Wrike vs Trello Comparison: Which is the Better?

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Project management has become compulsory in enterprises with big-budget projects because failure can be very costly. However, it is a misconception to think that project management only benefits large corporations with mega-projects. In fact, any business that initiates a project to create a favorable result will gain some sort of benefit. This is because effective project management allows a team or organization to complete the project on time and within budget. And almost always, this helps ensure customer satisfaction.

Maintaining and growing the business-customer relationship is a challenge in today’s economic landscape. Using the right project management software makes it easier. Smart PM software, such as Wrike and Trello, provides the essential features and tools to help companies manage tasks and track progress so that projects are efficiently completed and successfully delivered. A comparison of these 2 well-known tools can help potential users choose the best fit for their requirements.

Wrike

Wrike Logo

Wrike is an online project management software designed to help teams improve their speed and efficiency in accomplishing their work. Whether co-located or distributed, teams have a central and accessible hub for all their work. Founded in 2006, it now has over 700 employees in offices in San Jose, San Diego, Dublin, Melbourne, and St. Petersburg. Airbnb, Survey Monkey, and TGI Fridays are some of the more than 20,000 happy customers that rely on the PM software to help them deliver their projects and satisfy customers.

Trello

Trello is an online project management software that utilizes a system of digital Kanban boards, lists, and cards. It is a collaborative and highly flexible tool that helps users, whether individuals, families, teams, or corporations to organize work and workflow, and track its progress across different stages or phases. Developed initially in 2011 for internal use, it was spun off in 2014 as a separate company to focus on the product. Acquired by Atlassian in 2016, it now has over 35M happy users, including Palace Law, Instinct Dog Training, and Scan2CAD.

Wrike vs Trello

For our comparison purposes, we will asses the 2 project management software on 5 grounds: feature, price, ease of use, security, and support. For each assessment point, we will declare a winner, and at the conclusion, we will announce the overall winner.

1. Features

Wrike provides users a powerful organizational and project planning tool. It has an interactive Gantt chart that includes tasks, assignee, schedule and dependency information. From an overview, they can drill down to details. Dynamic request forms help them receive and collect complete information to create the right plans for their customers. It has customizable dashboards so that they can choose to see only those that need their attention the most. Collaboration is built-in, so that communication is accomplished in the context of work, such as with its proofing tool. Real-time reports are shareable, with automated notifications and smart analytics. Aside from its capability to be customized, it also has ready-made packages for specific teams, such as marketing and creative teams, IT and engineering, product development, and more. It can be integrated to hundreds of online and on-premise apps, with available desktop and mobile apps, as well as API.

Trello is a simple but flexible application that resembles a digital whiteboard with movable virtual Post-it notes. Teams can collaborate on creating their boards, lists, and cards to suit their particular requirement, goals, and workflow. Once established, the project board can be populated with task cards with their own details, comments, attachments, links, checklists, and more. Automation and notifications are available, as well as numerous integrations called Power-Ups. It works across platforms, so whether browsers, desktop apps, or mobile apps, project information is available. A free and open API is publicly available also.

Winner: Wrike

2. Price

Wrike offers a freemium plan, with the Free plan available for up to 5 users. This includes a simple shared task list. The next plan for groups of 5, 10, and 15 users is the Professional plan priced at $9.80 per user per month billed annually. It includes all the tools for project planning and collaboration. For teams and organizations of greater than 15, the Business plan at $24.80 per user per month billed annually is available for up to 200 users. An Enterprise plan is also offered for companies of more than 200 users. Users can try the software for free for 14 days.

Trello has a forever Free plan that includes unlimited personal boards, cards, and lists. It also includes up to 10 team boards, 1 free Power-Up per board, and limited automation. The next plan is the Business Class plan at $9.99 per user per month billed annually, with up to 250MB per file attachment, custom background and stickers, unlimited team boards, board collections, team board templates, unlimited Power-Ups, custom fields, calendar view, a map view, and over 100 app integrations. It also includes a significant number of automation. An Enterprise plan is also offered for a minimum of 20 users.

Winner: Trello

3. Ease of Use

Wrike has an easy sign-up process. Inviting the rest of the team is also simple and quick. After that, users will be greeted by a screen with several panes, including a navigation pane and other project views. They can start quickly with the use of templates that provide best practices recommendations in how projects are set up and tracked. The number of features available can lead to issues in navigation at first. However, with regular use, this becomes smoother and easier.

Trello initially starts with only 4 elements: the board, lists, cards, and menus. So, for simple projects, boards will naturally be simpler in composition as well. With drag-and-drop functionality, the interface is minimally intuitive but also interactive. Once projects, workflows, and tasks are defined and created, it is also easy to organize with color-coded labels and tags. It has a powerful search across boards. The board layout provides information-at-a-glance, and card details will only appear should the user chooses to click the card for more information.

Winner: Trello

4. Security

Wrike is serious about security. A whole web page is dedicated to security information that details from an overview to physical, system, network, application security, privacy policy, compliance and more. The advanced application security features are mostly available in the Enterprise plan, and these include SAML 2.0 SSO, 2FA, password policies, IT admin-controlled permissions, user audit reports, network access and compliance policies, and more. It is certified with EU-US Privacy Shield framework, SOC2 Type2 certified, ISO/IEC 27001:2013 certified, and STAR Level 1 assessed. It conforms to world-class data security standards, such as TLS 1.2 data encryption, and account and recovery tools.

Trello similarly offers most of its security features in its Enterprise plan. These include 2FA, advanced admin permissions, domain-restricted invites, deactivate members tool, Google Apps sign-on, simple data export, SSO for all SAML IDPs, Power-Up administration, attachment restrictions, organization-wide permissions, organization visible boards, and public board management. It is also SOC2 certified, complies with EU-US and Swiss-US Privacy Shield framework, TLS and AES 128-bit encryption for data in transit, and AES 256-bit encryption on attachments.

Winner: Wrike

5. Help and Support

Wrike offers support packages that range from free, included in the plan, or in addition to it. Premium support is available 24/7 through multiple channels such as email, help center chat, dedicated phone line, and workspace chat. At the least, the Free plan has email support available 24/5. It also has a comprehensive help center that customers can access for their interactive training, video tutorials, getting started articles, and a community forum.

Trello offers priority support to paid subscribers, which is email support that gets a response within one business day. It also has a Help page with an extensive knowledgebase about accounts, getting started, templates, Butler, apps, and others.

Winner: Wrike

Conclusion – Wrike is the Winner

The results are nearly even, but overall, Wrike wins. With its comprehensive set of features, security, and support, users will be able to manage their projects better for the satisfaction of their customers. However, should you decide to go for Trello, we highly suggest using Bridge24 for Trello, which provides great reporting and exporting features.


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