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Confluence vs Trello: What are the differences?

Introduction

Confluence and Trello are both popular collaboration tools used by teams to manage projects, tasks, and documentation. However, there are key differences between the two platforms that make each of them suitable for different purposes.

  1. Integration of Structured Documentation: Confluence is primarily known for its robust and flexible documentation capabilities. It allows users to create structured pages using a rich editor, and provides features like version control, content hierarchy, and document linking. On the other hand, Trello focuses more on task management and provides a simple and visual interface for organizing tasks on boards, but lacks extensive documentation capabilities.

  2. Visualization of Workflow: Trello excels in providing a visual representation of the progress of tasks. It uses a Kanban board style where tasks move across different columns (e.g., to-do, in progress, done) to indicate their status. This visual approach helps teams to quickly understand the workflow and identify bottlenecks. In contrast, while Confluence also supports the creation of boards and cards, it doesn't have the same intuitive visual workflow representation as Trello.

  3. Customization and Plugin Ecosystem: Confluence offers a wide range of customization options and a vast plugin ecosystem. It allows users to create custom templates, use macros, and integrate with third-party tools and services, enabling teams to tailor the platform to their specific needs. Trello, on the other hand, is relatively simple and doesn't provide as many customization options or an extensive plugin ecosystem.

  4. Scaling and Enterprise Features: Confluence is designed to handle large-scale projects and enterprise-level collaboration. It supports features like fine-grained permissions, access controls, and advanced search capabilities, making it ideal for organizations with complex requirements. Trello, on the other hand, is more lightweight and suitable for smaller teams or projects that don't require advanced enterprise features.

  5. Pricing Model: Confluence follows a pricing model based on the number of users, making it more cost-effective for larger teams or organizations with a significant user base. Trello, on the other hand, offers a freemium model with limited features for free, and additional features available through paid plans. This makes Trello more accessible for smaller teams or projects with a limited budget.

  6. Ease of Use and Learning Curve: Trello has a simple and intuitive interface, making it easy for new users to get started without much training or prior knowledge. Its drag-and-drop functionality and straightforward organization make it user-friendly for teams of any technical background. Confluence, on the other hand, may have a steeper learning curve due to its more extensive feature set and flexible document management capabilities.

In Summary, Confluence is a powerful and versatile platform, popular for its documentation capabilities, advanced customization options, and enterprise-grade features. Trello, on the other hand, excels in providing a visual representation of task management, simplicity, and ease of use. The choice between the two depends on the specific needs and preferences of a team or organization.

Advice on Confluence and Trello
Karen RInehart
Director of Financial Planning at Ignite Financial · | 4 upvotes · 50.3K views
Needs advice
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AsanaAsanaClickUpClickUp
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TrelloTrello

We are a small financial planning firm with remote workers. Trying to fix inefficiencies with technology and not people. We need to know where clients are in the pipeline/process (i.e., have we submitted applications and transfer forms, have we entered the costs basis of investments in the system, have we run their financial plans, where are we in the planning process, etc.) If a client calls and we have to research a question, who is handling it.

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Replies (1)
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Karen, you can accomplish that with any of the three tools (I'm currently using all three). It depends on the user experience and the capabilities you're looking for. Here's a high-level rundown:

Trello
  • stands out for being simple, visually oriented drag-and-drop
  • of the three, it's more minimalist but still flexible
  • the more advanced features are free & paid add ons from Trello & other developers
  • best when you need something quick and simple, and more visual
Asana
  • great for more robust project management
  • you can manage tasks in different views including lists, kanban board similar to trello, and gantt chart
  • best when you need more control over the tasks and how your process is set up
ClickUp
  • intends to be a replacement for many different tools, including asana & trello
  • loaded with features, can do pretty much everything that trello & asana do
  • highly customizable but it may take some time go set it up the way you want it
  • the myriad of options could get confusing, but they provide a lot of templates (including a CRM template) and support tools to get you going faster

Ultimately you choice comes down to how much detail & control you want over your process (dates, categories, client information etc.) and how you want your team to work with the tool (simple drag & drop vs. structured lists). One idea is to start with Trello since it's the simplest, and migrate to one of the others if you outgrow it.

Hope that helps! If you have any follow-up questions please let us know!

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Needs advice
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I'm comparing Aha!, Trello and Asana. We are looking for it as a Product Management Team. Jira handles all our development and storyboard etc. This is for Product Management for Roadmaps, Backlogs, future stories, etc. Cost is a factor, as well. Does anyone have a comparison chart of Pros and Cons? Thank you.

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Replies (1)
Max Stuart
Technical Project Manager at ShelterTech · | 6 upvotes · 224.1K views
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I just switched to ClickUp for my development agency - I am the product team, and I relay everything there betwixt designers, devs, and clients.

Clickup = Jira + Confluence but better - more ways to slice and dice your data & documents, make custom views, mind map relationships, and track people's work, plan goals... I even use it to manage project finances and household to-dos.

They have a very comprehensive free tier that never expires, and on top of that they're extremely generous with trials of their paid features, have more-than-fair pricing, and top-notch customer support.

https://clickup.com?fp_ref=max30

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Decisions about Confluence and Trello

A good choice if you want to implement Kanban. It provides Kanban swimlanes, WIP limits, and secondary columns, making it easy to visualize any process. On top of that, Teamhood offers a good selection of project management features and integrations. Lightweight, powerful, and free for up to 5 users.

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For up to 10 users youtrack is free and gives you much more flexibility to manage task than asana, trello or definitely clickup. You have lots of charts and reports. Sprint or kanban. Powerful search. Integrations, rules, ets..

All of the above are either not available or paid in Assana, Trello or Click up.

This is an example of: it does not matter if your product is better, the only thing that matters is marketing (and the money for the marketing). So sad :(

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Clickup is easy to use, with lots of features and a great UI. Clickup has an affordable subscription model suitable for single seat personal use if you choose to upgrade for more features. Sometimes the more complex features are a little confusing but there's a lot of documentation and tutorials online to help you. I doubt there's a more sophisticated task/project management solution.

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Was by far the most flexible and fully featured project management software. Especially for the price. Overall great and intuitive design. Everything is exactly where you'd expect it to be. It was also the fastest to setup and figure out how to use entirely. The only feature missing is public project boards. 10/10 would recommend!

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Lucas Litton
Founder & CEO at Macombey · | 9 upvotes · 59.2K views

We chose TickTick after using a bunch of other project management tools that didn't really fit us. As a team, TickTick has made projects enjoyable. We break down projects into very small pieces and take them on one by one and we never miss any detail because of the tool. We have time tracking for each tasks to keep us on time, we share tasks between the team, take notes, and even establish habits throughout the teams so we can get better and better at what we do. We also tend to invite clients in as guests so they can follow along through the process of their project.

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Matt Safaii

I needed a tool that not only kept everything in one place, but was also easy for clients to use. I first started using Notion and fell in love with it. I eventually had problems when clients didn't want to use it or were confused on how it works. When multiple people are in a workspace, things can also get messy when there is no standard formatting set. Basecamp solved those problems for me by providing all the tools I need in one place. It is very intuitive and my clients love using it as well. I am also a fan of their pricing. Although it can be expensive at first if you are a small team, it is well worth it when you scale.

The team at Basecamp make great products and I will continue to use any tools they release. Also a huge fan of their email app, HEY.

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Kirill Mikhailov

Since now Jira is offering pretty wide free plans, it can compete with asana at small teams. And they have a significant advantage especially if you're working in agile methodology. Confluence is also a big advantage, and also comes with a free plan, so it's a pretty big thing. But we had also talked about asana and used to work with it before a lot, but we chose to go with Jira, and it's pretty good for now.

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Samriddhi Sinha
Machine Learning Engineer at Chefling · | 10 upvotes · 105.8K views

Notion's novelty according to me is the fact that everything can be a potential document. Notion's as a product has two very contrasting features. One as a hybrid document editor that combines the goodness of Markdown of Dropbox Paper with a more extensive set of formatting blocks. The second as a task manager and an organizer like. Trello.

Every table on Notion can have multiple views saved for previews with different filters, sorting and table style applied. Also, elements in a table can also be a page making it easier to have a Kanban-style sub-task manager for a particular subtask on a Kanban board for your project.

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Ivan Begtin
Director - NGO "Informational Culture" / Ambassador - OKFN Russia at Infoculture · | 5 upvotes · 220.9K views

Both Asana and Trello support Kanban style project tracking. Trello is Kanban-only project management, knowledge management, actually card-management tools. Asana is much more complex, supports different project management approaches, well integrated and helpful for any style/type project.

We choose Asana finally, but still some projects kept in Trello

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Abhay Vashishtha

Procezo is an excellent free-for-life task managing tool with several benefits. Its clear, user-friendly interface is perfect for small businesses and startups as well as enterprise-level use. It makes it a seamless transition from any other project management tools. Its simple but effective layout allows new users to quickly adapt to its ever-expanding set of features. Procezo allows users to create boards and provide access to users or teams as required, set priority and precedence of the task and allowing for subtasks and discussions to be created. With unlimited tasks, users, projects and free support, Procezo is quickly making its way into businesses from across the world and the ultimate growth hack tool.

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Pros of Confluence
Pros of Trello
  • 94
    Wiki search power
  • 62
    WYSIWYG editor
  • 43
    Full featured, works well with embedded docs
  • 3
    Expensive licenses
  • 715
    Great for collaboration
  • 628
    Easy to use
  • 573
    Free
  • 375
    Fast
  • 347
    Realtime
  • 237
    Intuitive
  • 215
    Visualizing
  • 169
    Flexible
  • 126
    Fun user interface
  • 83
    Snappy and blazing fast
  • 30
    Simple, intuitive UI that gets out of your way
  • 27
    Kanban
  • 21
    Clean Interface
  • 18
    Easy setup
  • 18
    Card Structure
  • 17
    Drag and drop attachments
  • 11
    Simple
  • 10
    Markdown commentary on cards
  • 9
    Lists
  • 9
    Integration with other work collaborative apps
  • 8
    Satisfying User Experience
  • 8
    Cross-Platform Integration
  • 7
    Recognizes GitHub commit links
  • 6
    Easy to learn
  • 5
    Great
  • 4
    Better than email
  • 4
    Versatile Team & Project Management
  • 3
    and lots of integrations
  • 3
    Trello’s Developmental Transparency
  • 3
    Effective
  • 2
    Easy
  • 2
    Powerful
  • 2
    Agile
  • 2
    Easy to have an overview of the project status
  • 2
    flexible and fast
  • 2
    Simple and intuitive
  • 1
    Name rolls of the tongue
  • 1
    Customizable
  • 1
    Email integration
  • 1
    Personal organisation
  • 1
    Nice
  • 1
    Great organizing (of events/tasks)
  • 0
    Easiest way to visually express the scope of projects

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Cons of Confluence
Cons of Trello
  • 3
    Expensive license
  • 5
    No concept of velocity or points
  • 4
    Very light native integrations
  • 2
    A little too flexible

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What is Confluence?

Capture the knowledge that's too often lost in email inboxes and shared network drives in Confluence instead – where it's easy to find, use, and update.

What is Trello?

Trello is a collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. In one glance, Trello tells you what's being worked on, who's working on what, and where something is in a process.

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What companies use Confluence?
What companies use Trello?
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What are some alternatives to Confluence and Trello?
GitLab
GitLab offers git repository management, code reviews, issue tracking, activity feeds and wikis. Enterprises install GitLab on-premise and connect it with LDAP and Active Directory servers for secure authentication and authorization. A single GitLab server can handle more than 25,000 users but it is also possible to create a high availability setup with multiple active servers.
Jira
Jira's secret sauce is the way it simplifies the complexities of software development into manageable units of work. Jira comes out-of-the-box with everything agile teams need to ship value to customers faster.
Microsoft SharePoint
It empowers teamwork with dynamic and productive team sites for every project team, department, and division. Share and manage content, knowledge, and applications to empower teamwork, quickly find information, and seamlessly collaborate across the organization.
Basecamp
Basecamp is a project management and group collaboration tool. The tool includes features for schedules, tasks, files, and messages.
Slack
Imagine all your team communication in one place, instantly searchable, available wherever you go. That’s Slack. All your messages. All your files. And everything from Twitter, Dropbox, Google Docs, Asana, Trello, GitHub and dozens of other services. All together.
See all alternatives