In our current world, no manual exists for us to follow. However, we do have existing and adaptable best practices, procedures, tools, and techniques to help us manage this extraordinary crisis. One of these is project management that can aid individuals, organizations, and businesses in their assessment, analysis, and evaluation of the impact of and response to the crisis. Online project management software like Trello and ClickUp are free tools available to us.
This Trello vs. ClickUp article looks at some common features and slight differences between the two software. We can help you find the right project management software quickly, without comparing hundreds of products to find the right set of features you need. Use our Product Selection Tool to get a short list of recommendations.
Trello
Trello is a product of Atlassian acquired in January 2017. The original creators built the visual collaboration tool in 2011 to help solve high-level planning activities in their company. Because of its success, it was spun off as a separate company in 2014 and was later acquired by Atlassian. As of October 2019, the company reported that the software has 50 million users, including Google, Fender, Squarespace, and Costco. Trello is a versatile project management tool that uses a system of boards, lists, and cards. You can easily create a project, break it down to tasks, prioritize your list, and build a workflow where lists can correspond to different stages through which your tasks move. The highly visual system lets you and your team know quickly what is being worked on by who and where in the overall process the work is happening. It has a built-in calendar and automation for tasks. The application also runs on mobile devices with its native app and has integrations called Power-Ups.ClickUp
ClickUp is a product of Mango Technologies, Inc., a privately held software company based in San Diego, CA. The company builds productivity software, the first one of which is a project management application. The PM software was launched in 2016. Today, over 100,000 teams use the platform, including teams from Google, Airbnb, Uber, and Nike. ClickUp has features and tools for task management as well as document sharing, chat and email, goal tracking, and more. It is an all-in-one project and work management system, so you don’t have to spend more time switching between apps. You can use it to manage your processes with a customizable workflow. You can easily view, organize, sort, filter and search tasks, and create subtasks, checklists, and dependencies. The platform also has time management tools, integrations, customization, collaboration, and reporting features. Aside from the browser version, it also runs on mobile devices, desktops, and digital assistants.Feature comparison of Trello vs. ClickUp
Customizable workflow
Trello is a highly-customizable free project management platform where you can start from scratch to build your board, lists, and cards or choose a ready-made template from a list of categories like business, design, education, engineering, marketing, and more. The Calendar Power-Up is enabled for all users, and it displays cards with due dates in a calendar. Switch between week and month views for a closer or wider view. Clicking on a card, you can add assignees, set a due date, write a description for the task, create a checklist, and have a space for comments. ClickUp lets you customize the statuses of your project workflow so that you are able to track work effectively. You can choose from preselected statuses or create your own. Turn an important task into a milestone to signify the end of a group of tasks. Aside from list, calendar, and Gantt views, it also has a board view where you can drag and drop tasks between columns. Other features include reusable status and checklist templates that you can start projects with quickly, goals and sprints, custom fields for scrum points, and comments that can be marked complete.Task management and tracking
Trello makes it easy to add team members to a board with a simple invitation. You can search a user by name or enter their email address to get invited. Drag and drop a member from the top menu bar to a specific card, or open a card and add a member using the menu on the right. You can search for a specific card or team member using the board menu to track the progress of the tasks. Use the @-mention functionality to directly notify a team member for a specific message or question inside a card. Use @card or @board to notify all members of a card or board. Board members who are not assigned to a card can also get notifications by using the Watch feature. You can specify the list so that every time a card is placed in that list, you are notified. ClickUp offers several ways to view your tasks. In list view, you can easily sort, filter, group, and customize columns. You can set a default view so that every member sees the most important tasks at any time. Group tasks together to quickly gain insights in how related tasks or projects as a whole are progressing. If you have numeric fields, perform calculations to get sums, averages, and ranges. Export all this information to share it with non-registered users. Other important features include task dependencies of different types, recurring tasks with a repeating schedule or a repeating trigger, subtasks, and task checklists. The Home page shows your most important items to keep focus, while a customizable Activity view gives you an aggregated view of all activities for a specific list, folder, space, or workspace.Automation and integration
Trello has a built-in automation tool called Butler. It can automatically mark checklist items and due dates done when you drag a card to a Done list. With the use of rules, it will follow certain steps whenever a specific action occurs. Setting up a rule only requires filling in fields when a specific trigger takes place. For integration to other apps and services, you can enable Power-Ups, which bring additional features into your board. Depending on your plan, you can enable a few or unlimited Power-Ups that include categories for analytics, reporting, communication, collaboration, file management, and many more. ClickUp automations let you set up combinations of triggers and actions to help you manage repetitive actions. When you add a new automation, you can choose from several templates or create your own. You can use multiple actions chained together. Specify the conditions when automations run. For instance, you can automatically assign people to a task when a priority changes. There is always a trigger that happens, a condition that is met, and a corresponding action is done. It has integrations to more than two dozen apps such as communication apps, developer tools, time trackers, file management services, calendars, email, and more. It also connects with Zapier and Integromat and has its own public API.Ready to make a decision on Trello vs. ClickUp?
Both Trello and ClickUp have free and premium plans, so you can try both and get a first-hand user experience. Trello is very easy to start, and templates can help teams of all sizes hit the ground running. The application has consistently high up-time, great mobile apps, regular updates and new features. You can choose from hundreds of Power-Ups and integrations to extend the functionality of your board and manage the flow of data of your whole system. Lack of ready-to-use built-in reporting tools and better controls for notification can be frustrating to some users. As a flexible project management software for general use, it may not have the tools for complex projects. ClickUp is highly customizable and includes many features for teams of all types and sizes. It can accommodate a variety of applications and team work preferences. It has a high up-time and regular updates and new features. The flexibility can sometimes overwhelm new and non-tech users. Also, there are complaints that the mobile apps are not as capable and as seamless to use as the web version. Email integration needs some fixes as well. Ready to find the right project management for your needs? Use our Product Selection Tool to get a free list of the top project management software to get started right away.
