vs
monday.com vs Trello
monday.com and Trello compared on real cost, seat minimums, and fit. Trello for simple boards, monday.com for a visual multi-view workspace at a higher price.
Pricing verified August 2026 · updated for 2026
The verdict
Trello is a board. monday.com is a visual work platform with tables, timelines and automations. Pick Trello if cards in columns is genuinely your workflow and you want zero setup. Pick monday.com if you need multiple views and are big enough that its 3-seat blocks do not sting. For a small team the price gap is large.
What each one costs
List prices, pulled from each vendor's own pricing page and re-checked August 2026.
monday.com
$12/seat/mo on Standard (billed annually), 3-seat minimum
Free tier. Up to 2 seats, 3 boards and 3 docs.
Watch out. Three-seat minimum, and seats are sold in blocks of 3, 5, 10 and up, so a 4-person team buys 5 and a 6-person team buys 10.
Full monday.com pricing breakdown →Trello
$5/seat/mo on Standard (billed annually)
Free tier. Up to 10 collaborators per workspace, 10 boards, 10 MB per file.
Watch out. There are no dependencies, no workload view and no portfolio layer at any tier. Every view except the board needs Premium at $10 a seat.
Full Trello pricing breakdown →monday.com vs Trello, side by side
| monday.com | Trello | |
|---|---|---|
| Headline price | $12/seat/mo on Standard (billed annually), 3-seat minimum | $5/seat/mo on Standard (billed annually) |
| Free plan | Up to 2 seats, 3 boards and 3 docs. | Up to 10 collaborators per workspace, 10 boards, 10 MB per file. |
| Setup time | Under an hour for a board; longer once you wire up automations and dashboards. | Minutes. A board, a few lists, done. |
| Learning curve | Low to moderate. Visual and colour-coded, so it is easy to get people clicking. | Minimal. It is cards moving through columns. |
| Best built for | Non-technical teams that want a highly visual workspace and are large enough that seat blocks round in their favour. | Light, single-board workflows that do not need dependencies, a workload view or a timeline. |
| Views included | Table, board, timeline, Gantt and calendar. Timeline and Gantt start at Standard, not Basic. | Board on every plan. Calendar, timeline, table and dashboard views are Premium only. |
| The catch | Three-seat minimum, and seats are sold in blocks of 3, 5, 10 and up, so a 4-person team buys 5 and a 6-person team buys 10. | There are no dependencies, no workload view and no portfolio layer at any tier. Every view except the board needs Premium at $10 a seat. |
Which should you pick?
Choose monday.com if…
You want a highly visual, colour-coded workspace that non-technical teams adopt quickly, and you are big enough that seat blocks round in your favour. It genuinely is easy to get people using. It is also one of the most expensive ways to track tasks once you are past Basic.
Choose Trello if…
Your work genuinely is a list of cards moving through columns, and you want zero onboarding cost. Trello is the best in the world at that shape of work and a poor fit for anything that needs a timeline.
A third option
If neither quite fits
If you want more than a board without monday.com's seat blocks, Magnifi gives board, list and timeline views on the same tasks for $3 a seat, free up to 5, no minimum. It sets up as fast as Trello and includes the timeline Trello charges $10 a seat for.
Free for teams up to 5 · $3/seat/month after
monday.com vs Trello: common questions
Is Trello cheaper than monday.com?
Yes, clearly. Trello Standard is $5 per user per month billed annually with no seat minimum. monday.com Standard is $12 billed annually, starts at 3 seats and rounds up in blocks, so a 4-person team pays for 5.
Is monday.com better than Trello?
It does more: table, timeline and Gantt views, automations, dashboards. If you only need a board, that extra capability is cost and complexity you will not use.
Does Trello have a timeline or Gantt view?
Only on Premium at $10 per user per month. On free and Standard, Trello is board-only. monday.com includes timeline and Gantt on Standard.
Do both have seat minimums?
Trello does not. monday.com has a 3-seat minimum and block-based seat pricing, which is the main reason small teams find it expensive.
Do monday.com and Trello have free plans?
Yes. Trello is free for up to 10 collaborators with a 10-board cap. monday.com's free plan is 2 seats and 3 boards.
Go deeper
Other comparisons