Plane vs Trello
Plane and Trello are both project management tools. Plane is aimed at developers and small businesses, while Trello is aimed at small businesses and freelancers. Trello costs less, from $6/mo versus $8/mo for Plane. Both have a free plan.
| Pricing | Open source · $8 | Freemium · $6 |
| Starting price | $8/mo | $6/mo |
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Free trial | 14 days | — |
| Built for | Developers, Small businesses | Small businesses, Freelancers |
| Platforms | web | web, ios, android, macos, windows |
| Country | US · 2022 | US · 2011 |
| Rating | — | — |
Choose Plane if
Engineering and product teams that want Linear-like workflows with open source and lower cost.
- Open source with a real self-host path
- Cheaper than Linear and Jira per seat
- Flexible views without Jira's complexity
Look elsewhere if: Teams needing enterprise reporting and ecosystem today (Jira) or maximum polish (Linear).
Choose Trello if
Individuals and small teams that want a visual board without process overhead.
- Simplest onboarding of any project tool
- Free plan is enough for small teams and personal use
- Flexible: works for editorial calendars, hiring, home projects
Look elsewhere if: Teams needing cross-project reporting, dependencies or capacity planning.
Plane vs Trello pricing
Plane
- Community (self-hosted)$0AGPL, self-hosted
- Free (Cloud)$0Up to 12 users
- Pro$8/seat/mo$6/seat/mo billed annually; 500 AI credits/seat
- Business$15/seat/mo$13/seat/mo billed annually; 1,000 AI credits/seat
- Enterprise GridCustomPrivate and managed deployments, granular access
Trello
- Free$0Up to 10 collaborators per Workspace
- Standard$6/user/mo$5/mo billed annually; unlimited boards, 1,000 command runs
- Premium$12.50/user/mo$10/mo billed annually; AI, views, admin controls
- Enterprise$17.50/user/moBilled annually ($210/user/yr); org-wide controls
Plane · Key features
- Issues, cycles, modules and multi-layout views
- Pages for docs and Intake for triaging requests
- Self-hosting with Docker; AGPL community edition
- Importers from Jira, Linear, Asana and GitHub
- Custom workflows, time tracking and Plane AI (Pro)
- API, webhooks and Slack/GitHub integrations
Cons
- Less polished than Linear
- Smaller integration ecosystem
- Self-hosting needs maintenance
Trello · Key features
- Kanban boards with drag-and-drop cards, labels and checklists
- Butler automation: rules, buttons and scheduled commands
- Power-Ups for calendar, voting, Slack, Google Drive and more
- Premium views: timeline, table, calendar, dashboard, map
- Templates for common workflows
- Mobile and desktop apps with offline support
Cons
- Weak for dependencies, reporting and resource planning
- Card detail view feels dated
- Scales poorly past a handful of boards
Plane vs Trello: FAQ
Which is cheaper, Plane or Trello?
Trello starts at $6/mo and Plane at $8/mo. Both prices are checked on the vendors' own pricing pages.
Do Plane and Trello have a free plan?
Yes, both Plane and Trello have a free plan; paid plans add more usage and features.