ProofHub vs Trello: Which is better for your team? (2027)

ProofHub vs Trello. The choice between the two comes down to whether you need a lighter tool for a small team or a more comprehensive solution for a growing team.

ProofHub is our in-house product, so the comparison comes with an obvious intention to give ProofHub a fair chance to prove its value. But that doesn’t mean we approached the comparison with any kind of bias or a predetermined verdict. We applied the same rigour when evaluating Trello, the Kanban-style board tool from Atlassian, as we do when evaluating ProofHub, a comprehensive project management and team collaboration platform. So, you can compare the key factors of both tools, regardless of which one you eventually choose.

After extensively reviewing Trello and drawing on my experience using ProofHub, I’d describe its approach as more focused on managing the wider project workflow in one place. Trello, on the other hand, keeps the experience centered around Kanban-style boards to organize and move work through different stages.

The six areas my evaluation comes from include: 

• Pricing at real team sizes
• Task and project management
• Team collaboration 
• Project planning and visibility
• Workflow & automation
• Integrations

Neither tool wins across all the axes. ProofHub is stronger for teams managing complex workflows and multiple projects at scale. Trello is a good fit for teams looking for a simpler way to organize work and automate routine tasks.

While ProofHub is my day-to-day project management tool, I have more hands-on experience with how it fits into everyday workflows. Trello experience comes from using its 14-day free trial, which gives you access to Trello Premium. I also went through review websites, Reddit threads, and product walkthroughs to cross-check my observations. Read on to see my findings, how the two tools compare, and which one makes more sense for your team.

A quick personal take: Trello is pretty impressive when it comes to exploring its interface. It doesn’t overwhelm users; in fact, it’s easy to get started and organize work visually without much of a learning curve. But my experience took a turn when I moved from exploring the tool to managing actual projects. Not having essential capabilities built in pushed me to look for workarounds and additional Power-Ups.

ProofHub, on the other hand, may take some time to set up initially. But once the workflows are in place, day-to-day work becomes more straightforward, and new team members can easily figure out where everything belongs. Everyday work feels much more seamless. You can get the core work done without any steep learning curve holding you back.

ProofHub vs Trello: At a glance

Before choosing between Trello and ProofHub, it is worthwhile to understand the two platforms and what they offer.

What is ProofHub?

ProofHub is an all-in-one project management and collaboration platform that helps teams streamline their workflows. Its intuitive interface and extensive features accommodate the varying needs of different team structures and project requirements. Teams can handle planning, assignments, collaboration, storage, review, and tracking across multiple projects in one place. ProofHub’s flat-fee pricing is particularly appealing to growing teams, agencies, and businesses managing multiple projects with internal teams and external clients.

What is Trello?

Trello is a Kanban-based tool designed to help teams organize work visually in a straightforward way. It offers a minimalistic approach to managing tasks through boards, an Inbox for capturing ideas, and a Planner for tracking upcoming work. It is easy to get started, and its capabilities can be extended through Power-Ups and integrations. It is particularly suitable for individuals, freelancers, and smaller teams looking for a visual way to manage tasks and workflows without unnecessary complexity.

Trello vs ProofHub: Key feature comparison

When comparing the two tools, my evaluation remained focused on six core areas because these capabilities directly support the team’s real work. 

1. Pricing and scalability

Pricing is one of the biggest differentiators when comparing Trello and ProofHub. Both tools offer different pricing models, but the real difference becomes clearer when you calculate what each one costs as you scale.

ProofHub pricing

ProofHub uses a flat-rate pricing model with unlimited users. Instead of charging for every person you add, it offers two paid plans with a fixed monthly fee.

Essential plan:

• $45/month when billed annually and
• $50/month when billed monthly

Ultimate Control plan:

• $89/month for three months when billed annually; $135/month later
• $99/month for three months when billed monthly; $150/month thereafter

Both plans include unlimited users. This means your subscription cost doesn’t increase just because you hire more people.

The Essential plan supports up to 40 projects, while Ultimate Control includes unlimited projects and additional features such as custom roles, custom workflows, advanced reports, and API access.

The major plus point of ProofHub’s pricing is its predictability. Teams don’t have to worry about subscription costs rising every time they onboard a new employee or expand an existing team. Whether you have 10, 50, or 100 users, ProofHub never charges extra just because your team grows.

Its weak point is its entry price, which may appear high to teams that are just starting or have limited project management needs. It may not be the most economical choice for solo users or very small teams.

Trello pricing

Trello uses a per-user pricing structure, so the monthly plan increases as you add more users. The four plans it offers are:

• Standard plan:  $5/user/month when billed annually
• Premium plan:  $10/user/month when billed annually
• Enterprise plan: $17.50/user/month when billed annually for up to 250 users, with enterprise-level security and administrative controls. The cost lowers as the count of users increases. You can determine the exact cost by contacting their sales team. 
• Free plan: limited to 10 boards and collaborators per workspace

Note: The Standard and Premium paid subscriptions apply to only one workspace. Additional Workspaces require separate subscriptions, which increase the overall cost for teams managing multiple Workspaces.

Trello’s Free plan works for smaller teams with straightforward needs. Standard adds features such as custom fields and advanced checklists, while Premium offers additional views and administrative capabilities. Enterprise is designed for organizations that need broader controls across Workspaces.

The key consideration is that Trello’s per-user cost compounds as your team grows. Some third-party Power-Ups may also require separate subscriptions, depending on the tools you choose. 

Teams should consider the total cost of the plan before committing to either of its plans.

What does each tool cost at real team sizes?

While the costs of both tools may initially seem reasonable, depending on your team size and requirements, it is better to compare the monthly costs across different team sizes.

Where ProofHub’s costs stay predictable as your team grows, Trello’s costs increase with every additional paid user.

For example, a team of 20 would pay $45/month for ProofHub Essential or $135/month for Ultimate Control after the introductory offer. The same team would pay $100/month for Trello Standard or $200/month for Trello Premium. And approx $350/month if they choose to pay for advanced features locked behind the Enterprise plan.

Here is how those costs compare.

Entry plans (ProofHub Essential vs Trello Standard)

Advanced plans (ProofHub Ultimate Control vs Trello Premium)

What about guests and external collaborators?

ProofHub lets teams invite external clients and collaborators with controlled access to the platform without charging a separate per-user fee. This can be useful for agencies and businesses that need clients to review work, share feedback, or follow project progress.

On the other hand, Trello’s pricing depends on how guests are added. It supports single-board guests, but charges an additional user fee when you give them access to multiple boards. For client-facing teams, this is definitely a matter of consideration.

Feature set

There’s another consideration: how much functionality your team needs. Trello lets you extend workflows through Power-Ups and integrations, although some third-party tools may add subscription costs. ProofHub brings project management and collaboration capabilities into one workspace, reducing the need to assemble a workflow from multiple tools. 

So, there is a lot to consider when choosing between Trello and ProofHub. 

Bottom line: Trello wins for small teams, and its free plan is hard to beat if you have basic task management needs. But if it comes to scalability without front-end cost, ProofHub wins. Because its Essential costs less than Trello Standard from 10 users (9 users is the break-even point) and less than Trello Premium from 5 users.

2. Task & project management

ProofHub: ProofHub gives tough competition to Trello with its comprehensive ability to manage everything from simple task lists to complex, interdependent projects. Not only does it scale with your teams and projects, but it also supports different project management methodologies through customizable workflows and multiple task views.

At its core, ProofHub brings structure to task management with predefined task attributes and flexible controls. You can create subtasks, set custom statuses, establish task dependencies, and switch between multiple views of the same work to track progress from planning to completion.

• Project and task lists: Organize projects into categories and group related tasks into task lists. 
• Custom workflows: Customize and add as many workflow stages to your team’s processes.
• Tasks and subtasks:  Assign responsibilities, set priorities, and break larger tasks into smaller, actionable steps.
• Dependencies and milestones: Establish dependencies between the tasks and define critical checkpoints within a project. 
• Gantt chart: Visualize project timelines, map task dependencies, identify critical paths, and compare planned schedules against actual progress using baselines.
• Multiple views: Switch between views such as Board, Table, Gantt, and Calendar to manage and track work in different ways.
• Custom fields: Add project-specific information to tasks, such as priority, budget, effort, etc. 
• Project templates: Reuse recently made project structures to launch recurring projects without rebuilding.
• Time tracking and timesheets: Track time using a built-in timer or manual entries, and log entries on timesheets.

All of these capabilities are native to ProofHub, so you don’t need to rely on separate add-ons or pay extra for them.

Trello: Trello enters with its Kanban-first approach to project management. It keeps things simple by organizing tasks as cards on boards, allowing teams to track progress and visualize workflows. 

With its AI- powered capabilities, Trello helps teams reduce manual effort. Its AI writing wingmate helps generate and refine content, brainstorm ideas, summarize information, and extract action items from notes or discussions. AI-generated checklists help teams break tasks into actionable steps, while AI-powered board creation helps get started with a structured workflow faster.

• Kanban boards: Visualize tasks as cards across customizable lists to track work.
• Timeline: Map cards across a timeline and visualize how work is distributed over time. 
• Cards and checklists: Add task details on cards and break work into checklist items.
• Due date and reminders: Set deadlines and receive notifications to never miss upcoming tasks and overdue work.
• Custom fields: Add unique data points to cards for more organized tracking, just like ProofHub.
• Other views: Use available views, such as Calendar, Table, or Dashboard, for different visualization requirements.

Trello is excellent for managing straightforward, visual workflows, but gets harder to manage as projects multiply and interdependencies appear. It requires additional effort and tools.

Note: Trello’s timeline view is pretty basic compared to ProofHub’s Gantt. It offers a visual overview of task schedules, but does not provide the dependency management and critical-path planning capabilities as ProofHub’s Gantt chart.

3. Team collaboration

ProofHub: ProofHub stands out in this category with its built-in communication and collaboration features. It provides a centralized digital workspace for internal teams and external stakeholders to communicate, share files, review work, and resolve project-related issues.

• 1:1 and group chat: Enables team members to discuss work privately or in groups without requiring a separate messaging app.
• Discussions and notes: Gives teams a dedicated space to discuss project topics, share ideas, and document important information. 
• Task comments and @mentions: Keeps task-specific conversations connected to the work and mentions relevant team members to provide them feedback.
• File sharing and storage: Allows teams to upload, organize, and share project files in a central location.
• Proofing and annotations: Lets teams and external clients review files, mark annotations, and leave feedback right on designs or documents; clients can be invited without adding per-user costs to the bill.
• Custom roles and access control: Helps define team roles and limit their access to things only relevant to them.
• Announcements:  Share important project updates, company news, and information at scale. 

ProofHub brings project discussions, feedback, files, and task-related communication together in one place. This makes it easier for teams to coordinate project planning, resolve issues, and manage reviews without spreading conversations across multiple tools.

Trello: Trello’s collaboration features are more limited in scope. Most collaboration happens directly on cards through comments, mentions, attachments, and links. While this works well for task-specific communication, teams needing broader collaboration capabilities may have to rely on Power-Ups to fill the gaps.

• Card comments: Let team members have task-specific discussions and share feedback directly on cards.
• Attachments and links: Allow users to add relevant documents, images, and external resources to cards.
• Power-ups: Help teams introduce capabilities that aren’t available natively.

Trello offers an extensive list of Power-Ups to choose from, giving teams flexibility to extend its functionality. However, finding and configuring the right add-ons introduces extra setup and another layer of tools to manage.

4. Project planning & visibility

ProofHub: ProofHub is built to give managers and teams clear visibility into progress, schedules, and workloads. Gantt charts help managers visualize how tasks are progressing, spot bottlenecks, and identify schedule slippages early. The daily agenda gives every team member a view of overdue, due-today, and upcoming tasks 

Project and resource reports help managers assess completion rates, monitor time logged, review team workloads and resource utilization, and identify tasks that need attention. 

The only limitation is that ProofHub’s reporting lacks advanced business intelligence or highly sophisticated data analysis.

Trello: Trello is built on the philosophy of providing visibility through boards.  Managers and teams can get a glance into task statuses, who’s working on what, and how work moves through different stages.

Beyond that, Trello offers additional visibility on Cards by list, label, member, and due date through its Dashboard view. Trello’s reporting allows email reports, including board snapshots, due-soon cards, overdue cards, and personal cards. It is less comprehensive for detailed project scheduling and dependency analysis.

Teams that need deeper insights across projects may need to use additional tools or integrations.

5. Workflow & automation

ProofHub: ProofHub allows you to create custom workflows to match the needs of different teams. You can define the stages work moves through, set recurring tasks, and decide on reminders and apply project templates. 

You can also specify the stages where you want specific team members to get automatically notified. It also supports task dependencies and automatic date adjustments when dependent tasks change. 

When it comes to automation, however, ProofHub’s capabilities are limited compared to Trello. Instead, it requires you to be more involved in managing task updates and moving work through the workflow manually.

Trello: Trello’s built-in automation, powered by Butler, along with light AI capabilities, are clear strengths compared to ProofHub. It supports rule-based automations triggered by card actions, card and board buttons, due dates, and scheduled commands. 

Automation quotas vary by plan:

• Free: 250 automation runs and 2,500 operations per month.
• Standard: 1,000 runs and 20,000 operations per month.
• Premium and Enterprise: Unlimited runs, with operations capped at 250,000 per workspace

Trello does considerably more than ProofHub in this section. Its automation can handle repetitive actions, move cards, update fields, and trigger actions.

Note: An operation is each action the automation performs.

6. Integrations & ecosystem

ProofHub: ProofHub has a more limited integration ecosystem compared to Trello. It offers a handful of cloud storage services, invoicing and accounting tools, calendar apps, and iCal sync, among others.

While some users may find this list limited, teams that need a mainstream solution to manage their projects and workflows may find it sufficient. Unlike Trello, ProofHub includes several capabilities, such as project reporting, team chat, and proofing, within the platform itself. 

If you want a comprehensive solution that saves you from the cost of separate tools, give ProofHub a shot.

Trello: Trello wins in this category fairly. It offers a broad Power-Up ecosystem that connects with over 200 third-party tools, including Atlassian products such as Jira and other productivity, communication, and development tools.

This flexibility helps teams fill gaps in Trello’s native functionality, using external add-ons such as time tracking, reporting, and communication. However, relying on multiple Power-Ups introduces additional setup and maintenance, creates clutter, and increases costs.

If your team depends on a specific third-party tool or needs extensive integration options, Trello deserves serious consideration.

Pros & cons of ProofHub and Trello

Pros & cons of ProofHub

Pros & cons of Trello

Which tool should you choose?

After comparing ProofHub vs. Trello across different parameters, including project management, task management, scalability, and ease of use, one thing becomes clear: neither tool is the right choice for every team. The better option depends on whether you want a simple, lightweight solution or an equally easy-to-use platform with broader capabilities. 

The choice also depends on your team size, project volume, collaboration needs, and the features you require. Ultimately, the goal is to choose a platform that supports your workflow without weighing heavily on your budget.

From my understanding of the two tools, Trello is a better fit for teams that prefer visual task management and straightforward workflows, while ProofHub is worth considering for teams that need a more comprehensive workspace to manage projects and collaboration.

Choose Trello if:

• You need a highly visual way to organize and track tasks.
• You prefer a dedicated board-based approach to managing work.
• You want your team to adopt the tool quickly, with minimal setup.
• You want flexibility to customize your workflows.
• You want built-in automation and lightweight AI capabilities for streamlining routine work.
• You require an extensive integration ecosystem and the flexibility to extend its functionality.
• You need a free or low-cost entry point for a small team.

Trello is particularly compelling when teams have relatively straightforward workflows and don’t need extensive project management capabilities. A marketing team managing a content calendar, a product team organizing a sprint backlog, or an individual managing personal projects can get significant value from its visual, board-based approach.

However, as workflows become more complex and boards increase, maintaining visibility and coordination. They rely on additional Power-Ups or external tools that can add both cost and complexity.

Choose ProofHub if:

• You want to manage projects, tasks, teams, files, communication, and collaboration in one place.
• You’re a growing team looking for flat-rate pricing without per-user charges.
• You need core project management functionalities in one place without any additional costs.
• You want greater control and visibility over project details and operations.
• You want a solution that adapts to your different project requirements and team structures.
• You want a platform that becomes part of your team’s everyday workflow rather than another tool to manage.
• You want flexibility in how you organize work without sacrificing structure and visibility.

ProofHub becomes particularly interesting when teams need broader project management and collaboration capabilities, along with predictable pricing as your team grows.

Marketing agencies, client-facing businesses, and cross-functional teams can benefit from having project plans, tasks, discussions, files, and approvals organized in one workspace.

The bottom line: The best tool is the one that supports how your team works today and enhances their efficiency.

How to switch from Trello to ProofHub

There is no one-click migration process that transfers your Trello boards, cards, and related data directly into ProofHub. You’ll need to export your Trello data through CSV files and recreate elements that don’t transfer through the import process.

Before importing, review the CSV structure and map Trello’s fields to the corresponding ProofHub fields. Make sure the data formats match ProofHub’s import requirements. If they don’t, edit the CSV file to align the field names and structure before importing.

Final verdict

After using Trello extensively and drawing on my experience with ProofHub, I can definitely say that both tools serve their purpose well. But suit different ways of working.

Choose Trello if your work is relatively straightforward, your team prefers a visual, board-based approach to managing tasks, and you want the flexibility to build on it through automation and integrations.

Choose ProofHub if your projects involve more moving parts and you require a broader project management and collaboration environment, with features for planning, task dependencies, team communication, file proofing and approval. Its flat pricing with unlimited users makes it worth considering as your team grows.

The best choice ultimately depends on how your team works, what your projects demand, and which trade-offs you are willing to make.

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