monday.com's work management plan list starts free at $0 for up to 2 seats with up to 3 boards and 3 docs, then moves to Basic at $9 per seat a month billed annually for unlimited items and unlimited free viewers, Standard at $12 with more AI credits and tools, and Pro at $19 with 3,000 AI credits a month and API access at 1,000 calls a day. Enterprise is quoted and carries a 99.9% uptime SLA, portfolio management and up to 250,000 automation and integration actions a month. Annual billing saves 18% against monthly, and additional AI credits cost $10 per 1,000.
TL;DR
monday.com charges per seat: Free up to 2 seats, then Basic $9, Standard $12 and Pro $19 per seat a month billed annually, with boards, items, dashboards and bundled AI credits. Trello charges per user: Free up to 10 collaborators, then Standard $5, Premium $10 and Enterprise $17.50 per user a month billed annually, built around boards, lists and cards. Trello is the cheaper and simpler instrument; monday.com is the one that grows into a department-wide system.
Trello is a board tool with a much smaller price tag. Its Free plan covers up to 10 collaborators per Workspace with unlimited cards, up to 10 boards, 250 workspace command runs a month and 10 MB per file. Standard is $5 per user a month billed annually ($6 monthly) and adds unlimited boards, AI features, card mirroring, custom fields and 1,000 command runs. Premium is $10 annually ($12.50 monthly) and is aimed at teams up to 100, adding calendar, timeline, table, dashboard and map views, workspace templates, collections, observers and admin controls. Enterprise is $17.50 per user a month billed annually, $210 per user a year, and includes Atlassian Guard Standard with free SSO and user provisioning.
The two overlap only at the level of cards on a board. monday.com's board is one view of a wider system: items with typed columns, dashboards that aggregate across boards, automations, a credit-based AI layer, and adjacent products for CRM and dev work sold separately. Trello's board is the system. It stays legible for small teams and personal work, and it stops earlier when you need portfolio reporting, capacity planning or structured intake.
| Feature | Monday.com | Trello |
|---|---|---|
| Free plan | $0: up to 2 seats, up to 3 boards, up to 3 docs | $0: up to 10 collaborators, up to 10 boards, unlimited cards |
| First paid tier | Basic, $9 per seat a month billed annually | Standard, $5 per user a month billed annually ($6 monthly) |
| Middle tier | Standard, $12 per seat a month billed annually | Premium, $10 per user a month billed annually ($12.50 monthly) |
| Upper tier | Pro, $19 per seat a month billed annually | Enterprise, $17.50 per user a month billed annually, $210 a year per user |
| Top plan | Enterprise, price by quote, 99.9% uptime SLA | Atlassian Guard Standard included; extra Guard seats start at $4 a month per user |
| AI | 1,000 to 3,000 credits a month bundled by plan, extra at $10 per 1,000 | AI included from Standard upward, with AI features listed on the paid tiers |
| Automation | Enterprise lists up to 250,000 automation and integration actions a month | 250 workspace command runs a month on Free, 1,000 on Standard, unlimited on Premium |
| Developer access | 1,000 API calls a day on Pro, with extra calls sold as needed | Unlimited Power-Ups per board on Free, with command runs metered at 250 a month on Free and 1,000 on Standard |
| Extras | Boards, dashboards, automations, and adjacent monday CRM and dev products sold separately | Calendar, timeline, table, dashboard and map views on Premium; workspace templates, collections, observers |
Pick Monday.com if
monday.com earns its higher seat price when several teams share the same data: viewers can watch without paying, dashboards aggregate across boards, automations move work between them, and the same vendor is there when you later need CRM or dev tracking. The entry point is $9 per seat a month billed annually, the free plan covers two people, and the AI allowance is already inside the price. Budget for the annual commitment and for extra credits if agents run hot.
Pick Trello if
Trello is the better answer for small teams, personal projects and lightweight client work. $5 per user a month gets unlimited boards and cards with AI features, the free plan holds ten collaborators, and there is no structure to set up beyond lists and labels. The ceiling is real: no portfolios, no capacity view, tight file limits, and automation counted in command runs. It is a board, deliberately.
No independent reviews, ratings or user quotes were gathered for this comparison. Both cards contain vendor-published positioning copied from the vendors' own sites.
On annual billing, five seats on monday.com's Basic come to $45 a month and five Trello Standard seats to $25 a month. At Standard level monday.com is $60 a month for five against Trello Premium at $50. Both figures exclude monthly billing, which costs 18% more on monday.com and $6 rather than $5 on Trello Standard.
Trello: up to 10 collaborators per Workspace with unlimited cards and up to 10 boards. monday.com's free plan covers up to 2 seats with up to 3 boards. For a group of three or more editors, Trello's free tier is the only one of the two that holds them.
monday.com lists unlimited free viewers on paid plans, people with read-only access who do not consume a seat. Trello handles access differently: free Workspaces are limited to 10 collaborators, and guest access to single boards is a Standard-tier feature. Check how your collaborators are counted before assuming viewers are free on both.
monday.com measures automation in actions per month and puts the ceiling at 250,000 actions on Enterprise. Trello counts workspace command runs: 250 a month on Free, 1,000 on Standard, unlimited on Premium. Light automation is cheap on both; heavy cross-board workflows belong on monday.com.
Trello Enterprise at $17.50 per user a month billed annually is aimed at organisations that need free SSO, user provisioning and Atlassian Guard Standard included. monday.com Pro at $19 per seat adds 3,000 AI credits, more bundled tools and API access rather than identity management. The right pick depends on whether your requirement is security administration or reporting depth.
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