Plane vs Trello
A source-aware comparison of pricing, documented capabilities and workflow fit.
Short answer
- Price: not directly comparable — Plane is free tier available, Trello is from $6/user/mo billed monthly.
- How to start: Plane is free tier available, Trello is from $6/user/mo billed monthly.
- Where they differ: only Plane has open source / self-hostable and only Trello has mobile app; both offer public api and sso (saml).
These lines are generated from the pricing we track, not from a paid placement. How we score tools.
What Plane is
What Plane isPlane is open-source project management with issues, cycles and modules, available self-hosted or cloud. Self-hosting puts issue history and roadmaps inside your own network, which is the deciding factor for teams that cannot use a hosted tracker. Being younger than the incumbents, it has fewer integrations, and that is the gap to weigh.
What Trello is
What Trello isTrello is the world's most popular and simple Kanban board system. It brings the 'To Do, Doing, Done' logic into the digital world in its purest form. You manage your workflow by dragging cards between columns. Its success is rooted in providing instant usability for those who don't want to get lost in complex features. With 'Power-Ups,' it can connect to tools like Slack or GitHub, while 'Butler' automation handles routine chores easily.
Side by side
| Plane | Trello | |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Project Management | Project Management |
| How to start | Free tiernot a monthly price | $6/user/moverified |
| Public API | Yes | Yes |
| Mobile app | No | Yes |
| Open source / self-hostable | Yes | No |
| SSO (SAML) | Yes | Yes |
| Visit | Plane ↗ | Trello ↗ |
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What Plane is built to do
- Issues, cycles and modules
- Organises work into sprints and larger delivery modules.
- Self-hosted option
- Runs on your own infrastructure with the same feature set as cloud.
- Open-source codebase
- Allows inspection and modification rather than only configuration.
What Trello is built to do
- Kanban Boards
- Create a visual workflow by dragging and dropping cards between lists.
- Butler Automation
- Set up rules triggered by card movements without writing any code.
- Power-Ups
- Add calendars, voting, or external app integrations directly to your cards.
- Checklists
- Break large tasks into smaller pieces within individual cards.
Choose Plane if
- Teams up to 12 who want a free Jira-style tracker with cycles, modules and pages
- Companies that want to self-host an open-source project tool with full data ownership
- Growing teams paying $6 per seat/month for wiki, time tracking and dashboards
Skip Plane if
- You are more than 12 users and want to stay free on Cloud
- You need approvals, LDAP or audit logs: those are Enterprise Grid
- You need intake forms and templates below Business at $13/seat
Choose Trello if
- Small groups working for free: up to 10 collaborators per Workspace with unlimited cards, 10 boards, unlimited Power-Ups and 250 Workspace command runs per month
- Teams that hit the board cap — Standard ($6 per user/month billed monthly, less annually) gives unlimited boards, advanced checklists, custom fields and 1,000 command runs
- Teams that need views: Premium at $10 per user/month billed annually ($12.50 monthly) adds Calendar, Timeline, Table, Dashboard and Map views plus unlimited command runs and admin controls
Skip Trello if
- You need SSO and user provisioning below the top tier — those come with Atlassian Guard on Enterprise at $17.50 per user/month billed annually ($210.00 per user per year)
- You attach large files: storage is unlimited but capped per file at 10MB on Free and 250MB on Standard
- Your Workspace has more than 10 collaborators and you wanted to stay free — that is the hard limit on the Free plan
Evidence and freshness
Where a claim on this page comes from a vendor page, it is linked here.
Plane: pros & cons
- Open source and self-hostable
- Familiar issue and cycle model
- No per-seat licence when self-hosted
- Younger and less polished than commercial rivals
- Self-hosting is your responsibility
- Smaller integration ecosystem
Trello: pros & cons
- Zero Training: Anyone can understand how to use it at first glance.
- Fast and Light: Low CPU usage and very responsive in both browser and mobile.
- Visual Simplicity: Lets you see exactly where work stands with one look.
- Free Plan: Generous enough for personal use and small projects without a card.
- Complexity Cap: Can become difficult to manage for projects with hundreds of tasks.
- Reporting: Has very low capacity for deep data analysis and advanced charting.
- Hierarchy: Not as flexible as rivals for breaking projects into layers or sub-tasks.
Our verdict on Plane
The open-source answer to Linear and Jira. Expect rough edges in exchange for control.
Our verdict on Trello
A card-based board that stays simple on purpose; you will feel its limits on complex projects.
Published plans, side by side
Every figure below was read from the vendor's own pricing page and is shown with the sentence it came from. Where a vendor publishes no plan prices, we say so rather than guess.
Plane
- Free$0/mo
Free $0: up to 12 users, core features
- Business$13/user/mo
Business $13/seat/month: templates, recurring items, intake forms
Trello
- Free$0/mo
Free: up to 10 collaborators per Workspace, unlimited cards, up to 10 boards per Workspace, unlimited Power-Ups per board, unlimited storage at 10MB/file, 250 Workspace command runs per month, unlimited activity log, iOS and Android apps, 2-factor authentication
- Standard$6/user/mo billed monthly
Standard: '$6 billed monthly', lower per user/month if billed annually — unlimited boards, AI, advanced checklists, card mirroring, custom fields, list colors, collapsible lists, unlimited storage at 250MB/file, 1,000 Workspace command runs per month, single board guests, saved searches
- Premium$10/user/mo billed annually
Premium $10 per user/month if billed annually ($12.50 billed monthly): Calendar, Timeline, Table, Dashboard and Map views, Workspace views, unlimited Workspace command runs, admin and security features, Workspace-level templates, collections, observers, simple data export
- Enterprise$17.5/user/mo billed annually
Enterprise $17.50 per user/month billed annually ($210.00 annual price per user): unlimited Workspaces, organization-wide permissions, public board management, multi-board guests, attachment permissions, Power-Up administration, free SSO and user provisioning with Atlassian Guard, 24/7 Enterprise Admin support
Plane vs Trello: common questions
- Does Plane or Trello have a free plan?
- Plane has a free tier with limits, while Trello publishes a free plan (Free).
- Which is cheaper once you start paying, Plane or Trello?
- Trello has the cheaper first paid step: Standard at $6/user/mo billed monthly, against Business at $13/user/mo for Plane. Both figures come from the vendors' own pricing pages.
- What is the difference between Plane and Trello?
- On the criteria we check, only Plane has open source / self-hostable and only Trello has mobile app; both offer public api and sso (saml). The table above lists every criterion side by side.