6 Best Trello Alternatives in 2021

Trello is an amazing project management tool engineered to guide simple to complex projects, but there's several other tools in the market to explore

When you're searching for project management tools, it's easy to get lost in the weeds. Some tools are made for small companies, while others target enterprise needs. Depending on your company size and requirements, you'll want to look for different features.

Here's 6 project management tools we personally battle tested for you, along with their pros and cons

Here are the tools we checked out:

• Jira
• Asana
• Monday
• Notion
• Clickup
• Basecamp
  

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Jira

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Jira Software is a product of Atlassian, a global public company with headquarters in Sydney. It is a pure issue tracking product. It is used by a variety of teams for keeping track of the progress of work. It is most popularly used by software development teams for tracking technical defects and issue. It comes with a variety of features, such as the ability to set deadlines, attach files, and share information about issues with other users. Other software designed for teams include a variety of features, such as the ability to update issues via a mobile device.

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Pros:

• User stories and tickets have been included in JIRA to help the user to connect the bigger picture of the roadmap to their workflow.
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• Great for Agile. Our solution allows you to track the progress of all your user stories as you move through your sprints. This includes effective ways of displaying your burndown charts, sprint velocity, and others. You can organise your tickets into sprints and releases, and also monitor the workload and task assignments of your team.
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• Support for third-party apps. Our software supports many third-party integrations, such as HipChat and Slack, to help increase your productivity. More than 3,000 apps are available from the Atlassian Marketplace to extend the features of our software.
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• Customizable. Jira allows users to create any type of issue. They can also customize workflows to fit any requirement of a particular company. Users can create and customize various elements, such as tables, forms, timelines, reports, fields, and more.
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• The software is intuitive and easy to use. It can be used by anyone from developers to managers.

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Cons:

• A lot of users complain of having to navigate a lot to perform tasks that they could easily handle in Jira web version but not in the app.
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• Migrating data from other ALM systems is a complex task, but we want to make this easier for you. We are already working on a product to help you migrate projects and artifacts between different systems.
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• The product is unique in that users are able to share interactive reports with other users, using our app. This means, users are able to download reports as images, and they're also of high resolution.
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• Users complain that they're unable to upload files to the platform that are larger than 10MB.
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• The software has been updated multiple times while you read this, changing the interface. Some people find the UI to be cluttered, others find it confusing because some features still use a slightly older version while some parts are newer.

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Quick Conclusion:

Toggl is a project management software used by thousands of companies to help with time tracking and monitoring. It comes with a host of features and options, however it is not the only option of companies looking to track their time.

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Asana
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Asana is a cloud-based platform that enables groups to collaborate on projects. Managers can create tasks, assign them to specific people and set deadlines. Users can also add comments and files to tasks. People are notified about upcoming deadlines in their inbox and the status of their assigned tasks. Asana is good for long-term and short-term projects and it preserves the completed ones for future use.

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Pros:

• Asana provides a free plan. However, small teams on a budget may find themselves looking for a cheap alternative to Asana. Thanks to its free plan, small teams that are on a budget can access their own PM software for free.
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• Variety of integrations. This means you can easily share data between different apps, including Salesforce, Slack, Dropbox, Google Calendar, and many other apps.
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• Our product focuses on helping you be productive by marking the most important tasks in your projects. You can also attach files to these tasks, from a device or from Dropbox or Google.
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• Asana provides great security to keep your project details safe and secure.
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• Asana makes it easy to view and manage your team's tasks. Each task can be monitored separately, or grouped with others.
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• Asana acts as a central hub for all your projects. Any task you need to complete can be easily accessed from anywhere with internet. Asana also allows tasks to be shared throughout the workspace to increase inter-team communication.

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Cons:

• Asana is not friendly to all users. Specifically, novice users report feeling overwhelmed by the software's interface and graphics. Onboarding users requires training and increased costs. However, the steep learning curve makes it a great learning tool for new users.
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• Too many options. The downside of so many options is that it can be overwhelming to even the most experienced user. For the average Asana user, the plethora of features can quickly turn the product into a complicated, overly-complicated mess that doesn’t do the job.
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• Tasks can only be assigned to one person at a time. While other collaboration software allows people to be responsible for projects, Asana believes that this workflow is a better option. This is because it avoids confusion as to who is the real responsible party. The downside to this is if the primary assignee becomes unavailable, it can lead to problems.
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• Not as good as time tracking. Time tracking is an essential feature to make sure that tasks are done and are properly tracked.
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• You cannot export tasks and projects in PDF or Excel formats.

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Quick Conclusion:

We've seen that And Asana is an effective tool for many businesses. While this article may not include many pros and cons, your experience with Asana will help you decide whether it's valuable for your business.

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Monday
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Monday is a productivity software that allows teams to plan and manage their projects. It is highly visual and is designed to enable a close collaboration between team members and enhance team performance. It allows users to organize and keep track of their work better. It improves team visibility, allowing everyone to stay on top of all their work and create synergies.

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Pros:

• Our software is built to be used by multiple users, so teams can communicate easily and work quickly. Multiple people can edit a list at the same time, which is useful for remote teams.
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• Great tracking features with visual boards and colour-coding. The visual boards and overall user interface makes it easy to know where to give immediate attention.
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• The software doesn't have a Gantt chart, although there is a due dates view to enable users to monitor progress and know when deadlines are coming up.
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• We have a feature that makes it really easy to share your boards with others, whether they're internal or external to your company. This makes it really easy to keep everyone on the same page, and to avoid situations where you forget to share important information with people because it was buried somewhere in your project management system.
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• The platform allows you to organize your projects into a central workspace, where you can manage project information, resources, schedules, tasks and communication, ensuring all the most essential components of your project are readily accessible

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Cons:

• Monday isn't the right solution for large companies. The more users you have, the more expensive it becomes.
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• Users find the lack of a Gantt chart and time tracking for each task to be a drawback.
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• Some users think the UI is a bit cluttered, disorganized, or confusing. Some visualizations could be improved, such as the Kanban board. Users need to spend more time learning the terms and functions after they first use the site, so that they can navigate the platform better.
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• Some people complain that there isn't a native app for iOS. However, a lot of people complain that the iOS app doesn't offer the same features as the dashboard on the desktop.
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• Our product integrates with Dropbox, Excel, Google Calendar, Google Drive, Slack, Trello and many others, including Zapier. However, we could integrate with more third-party applications and provide a better API integration.

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Quick Conclusion:

Modern business is constantly changing. That's why companies choose Monday, which offers the right tools for collaboration and visibility. But choosing the right tool isn't always easy. If your current tool isn't working out, then you should do a further evaluation to see if you need something different or if you've simply outgrown the tool you chose.

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Notion
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Our product is an intuitive workspace where teams can create their own wiki and collaborate. Allowing them to plan their work and achieve their goals.

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Pros:

• The makers of Notion set out to make a software that is easy to use. Although it does take diligence to set up, Notion guides you through the process and customer support is always on hand to help with any problems.
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• The all-in-one workspace allows you to concentrate on one project without having to open and close different tabs and windows.
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• Users can work on Notion across different devices. They can use it on their desktop, web, and mobiles. This makes it easier for them to access their work from anywhere and start working on the go.
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• Notion has a free trial. Notion offers a free trial so that users will have the chance to decide if it is the right tool. This keeps them from spending a lot on something that they will end up not wanting to use.
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• Notion provides a clean and uncluttered way to organize your thoughts.
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• Notion is a powerful and versatile note-taking app. It can help you remember the details of your daily activities and goals. It allows you to quickly jot down new tasks and ideas within a familiar interface.

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Cons:

• The amount of effort it takes to set up Notion can be off-putting. While Notion is a natural choice for some people who are happy to go through the process, others may prefer a quicker setup. Additionally, the mobile app is more difficult to use than the desktop version.
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• Notion is a great tool, but it needs to be improved in several areas. Users want Notion to be able to collaborate and annotate on PDFs and images. They also want to be able to lock certain pages so that no one can edit those documents. Many users also hope Notion can be integrated with Sketch and UXPin.
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• Notion has a free and paid edition. The free edition has a limit of 1000 blocks. This is good for students, seeing as it doesn't cost anything to use and is also useful.
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• With Notion, you can assign tasks and due dates to your teammates, but this functionality can be unreliable as it relies on Notion being accessible to each teammate. If the Notion platform is not up for either party, the notification doesn’t go through. There is also an option to turn off email notifications which hinder notifications from being received.

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Quick Conclusion:

Notion has been used by users in various fields and has yielded positive results. Notion has gained some traction.

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ClickUp

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Clickup is a collaboration and communication platform that is compatible with a wide variety of business structures. Whether you're a multinational corporation or a small business, you'll be able to benefit from features like task assignment, task statuses and team collaboration. More specifically, you can assign tasks to specific members of a team and mark them as 'in progress' or 'resolved.' You can also make custom task statuses. The platform also allows you to set notifications for specific tasks or teams so that you only receive information that's relevant to you. Furthermore, the platform allows you to mention other users in discussions. You can also edit comments after they've been sent.

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Pros:

• It's suited for both team use and for individuals. Clickup has a big advantage over other platforms because it has features targeted at individual users as well as teams. The 2.0 version has a great user interface - especially the mobile version. The integrations are also a big plus.
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• The user-friendly interface of Clickup is what we're all about. It's easy to switch views from the Task List to Calendar to Board or Kanban.
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• Would have to be powerful even the free version. There are some free versions that are weaker and lacking in features. However, Clickup is not one of those; it supports many features found in paid versions of other software. For example, it has email notifications, Android/OS app, task dependencies, file attachments for tasks, and more.
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• The Clickup team prides itself on being innovative, and working in the best interests of its customers. They consistently update their software based on customer feedback, and continually add new features to their platform.
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• Excellent customer service. We're always available to help you, and we want to make sure you're satisfied.
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• Clickup is well-structured. One Clickup user specifically mentioned its friendliness for users with dyslexia. The platform's interface is clear and understandable, and it makes it easy to keep track of many projects.

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Cons:

• Too many features. Some users feel overwhelmed by the variety of features, especially during the initial set-up. Certain teams report that the learning curve is a bit high and their members find it hard to use all the features. """
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• Too much customisation is overly complicated, which makes it difficult for users to use the software. One option is to simplify the experience by allowing users to choose between two options. This would make the software easier for new users to use.
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• The calendar is not as effective as it could be. Sometimes you have to perform a few clicks just to add a new event. This can be time-consuming and frustrating.
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• The UI/UX needs work. The tagline of the software is ‘one application to replace them all.’ However, users often wonder what the empty panes and spaces are for. Additionally, the text is too small and the colors are too dim to distinguish.
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• One thing that developers are saying Clickup is working on is enabling users to send tasks to Clickup directly from a Gmail filter. Right now a user has to use a third-party service to do it.

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Quick Conclusion:

ClickUp is not as popular as some other similar softwares, but it has many features that make it stand out. Despite some disadvantages, the development team are constantly improving the software and adding new features to keep the user experience fluid.

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Basecamp

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Basecamp takes teams and helps them be more productive organically. It does this by allowing teams to create to-do lists and schedules, allowing users to communicate through chat, and facilitating the ability to upload files and documents. Basecamp is enjoyable to use because it is organized as large icons instead of a linear list. It allows users to comment on files, assign tasks, and notify users about recent activity. Everything that users talk about happens in one place, removing the need to use email and multiple other apps.

Pros:

• One place to store all your files. It makes it easier to find older files because every project is provided with a section for docs and files.
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• Our pricing is straightforward with two options: a free plan for a limited number of users and projects, and a paid plan that allows you to work with an unlimited number of users and projects. We also offer a 30-day free trial so you can see how Basecamp can help your business.
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• Basecamp gives users the option to switch notifications on or off. When they're switched on, notifications are sent at the user's chosen times. You can also switch them on all the time if you want.
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• Our communication infrastructure consists of lots of communication methods. For example, you can use Campfires or send private messages to other users.
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• Basecamp is available on both desktop and mobile devices. You can control every aspect of your notifications, and you'll find it easy to use and consistent across all devices.
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• Files can be automatically synced with Google Drive, and can also be dragged and dropped to upload

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Cons:

• We're looking forward to developing a time tracking feature in the future in our product. Time tracking is essential for project managers in order to ensure the completion of a project within its deadline.
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• The topic list in Basecamp is easy to get lost in. This is why we've built the ability to archive old topics that aren't getting used. This will help you focus on your most important topics.
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• No standout feature. Everyone who has used Google knows how useful the search function is. It would be nice to have it on Basecamp so that more important topics rise above the rest. Users can easily go to the search function and find the specific file or message they are looking for.
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• This is a great tool. It’s simple, and one of the reasons why it’s pretty great. However, a project management tool definitely needs more than just minimal features. It needs to offer a lot more than other tools in order to entice people to switch.

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Quick Conclusion:

Basecamp is more popular than ever, used by thousands of users to manage projects. It's easy, thanks to Basecamp. Even with its drawbacks, the advantages still reign, and that's more than enough reason to use it.