Trello update making custom fields paid, what happens to boards already using custom fields?

[Ollieg3 Roblox]

Trello update making custom fields paid, what happens to boards already using custom fields?

[Anna Saraceno]

Thanks for your question, @Ollieg3 Roblox and your follow-up @KB . Custom Fields have gone from a Power-Up add-on to boards, to becoming a core feature on boards (we previously did a similar thing with Butler automation, which also used to be a Power-Up and is now a core feature). This change rolled out yesterday alongside our other pricing and packaging changes, including a new lower-priced offering called Standard. You can read about thosehere if you haven't already.

If you had boards in free Workspaces with the Custom Fields Power-Up already enabled, these boards will continue to have Custom Fields. This change will affect any boards in free Workspaces that didn't already have the Custom Fields Power-Up enabled, as well as any newly created boards in free Workspaces. For these boards, you would need to upgrade to Standard or Premium for the Custom Fields feature.

I empathize with frustration regarding Custom Fields becoming a paygated feature when it was previously available as a Power-Up that could be added to boards in free Workspaces. Keep in mind that now that Power-Ups are unlimited in free Workspaces, our vast Power-Up ecosystem may offer alternatives that don't cost extra and may meet your needs (an example I've seen is the Amazing Fields Power-Up). 

When we made these changes, we wanted our offerings to align with specific audiences. Our belief is that the detail of sophistication required from Custom Fields aligns with the type of users and teams that we'd want to pay for our software, whether it's our new lower-priced Standard tier or the higher value Premium offering. 

Our Head of Trello @mhp described these tradeoffs in another post: "Evolving our product and strategy can sometimes mean hard tradeoffs, and ultimately this is one that we believe is the right one."

I hope this extra information is helpful in your understanding of the changes. Please let me know if there's anything else I can help clarify. 

[Ollieg3 Roblox]

Okaay thanks

[Alberto]

@Anna Saraceno Thanks for your explanations... But I am a gold client and now I can't find custom fileds when I search on power apps menu... What happen with this?  For what I pay should be on the same level that you call "standar"...

I hope this big update you are doing in your model doesn´t affect to your platform. I love trello for long time ago. Also i loved Evernote... until they made a big update in their business last year and now is a big mess. I hope trello thinks in their clients and not only to earn more money... (and I understand  you are a business who wants moeney..)

Did you heard... If something works well... dont touch it :)

[Anna Saraceno]

Hi @Mcgyver . I'm glad to hear how long you've loved Trello and can certainly understand your frustration here. Hopefully I can provide a bit more clarity. Since Custom Fields has become a core feature, it is more like labels, stickers, automations, etc, where it is available in the board menu and card back, and not separated into the Power-Ups directory. In other words: It's built-in, and no longer an add-on. Our help doc about Custom Fields shows some screen shots about where you should see them on your boards. If it's a board in a free Workspace that didn't already have Custom Fields enabled on 8/24 when we implemented our new pricing plans, then the Custom Fields feature will be disabled with a link to upgrade to a paid plan to unlock the feature.

If you are interested in the Standard plan given that it is similar to the Gold plan in pricing (and it does offer a lot more value than Gold), but are frustrated about having already paid for Gold, I recommend contacting our support team to see if they can help you make that transition without feeling like you're paying for 2 plans at once. 

I hope this information is helpful. I know it doesn't roll back the changes you're feeling frustrated about, but hopefully it makes some options a bit more clear. 

[KB]

I am facing the same problem, it is not acceptable to turn a free feature into a paid feature without notifying users

[Natasha Etheridge]

Is there a work around for this? Would prefer not to pay for this feature.