Trello

A board for the vague part of a project

Milanote is built for the messy, not-yet-a-task part of a project, moodboards and notes rather than a queue of cards to drag, from $9.99.

Docs, tasks and dashboards in one place

ClickUp folds docs and dashboards in around the task board, from $7, more built into one place than cards dragged between columns.

Task and project tracking for small teams

Asana adds dependencies and timelines on top of the task list, from $10.99, exactly where a board of cards runs out of structure.

A task list that survives being ignored for a week

Todoist lists recurring tasks by date rather than dragging cards across a board, from $5, built for one person's rhythm rather than a small team's queue.

A database that behaves like a spreadsheet

Airtable behaves like a spreadsheet with real fields and views, from $20, structured data where Trello is a wall of cards with a description each.

Boards you can shape into whatever the work is

monday.com starts from the same board idea but lets you shape columns into workload and timeline views, from $12, past the point Trello's cards stop being enough.

Flat pricing that stops caring how big you get

Basecamp charges one flat price no matter how big the team gets, from $15, a full project suite rather than a board of cards.