Microsoft Planner vs Trello (2023 Comparison) (2023)

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The Kanban board has proven to be a useful and popular project management method, and many tools are built around it. Both Microsoft Planner and Trello emphasize this planning style with their project management apps.

In this review of Microsoft Planner vs. Trello, we’ll compare the two options based on pricing, features, pros and cons, so you can decide which is best for your team.

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(Video) Which tool when: Microsoft To Do, Microsoft Planner, Microsoft Lists, or Tasks in Microsoft Teams

Trello vs. Microsoft Planner: At a Glance

Both Microsoft Planner and Trello offer a classic Kanban board for project and task management.

Planner is part of the Microsoft 365 for Business suite of tools, so it integrates with a range of apps to help your team tackle just about any business area together. Trello is a simpler tool that works for individuals or teams and can grow as your team and projects grow in size and complexity.

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Microsoft Planner

Microsoft Planner vs Trello (2023 Comparison) (1)

4.5

Microsoft Planner vs Trello (2023 Comparison) (2)

Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

$6

per user, monthly

Storage

1 TB

Collaboration

Integration with Microsoft Teams

Microsoft Planner vs Trello (2023 Comparison) (3)

Starting price

$6

per user, monthly

Storage

1 TB

Collaboration

Integration with Microsoft Teams

Why We Picked It

Planner is the project management tool of the Microsoft 365 cloud software suite. It’s included with a Microsoft 365 for Business subscription, which also includes Office apps, Teams, Outlook email and more.

Planner emphasizes its Kanban board view but also offers a list view and a variety of visual status reports. Because it’s part of the Microsoft suite, Planner integrates with tasks in Teams to pull together all of your Microsoft To Do tasks and Planner projects in one place.

Pros & Cons

  • Integration with Teams, To Do and other Microsoft apps
  • Plan includes suite of Microsoft 365 business apps
  • Visualize project status in pie or bar charts
  • No free version
  • Complex user interface
(Video) Microsoft task apps: Loop vs To Do vs Outlook vs Planner vs Teams

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Trello

4.1

Microsoft Planner vs Trello (2023 Comparison) (5)

Our ratings take into account a product's cost, features, ease of use, customer service and other category-specific attributes. All ratings are determined solely by our editorial team.

Starting price

Free

Storage

Unlimited with all plans

Collaboration

Tagging and commenting on tasks

Learn More

Read Forbes' Review

Starting price

Free

Storage

Unlimited with all plans

(Video) How to use Microsoft Planner | Complete Guide | Add to Teams

Collaboration

Tagging and commenting on tasks

Why We Picked It

Trello is a simple project management app built upon the Kanban board method of project management. Any individual or team can start for free and create up to 10 boards like projects with unlimited cards like tasks. For additional features, including custom fields and the ability to view boards in a timeline or dashboard view, you’ll pay $5 to $10 per user, monthly.

Because you can add guests to each board for free, Trello can be a good option if you work with contractors as well as in-house employees.

Pros & Cons

  • Intuitive and easy to get started
  • Dynamic project views, including Kanban, timeline, calendar and table
  • Free version available for teams and individuals
  • Advanced features require third-party integrations
  • File size limited to 10 MB or less on free plan

How the Platforms Stack Up

Microsoft PlannerTrello
Project ManagementCreate and assign tasks and organize as lists or Kanban boardsCreate and assign tasks and organize as Kanban boards, calendars or timelines
Data ManagementN/AN/A
Information InfrastructureIntegrate with Microsoft Office apps to link to external documentation within tasksIntegrate with third-party apps to link to external documentation within tasks
Creative CollaborationIntegrate with Microsoft Office 365 to link to external docsIntegrate with third-party apps to link to external docs
File Storage1 TB storage with included OneDrive integrationUnlimited storage; limit 10MB/file with free plan, 250MB/file with paid plans
AutomationSubscribe to Power Automate to add automations across Microsoft suite of toolsUse unlimited Power-Ups to add automation features and integrations

Project Management

Both Planner and Trello offer project management centered on the popular Kanban board method. You can create tasks as cards and assign them to team members, then communicate with stakeholders in comments.

Both apps also offer ways to organize projects into different views, although both emphasize Kanban. You can see a list view in Planner, and Trello lets you see calendars or timelines with a paid upgrade.

Both apps integrate with other tools to support automation and collaboration across platforms. Planner is part of the Microsoft 365 for Business suite, and Trello lets you add integrations with third-party apps using free Power-Ups like add-ons.

Data Management

Unlike some other project management tools, neither Planner nor Trello are designed with data management in mind. Both integrate with spreadsheet apps, so you can link databases to tasks and projects.

Information Infrastructure

Neither Planner nor Trello are designed to organize information, such as the way a competitor app, Notion, does. But both integrate with creative suites, so you can link to outside documentation and use Planner or Trello boards to organize it.

Planner integrates with Microsoft Office tools as part of the 365 suite. Trello integrates with major third-party applications, including Google Drive.

Creative Collaboration

To facilitate work on document and database creation with team members, Planner and Trello both integrate with workspace tools. Planner comes with a subscription to Microsoft Office 365 for real-time document collaboration and Trello integrates with Google Drive.

File Storage

Microsoft Planner outshines Trello and other competitors in file storage. With its OneDrive integration, included with your Microsoft 365 for Business plan, you get access to 1 TB of storage.

Trello offers unlimited storage with all plans, including its free plan. It limits individual file size to 10 MB for free plans and 250 MB for paid plans.

Automation

Neither Planner nor Trello include built-in automations, but both let you add on options to automate parts of your workflow. On Trello, you can add Power-Ups to add features or third-party apps that create automations. On Microsoft, you can subscribe to Power Automate for $15 per month to set up automations with all the apps you use in the Microsoft suite.

Bottom Line

Both Microsoft Planner and Trello keep project management fairly simple compared with more robust competitors. Either is a good option if your team is looking for a straightforward way to visual progress on a progress.

Planner is best suited for large teams in traditional institutions and legacy companies while Trello’s flexibility with size makes it a better fit for individuals, small staffs and agile teams that work with a fluctuating pool of contractors.

Further reading: Explore more Trello competitors.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Is Microsoft Planner being discontinued?

No. While Microsoft did rebrand certain elements of Planner as “Tasks by Planner and To Do,” the company announced new updates as recently as November 2021 and stated that more development for Planner is on the horizon.

What’s the difference between Microsoft Planner and Microsoft Project?

According to Microsoft, Planner’s focus lies on managing individual tasks within a plan while Project is meant to provide advanced tools and different views.

Does Trello have dashboards?

Trello has launched a new Dashboard view for users to look at multiple data sets. Dashboards are good for analytics reporting and presentations.

FAQs

Which is better Planner or Trello? ›

Trello allows multiple checklists and does not limit the list length to 20. Comments on tasks in Planner have character limits much shorter than Trello; you will find yourself needing to attach long comments as separate documents, or stretch your content over multiple comments.

Is Microsoft Planner being phased out? ›

Planner is (still) Dependent on Microsoft 365 Groups

In 2022, this is less of an issue. We use Microsoft 365 Groups for almost everything, even if you aren't aware of it. If you have access to Team Channels or a SharePoint Team site, you're part of a Group.

Is Microsoft Planner like Trello? ›

Being quite similar to Trello in terms of functions and features, MS Planner is a competitor and alternative for Trello. Microsoft 365 Planner allows you to easily organize and monitor your work via its simple task management.

What is the differences between Planner and Trello? ›

Planner is part of the Microsoft 365 for Business suite of tools, so it integrates with a range of apps to help your team tackle just about any business area together. Trello is a simpler tool that works for individuals or teams and can grow as your team and projects grow in size and complexity.

Do big companies use Trello? ›

3573 companies reportedly use Trello in their tech stacks, including Udemy, CRED, and StackShare.

What is the disadvantage of MS Planner? ›

Cons of Microsoft Planner

There is no time tracking, which makes it difficult to stay on schedule and monitor your team's progress. The lack of in-app notifications means you have to leave the tool to get updates, which takes you away from your work.

What are the limitations of Microsoft Planner? ›

Most Planner plans are owned by a group.
...
Plan limits.
FieldLimit
Maximum active tasks in a plan2400
Maximum buckets in a plan200
Maximum plans owned by a group or user200
Maximum plans that a user can subscribe to delta-sync for300
4 more rows
7 days ago

Where has Microsoft Planner gone? ›

The app icon has changed to its final form, too. Both changes also apply to the Planner tab in Teams channels. When adding that tab, you can search “Planner,” “To Do,” or “Tasks” to find it. The goal of this sequence is to help all customers easily find the new hero task management app in Teams.

Is there a better app than Trello? ›

Asana has been a great alternative and competitor to Trello. It is a Task and Project Management tool that makes Team Collaboration easy. You can use it to assign tasks, hold conversations, and track progress in one place. It is a fast, beautiful, and feature-rich application.

Is Microsoft Planner worth using? ›

The planner is principally great because it's native to Microsoft. Especially in MS Teams, it's super to manage single tasks. It does have limits in the enterprise tier we have. The most annoying is that we can't tag team members in the comments of tasks and we can't create sub-tasks within it.

Is Trello owned by Microsoft? ›

Trello is a web-based, kanban-style, list-making application and is developed by Trello Enterprise, a subsidiary of Atlassian. Created in 2011 by Fog Creek Software, it was spun out to form the basis of a separate company in New York City in 2014 and sold to Atlassian in January 2017.

Can I transfer a Trello board to Microsoft Planner? ›

Apps4.Pro Planner Migrator (Chrome Extension) helps users who want to move from Trello to Microsoft Planner easily. All you need to do is to export JSON file for the board from Trello and import to Planner. Within minutes all Boards and cards in Trello are imported to Planner as Plans and Tasks.

What is the most effective use of Trello? ›

Trello is a terrific tool for managing and collaborating with team members on work projects and tasks. Visually, Trello's Kanban boards are organizational bliss. You can pack a ton of detail into each card, and they let you know who's working on what, at any given time.

Do project managers use Trello? ›

Improve IT project management workflow

IT project managers can use Trello to improve their team's workflow and efficiency, regardless of their methodology: Kanban, Scrum, or whatever works best for the project at hand.

Why not use Trello? ›

Trello doesn't have tools for managing and rebalancing resources across many projects, however, so it's not great for traditional project management. Trello's free tier might also not be workable; some capabilities are only available via add-ons and the free version limits you to a single one per board.

What is the future of Trello? ›

Soon, Trello will adapt to fit any part of a project's life cycle. New ways of viewing information in Trello will empower teams to visualize work in different ways at different stages. Teams will get brand new perspectives on their work depending on how they choose to view information.

Is Trello still being used? ›

Trello is one of the most popular project management tools, and we're huge fans of it at Cloudwards. It's easy to use, has solid pricing and makes it easy to track tasks for beginners and veterans alike. We go over the reasons we like it so much in this full Trello review.

Who is the target consumer of Trello? ›

Who Uses Trello? Trello is ideal for individuals, teams, and businesses of all sizes looking for a highly visual and intuitive task management and project management solution.

Does Google use Trello? ›

From better communication to improving team collaboration, Google + Trello offers a best-in-class solution for teams to plan and organize any project.

Why do people like Trello? ›

Why is Trello so popular? Trello is so popular because, unlike other productivity tools like Asana or Monday, Trello lets users visually organize all their tasks in a way that makes sense to them and is easy for others on the team to understand what exactly needs to be done.

What is Microsoft Planner best used for? ›

With Planner you and your team can to create plans, assign tasks, chat about tasks, and see charts of your team's progress. You can also use Planner from within Microsoft Teams and Microsoft SharePoint.

Is Microsoft Planner a good task manager? ›

Microsoft Planner is a very good tool for team planning, but it's not as strong as Microsoft Project. The ability to add resources, assign tasks to teams, create checklists and reports, create account and invoice templates, and create wiki pages and documents are all included with Microsoft Planner.

Who should use Microsoft Planner? ›

What are the benefits of Microsoft Planner? For teams who work on a variety of projects at the same time, or have tasks that require a collaborative approach, Planner allows you to use the Office 365 system, work across software and ensure that everyone can see the progress of tasks, projects and workloads in one go.

What is the best way to organize Microsoft Planner? ›

8 Tips for Getting the Most of Microsoft Planner
  1. Create Microsoft Planner task templates to copy tasks.
  2. Add Microsoft Planner to your Outlook calendar.
  3. Make use of buckets.
  4. Use attachments.
  5. Explore Chart and Schedule views in Microsoft Planner to track progress.
  6. Add Planner as a tab in your team.
Apr 20, 2022

What is Microsoft Planner called now? ›

Microsoft today announced that it has completed the first phase of rebranding the Planner app inside Microsoft Teams to “Tasks.” This means that the company has renamed the Planner experience to “Tasks by Planner and To Do” for all non-government users.

Why won't Microsoft Planner work? ›

Check whether the Planner application has updated to the latest version. 2. Switch to another network environment. Such as switch from wifi to 4G or reverse.

Is Microsoft lists replacing Planner? ›

Microsoft Lists doesn't replace Microsoft To Do or Planner, but it might edge out Excel for information management. Also, Microsoft Lists is now available on Android.

Does Microsoft Planner have Gantt charts? ›

Microsoft Planner is task-management software, but it doesn't offer a Gantt charting feature. If you have Microsoft Project, you can connect the two, but if you have Project, you're probably not using Planner.

What is Microsoft Planner similar to? ›

Top 10 Alternatives to Microsoft Planner
  • Trello.
  • Asana.
  • monday.com.
  • ClickUp.
  • Todoist.
  • Airtable.
  • Wrike.
  • ServiceNow Now Platform.

Why do companies use Trello? ›

Trello makes it easy for your team to get work done. No matter the project, workflow, or type of team, Trello can help keep things organized. It's simple – sign-up, create a board, and you're off! Productivity awaits.

What is the Google equivalent of Trello? ›

What can I use instead of Trello for Google Workspace? Try out Kanbanchi. It is a project management and team collaboration tool made specifically for Google Workspace (formerly G Suite). Kanbanchi integrates with Google Workspace immediately after signing up.

Can you automate Microsoft Planner? ›

Microsoft Power Automate template

Create a task in Microsoft To-Do (Business) when a new task is added in Microsoft planner. Connect your favorite apps to automate repetitive tasks. Check out a quick video about Microsoft Power Automate. Learn how to make flows, easy up to advanced.

Can you color code tasks in Microsoft Planner? ›

Planner allows you to label your individual tasks using a colour coding system. You can define what you want the labels to mean, as an example, we use coloured labels to represent task priority.

Can you link Microsoft to do with Trello? ›

Microsoft To Do + Trello Integrations

Zapier lets you send info between Microsoft To Do and Trello automatically—no code required. Triggers when a task is completed. automatically do this! Adds one or more attachments to a specific card.

Is Trello a scrum or kanban? ›

Trello is a web-based Kanban project management application. It enables easy, real-time collaboration between team members and even multiple teams and projects.

What is the difference between MS teams and Trello? ›

Microsoft Teams offers a wider variety of app integration, but Trello does a better job of organizing to do lists / check lists / tasks, etc. Because of this we use Trello within Microsoft Teams to organize various boards of work, which provides the best of both worlds.

Can you link Trello and Planner? ›

The MS Planner & Trello Sync Power-Up lets you create your workflow across your MS Planner and Trello. You can automatically copy, move or mirror cards from one board to another without any manual steps or delays.

Is Trello good for managing multiple projects? ›

Trello is an intuitive way to organize tasks and manage your projects—regardless of how many you're working on at one time. Using Trello, you can: Add relevant resources (like attachments, conversations, and more) to cards. Centralize comments, status updates, and all project conversations on cards.

Does Microsoft to do have a Kanban board? ›

Kanban Tool is a visual project management application based on Kanban that helps companies visualize workflow, track project progress, analyze and improve business processes. Some key features include: time tracking and time reports, real-time collaboration and Kaban analytics.

What is better than Trello and free? ›

KanbanFLow

KanbanFlow is a great free alternative to Trello and other project management tools.

Is it worth it to pay for Trello? ›

Great Value: While some project management tools cost a lot and don't deliver, Trello takes the opposite approach—it's affordable yet delivers a lot of bank for your buck. Even if you have no budget, there's a free-forever plan that comes with unlimited cards and lists as well as up to ten boards per team.

Do teachers use Trello? ›

Trello is the perfect tool to assist classroom learning or independent research. Teachers can set up Trello boards to map out the course syllabus and track curriculum progress. Our learning templates help students stay on top of their assignments or work together to organize and deliver on group projects.

Is Trello agile or waterfall? ›

Trello can be used for both waterfall and agile planning methodologies, but due to the kanban board style, this tool works best with the agile method. However, a variety of views, including a traditional gantt chart view, allow you to work and make adjustments according to your preference.

Can Trello create Gantt charts? ›

Trello is one such popular tool offering various features and comes with a Gantt chart to prepare a project schedule and distribute tasks accordingly. It also provides real-time updates to track progress and automation to deal with project work swiftly.

What is the most effective Planner? ›

These are the best planners of 2023.
  • Best Planner Overall: Papier Le Classique 2023 Planner (Standard)
  • Best Customizable Planner: Erin Condren Harmony Neutral LifePlanner.
  • Best Editor-Recommended Planner: Rifle Paper Co. ...
  • Best Daily Planner: Clever Fox PRO Hourly Planner.
Jan 5, 2023

Is Trello good for scheduling? ›

My team uses this staff scheduling template to schedule our student workers as well as give them their assignments. We have been using Trello for about 4 years now and we love it; it is the perfect way to keep everyone on the same page and share information in a timely manner!

What is the best daily planner 2023? ›

The Best 2023 Planners for Your Dates and Deadlines
  1. Hobonichi Techo. ...
  2. Moleskine Classic 18-month Monthly Planner. ...
  3. Lemome weekly and monthly. ...
  4. Faber-Castell Essential Planner Pack. ...
  5. JSTORY Medium Monthly Planner. ...
  6. Rhodia Rhodiarama Perpetual Diary. ...
  7. At-A-Glance Monthly Academic Planner. ...
  8. Clever Fox Planner.
Dec 16, 2022

What planner does Oprah use? ›

Oprah's The Life You Want™ Planner & Gratitude Journal. Save $10—and Make Living Well a Daily Practice! Oprah's The Life You Want Planner helps you set a vision for your life and intentions each week!

What is comparable to Microsoft Planner? ›

The 12 Best Alternatives to Microsoft Planner
  • ClickUp.
  • Trello.
  • Microsoft Excel.
  • Wrike.
  • Asana.
  • Basecamp.
  • monday.com.
  • Zoho Projects.
Nov 7, 2022

Who uses Trello the most? ›

Trello is most often used by companies with 10-50 employees and 1M-10M dollars in revenue. Our data for Trello usage goes back as far as 7 years.
...
Who uses Trello?
CompanySearch Engine Optimization, Inc.
Websiteredhat.com
CountryUnited States
Revenue>1000M
Company Size>10000
25 more rows

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