Trello is a kanban tool, so "Kanban vs Trello" is really a question about which kanban tool to use. Trello covers the visible part of kanban well, which is columns, cards and moving work from left to right, and it leaves out the part that makes kanban a method rather than a layout. The practical difference is size: Trello is a platform with automation, integrations and board views layered on top of the board, while EasyKanban is the board and very little else.
We build one of the two tools being compared here, so read the numbers rather than our adjectives. Every Trello figure below comes from Trello's pricing page and was re-checked in late August 2026.
Is Trello a real kanban board?
Yes, with one real omission. Trello gives you columns, cards, drag and drop and a card format rich enough for most work, which is the kanban board as most people mean it.
What it does not give you natively is a work-in-progress limit. Capping a column at three cards is the mechanism that makes kanban do anything, because a board without a cap is a to-do list arranged sideways. In Trello you add that with a Power-Up, usually List Limits, which highlights a list once it holds too many cards. It works, and it is one more thing to install and keep working.
That single gap is the honest answer to the question. If you use a board to see status, Trello is a kanban board. If you use one to stop yourself starting a fourth thing, Trello needs an add-on and most tools built specifically for kanban do not. Ours enforces nothing either, by design, but the limit sits on the column and colours the header when you go over it. Our guide to WIP limits covers where to set the number before you argue about which tool holds it.
What each one costs
| EasyKanban | Trello | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 3 boards, unlimited cards | 10 boards per Workspace, unlimited cards |
| Free collaborators | 3 per board | 10 per Workspace |
| Paid entry price | €6/month or €60/year, whole account | $5/user/month billed annually, $6 monthly |
| Next tier up | none | Premium $10/user/month annually, Enterprise $17.50 |
| Attachments on free | 25 MB total, 4 MB per file | 10 MB per file |
| Native WIP limits | yes | Power-Up |
| Use without an account | yes, 1 board up to 20 cards | no |
The row that matters most is the third one. Trello prices per user, so a team of six on Standard pays six times the sticker price. EasyKanban Pro is one price for the account, and team members on a shared board do not add to it. Below about three people the per-seat model is cheaper. Above that it stops being close.
Where Trello is the better choice
Trello has a genuinely large feature surface, and some of it has no equivalent here:
- Power-Ups that connect a board to Slack, GitHub, Jira and several hundred other services
- Butler automation, with 250 command runs a month on the free plan and 1,000 on Standard
- Calendar, Timeline, Table and Dashboard views of the same board
- Fine-grained permissions and admin controls for larger organisations
If a board has to sit inside a wider Atlassian setup, or if a rule like "move the card and post to Slack when the due date passes" is part of how your team runs, pick Trello. We do not have those things and are not building towards them.
Where a smaller tool wins
Every feature carries a maintenance cost, and on a personal or small-team board that cost regularly exceeds what the feature gives back. The argument for the smaller tool rests entirely on that arithmetic.
A Power-Up has to be chosen, connected and re-authorised when it breaks. An automation rule has to be remembered by whoever inherits the board. A board with five available views invites a discussion about which view the team should use. None of that work moves a card to Done.
EasyKanban removes the decision by not offering it. There are columns, cards, colour tags and drag and drop. A new person opening the board understands it in the time it takes to read the column names.
The second difference is the start. You can open a kanban board without signup and have cards on it in ten seconds, with no account and no email address. Trello asks you to register before you see a board. For evaluating whether kanban suits you at all, that gap matters more than any feature list.
The free plans are not comparable
Both tools have a free plan and the numbers look close, but they are generous in different directions.
Trello gives you ten boards and ten collaborators in a Workspace. EasyKanban gives you three boards and three members per board. If you keep a board per client or per project, Trello's free plan lasts longer.
Where it reverses is the paid step. Once you outgrow Trello's free tier, the bill scales with headcount for as long as you use it. Our paid step is a flat €6 a month regardless of how many boards or members you add. A five-person team on Trello Standard pays $25 a month at the annual rate; the same team here pays €6.
How to compare any small kanban tool with Trello
This page is one instance of a comparison people run constantly, usually against KanbanFlow, Kanbanchi, Nave or whatever they found that week. The feature tables on the review sites will not settle it, because they list checkboxes without weighting them. Four questions do most of the work.
- Does it do WIP limits without an add-on? This is the fastest test of whether a tool was built for kanban or arrived at it. Trello needs a Power-Up.
- What shape is the price? Per seat and flat rate cross over somewhere, usually around three people. Work out where, using the size your team will actually be.
- Can you see a board before registering? A signup wall before the first board tells you the product is optimising for accounts rather than for use.
- How do you get out? Ask about export before you ask about import. A tool that makes leaving awkward is making a bet you will not.
Run those four against any candidate and the shortlist usually collapses to one or two. The rest is preference about how the cards look.
What you give up
Being direct about this is more useful than a feature table. Moving from Trello to EasyKanban costs you the integrations, the automation, the alternative board views and the Atlassian admin tooling. If you are using any of them today, you will feel their absence in the first week.
You also give up checklists and custom fields on cards. Ours carry a rich-text description, colour tags, a due date and file attachments, which covers most personal work and a fair amount of team work, but it is a smaller card. Trello's free plan also allows a larger single file than ours does, at 10 MB against 4 MB, though we give you a 25 MB budget across the account and lift the cap entirely on Pro.
What you get back is a board that opens quickly, does not need configuring, and costs one price. EasyKanban vs Trello sets the two out side by side in more detail, and why freelancers are leaving Trello covers the specific case where the trade lands well.
How to decide in one week
Run both. Put the same real work on each board, not a test project, and use them for five working days.
At the end of the week, look at two things. How often did you open each board, and how much time did you spend adjusting the tool rather than the work. The tool you actually opened is the answer, and it is not always the one that scored better on paper.
If you have never used a kanban board at all, start with what Kanban is before comparing tools. Choosing between two implementations of a method you have not tried is the wrong order.
Frequently asked questions
Is Trello a kanban board?
Yes. Trello is built around the kanban model of columns and cards, and adds automation, integrations and alternative views on top. The one piece it does not include natively is a work-in-progress limit per column, which needs a Power-Up such as List Limits.
Is EasyKanban free, and what does the free plan include?
Yes. The free plan covers 3 boards with unlimited cards and up to 3 members per board, including public board sharing and 25 MB of attachments. You can also use one board with up to 20 cards without an account, stored in your browser. Pro costs €6 a month.
Which is cheaper for a team of five?
At August 2026 prices, Trello Standard costs $5 per user per month billed annually, so five people cost $25 a month. EasyKanban Pro is €6 a month for the account regardless of team size. The gap widens with every person you add, because only one of the two prices per seat.
Can I import my Trello boards into EasyKanban?
Yes. Export the board from Trello as JSON and upload it, and the columns, cards, descriptions and labels come across. A CSV from a spreadsheet works too. Import is free on every plan and handles up to 500 cards across 20 columns per board.
Do I need an account to try a kanban board?
Not here. Clicking through to a board gives you a working kanban board with columns, cards and tags, saved in your browser rather than on a server. Trello requires registration before you see a board. Sign in later if you want the board synced across devices.
Related reading
Prices and feature lists move. The question that survives a pricing change is whether the extra surface is doing work for you, or whether you are doing work for it.