workspace
• Unlimited storage (with a 10MB per file limit)
• A limited number of Butler command runs per month
• Basic checklists and attachments

This plan is very generous and is sufficient for many individuals and small teams for basic project management.

How to use Trello

Getting started with Trello is simple. Here is a typical workflow:

1. Create an Account: Sign up for a free Trello account with your email.
2. Create a Workspace: A Workspace is a home for your team's boards. You can invite team members to your Workspace.
3. Create a Board: Inside your Workspace, create a new board for a specific project.
4. Add Lists: By default, you might start with "To Do", "Doing", and "Done". You can customize these lists to match your workflow.
5. Create Cards: Add cards to the "To Do" list for each task you need to complete.
6. Add Details to Cards: Click on a card to add a description, create a checklist of sub-tasks, set a due date, and assign it to a team member.
7. Move Cards: As you work on tasks, drag and drop the cards from one list to the next. For example, move a card from "To Do" to "Doing" when you start working on it.

Using this process, you can visually track the progress of your entire project.

Pros and Cons of Trello

Pros:

• Very Easy to Use: The visual, drag-and-drop interface is intuitive and requires very little training.
• Flexible: Trello can be adapted for many different types of projects, from software development to event planning.
• Excellent Free Plan: The free version offers a lot of functionality, making it accessible for everyone.
• Good Mobile App: The mobile apps for iOS and Android are well-designed and allow you to manage projects on the go.

Cons:

• Limited for Complex Projects: For large projects with many dependencies and sub-tasks, Trello can feel too simple.
• Can Get Cluttered: A board with hundreds of cards can become difficult to manage and navigate.
• Basic Reporting: Trello does not have built-in advanced reporting or analytics features.
• Features Depend on Power-Ups: Many important features, like calendars or Gantt charts, require adding Power-Ups, which can be limited on lower-tier plans.

Trello integrations

Trello integrates with hundreds of other applications through its Power-Ups feature. These integrations add more functionality directly to your Trello boards. Some of the most popular integrations include:

• Slack: Get Trello notifications in your Slack channels and create cards from Slack messages.
• Google Drive: Attach files and folders from Google Drive directly to Trello cards.
• Jira: Link Trello cards to Jira issues for teams that use both tools for different purposes.
• Microsoft Teams: Add Trello boards as tabs in your Microsoft Teams channels.
• Salesforce: Bring Salesforce data into Trello cards to manage leads and customer projects.
• Dropbox: Attach files and folders from Dropbox to your cards.

To add an integration, you go to your board's menu, select "Power-Ups", and search for the app you want to connect.

Trello Alternatives

If Trello is not the right fit for you, here are some alternatives:

• Asana: A powerful project management tool that is more focused on task lists and timelines than Kanban boards, though it offers board views too.
• Jira: Built for software development teams, Jira offers advanced features for bug tracking, agile sprints, and creating product roadmaps.
• Monday.com: A highly customizable Work OS that allows teams to build their own workflows using different views like boards, timelines, and charts.
• ClickUp: An all-in-one productivity platform that aims to replace multiple apps. It is very feature-rich but can have a steeper learning curve.
• Notion: A flexible workspace that combines notes, tasks, wikis, and databases. It is less structured than Trello but offers more customization.

Trello API

Trello provides a comprehensive RESTful API that allows developers to interact with Trello boards, lists, and cards programmatically. The API is well-documented and available for developers to build custom integrations or automate workflows.

To get an API key, you must be logged into your Trello account. You can generate a free API key by visiting trello.com/app-key. On that page, you will also need to generate a Token to authorize your scripts to access your account data.

Here is a simple example using curl to get information about a board:

curl "https://api.trello.com/1/boards/{boardId}?key={yourApiKey}&token={yourToken}"

You would replace {boardId}, {yourApiKey}, and {yourToken} with your actual board ID, API key, and token.

Trello Affiliate program

Trello does not have a traditional, public affiliate program where individuals can sign up to earn a commission on referrals. However, because Trello is part of Atlassian, there are partnership opportunities available through the Atlassian Solution Partner program. This program is designed for companies that provide services, consulting, or solutions related to Atlassian products. If you are interested in becoming a partner, you should visit the Atlassian website and look for their partner program details. For individual influencers or content creators, it is best to contact Atlassian's marketing or support teams directly to inquire about potential collaboration or partnership opportunities.