Microsoft Planner vs Trello – Manage Your Teams and More

At best, the world of cooperation and project management is perplexing and so you may need to understand the difference between Microsoft Planner vs Trello.

These applications are well-equipped with a variety of fundamental features that assist you in optimizing your project management process and maintaining a steady growth curve over time. These applications excel at project management and serve as excellent tools for streamlining your task organization.

However, how can you choose the best software?

To assist you in the selection process, below are the details of the two superior project management tools that may help you easily handle various project-related activities.

What is Microsoft Planner?

MS Planner is a web-based project management application. It is a feature of Office 365. This simple-to-use application enables you to schedule tasks and manage minor projects without much planning effort.

Microsoft Planner enables you to assign and manage time and activities efficiently. Additionally, you can establish deadlines, share files, and communicate with team members.

Microsoft Planner is most comparable to Asana or Trello. However, this task management solution has the significant benefit of being integrated into Microsoft Office 365, including interfaces with SharePoint, Outlook, and Teams.

Key Features of MS Planner

  • Assists you in planning your project
  • Allows you to schedule each event
  • Includes content cards and boards
  • Remarks and due dates
  • Organize your files and track performance
  • Monitor each task and synchronize data
  • Generate progress charts and performance reports
  • Includes task comments, sorting buckets, labels, planning, and tracking.

What is Trello?

Trello is a widely used project management software that enables you to create and organize tasks for team projects or your to-do list. You can specify dates for projects and tasks, add notes, and assign responsibilities to other project partners.

Trello’s Kanban board view enables you to visualize the project’s progress readily.

Trello is primarily regarded as one of the simplest project management platforms to learn and use. Its straightforward design results in a short learning curve. Trello is also, to a degree, free. The free version should suffice for generating and managing small-scale projects.

You can always switch to a paid plan later if you determine that your project requires additional resources.

Key Features of Trello

  • Integration with various technologies, including GitHub, Bitbucket, GitLab, Dropbox, and Slack.
  • Content-rich cards and workflows that can be customized
  • Boards
  • Power-ups add additional functionality and perspectives, such as calendars or Gantt charts.
  • Open APIs
  • Shared attributes include assignees, due dates, labels, descriptions, comments, and attachments.

Similarities of Microsoft Planner and Trello

Trello and Microsoft Planner include boards and calendars, alerts and notifications, task management, and mobile app. 

  • Boards and Calendars

The Kanban boards of Microsoft Planner vs Trello are comparable. The users can set up boards and put in various tasks on each panel so the team can see them immediately. One of the elements is their checklist that you can include on each card to make it simpler to complete smaller assignments for more significant projects.

Their comment part allows you to tag a particular member as well. Another element that they both have is labeling. Colored labels let you quickly sort activities and see them by their label as required.

Both project management solutions feature a calendar view so your team can instantly view the tasks and projects. The same comes preinstalled on MS Planner, but this feature comes as a Power-Up on Trello. If you are on a free Trello plan, you get only one Power-Up for every board you make.

  • Alerts and notifications

Trello notifies you when anything significant happens to your assigned tasks or monitoring. You’ll receive notifications when other users make comments, when deadlines for your projects are added or updated and as task deadlines approach. Trello informs users in various ways: via email, the web app’s notification button, or push notifications via the mobile application.

Additionally, Microsoft Project includes a notification and alert tool that assists users in meeting deadlines. Users can configure personal email notifications in Microsoft Project. Receive notifications when you have unfinished tasks approaching their deadline, when tasks are past due, when a new task is allocated to you, or when an impending job which you are currently working on is due for an update soon.

  • Task management

Trello’s task management interface is based on Kanban boards and cards. Use these to create a list of concepts and assign activities to organize using various boards.

Trello’s drag-and-drop interface makes it simple for users to transfer cards between boards, while the subscription edition allows for the creation of custom processes. Additionally, you may build and designate checklists for users, apply labels to tasks, and establish deadlines for tasks.

Microsoft Planner enables you to visualize activities through boards, timelines, and lists. This system allows you to distribute projects to team members, incorporate scheduling, and keep track of the deadlines associated with each given work.

Additionally, you may create dashboards to keep track of all assigned activities, impending deadlines, and other task-related data in a centralized perspective.

  • Mobile application

Trello also offers a mobile version for Android and iOS devices. This smartphone software enables you to utilize digital boards to keep organized and from any location. You will receive real-time notifications when new cards are issued to you and when existing cards are modified or finished.

Trello’s mobile application enables you to organize tasks by adding worksheets, labels, and deadlines. Additionally, the smartphone application is accessible for offline use.

Microsoft Planner is the mobile application for Microsoft Project. It is available on App Store and Google Play. This smartphone software enables you to make new plans, organize them, and designate work. When reviewing Microsoft Planner vs Trello, it also allows you to share files, communicate with other co-workers about your projects, and give status updates.

MS Planner can assist in increasing team visibility, letting you know what your co-workers are doing.

MS Planner vs Trello

  • Pricing

Microsoft Planner is included in various Microsoft 365 subscriptions, while Trello offers a free plan in perpetuity.

Only Trello offers a free account that, while limited, includes essential task organization and productivity capabilities. While Microsoft’s Enterprise plans appear to be pricey at first sight, you can begin using Microsoft Planner for $10 with the Microsoft 365 F3 plan. This puts both products on par in terms of pricing. However, Microsoft Planner offers more value for money due to its integration with other Microsoft 365 technologies.

The cost gets substantially more inexpensive as you progress through Microsoft’s Enterprise subscription tiers. You’ll gain access to a broad range of Office 365 tools, whereas Trello’s capabilities are geared toward task management and project collaboration.

  • Storage Size and File Attachments

Microsoft Planner vs Trello maximum file attachment capacity is more than Microsoft Planner’s maximum file attachment size.

Microsoft Planner’s maximum file attachment size is 150MB, significantly less than Trello’s 250MB. However, by combining Microsoft Planner with SharePoint, you may share files up to 15GB in size.

MS Planner includes a storage capacity of up to 1TB via Microsoft OneDrive. Trello’s maximum storage capacity, on the other hand, is only 250GB. You can connect Google Drive to your Trello board if you’re short on storage capacity. Google One presents various storage options, including up to 3TB of storage each month.

  • Platforms and Integrations

As an application included with other Microsoft 365 products, Microsoft Planner integrates smoothly with other Office 365 capabilities. There is no reason to get a different project management application if your team is already subscribed to Microsoft 365, including Planner.

While operating within Microsoft Planner’s environment is uncomplicated, integrating MS Planner with other applications is different. While you can connect them via its API, this is not as simple as clicking a button on Trello’s Power-Ups.

Trello integrates effortlessly with CRM, analytics, and marketing solutions available in Trello’s Power-Ups store. Power-Up includes apps such as Twitter, Zoho, MailChimp, Evernote, and Calendly.

Surprisingly, Microsoft Teams allows you to connect Trello and its cards directly into Microsoft Planner.

Conclusion for Microsoft Planner vs Trello

Trello and MS Planner are both tools used to plan and manage project activities and tasks. Both tools are used to keep track of a project’s progress. Trello and the Planner are both open-source tools that may be accessed from anywhere. Whether you compromise on pricing, functionalities, or overall feature count, you will still have an incredible project management tool to assist your PM duties.