Shlomi Lavi /
Feb 28, 2023
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Bottom Line: Which is Better - Todoist or Trello?
Trello vs. Todoist
About the Providers
Trello was founded by Joel Spolsky in a TechCrunch event in 2011. Joel had founded Fog Creek Software, which later owned Trello. It started off as free project management software and currently has over 10 million users worldwide.
Todoist was created by a start-up named Doist in the year 2007. It has still not managed to capture a huge market base and the number of users till date is around 2 million worldwide, which is far lesser than Trello.
Ease of use
Trello incorporates a unique UI, which has a Kanban structure that lets team members view overall status at a glance. Team members corroborate their tasks in a single shot and get to know what the status of each task at hand is. At Trello, team members can lend a helping hand to other team members whilst doing their own tasks.
Todoist is fast and simple and easy to use. It has quick access to your to-do list and all the important items in them. Users can simply add tasks to a to-do list or add steps to the complex project timelines right from the first screen with just a simple click.
Reliability
Trello has great support centre, which works 24X7 to cater to all kinds of service calls. It has a huge database of Knowledge documents, FAQs and video tutorials. The support forum is also there to look after support issues.
Todoist on the other hand has all kinds of support functions, but misses out on the knowledge base. The support is not only carried out in English, but in atleast 14-15 other languages. This serves well for people who have difficulty in English language. It is also up 24/7, so no worrying about dead ends in case of problems during wee hours.
Speed
Trello uses a Kanban approach displaying all dashboards and tiles in a neat and clean manner. They use labelling and story based approach. Users have access to their tasks and stories very fast and can update the progress with a blink of an eye. Moreover, they are updated real-time whenever a task, story, or discussion is modified.
Todoist provides real-time synchronization of tasks and other allied activities. It works across all platforms and devices smoothly without lagging behind. Instant notifications of any changes are floated to the users when the same are made to any tasks or sub tasks.
Features
Let’s take a look at the features categorically.
Trello has unique Kanban functionality which is a path breaker in any project management software. This makes your entire project to be viewed at a glance. It gives Trello a nudge ahead of any competitor and following features. It is simple, fun to use and is highly visual in nature. It provides a collaborative environment where team members can manage all kinds of projects at one place.
- Faster Search Options
- Interactive screen size to work on any screen size
- Customized Labelling for cards and tasks
- Assigning Tasks to other users
- Email Notifications and activity log
- Backup of all data
- Attaching images, drawings and sketches
- Safe and secured data
- Open API to create your own Trello Organisation, with verified credentials
- Numerous cards and tiles creation
- Interactive design makes it available on the go in Android and iOS App
- Superb visual feel with Emojis
Todoist is helpful in running the show with team collaboration and team actions working together in a single direction. It has great features to boast about and it works almost on all devices, so you don’t miss out on your tasks and reminders anywhere. It has the following features:
- Sharing of Projects
- Clean and Simple UI
- Labelling of tasks
- Comments and Sharing of tasks
- Offline Functionality
- Automatic backups of data
- Setting Priority levels
- Setting Project Templates
- Email Notifications for changes
- Real time synchronization
- Managing Users across the organisation
- Reminders for tasks vide emails and tasks
- Open Developer API
- Sharing Controls
- Task Tracking and Productivity tracking
- Tasks can be created directly from emails.
Security
Trello also runs on TLS, but has an added advantage of HTTPS and SSL encryption, making it even more secure to pass through. Data backup takes place every hour and stored off-site in a disaster recovery location. It has data portability, which allows your data to be downloaded by you, anytime. It has safer integration principles with other softwares and snugs well with any compatible devices, since the security is high; it has to encrypt data at every level before performing any actions. With immediate data recovery available, loosing too much at a time is history.
Todoist has a history of 99.99% uptime. To maintain this high rate of uptime, they have huge data centers, which are protected with bank standard SSL encryption and have hourly backups that are again kept safe at separate servers in separate seismic locations. They have dedicated security engineers who maintain firewalls and malwares and detect intrusions round the clock to give the users safer and secured data.
Summary
Even though they are amazing applications but still there have been some cons to them. Like in Trello no Gantt (project bar chart) is given. You can’t write documents or wiki about boards, only simple description. There is no calendar. Limited email integration, limited number of labels is a problem too. It is mostly difficult to work around with multiple cards at once, so this affects speediness of the user. Even though there are loads of keyboard shortcuts, its usage is still limited. Users need to be thoroughly acquainted with the system to get going with shortcuts. Todoist is feature rich task management software and offers a clean and simple UI to work on. It supports loads of softwares making it quite compatible in and around the market. The only glitch in its all-inclusive package is many features, which are missing in the freemium model, rather, organisations end up paying for its paid versions to get the full benefits of the same. Trello is eye catching but not that great for all sorts of organisations.