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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 method of project management. The main purpose of Trello is to make project workflows visible and easy to manage. You can see what is being worked on, who is doing it, and where a task is in the process. Trello was created by Fog Creek Software in 2011 and later became its own company. In 2017, it was acquired by Atlassian, a major software company from Australia known for tools like Jira and Confluence. Trello is known for its simplicity and flexibility, making it popular for a wide range of uses, from personal to-do lists to complex team projects.

Trello Features

• Boards: A board represents a project or a workflow. You can create a board for anything you need to organize, like a new product launch or a weekly content calendar.
• Lists: Inside a board, you create lists. Lists act as stages in your workflow. Common lists are "To Do", "In Progress", and "Done".
• Cards: Cards are the basic units of a board and represent individual tasks. You can move cards from one list to another as you make progress.
• Card Details: Each card can hold a lot of information. You can add descriptions, comments, checklists, due dates, and attach files from your computer, Google Drive, or Dropbox.
• Labels: You can add colored labels to cards to categorize them. For example, you can use labels for priority levels ("High Priority") or task types ("Bug", "Feature Request").
• Members: Invite team members to your boards to collaborate. You can assign members to specific cards to show who is responsible for a task.
• Power-Ups: Power-Ups add extra features and integrations to your boards. You can connect Trello with other apps like Slack, Google Calendar, and Salesforce to create a more powerful workflow.
• Automation (Butler): Trello has a built-in automation tool called Butler. It can perform actions automatically based on rules you set. For example, it can automatically move a card to the "Done" list when you check off all items in its checklist.

Trello Pricing Plans

Trello offers several pricing plans to fit different needs.

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

Trello Free Plan

Trello has a very useful free plan. It 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 file size limit per attachment)
• Unlimited Power-Ups (one per board was the old rule, now it's unlimited)
• A limited number of automation command runs per month
• Unlimited activity log

This plan is great for personal use, students, and small teams who need a simple way to organize their work without any cost.

How to use Trello

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

1. Sign Up: Create a free account on the Trello website using your email.
2. Create a Workspace: A workspace is a home for your boards and team members. You can create different workspaces for different teams or projects.
3. Create a Board: Inside your workspace, click "Create new board". Give it a name, like "Marketing Campaign".
4. Add Lists: Your new board is empty. Add lists to represent your workflow. For example, add three lists: "Tasks", "In Progress", and "Completed".
5. Create Cards: Click "Add a card" under your "Tasks" list. Create cards for each task, such as "Write blog post" or "Design social media images".
6. Add Details to Cards: Click on a card to open it. Add a description, create a checklist of sub-tasks, set a due date, and attach any relevant files.
7. Collaborate: Invite team members to your board and assign them to cards.
8. Track Progress: As you work on tasks, drag and drop cards from one list to the next. This gives everyone a clear view of the project's status.

Pros and Cons of Trello

Pros:

• Very easy to learn and use: The visual, drag-and-drop interface is intuitive for new users.
• Excellent free plan: The free version is generous and sufficient for many users.
• Flexible: Can be adapted for many different types of projects, not just software development.
• Good for visual thinkers: The Kanban board layout makes it easy to see the entire workflow at a glance.
• Strong mobile apps: Trello works well on both iOS and Android devices.

Cons:

• Limited for large projects: Can become messy and hard to manage when a board has too many cards and lists.
• Lacks advanced reporting: The built-in reporting features are basic compared to other project management tools.
• Key features are in paid plans: Important views like Timeline and Calendar are only available in Premium plans.
• Not ideal for complex dependencies: It is difficult to manage tasks that depend on each other.

Trello integrations

Trello integrates with hundreds of applications through its Power-Ups feature. This allows you to connect your boards to the tools your team already uses.

• Slack: Get Trello notifications in your Slack channels, and create or update cards directly from Slack.
• Google Drive: Attach files and folders from Google Drive to Trello cards and see previews.
• Jira: Link Trello cards to Jira issues, useful for teams that use both tools for different purposes.
• Salesforce: Bring your sales pipeline into Trello to manage leads and deals visually.
• GitHub: Attach pull requests, issues, and branches to cards to track development work.
• Microsoft Teams: Add Trello boards as tabs in your Microsoft Teams channels.

To add an integration, you open a board, click on the "Power-Ups" button, search for the app you want to connect, and click "Add".

Trello Alternatives

• Asana: A powerful project management tool that is more list-based than Trello. It is better for managing complex tasks with dependencies and offers more robust reporting.
• Jira: Developed by the same company as Trello (Atlassian), Jira is designed specifically for software development teams. It has advanced features for bug tracking, agile reporting, and release management.
• Monday.com: A highly visual and customizable work operating system (Work OS). It offers multiple views like Kanban, Gantt, and calendar, and is suitable for a wide variety of workflows beyond project management.
• ClickUp: Aims to be an all-in-one productivity app. It combines tasks, docs, goals, and chat in one place. It is more feature-rich than Trello but can be more complex to learn.
• Notion: A flexible workspace that combines notes, tasks, wikis, and databases. While not a dedicated project management tool, many use it to create custom Trello-like boards with more flexibility.

Trello API

Trello provides a powerful RESTful API that allows developers to build custom applications and integrations. The API gives you programmatic access to boards, lists, cards, and all other Trello features.

You can get a free API key from your Trello account. First, log in to Trello, then visit https://trello.com/app-key. On that page, you will find your personal API key. You will also need to generate a token to authorize your application to access your Trello data.

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

curl -X GET \
  'https://api.trello.com/1/boards/{boardId}?key={yourApiKey}&token={yourApiToken}'

Replace {boardId}, {yourApiKey}, and {yourApiToken} with your actual board ID, API key, and token.

Trello Affiliate program

Trello does not have a public, direct affiliate program where you can sign up and get a commission link. However, its parent company, Atlassian, has a Solution Partner Program. This program is for companies that sell, customize, and provide services for Atlassian products, including Trello. It is more of a partnership than a simple affiliate link program.

If you are an influencer or have a large audience and want to partner with Trello, it is best to contact their marketing or support team directly to ask about potential collaboration opportunities. They may have private programs or be open to creating a partnership.