Trello vs Airtable: Which Tool is Better for Project Management?
In the market for a project management tool and looking to compare Airtable vs Trello? Both of these project management tools offer powerful features and capabilities, but they are designed with different users in mind.
So, which should you choose? Before making any big decisions, let’s thoughtfully compare Airtable vs Trello based on features, performance, collaboration capabilities, customization options, scalability, and cost.
By evaluating these project management tools through identified criteria, it will be easier for you to make an informed decision about your next project management solution.
Choosing a Project Management Software
There are a lot of factors to consider when choosing the right software or solution for your project or team. With so many challenges to project management and a lot of popular project management tools to choose from, you might end up not getting the option you might think is the best fit for your needs.
Avoid wasting your time and money by considering the following factors when choosing the right project management tool:
- Usability
- Collaborative Capabilities
- Customizability
- Pricing
Familiarizing yourself with these factors along with the needs of your role, team, and project is crucial to finding the best project management app. Airtable and Trello are some of the most popular project management platforms available online. Both of these tools may have similar features and functions but can offer various advantages and disadvantages depending on your needs and requirements.
We’re also going to suggest a third tool that can save you even more time and money! Let’s take a look at each tool’s individual pros and cons to find the best fit for you!
What is Airtable
Airtable is a relationship database and project management software that focuses on data organization and collaboration. It uses a spreadsheet format to organize and structure data, allows teams to track workflow and automate processes, and has the ability to create relationships and link records from one table to another. Airtable offers advanced calendar features, desktop notifications, and other team collaboration features to help improve productivity.
Best Features
- Actionable views such as Timeline, Kanban, Gantt, Calendar, and Grid View
- Single to multi-sequence workflow automation
- Robust API and has built-in support for popular apps
Limitations
- Paid plans are costly
- User interface can be improved
- Filtering system can be difficult in complex situations
Pricing
- Airtable offers a Free plan
- Plus: $10 per seat/month; billed annually
- Pro: $20 per seat/month; billed annually
- Enterprise: contact for pricing
User Ratings
G2: 4.6/5 (2000+ reviews)
Capterra: 4.7/5 (1500+ reviews)
“Overall, I've found Airtable to be a powerful and flexible platform that has greatly improved my productivity as a small business owner. Its customizable fields and views, integration with other tools, and collaboration features have all been invaluable in helping me manage my work and stay organized.” - Felix P., CEO
Airtable vs ClickUp: Which Tool is Better for Project Management?
What is Trello
Trello is a productivity and project management platform that prides itself on being an intuitive tool for tracking anything, from large-scale corporate projects to household chores. It's a great example of the kanban method in action – with cards for each task and boards for different project stages. Trello is a highly visual tool that makes it easy to label tasks and set deadlines, move items around between boards, comment and collaborate with other users, as well as visualize progress updates. You can also take advantage of Trello power-ups to further customize and improve your overall experience with the app. It is also great for teams handling social media platforms and marketing campaigns.
Best Features
- Organize projects and tasks with a board system
- Integrations with productivity tools such as Google Drive and Slack
- Mobile app allows users to access board and lists on the go
Limitations
- Limited to 3 boards in the free plan
- No time tracking features
- Not suitable for complex projects
Pricing
- Free Plan
- Standard ($5 per user/month; billed annually)
- Premium ($10 per user/month; billed annually)
- Enterprise (contact for pricing)
“Trello was a great software to get my feet wet, so to speak, when it came to getting the hang of using a project management software for my business. It definitely helped me to graduate to the next level in my ability to keep my team productive. Even as my team has grown, I have decided to keep the Trello software for the purposes of managing all of my management teams scheduling, tasks, and etc.” - Caitlyn R., Editor-In-Chief
Airtable vs Trello in the Community
When looking for reliable information about Airtable vs Trello, it is important to include resources from the community. This is because the community perspective offers a unique view on each of these tools, as members are unbiased and have likely used both options themselves.
Using the G2 Grid for project management software comparison is also a great way to quickly evaluate the two tools and make an informed decision. G2Crowd sources from a diverse set of user reviews to create this measurement to help potential customers compare different solutions side-by-side.
As you can see, both Airtable and Trello are quite high up in the grid.
Depending on your use case, you may want to consider these scores and rankings as they are a very good reflection of current user satisfaction and an indication of future potential.
Airtable vs Trello on Reddit
What better way to really get a feel for a tool than reading through what users on the internet are candidly sharing? Check out some Reddit posts on both tools.
Airtable Reddit Review
“Airtable is my main hub for everything I do. I use it as a CRM where I can send thousands of emails with a click of a button (integrated with Zapier, SendinBlue and Drip), SEO, time management/project tracker, budgeting and campaign tracker. It took a lot of time but we’ll worth it.” - via Reddit
Trello Reddit Review
“I find Trello useful for having a way to view the big picture across projects, tasks, etc that I am working on. I think the strength of Trello is that it is very simple (boards, lists, cards) and easy to use so it can be applied to just about anything where you need to organize information. It isn't a perfect 100% fit but it is often good enough and much less complex and expensive than tools focused on more narrow solution areas” - via Reddit
Now, onto our honest opinions on different categories of comparison between Trello and Airtable.
Usability and Feature Comparison
Airtable's Usability and Features
Source: Airtable
Airtable is a great online collaborative platform used to organize data and support business functions. It is a user-friendly tool to help manage and organize a database with a spreadsheet-like function. Airtable is made for project teams, businesses, and organizations who wants to align their goals across their team members and departments.
The tool features various functions such as workflow automation, integrations, and reporting. With Airtable, you are able to build your own dashboard for reports with its no-code interface. Airtable has a flexible UI that you can customize according to your need and preference.
Kate H., a Development Associate describes: “Airtable does a great job at taking the basic functionality of an Excel worksheet and making it easier to sort, update, and change views so everyone can find what they need quickly. My organization uses it as a means of tracking Grant deadlines and progress; we are able to sort the list by due date, change the status of in progress to submitted to awarded easily, and quickly see what has been stalled in order to keep the ball rolling. The views are definitely the best part, allowing me to see the data from many different angles to figure out what's falling through the cracks.”
Trello's Usability and Features
Trello is an easy and free to use tool to create workspaces and boards for task management, project management, collaborations, and more in a simple and straightforward platform. The app helps users prioritize tasks and organize work to improve productivity with its simple Kanban board that you can arrange and customize with elements. Assign tasks to various users and add deadlines, labels, alerts, and important information or files to each card.
While Trello is a great platform with tools to organize and manage work, it does not feature a dedicated chat tool or video calling feature which some may find inconvenient. However, Trello can be integrated with significant third-party applications to further improve productivity.
Ashley L., a small business CEO says the following: “Trello is so simple to use. It has so many features that are available in the free version. You can add users and communicate by tagging people or assigning tasks. It's visually helpful, especially if you like to be able to see how tasks are organized. You can have multiple boards which are essentially spaces for your different projects.”
A Project Management Tool with Better Features and Usability
Before you limit yourself to just these two tools, you might want to throw our favorite, ClickUp, into the mix. While both Trello and Airtable are great tools in terms of features and usability, ClickUp is one of the top project management software. Regardless of getting a free or paid plan, you are able to enjoy better functionality than the paid versions of both Airtable and Trello.
Search your entire Workspace to find tasks, Docs, Whiteboards, and more with ClickUp’s advanced search. With hundreds of flexible tools, drag-and-drop functionality, and over 1,000 integrations to streamline your workflows, ClickUp takes your productivity to new heights.
Check out ClickUp’s multiple features.
Collaborative Capabilities Comparison
Airtable's Collaborative Capabilities
Airtable makes communication and collaboration by providing a centralized system to manage projects, tasks, and deliverables. Visualize schedules and upcoming projects or tasks with Airtable’s views. The app offers the option to work with a Kanban, Gantt, or Timeline view among other options to help keep everyone on the same page with task status, goals, and objectives. While some features are limited to premium plans, Airtable allows you to keep all your important communications, files, and reports in one place to help maintain a smooth collaborative workflow.
Vasilis Filippos S.. a web developer describes Airtable’s collaboration features: "Airtable is fast, secure (supports SSO login as well), provides easy data visualisation and it's from the best tools that can be used from teams to communicate. It can also be used as a task assignment software and thanks to history recall and commenting functionality, teams within an organisation can really talk to other things without being experts on other's team field. For instance a support agent can create a bug request to the development team without the support agent having to access more complicated bug mangament software."
Trello's Collaborative Capabilities
Source: Trello
Trello is a great way to maintain a smooth collaboration between you and other users when working on important projects. Invite them to a dedicated Trello board for each project for a robust communication process. Each member of the team can create tasks and keep track of their progress. Trello’s structure may be too simplistic if not managed well. With full use of each card’s functionality, users are able to fully utilize Trello as a collaboration tool.
Karrie B. says this about Trello’s collaboration features: "Overall, I simply love Trello. I use it for every client that I work and most of them start their boards as well when they see how easy it is to use. Works as a great communication tool for the team and is a great way to document processes and flows within the organization. The ability to move cards between lists and boards allows you to really keep track of a process without getting overwhelmed."
Next Level Real-Time Collaboration with ClickUp
If you’re looking to keep your hybrid, remote, and in-office teams connected and working together efficiently, ClickUp can do the job, and do the job better.
ClickUp's collaboration features make it an ideal choice for distributed teams and remote work. Its wide range of features allows users to communicate quickly and effectively, no matter where they are located.
ClickUp's Chat View is also an incredibly useful feature that allows users to communicate and brainstorm easily in a specific List or Folder without having to switch between different applications. There's also an in-built Calendar feature that syncs with Google and Outlook calendars to help team members decide on important dates and team meetings.
Our idea of a great choice for team leaders and project managers. Just sayin’!
Learn more about the types of teams that ClickUp can support.
Customization and Scalability Comparison
Airtable's Customization and Scalability
Source: Airtable
Airtable is a flexible platform with customizable features to improve work management and organization. While it currently does not have a dedicated chat feature, it can be integrated with applications such as Slack and Trello to improve communication. Airtable is a great tool to build a database or a tracking system for any kind of project or goal. The app’s customizable fields and views as well as integration with third-party applications help organize and manage your work according to your process or workflow.
Lars S., a Team Lead says: "We are able to customize pretty much everything, which allows us to do things the way that best fits our workflows. And with the automations, we're able to save a ton of time and integrate our task management with the other tools we use. It took us a long time to really make use of the more advanced features like calculated fields and automations in general, so we didn't get the full value from day 1. But once we did start exploring these things, we've only gotten more and more value out of using it."
Trello's Customization and Scalability
Trello is a simple platform featuring a Kanban board that you can personalize according to you and your team’s needs and preferences. Lists and cards can be moved in between boards which are great for bigger teams or businesses with multiple departments.
Integrate the tool with third-party apps to extend functionality which may be needed in complex projects. Regardless of its simplicity, it can be customized to work even for an Agile team with external plugins or an enterprise plan.
Yenireth Rozo comments: “Trello is an excellent tool to organize and take control of the daily activities that must be carried out and sometimes of projects that must be carried out in certain periods. You can customize, place, colors, time, and small activities within the main ones.”
Consider ClickUp’s Highly Customizable and Scalable Tool for Your Team
Take ClickUp’s massive feature set, collaboration and customizability, and put it together. You get scale. ClickUp's rich set of fully customizable features is ideal for aligning each team member, working together, and delivering high-quality products on time and on budget. The tool can be customized as a personal board or a resource management tool.
Its scalability is enabled by the multi-dimensional structure - for instance, ClickUp’s organizational hierarchy allows users to structure their workspace in whatever way works best for them. ClickUp also offers extensive reporting capabilities which can be adjusted depending on the size of an organization.
This makes it a great solution for organizations of all different sizes and types that are looking for an intuitive yet powerful management tool.
Cost Comparison
Airtable's Pricing
Source: Airtable
Airtable is a great tool can be used by individual users for free. This version offers unlimited space but with a 2GB limited attachment space per base. A 5GB attachment space is offered at a Plus Plan starting at $10 per user/month.
Organizations that need a bigger attachment space and other advanced functionalities such as custom branding, Gantt and Timeline views, limited sync integrations among others will have to pay $20 per seat/month. This can be on the steeper side even for larger businesses with more people within their teams.
Ahmed A., Biomedical Engineer & Data Scientist talks about Airtable’s pricing: “We chose Airtable over the other products because it offered the best combination of features and price, It has a simple, intuitive interface that allows us to quickly create and manage databases, build powerful automations, collaborate with team members, and much more, It also has great integrations with popular cloud storage solutions and third-party apps, as well as a variety of tools for managing data, Also the pricing was very reasonable, making it an affordable solution for teams of all sizes.”
Trello's Pricing
Source: Trello
Trello has a free version where users can manage and create multiple projects but may lack advanced features for complex and bigger projects. The free version includes 10 boards per workspace and other basic features and commands. The Standard plan starts at $5 per user/month with unlimited boards, custom fields, and 1,000 commands per month.
Bigger teams with multiple projects can upgrade to a Premium plan starting at $10 per user/month. This plan comes with additional workspace views, security features, unlimited command runs, and more. Enterprises may contact sales for a custom plan with advanced integrations and control options.
Mees J. mentions the pricing: “Trello is a great tool that helps keeping track on projects which I find easy to use. The best of all is that the core features are completely free. Trello is also extremely helpful when collaborating with others and there are plenty of features for this.”
A More Cost-Effective Plan with ClickUp
Save and get the best value for your money with ClickUp. Choose from a variety of plans ranging from the Free Forever plan to the Enterprise Plan. The Forever Free plan is perfect for small teams who need basic project and task management capabilities and don’t require the comprehensive feature set of a premium plan.
If you need even more advanced management tools and unlimited storage, the Unlimited Plan and Business Plan provide powerful features such as unlimited Gantt charts, timelines, and workload management. ClickUp also offers an Enterprise Plan for more complex organizations.
Get started with ClickUp today, for free!
Trello vs Airtable: Bottom Line
Choose Airtable if:
- You're looking for a no-code database management system
- You're building a custom application that is unique to you and your team
- You’re a project manager with a small team of software developers
Choose Trello if:
- You need a simple and easy-to-use project management tool
- You're looking for an application with powerups and integrations for more functionality
- You're looking for a project management app using Kanban boards
Get All Features Combined with ClickUp
Now that you have a better idea of each of these tools’ advantages and disadvantages, you are now better equipped to make a better decision when it comes to picking the right tool for your needs.
If you’re still not sure about the best project management software that will help you achieve your project goals and team objectives, why not get an all-in-one solution like ClickUp that will allow you to grow and scale as your team gets bigger.
ClickUp offers not just project management solutions but collaboration tools, flexible views, detailed reports, and so much more all under one single application. Take advantage of organization-wide permissions to help teams stay aligned with common goals and objectives.
Save time, stay focused, and improve overall productivity by creating and customizing the perfect workspace. Choose from a library of templates to get started and handle any task or project with ease. Try ClickUp for free today and discover the best tools to improve your overall workflow and productivity all under one application.
