Trello vs Jira: Which tool is better for my team?

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Ah the age old debate... and something that many of you might be surprised to see me, Britt Joiner, the Trello queen, even considering a conversation about. 

At Team24, I spent a lot of time at the Trello booth, and almost every single person who stopped by said "Why Trello?" or "I use Jira. Why should I use Trello?"

I've spent some time having more conversations about this throughout the year and thought it was time to formally document my thoughts, so welcome to my Ted Talk 😁

If you don't know me, my name is Brittany Joiner, and I'll go ahead and get this out of the way— I'm obsessed with Trello. 

I was using Trello long before it was an Atlassian thing, and when it became an "Atlassian thing", I started learning about other cool tools out there for organizing tasks and project info, like JIRA. 

These days, although I do prefer Trello for most of my use cases, I've got a lot of friends around here who use Jira (looking at you, @Jimmy Seddon and @Rodney Nissen - ReleaseTEAM  and @Alex Ortiz) and do some REALLY cool things with it. Heck, I've even used it for a few things myself! So I hope you'll believe my thoughts on the matter come from an only slightly biased evaluation :) 

So now it's time for me to help answer the question from my unique perspective and help YOU reading this to decide: Trello or Jira??

The short answer: 

Both. 

There's no "one tool to replace all apps". (We won't even pretend to steal ClickUp's marketing slogan here.) 

It's not Trello vs Jira.... it's maybe Trello and Jira?  

They're both different tools that serve different purposes, so it would be like asking "should I get a hammer or a screwdriver?" And the answer is "well, depends on what you're doing, but there's a good chance you'd do well to have both of them in your toolbox!"

The longer answer:

You might do well to have both tools, but I assume you want to know what's worth using for your next project or for your specific team. To make that decision, it's worth knowing what they have in common, what they don't, and a framework for finding one that might work better for specific types of work.

If you're more of a video person, I created this video walking through all my thoughts on the matter, but keep reading, and I'll share the highlights: 

They have a lot in common!

Whether you use one or the other, you'll recognize components and features across both tools. They just might go by different names. 

Jira and Trello both have:

• Boards/lists/cards(or issues)
• Similar pricing models (thank you daddy Atlassian)
• Team/organization structures
• Issue/card based items with attributes (I like to call them supercharged sticky notes)
• Drag and drop items around to move their status
• Checklists/subtasks
• Automation capabilities
• Templates for specific use cases
• Multiple views (Boards, tables, calendar, etc.)
• Filters and search (although I'm quite impressed with JQL - Trello doesn't have anything quite that fancy, but I admittedly don't really need it)

They've also got some differences

At it's core both tools are similar, but the devil is always in the details, isn't it?

In my experience with both of the tools (and with the confirmation of other folks who have used both tools!), here are what I find to be the main differences. 

 - Jira requires a bit of a dictionary 

Once you know the terms, it makes sense. But you'll need to learn some new lingo to start using Jira and help you accomplish what you need to do. Speaking of learning...

- They've got different learning curves

Jira has a bit more of a learning curve than Trello. That's not a bad thing. Snowboarding has a bigger learning curve than skiing, but we all know snowboarding is way better. Either way, it's definitely something you want to know before embarking on a trip to the snowy mountains. 

If you need something that is lightweight and straightforward to get started with, both for you creating something and the people using it, Trello might be a better fit. That doesn't make Trello any less powerful... you can still layer on the complexities you need later with automation and Power-Ups or additional fields.

- The UI is quite different

In my opinion, Jira's design is kinda cluttered. There's a lot of cool buttons that do a lot of things, but it can be kinda overwhelming and distracting to jump into. Where do I click? Will this button break something? Where's this setting I need? How do I start?

Trello's a bit more user-friendly and less intimidating to newbies. Even non-technical people use Trello, like my partner who is an attorney, and my sister who is an educator. Trello looks pretty too. We can all admit that, right? 

Oh, and the Trello mobile app is FABULOUS. I don't hear too many folks raving about the Jira mobile app. So if mobile is a big consideration for you, Trello could be quite useful.

- Jira gives you more control over roles

If you want to get granular with who can do what in your instance, Jira has a lot more options in this. Trello has some options via user roles and Power-Ups, and you can achieve most of what you need by creating multiple boards and organizing your members in that way. But if you need to keep things more locked down and have more options than just "see this" or "edit this", then you might need something like Jira. I like to think of this as "are you trying to control or collaborate?" (Valid reasons you might be doing both things, and it will likely different amongst your teams and projects!)

Okay, so with all that in mind, which tool should you use for your next project, whether it's a product launch or your meal planning with your family?

Here are 5 questions to ask to help you choose which one to use

First of all... are you already using Jira (or Trello), it's working perfectly for you, everyone on your team has adopted it and is happy with it? Then skip all this. Keep the tool you've got! 

If however, you think there might be an opportunity for improvement... ask these questions, and you might have a clear answer:

Okay, so what did I miss?

I know there's a lot of Jira enthusiasts here who would be happy to correct me on anything (I just ask you do it gently please 🙏 ), and hopefully also some folks who have some ideas that might be worth considering for anyone else who comes across this article hoping to find the right tool for their team or their next project.

[Kishan Sharma]

Excellent article @Brittany Joiner , very well written!!👍👏

[LarryBrock]

Great article @Brittany Joiner !!   You touch on some great points about both products and I like the 5 questions.  Thanks for posting this!

[Brittany Joiner]

Thank you @LarryBrock  and @Kishan Sharma!

[Samuel Gatica _ServiceRocket_]

Thanks for sharing @Brittany Joiner , great article!

In my experience, Trello is super simple and flexible, perfect for small teams. On the other hand, Jira is more suited for long-term projects with an Agile approach.