Microsoft Planner vs Trello for a small team

Choose Planner if your team already has Microsoft 365 and works in Teams. Choose Trello if you do not use Microsoft 365 or want a free board. Both show tasks as cards in columns, so the choice depends on where your team already works.

Disclosure: I build on Microsoft 365 for a living, so Planner starts with my vote. The Trello section below stands on its own, and where Trello is the better pick, I say so plainly.

Two boards, two homes

Planner is the Microsoft task board. You make a plan, split it into buckets, and add tasks. Microsoft says the Planner app in Teams brings together Microsoft To Do, Microsoft Planner and Project for the web in one experience. You open it as an app on the left side of Teams, or as a tab in a channel.

Trello organizes work as boards. A board has lists (columns), and each list holds cards. You move a card from one list to the next as the work moves.

If you picture a board with columns and cards, both tools look about the same. The differences sit around the board: the login, the other tools nearby, the limits and the way you pay.

Trello's strong points

Trello wins outright in these cases.

1. No Microsoft needed. If your company does not use Microsoft 365, Planner is not an option. Trello works for anyone.
2. A free plan. Trello's pricing page shows a Free plan, with up to 10 boards per Workspace and up to 10 collaborators per Workspace.
3. More views on paid plans. Trello's pricing page lists Calendar, Timeline, Table, Dashboard and Map views on Premium.
4. Guests. Trello's pricing page lists single-board guests on Standard and above, observers on Premium and multi-board guests on Enterprise. That makes it simple to share one board with an outside client.
5. Simple to explain. A board of cards is easy to picture.

Planner's strong points

1. It comes with the plan you may already have. Microsoft says "Users with a Microsoft 365 license are entitled to the Planner app." Check with your admin what your own plan allows.
2. It lives in Teams. Planner is an app and a tab in a channel, so the team does not open another site.
3. One personal view. Microsoft says the Planner app shows a person My Day (tasks due today), My Tasks (private tasks, tasks assigned to them from Teams meeting notes, Microsoft Loop, Planner and Planner premium, and flagged emails) and My Plans. A person sees their work from many places in one spot. Trello Premium adds Workspace Table and Calendar views across boards.
4. Flagged emails become tasks. Microsoft says emails a user flags in Outlook show up as tasks in My Tasks.
5. A path to bigger plans. Microsoft describes premium plans in Planner. Users with a Planner premium license such as Planner Plan 1, Project Plan 3 or Project Plan 5 can use the premium features. Check with your admin before you plan around it.
6. Publishing to locations. Microsoft describes task publishing, where a head office publishes a task list to teams at several locations and managers assign the tasks. This helps a business with several sites. It needs an admin to set up a team hierarchy.

Plan and board caps

Planner, from Microsoft's limits page:

• Active tasks in one plan: 3,000. An active task is one that is not completed.
• Total tasks in one plan: 9,000.
• Buckets in one plan: 200.
• People assigned to one task: 20.
• Checklist items in one task: 20.
• Plans owned by one group or user: 400.
• References on one task: 15.
• Microsoft says "These limitations can be raised or lowered from time-to-time without a prior notice." The page applies to basic plans in the Planner app in Teams, and not to premium plans or To Do lists.

Trello, from Trello's pricing page:

• Free: up to 10 boards per Workspace, 250 Automation command runs per Workspace per month, 10 MB per file.
• Standard: unlimited boards, 1,000 command runs per Workspace per month, 250 MB per file.
• Premium: unlimited boards and command runs, plus the extra views.

Trello also shares example thresholds on its developer pages. Per board, it lists 5,000 open cards (warnings start at 4,500) and 2,000,000 total cards. Per card, it lists 950 attachments and 475 checklists. Trello says these are examples and that limits may vary by boards and accounts.

Planner counts finished tasks toward its 9,000 total, so a plan that keeps every finished task will reach that limit. Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: start a new plan when an old one gets large.

Licenses and seats

Trello charges per user on paid plans. For current Trello prices, read Trello's pricing page: https://trello.com/pricing

Planner: Microsoft says users with a Microsoft 365 license are entitled to the Planner app, and premium features need a premium license such as Planner Plan 1, Project Plan 3 or Project Plan 5. Check Microsoft's current pricing page for plan prices. A fair way to compare: count how many people need to edit, then compare what each side asks for that group.

Does Planner in Teams cost extra? Microsoft's licensing text says the Planner app comes with a Microsoft 365 license, and premium capabilities need a premium license. A Microsoft 365 license holder can still collaborate on premium plans but cannot use the premium features without a premium license.

Rules and flows

Trello has a built-in automation feature. The pricing page gives a monthly command run limit per Workspace on Free and Standard, and unlimited runs on Premium.

Planner works with Power Automate. Microsoft says Planner tasks can be managed using Microsoft Graph and the Power Automate connector. Exact names may differ on your screen. Whether a flow needs an extra license depends on the flow and your plan. Check with your admin.

To remind people before a due date, see the guide "Send a reminder before a due date in a SharePoint list".

Eleven rows to compare

Swipe sideways to see all columns.

Planner suits you if

• Your team already has Microsoft 365 and works in Teams.
• You want each person to see their own tasks from several plans in one place.
• You want flagged emails to show up as tasks.
• You want no new login and no new bill for a basic task board.
• You may later need a bigger plan with premium features.

Trello suits you if

• Your company does not use Microsoft 365.
• You want to start today with a free plan.
• You work with outside guests on a single board.
• You want Timeline, Calendar or Dashboard views and can pay per user.
• Your team already knows Trello and likes it.

Five questions to settle it

1. Check if your company has Microsoft 365. If no, Trello is the likely pick.
2. Ask where the team already talks all day. If it is Teams, Planner saves a click.
3. Write down who must see the work. Outside guests point toward Trello. People inside Microsoft 365 point toward Planner.
4. Count the people who edit. Trello charges per user on paid plans.
5. Run one real week of work in each. Keep the one your team opens without being reminded.

If your work is records with your own fields, not tasks, a board may be the wrong shape. See the guide "Microsoft Planner vs SharePoint list for tracking team work" and "Microsoft Lists vs Trello for a small team". If you are leaving a spreadsheet, see "Replace a spreadsheet tracker with a SharePoint list".

What to avoid

• Do not pick by a feature list alone. Pick by who will update the work every day.
• Do not run the same job in both tools. People will not know which one is true.
• Do not keep every finished task in one plan forever. Planner has a total task limit per plan.
• Do not assume a limit stays the same. Microsoft says its limits can change without notice, and Trello says its example limits may vary.
• Do not share a board with outside people before you check what they can see.
• Do not move your whole team without a one-week test.
• If you outgrow a board, a SharePoint list holds records with typed columns. See "Microsoft Planner vs SharePoint list for tracking team work".

Switching from one to the other

Our advice, not a Microsoft rule: before you move, write down your list names, create buckets with the same names, and copy a small batch of cards first. Labels, attachments and add-ons in Trello will not carry over by themselves, so decide which ones you need.

When to get help

You can build all of this yourself in Microsoft 365. If you would rather have it built and tested for your team, I do that. A tracker like this is a fixed price: $5,000 for one, built in 2 weeks. See "What a SharePoint tracker costs to build". Bring one example of the problem to a free call.

Tell me what's still manual

I am Al Davies. I run 250 High Street LLC and build SharePoint trackers and Power Automate flows for operations teams. I work remotely. The first call is free, and I will not try to sell you anything.

See trackers I built: Tools I built

FAQ

Is Microsoft Planner free?

Microsoft says users with a Microsoft 365 license are entitled to the Planner app; premium features need a premium license.

Does Trello have a free plan?

Yes. Trello's free plan caps how many boards a workspace can hold and how many automation runs it gets each month. Check Trello's pricing page for today's limits.

How many tasks can each tool hold?

Microsoft lists 3,000 active tasks and 9,000 total tasks in one Planner plan; Trello shares example thresholds of 5,000 open cards per board.

What does Planner premium add compared with Trello?

Microsoft says premium plans need a premium license such as Planner Plan 1, Project Plan 3 or Project Plan 5, and Trello Premium adds extra views.

Does Planner in Teams cost extra?

Microsoft says the Planner app comes with a Microsoft 365 license, and only the premium features need a premium license.

Sources

• Trello pricing
• Atlassian, Trello card and board limit examples
• Microsoft Learn, Planner limits
• Microsoft Learn, Manage the Planner app in Teams

Related guides

• Microsoft Lists vs Trello for a small team
• Microsoft Lists vs Airtable for a small team
• Microsoft Planner vs SharePoint list for tracking team work
• Microsoft Lists vs Asana for a small team