Trello's pricing page lists three paid tiers against a free plan. Standard is $5 per user per month if billed annually, or $6 billed monthly, and includes 1,000 Workspace command runs per month. Premium is $10 per user per month billed annually, or $12.50 billed monthly. Enterprise is $17.50 per user per month billed annually, which the page restates as a $210 annual price per user. The Free plan includes 250 Workspace command runs per month. Atlassian Guard, which covers Atlassian's security features across products, is a separate subscription starting at $4 per user per month. The page also states a billing rule that catches people out: any Guest on more than one board in a Workspace is treated as a Multi-Board Guest and billed at the same rate as a Standard or Premium member.
TL;DR
Airtable sells two published paid steps, Team at $20 per user per month and Business at $45 per user per month, both billed annually, and bills every user who can edit a base. Trello publishes three: Standard at $5 per user per month billed annually ($6 monthly), Premium at $10 billed annually ($12.50 monthly) and Enterprise at $17.50 billed annually, which works out at $210 per user per year. Trello is between one quarter and one half of Airtable's price per seat at every step, plus a separate Atlassian Guard subscription from $4 per user per month for its own security add-ons, and the fair reading is that you are comparing a card board with a database: Trello's money buys boards and command runs, Airtable's buys typed records, linked tables and views.
Airtable's page takes the opposite approach. There is a Free plan, then Team at $20 per user per month billed annually for more capacity, then Business at $45 per user per month billed annually for additional customisation, data scale, flexibility and administrative features, and then Enterprise Scale at custom pricing. Airtable states that on Team and Business you are charged for all users who have edit permissions for at least one base, while on Free all users are free. Its examples are structured records: a vendor and software request tracker with priority and status fields, an objectives plan with linked key results, epics and tasks, and campaign moodboards assembled from typed assets.
So the comparison is not close on price and is best read as two different products. At $5 per user per month Standard is a quarter of Airtable Team, and even Trello Enterprise at $17.50 is below Airtable Team at $20 and well below Business at $45. The question is what the extra money buys. Trello's unit of work is a card moving between lists, with command runs as the metered resource, and its paid steps are about board-level capability and administration. Airtable's unit of work is a record with typed fields that can be linked, rolled up and viewed many ways, and its paid steps are about capacity and data scale. If you would be building your own structure inside cards and checklists, Trello is materially cheaper; if you need the fields to be first-class, Airtable's price is the cost of that.
| Feature | Airtable | Trello |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | Free at no charge for users getting started, with all users free | Free plan with 250 Workspace command runs per month |
| Entry paid plan | Team, $20 per user per month billed annually | Standard, $5 per user per month billed annually, or $6 billed monthly |
| Middle plan | Business, $45 per user per month billed annually | Premium, $10 per user per month billed annually, or $12.50 billed monthly |
| Top published plan | Enterprise Scale, quoted | Enterprise, $17.50 per user per month billed annually ($210 per user per year) |
| Security add-on | Administrative features on Business; Enterprise Scale quoted | Atlassian Guard, a separate subscription from $4 per user per month |
| Metered resource | Not itemised per plan on the pricing page | 250 Workspace command runs per month on Free, 1,000 on Standard |
| Guest billing | Editors billed; read-only viewers are not the unit of cost | Guests on more than one board are billed at member rates |
| Monthly versus annual | Both published paid prices are annual-billing figures | Monthly rates published: $6 Standard, $12.50 Premium |
| Compliance credentials | Administrative and data-scale features on higher tiers | Trello states SOC 2 Type 2 and ISO/IEC 27001 certification |
| Data model | Typed fields, linked records, rollups and multiple views | Cards in lists, with labels, checklists and attachments |
| Best fit | Inventories, request queues and pipelines where fields drive the view | Task boards where the flow of cards is the workflow |
Pick Airtable if
Airtable is the right purchase when the thing you are managing has columns that matter: a vendor request tracker with requester, priority and status, an inventory, or an objectives plan whose key results link back to epics and tasks. The free plan is usable, Team at $20 per user per month adds capacity, Business at $45 adds customisation, data scale and administrative features, and Enterprise Scale is quoted for data-scale buyers. What you accept in return is a bill that counts every user who can edit a base, no published monthly rate and no cheap middle rung between Team and custom pricing. Compared with Trello the premium is large, roughly four times Standard and more than double Enterprise, so the case rests on whether typed, linked records are genuinely the shape of your work rather than a card board with extra columns.
Pick Trello if
Trello is the cheaper seat at every step: Standard at $5 per user per month billed annually, Premium at $10, Enterprise at $17.50, against Airtable Team at $20 and Business at $45. Its pricing page is also more forthcoming, publishing monthly rates of $6 and $12.50 alongside the annual ones and stating the command-run allowance per tier, 250 per month on Free and 1,000 on Standard. Two details raise the real cost: Atlassian Guard is a separate subscription from $4 per user per month, and any guest on more than one board is billed at member rates. For a team whose work is cards moving through lists and whose automation needs sit inside a published allowance, Trello delivers the same day-to-day board at a fraction of Airtable's per-seat price.
Neither Airtable nor Trello publishes third-party review data we are willing to restate as fact, and we did not run either product. Every figure here comes from the two vendors' own pricing pages as published when this comparison was written. The lists headed 'vendor-published claims' are the vendors' own statements, not user reviews.
Yes on published prices. Trello Standard is $5 per user per month billed annually against Airtable Team at $20, and Trello Enterprise is $17.50 against Airtable Business at $45. Even Trello's top published tier is below Airtable's entry paid tier.
Trello meters command runs per month: 250 on the Free plan and 1,000 on Standard, as published on its pricing page. It is the metered resource in Trello's model, while Airtable's pricing page does not itemise a comparable per-plan automation allowance.
Trello bills any guest on more than one board at the same rate as a Standard or Premium member, so outside collaborators can add seats. Airtable's rule is different in kind: on Team and Business it charges for users with edit permissions on at least one base, while on Free all users are free.
Yes. Atlassian Guard is a separate subscription a company can enable across Atlassian products, starting at $4 per user per month, on top of the Trello seat. Airtable puts administrative features on Business at $45 per user per month and offers Enterprise Scale for larger organisations.
Trello does and shows the gap: Standard is $5 per user per month billed annually or $6 billed monthly, and Premium is $10 billed annually or $12.50 billed monthly. Airtable's published paid prices, $20 and $45 per user per month, are both annual-billing figures.
For task boards, Trello's Free plan at 250 command runs a month is a real trial and Standard at $5 per user per month is the cheapest paid route between the two. Airtable's case is stronger when the team needs typed fields, linked records and multiple views over the same data, since that structure is the product rather than something you build on top of cards.
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