Jira vs Trello

The main difference

Jira and Trello are both from Atlassian, but for different work. Trello is a simple board with lists and cards that you can start using in a few minutes. Jira is made for teams that work with backlogs and sprints, with their own workflows, reports and automation. You choose Trello for overview, Jira for a fixed process.

Choose Jira if

• your team develops software or works in a similar way with a backlog and sprints;
• you need your own workflows, reports and dashboards;
• several teams work on the same thing: Premium has cross-team planning and dependencies. The free plan is for up to 10 users; for teams of up to 100 users Standard costs $9,05 and Premium $18,30 per user per month with monthly billing, larger teams pay less per user (prices October 2026).

Choose Trello if

• you want to put tasks on a board without setup or training;
• your team is small or the work has no fixed process, such as marketing, planning or an editorial team;
• you want to spend little: free for up to 10 collaborators per workspace, Standard costs $5 and Premium $10 per user per month with annual billing (prices October 2026).

What to look out for with both

With Trello, the calendar, timeline, table and dashboard views only come with Premium, which you can try for free. With Jira, the setup grows along with your team, and that requires someone to manage it. Both charge in dollars. If you start with Trello and the work becomes more complex, Jira keeps you with the same supplier.