Trello vs Notion for Project Management: Which Works Better in 2026?

Trello launched in 2011 and popularized kanban boards for teams. The whole app is built around one idea: cards on boards. You've got columns (usually To Do, Doing, Done), you drag cards between them, and that's your workflow.

It's beautifully simple. Over the years they've added Power-Ups (integrations), Butler (automation), calendar views, but the core hasn't changed. When I show Trello to someone who's never used it, they're managing their first board within minutes.

Notion showed up in 2016 with a completely different vision: what if one tool could be your docs, wikis, databases, and project manager? It's built on blocks (everything is a block), pages (infinite nesting), and databases (with multiple views). The flexibility is kind of ridiculous - you can build almost anything. I've seen teams recreate CRMs, HR systems, and full product roadmaps inside Notion.

The catch? You have to build it yourself. Empty Notion workspace = blank canvas that's both exciting and paralyzing.

Trello is board-first, always. Every project is a board with lists and cards. Recently they added calendar and timeline views, which helps if you need to see due dates visually.

There's also a table view now (kinda looks like a database), but honestly it still feels like a board pretending to be a spreadsheet. The simplicity is the point - you don't need to choose between 8 different views. Just drag cards around.

Notion databases give you like 6 different views of the same data: table, board (kanban), timeline (Gantt), calendar, list, gallery. Switch between them instantly. This is stupidly powerful once you get it - same project data, viewed however makes sense for the task.

Kanban for daily work, timeline for quarterly planning, calendar for deadlines. The views are actually good, too, not half-baked add-ons.

Trello cards can have descriptions and comments, but let's be real - you're not writing long-form docs in there. For team wikis or meeting notes, you're using Google Docs or Confluence alongside Trello.

You can attach docs to cards, but everything lives separately. Which is fine if you already have a docs solution you like, annoying if you want everything in one place.

This is where Notion demolishes Trello. Every project can have docs embedded right in it. Meeting notes link to project databases. Wiki pages reference specific tasks.

Everything's connected. I've watched teams move from Trello + Confluence + Google Docs into just Notion and genuinely simplify their stack. The editor is solid too - supports all the formatting you'd expect, plus embeds, databases, toggles, all that good stuff.

Assigning cards to people, commenting, @mentions - Trello covers the basics well. The activity feed shows who changed what. Butler automation can notify people when cards move or deadlines approach.

It works fine for teams of 5-50 people managing straightforward projects. The limitations show up when you need deeper collaboration like threaded discussions or team wikis integrated with tasks.

Notion's collaboration goes deeper. Comments can be threaded, resolved, turned into tasks. Pages have full edit history. You can @mention people or pages.

The real power is linking everything - mention a project in meeting notes, link tasks to strategy docs, connect team members to their projects. Permissions get granular if you need them. Feels more like working in a shared brain than a project tool.

Butler is Trello's automation feature and it's honestly pretty good. No-code rule builder lets you automate card movements, due date changes, assignments - lots of workflows without touching any code. When a card moves to 'Done', archive it and notify the team.

When due date hits, move to 'Urgent' and assign to manager. That kind of thing. Not as powerful as Zapier, but way easier to set up.

Notion's built-in automation is... limited. You can set up database automations (when status changes, notify someone), but it's not as robust as Trello's Butler. Most teams end up using Zapier or Make to connect Notion to other tools.

The trade-off is Notion's databases are more flexible, so you can build complex workflows manually that would need automation in simpler tools. As of late 2025, they're supposedly working on better automation, but we'll see.

Trello is plug-and-play. New team member? Show them a board, explain columns, they're productive same day. I've onboarded people who'd never used project management software before - zero issues.

The interface doesn't hide anything behind menus or require learning special concepts. Card goes here, move it there, done. This simplicity is why non-technical teams love it.

Notion requires actual learning. Blocks, pages, databases, relations - there are concepts to understand before you're effective. I'd budget a week for someone to feel comfortable, longer to feel proficient.

Lots of YouTube tutorials help. The good news? Once your team gets it, they can build crazy powerful systems. The bad news? Getting everyone to that point takes real time investment.