As a business owner, you must constantly communicate with your team to successfully complete tasks on time. A decade ago, brands relied on phone calls, text messages, and email as the main forms of communication. A recent report by Wakefield Research shows that 78% of employees and business executives believe collaboration platforms are very important to their work.
Thanks to technological advancements, new project management tools allow entrepreneurs and employees to collaborate and communicate easily. One such tool that has garnered massive traction across the globe is Trello. Its growth skyrocketed during the Covid-19 pandemic as brands transitioned from the office setting to hybrid remote working models.
Developed in 2011, Trello has become one of our generation’s most reliable, efficient, and user-friendly project management tools. The many positive reviews it has accrued over the years prove it delivers on its promise of facilitating seamless collaboration between project managers and team members/employees.
According to a report by Expandedramblings.com, Trello had 50 million registered users and 1 million active teams in 2021. Let’s dive in and look at the key attributes that give Trello a higher cutting edge in the market.
Features
We have used Trello as a project management tool for the last two weeks. At first, we hesitated because we already had other tools in our system. We also didn’t know the kind of reception it would receive from our employees and partners. To summarize, everyone agreed we test the tool before deciding whether to incorporate it into our processes fully.
Here is our unbiased review of Trello, starting with the key features that place it miles ahead of the competition.
1: Usability
Trello has an intuitive interface that makes it easy, even for non-technical users, to learn how to leverage its different features. Our team leader created a new project minutes after downloading and installing the app on his laptop. There is no learning curve; everything is straightforward, and the icons are clearly labeled to avoid confusion.
More importantly, Trello mobile app for iOS and Android allows users to keep tabs on work or projects while on the game. Virtually all the features available on the Trello web platform are in the mobile app. The registration process only takes 3 minutes or less if you have already decided which plan to use.
2: Work Automation
Despite its simplicity, Trello Premium is a project management tool on steroids. One of the work automation features available to users is the Butler automation bot which enables project managers to set up rule-based triggers. Other features that you can count on to streamline how you launch, manage, and monitor project progress include but are not limited to:
- Due date commands
- Unlimited boards and automation
- Unlimited storage
- Ability to create custom fields, advanced checklists, and admin controls
If you are unsure whether Trello is ideal for your brand or compatible with the existing systems, we recommend experimenting with the free version for several weeks. Some of the perks in the free plan include:
- You can create a maximum of 10 boards per Workspace
- Unlimited cards
- Unlimited power-ups per board
- Unlimited activity log
- You can customize the background and use stickers
At the time of writing this review, Trello offers four unique plans;
- Free Plan
- Standard Plan — $5 per user per month
- Premium Plan — $10 per user per month
- Enterprise Plan — $17.5 per user per month
Take the time to compare and contrast the plans to select one that best suits your needs and budget. Consider your team members’ input when making this decision to make an informed decision.
Which Important Features Are Lacking?
Compared to other similar project management tools in the same price range, Trello lacks two essential features, namely:
- It doesn’t offer an in-built reporting and analytics feature. It only offers reporting tools through Power-Ups.
- Although it’s great for project visualization, it lacks features that agile teams need for complex projects, such as monitoring daily workflows.
Security and Privacy
Trello is keen on safeguarding the security and privacy of its users’ data. It achieves this goal by encrypting all data using TLS 1.2, which has 128-bit advanced data encryption capability. Using “In transit” encryption, data transmitted from the users to Trello servers cannot be interfered with during transmission.
The data is stored in secure dedicated servers monitored round the clock. More importantly, Trello does a full encrypted backup of all data stored in its servers every 24 hours. Weekly vulnerability scans and penetration tests are done to thwart any hacking attempts. Trello also takes pride in being among the few project management tools that are ISO/IEC 27001 and ISO/IEC 27018 certified.
Privacy settings for workflows are flexible. Admin with access to the board has full control of the visibility settings. They can limit who accesses the board, comment, and send messages. Concisely, the boards are only accessible to team members added by the admins.
Final Verdict — Who is Trello Best For?
Trello is a simple but powerful project management tool whose intuitive and user-friendly features make it worthy of a spot in the list of the best project management tools.
It’s ideal for small and medium businesses looking for a simple and affordable system that can easily integrate with their existing systems and other platforms such as Google Drive, Salesforce, and Slack. Have you tried Trello? Please share your experience with us in the comment section.
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N.B. This Trello project management software review is available on my Medium Blog.