Need advice about which tool to choose?Ask the StackShare community!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
- 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
- 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!
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.
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.
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.
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 :(
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.
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!
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
Pros of Confluence
- Wiki search power94
- WYSIWYG editor62
- Full featured, works well with embedded docs43
- Expensive licenses3
Pros of Trello
- Great for collaboration715
- Easy to use628
- Free573
- Fast375
- Realtime347
- Intuitive237
- Visualizing215
- Flexible169
- Fun user interface126
- Snappy and blazing fast83
- Simple, intuitive UI that gets out of your way30
- Kanban27
- Clean Interface21
- Easy setup18
- Card Structure18
- Drag and drop attachments17
- Simple11
- Markdown commentary on cards10
- Lists9
- Integration with other work collaborative apps9
- Satisfying User Experience8
- Cross-Platform Integration8
- Recognizes GitHub commit links7
- Easy to learn6
- Great5
- Better than email4
- Versatile Team & Project Management4
- and lots of integrations3
- Trello’s Developmental Transparency3
- Effective3
- Easy2
- Powerful2
- Agile2
- Easy to have an overview of the project status2
- flexible and fast2
- Simple and intuitive2
- Name rolls of the tongue1
- Customizable1
- Email integration1
- Personal organisation1
- Nice1
- Great organizing (of events/tasks)1
- Easiest way to visually express the scope of projects0
Sign up to add or upvote prosMake informed product decisions
Cons of Confluence
- Expensive license3
Cons of Trello
- No concept of velocity or points5
- Very light native integrations4
- A little too flexible2