Use Trello if a kanban board is the whole job and you want the lower price. Use monday.com if the team wants spreadsheet-style columns and will pay for a timeline on Standard. Trello's free plan is the more generous of the two.
Cost for the same team
Yearly prices checked September 28, 2026. ClickUp: clickup.com/pricing. monday.com: monday.com/pricing (paid plans from 3 seats, then buckets of 5; yearly is 18% off monthly). Asana: asana.com/pricing (Personal is free for 2 users; Starter $10.99 and Advanced $24.99 per user per month billed yearly; seats are sold in bundles). Trello: trello.com/pricing (Standard $5, Premium $10 per user per month billed yearly).
monday.com vs Trello
 monday.com |  Trello | |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | 2 seats, 3 boards | 10 collaborators, 10 boards, unlimited cards |
| Free views | Board-style columns | Board only |
| Timeline | Standard, $12 / seat yearly | Premium, $10 / user yearly |
| First paid plan | Basic $9, from 3 seats | Standard $5 yearly ($6 monthly) |
| Automations | 250 / month on Standard | 250 command runs / month on Free; unlimited on Premium |
| Best for | Structured boards and templates | The simplest possible kanban |
Trello is still the shortest path from "we have sticky notes" to a shared board. Unlimited cards, assignees and due dates are free. Files are capped at 10 MB each. The moment you want a calendar or a timeline, you are on Premium at $10 per user billed yearly, which is still less than monday.com Standard.
monday.com costs more because the board is also a light database: column types, templates, and on Standard a real timeline. That is worth it for operations and marketing teams. It is not worth it for a single To do / Doing / Done board.
If the free member cap is the reason you are comparing them, ClickUp allows unlimited members for $0 and is $7 per user after that. See ClickUp vs monday.com.
The free plans in detail
Trello Free covers up to 10 collaborators and 10 boards per workspace, with unlimited cards, unlimited Power-Ups, unlimited storage (10 MB per file), assignees and due dates, 250 automation command runs a month, the mobile apps and two-factor authentication. You can also capture to-dos from email, Slack and Microsoft Teams into a personal Inbox.
monday.com Free covers 2 seats, 3 boards, 3 docs, 200+ templates and 8 column types, with the iOS and Android apps. It has no automations. Its advantage is structure: each board is a table with typed columns (status, person, date), where a Trello board is lists of cards.
On the free plans alone, Trello wins clearly: five times the people and more than three times the boards.
What you get when you pay
| Plan | Yearly price | What it adds |
|---|---|---|
| Trello Standard | $5 / user ($6 monthly) | Unlimited boards, card mirroring, AI features, more automation |
| Trello Premium | $10 / user ($12.50 monthly) | Calendar, Timeline, Table, Dashboard and Map views; unlimited command runs; admin and security features; data export |
| Trello Enterprise | $17.50 / user | Unlimited workspaces, organization-wide permissions, SSO through Atlassian Guard |
| monday.com Basic | $9 / seat, from 3 | Unlimited items, unlimited free viewers |
| monday.com Standard | $12 / seat, from 3 | Timeline and Gantt, guest access, 250 automation and 250 integration actions / month |
| monday.com Pro | $19 / seat, from 3 | Time tracking, private boards, advanced columns, 25,000 automation actions / month |
The comparison that matters is Trello Premium against monday.com Standard, because both are the first plan with a timeline. Trello Premium is $10 per user with no seat minimum and unlimited automation runs. monday.com Standard is $12 per seat, sold in buckets of 5 after 3 seats, with a 250-action automation cap, but it adds typed columns, guests and a Gantt view.
Cost by team size
Yearly billing. Trello bills every workspace member; monday.com sells seats in buckets (3, then multiples of 5).
| Team | Trello Standard ($5) | Trello Premium ($10) | monday.com Basic ($9) | monday.com Standard ($12) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3 people | $180 | $360 | $324 | $432 |
| 5 people | $300 | $600 | $540 | $720 |
| 6 people | $360 | $720 | $1,080 (10 seats billed) | $1,440 (10 seats billed) |
| 10 people | $600 | $1,200 | $1,080 | $1,440 |
| 12 people | $720 | $1,440 | $1,620 (15 seats billed) | $2,160 (15 seats billed) |
| 15 people | $900 | $1,800 | $1,620 | $2,160 |
| 25 people | $1,500 | $3,000 | $2,700 | $3,600 |
Trello StandardTrello Premiummonday.com Basicmonday.com Standard10 seats billed
At 6 people, a timeline costs $720 a year on Trello Premium and $1,440 on monday.com Standard, which bills 10 seats. Remember that Trello is free up to 10 collaborators, so a team that only needs the board pays nothing at all.
Billing details worth knowing
- Trello counts every workspace member, normal or admin, as billable on Standard and Premium.
- Trello multi-board guests are billed at the member rate. A guest on a single board is free.
- Trello Premium has a free trial for any workspace, and a downgrade keeps paid features until the end of the prepaid period.
- monday.com upgrades you to the next bucket after a 5-day warning if you add more users than your seats. You can revert within 30 days.
Related guides
Frequently asked questions
Is monday.com or Trello better?
Trello is better when the work is cards on a board and the team is happy with that. monday.com is better when you need columns, a timeline and more than a kanban. Trello's free plan also allows 10 collaborators, against 2 seats on monday.com.
Which is cheaper?
Trello. Standard is $5 per user per month billed yearly ($6 monthly) and Premium, which adds timeline and calendar views, is $10 ($12.50 monthly). monday.com Standard, the plan with a timeline, is $12 per seat and starts at 3 seats.
Does Trello have a timeline?
Not on the free plan. Calendar, timeline, table and dashboard views are on Premium. The free plan is the board view, with up to 10 boards and 10 collaborators per workspace.
What if we outgrow both?
ClickUp's free plan has unlimited members and more views than Trello Free, at $7 per user on Unlimited. It is the step up when a kanban board is no longer the whole tool.
Are Trello guests free?
A guest on a single board is free. A guest on more than one board in the workspace is a multi-board guest, billed at the same rate as a member on Standard and Premium.
What happens if we downgrade from Trello Premium?
The workspace keeps Premium features until the end of the prepaid period. After that it becomes a free workspace, which can hold 10 boards.