Trello versus Favro: first impressions
If you’ve ever dabbled in visual project tools, Trello probably feels familiar: simple boards, lists and cards that you can pick up in minutes. Favro, on the other hand, arrives with a slightly more structured, multi-dimensional approach — boards, backlogs and timelines that can all be linked together. Both aim to reduce chaos, but they go about it differently.
Trello excels at instant usability. You can create a board and start moving cards around in seconds, which makes it great for personal projects and small teams. Favro expects you to think a bit more about workflow and structure from the outset, which can pay dividends for complex projects that need cross-team collaboration.
Workflows, flexibility and views
Trello focuses on the kanban metaphor: drag a card from To Do to Doing to Done and you’re essentially done. It has checklist items, labels, due dates and simple automation via Butler. Favro supports kanban too, but it natively offers backlog lists, sprint planning and spreadsheet-like or timeline views that help when you need multiple perspectives on the same data.
If you want a pure, intuitive kanban experience, Trello is hard to beat. If you need to switch between kanban, scrum and roadmap views without duplicating work, Favro’s flexibility becomes attractive.
Integrations, power-ups and automation
Both platforms integrate with common tools — Slack, Google Workspace, GitHub and the like. Trello uses Power-Ups to add functionality: calendars, voting, custom fields and more. Favro tends to bundle more features into the core product and encourages cross-board referencing, which can reduce reliance on third-party add-ons.
Automation is available on both. Trello’s Butler provides easy-to-create rules and buttons, while Favro offers automations tailored towards team workflows and backlog management. The choice often comes down to whether you prefer adding capabilities piecemeal (Trello) or using a more unified feature set (Favro).
Pricing, team size and scalability
Trello has a generous free tier that’s perfect for individuals and small teams. Paid tiers add more Power-Ups, higher automation limits and advanced admin controls. Favro’s pricing reflects its positioning for mid-size to larger teams and agencies that need cross-team planning and reporting.
For a startup or a team of five, Trello’s pricing model is very forgiving. Larger organisations or those with interdependent teams may find Favro’s structure and features justify the cost because it scales into more complex use cases without too much patchwork.
When to pick which — and a helpful alternative
Choose Trello if you want an easy, visual board that’s quick to adopt and low-maintenance. Choose Favro if you need tighter planning, multiple board views and easier scaling across teams.
If you’re exploring options, also take a look at onlinetcards.com. It’s in the same family of tools — offering kanban and scrum boards — and provides a free project management system that can be an excellent middle ground for teams that want more built-in features without a steep learning curve.
Practical tips for a smooth transition
Map your workflows before you move tools. Knowing whether you need simple task boards, sprint planning or cross-team roadmaps will clarify your choice.
Start with a pilot project and involve your team early. Export and import capabilities differ between tools, so test data migration. Finally, use automation sparingly at first — rules can save time, but they can also make systems brittle if overused.