Kanplot vs Trello

Written by the person who makes Kanplot, so read it with that in mind. I've used Trello for years and still think it's a good product — just not always the right size.

The short version

Pick Trello if you need automations, integrations with other tools, more than a handful of people, or a board that's part of a bigger company workflow. Pick Kanplot if you're a team of two to ten who wants sticky notes that sync, with nothing to configure and no upgrade prompts.

Side by side

	Kanplot	Trello
Price	Free, no paid tier	Free plan with limits; paid plans per user per month
Getting a teammate on	They type a six-letter code	Email invitation, account, workspace
Setup	None — board is ready with four columns you can rename	Workspaces, boards, lists, labels, members, Power-Ups
Automation	None	Butler rules, triggers, scheduled commands
Integrations	Calendar export (.ics) and backups	Hundreds of Power-Ups: Slack, Google Drive, Jira and more
Mobile	Web app that installs to the home screen; one column at a time on phones	Native iOS and Android apps
Who can delete things	Per-project admin lock	Board and workspace permissions
Best for	Small teams, families, class projects, one person with a plan	Teams inside organisations, complex projects, anything needing automation

Where Trello is better

Almost everywhere that "more" is the answer. If you want a card to move itself when a checklist is complete, a Slack message when something's overdue, custom fields, calendar and timeline views, or a board with 200 cards and eight people, Trello does all of that and Kanplot doesn't try to. Trello also has real native mobile apps, offline sync across devices, and a company behind it that will still exist in ten years.

Where Kanplot is better

Speed to a working board. In Kanplot you sign in, type a team name, and you're looking at a board with notes on it within a minute; your teammate is looking at the same board a minute later with a code. There's no workspace to name, no "upgrade to unlock", no Power-Up marketplace to wander into. The board looks like sticky notes, notes change colour as they move, and that's all there is to learn.

It's also free without an asterisk. No per-user pricing, no board limits, no premium features. That matters more than it sounds for a family or a student group, where "£5 per person per month" is the end of the conversation.

And the admin lock is unusual: one setting that says "only these people can delete things", which turns out to be exactly what parents and teachers want and what Trello's permission model makes surprisingly hard.

Moving from Trello

There's no importer, and given the size of the teams Kanplot suits, you probably don't need one. Make a board, add the notes that are still live, and leave the archive in Trello. Most teams that switch find half their Trello cards were dead anyway.

The honest recommendation

If you're reading this because Trello feels like too much for what you do, that feeling is usually right, and Kanplot is built for exactly that. If Trello feels like too little, Kanplot will feel like even less — look at Notion or Linear instead.