Jestor vs Trello: The best alternative to Trello 2023

Trello is the original kanban tool. It was a pioneer software in process and workflow management, and many people worldwide still use it for things ranging from shopping lists to project collaboration. 

On the surface, Trello looks like a complete tool for internal processes: there’s a decent variety of views, automations, and integrations, and a simple interface with drag-and-drop features that makes it easy to use by people of all levels of technological proficiency. 

However, while it can be a good enough tool for simple processes and personal lists, being one of the first of its kind can have some downsides, as it lacks some more advanced features and optimizations than other newer tools such as Jestor has. As such, it’s always important to ask a few questions when adopting software: is it right for my company? Is it enough for my intended use?

We made a Jestor vs Trello comparison to show you how Trello can help you–and other ways in which you may find it misses the mark.

Jestor vs Trello comparison summary table

Item	Trello	Jestor	Comments
Pricing	🟡️	✅	– Trello: charges per user. – Jestor: has both usage-based and user-based pricing, meaning companies can choose the model that best fits their business model.
Pricing similar plans (20 users 09/27/22)	🔴️	✅	– Trello: $200,00 Premium Plan – Jestor: $120,00 Developer Plan
WhatsApp Integration	✅	🔴️	– Trello: no native WhatsApp integration.  – Jestor: native WhatsApp integration, where you can send and receive messages directly from a record, creating a chat with your clients, suppliers or team members.
No-code Pages	✅	🔴️	– Trello: no no-code Pages feature. – Jestor: has no-code pages which allows you to create dynamic documents that combine text with real-time data.
No-code Automations	🟡️	✅	– Trello: 5 types of trigger, and 11 types of action.  – Jestor: 17 triggers and over 30 actions, with operations/specific automations. More being developed.
No-code Integrations	✅	✅	– Trello: integrations by the means of power-ups.  – Jestor: 18 integrations, more being developed. It includes Slack, Gmail, Twilio, and more.
Low-code	🔴️	✅	– Trello: not available.  – Jestor: feature-rich developer area.
Low-code Apps	🔴️	✅	– Trello: no custom pages.  – Jestor: back-end/front-end customizable pages.
API	✅	✅	– Trello: Complex to use REST API.  – Jestor: Simple to use REST API.
Permissioning	🟡️	✅	– Trello: classic spreadsheet-like approach to permissioning. – Jestor: advanced permissioning with custom business rules.
Workspaces	🔴️	✅	– Trello: isolated workspaces.  – Jestor: custom, connected workspaces and bundles.
Dashboards	🟡️	✅	– Trello: analytical dashboard with 3 components, can’t cross information between boards.  – Jestor: apps with 28 different components, ranging from analytical to integrations and operational/interactive.
App Building	🔴️	✅	– Trello: not available. – Jestor: build your own apps for desktop and mobile dragging and dropping blocks. Bundle structure for larger apps.
History Log	🔴️	✅	– Trello: not available.  – Jestor: track who did what, where and when on the platform. Filter it by action type and extract reports.
Mobile	🟡️	✅	– Trello: mobile app that mirrors desktop use.  – Jestor: customized experience for each app developed and mobile native navigation.
Forms	🔴️	✅	– Trello: no native/in-built forms feature.  – Jestor: custom apps and forms with connected data.
Buttons	🟡️	✅	– Trello: can’t create buttons for automations.  – Jestor: buttons for navigation, data input, and automations.
Chat	🟡️	✅	– Trello: comments on cards.  – Jestor: chat behaves more like a Slack.
Tasks	🟡️	✅	– Trello: cards as tasks.  – Jestor: dedicated, contextual tasks that can be assigned to users, tables and records.
Data Structure	🔴️	✅	– Trello: no way to connect data between boards. – Jestor: connection fields that ensure correct data structure and allow powerful automations. Single source of truth.
Kanbans	✅	✅	– Trello: entirely optimized around kanbans, including the interface and card structure/order.  – Jestor: has customizable kanbans while allowing for different ways of tackling processes (such as itemized requests).
Views	🟡️	✅	– Trello: allows for 1 of each of its views, such as board, table, or calendar.  – Jestor: multiple customized views per table, more than 1 kanban per table.
Fields	✅	✅	– Trello: only 5 types of custom fields apart from the standard card structure.  – Jestor: 33 fields, with interactive fields (such as Checklists or Buttons), technical fields (such as Query, which runs an SQL query), and even integrated fields (such as Address, which integrates to Google Maps to search for a location)
Conditional Fields	🔴️	✅	– Trello: no conditional fields.  – Jestor: has conditional fields with nested AND/OR conditions, as well as more actions.

20 reasons why Jestor is the best alternative to Trello

1. Jestor has Conditional Fields

There are no conditional fields in Trello.

Jestor has conditional fields feature that allows you to determine when a field should either:

• Appear or be hidden.
• Be required or optional.

This means that you can set up, for example, a Recruiting structure where an applicant has to provide a diploma only for certain positions or hide the Social Security Number field when a contractor is a Corporation instead of an Individual. 

Also, these conditions can be nested and complex, following OR and AND structures up to three levels of rules. 

This ensures that not only you’re able to create a kanban that holds all the information you need, but that only shows and requires certain data in specific scenarios. In other words, it’s the best alternative to Trello cause makes the process easier to follow for the user, minimizing mistakes. 

2. Variety of No-code integrations and Webhook

Trello natively has two integrations in its Butler feature: Jira and Slack. There’s also a third way to integrate through Butler, which is to send a POST call to an external platform. However, those are all actions. This means you’ll be able to send information easily to Jira, Slack, and external endpoints, but you will not be able to receive information through the same means.

Trello is also present in third-party integration tools such as Zapier, which you can use to expand its integration capabilities, but which will incur more costs for your operation.

Jestor is constantly developing new native integrations, allowing most teams to use Jestor without the need for additional third-party software such as Zapier or Make. While Zapier is still integrated with Jestor, it’s more of an additional possibility than a necessity.

Jestor also has a native webhook (both for sending and receiving data) that can be used for no-code integration with other applications that don’t have native integrations yet.

3. Wider Array of Native no-code automations

Trello has a no-code automation feature called Butler. In it, you can create automations to be set off in specific conditions. For, when a card is added to the board, assign it to a specific user. 

One cool thing about this feature is that it takes a more “sentence-based” approach to create automations. Triggers and actions are laid out as sentences where the user can change certain words (a sort of automation Mad Libs).

It’s hard to pinpoint how many triggers and actions Trello has because, between its 6 categories of triggers and 11 categories of actions, a lot of the items are duplicates or perform similar functions, and were only broken into different items for ease of understanding. However, suffice to say the tool is very capable and can be handy in many situations.

On the other hand, Trello while Trello focuses on the productivity/kanban side of automations, it lacks niche/operational-oriented automations. While you can expect to get an email when a card is moved, you may not find it able to do much more in less generalistic situations.

Jestor on the other hand has a wide array of native no-code automations, both generic and specific/niche. You can not only create a Billing record when a Sale is Won, but create monthly installments from that sale, take items sold from inventory, and generate a custom QR Code to direct the customer somewhere else, among other uses. 

It’s also possible to string as many actions as you like in one single automation, and even use the result of an action in the next action. This means you can run sequences instead of simple one-offs, like if a record is created, send a POST call to an external platform and, depending on the result, create another record.

4. WhatsApp Native Integration

Trello has no native WhatsApp Integration.

Jestor has a native WhatsApp integration which allows you to send and receive messages directly in a record, just like you would with the internal chat feature.

With WhatsApp being one of the most used messaging platforms worldwide, this can be incredibly useful in many different scenarios, such as:

• Sending automatic messages to clients.
• Requesting quotes from vendors.
• Setting up an organized support channel.

Messages received automatically create or update records in tables or kanbans, and you can have predefined templates to send messages using data from Jestor. Not only that, but you can also automate WhatsApp messages just like any other part of Jestor, so this feature is just as powerful as everything else, and only an add-on with a limited scope.

This is a great feature to integrate your internal processes with external sources, and the best part is that everything you do will be stored in Jestor, meaning your messaging history doesn’t have to be isolated in an external platform.

5. No-code Interactive Pages

Trello doesn’t have a no-code Pages feature.

Jestor has a no-code Pages feature which is basically a document where you can also create app components like charts, gantt views, forms, and others.

In this page, you can write and format text just like you would in a word processor, and then add all the information you deem necessary for the user to access alongside the text. As a result, you can create documents that can not only hold dynamic data, but you can also create interactive pages which explain a process–while also allowing the user to operate it as they read it.

This is an amazing feature for:

• Reports.
• Policies.
• Processes.
• Data retention.

By combining these features, you can ensure new employees hit the ground running, cutting onboarding time. Or even provide helpful reminders to prevent common mistakes.

To top it all off, it’s very easy (1 click, in fact) to print the document or save it as a PDF, which can be a huge time saver when you need to update someone on the most recent numbers.

6. Apps and dashboards that pull data from anywhere

Trello allows you to create one dashboard per board, where you can create components to see information about your board. Trello has three charts, with predefined settings you may choose at the time of creation.

One thing of note is that it’s not possible to cross data between boards. When you create a chart, it’s always seeing data from that board, and some types of insight are not feasible to create (such as an indicator that calculates Cost per Lead by aggregating all marketing costs and dividing by leads created). You can’t customize these charts at all: if you want to see a custom variable or field, you’re unfortunately out of luck.

Finally, Trello’s dashboards are analytical only: there’s no way to operate that information from the components. 

In Jestor, there are currently 28 different components, accounting for all chart variations of the chart component.

Aside from the number of building blocks available, two main things make Jestor’s apps the best alternative to Trello dashboards: 

1. Jestor’s apps allow you to pull data from anywhere inside Jestor, not only a specific table or board. This means the finance team can pull information from the sales team’s tables to build their indicators and charts, for example. 
2. Jestor’s components are not only analytics-inclined. While there are charts and indicators, there are also interactive components such as order generators, forms, dynamic search filters, and even kanban views.

Those two items combined allow for Jestor’s apps to behave less like a simple dashboard attached to a board, and more like central hubs where data can be used as desired, and operational tasks can be performed. For example, you can have a CRM with charts, contact lists, and a kanban view all in the same place, an HR hub to see all information related to an employee or even a form that automatically subtracts items from stock.

7. No-code Roles and Low-code Profiles

Trello takes a fixed approach to access levels: there are set types of permissions you can grant to a user.

Users can be either:

• Admins: users who can change settings on a workspace or board, as well as use boards normally.
• Members: users who can use boards normally, but can’t change settings/permissions.
• Observers: users who have read-only permission to a board.
• Guests: like members, but that do not belong to the workspace.

There are also some minor tweaks one can do on a board’s permissions, such as defining which types of users can comment on cards, but overall Trello’s permissioning is very rigid and without many customizing options.

In Jestor, there are also two better alternatives to Trello: no-code Roles and low-code Profiles. They both customize the same access levels, but with varying degrees of possibilities.

Roles let you assign Jestor-wide powers, such as creating new tables or customizing colors, as well as in-table permissions, such as defining which tables a user will have access to and whether they’ll have full access and powers in it or more limited scope. 

Profiles allow you to create more intricate permissioning rules, such as Junior Salespeople can only see clients with potential under $5,000.00, or leads that they created themselves.

Advanced permissioning allows you to offer users to clients (or partners) of our customers. They can create custom apps and portals for all their clients. 

8. Kanbans and Views

Trello is the original kanban platform, and most of its features are dedicated to this type of view. When you create a board, all of the kanban structure is already created, such as the kanban view itself and Trello’s default fields. Trello also has different views you can activate, such as a dashboard and calendar.

However, you can only have 1 view of each type for a board. You cannot have multiple kanban views for the same board, or multiple table views.

Jestor is a database-first platform. This means that things are first created as tables, and then different views may be created to see this data through a different lens. As a downside, you have to activate those views manually (for example, you have to create a kanban view). 

However, the upside is that this also means Jestor is more flexible when it comes to how many different views you may have. You can create two different kanbans to see the same data (one by Stage and one by Priority, for example), or even have table views that are pre-filtered and only show a handful of relevant fields. You can also create a record view to see the centralized data not only of a specific record but from connected records that point to it.

9. n:1 Data Structure

Trello has no real connection fields. That is fields that allow you to connect to cards or records in other boards or databases. It does have a way of “linking” cards through the attachments field. There, you can select or paste the URL to a card, and Trello will show a thumbnail of that card with some summed-up data. 

However, this is not a true connection field from a relational database perspective. There’s no way to access the information inside the linked cards in automations or use that information programmatically. The data inside the linked cards are not truly joined to the parent card. Instead, you have a prettified hyperlink that does not serve the purpose of organizing data.

Also, this means that whenever you have processes that are connected (say, a sales Deal kickstarting a Billing process), you’ll have to duplicate data in other for it to be readily and easily available.

In Jestor, you can create connection fields that connect data in a n:1 manner. Not only is data accessible through connections, either manually or automatically, but the n:1 connections organize data in a scalable way. This means the software connects tables in a way that allows for more complex and useful automations.

Jestor can be (and is) used by many companies as a single source of truth, and there’s no need for data duplication to run processes. And, if there’s any need for n:n connections, it is also possible to do it using auxiliary tables, which keep data organization and clarity intact.

We encourage companies to take our data structure courses to understand how to better approach database building.

10. Mobile app retains the same functionalities

Trello has a mobile app that successfully mimics the experience you find in the desktop app. You can cycle between stages/lists, and open a verticalized view of the card to access the data or input more information. It doesn’t do much more than let you operate the kanban, but given this is the purpose of the platform, it does that successfully.

The Jestor mobile app is the best alternative to Trello app cause it adapts features for verticality and usability. More important, however, is that the mobile app retains the same functionalities and operations-oriented design of the platform. This means there’s a wide array of things you can do aside from filling and moving records around. 

By using a combination of workspaces, bundles, and custom apps, the mobile experience can be just the best alternative to Trello as feature-rich and easy to use as the desktop version. Navigation is just as customizable, and even more complex apps and dashboards, like inventory counting or project calendars, will have the same features and usability.

11. Jestor has native forms

Trello has no in-built form solution. You’ll need third-party solutions to create an integrated form. 

Jestor has native forms as a component of the apps. This means you can customize it just as you would any other app: apart from the form itself, you can have pictures, embedded videos, charts, and even buttons to open WhatsApp conversations.

The form itself allows you to not only create records in a table/kanban but create connected data at the same time. For example, if you have a form for New Client, you can also add sections to add as many Contacts as you want, and this information will be created in Jestor already connected correctly.

12. Most familiar and simpler API

Trello has a REST API. REST APIs are the more common APIs you’ll find on cloud software, and for a good reason. They’re familiar to most developers, and will usually make for hassle-free integration projects. 

However, you may find through a quick look at Trello’s API that it can be too complex for your tastes. There are many, many different endpoints for each of its features. For example, getting information on a custom field and getting information on checklists are two different things, even though you may think of them as just fields on a card. 

As such, not only can it get a little complicated to keep track of everything (and to remember all that the API contains), but you may also run into inefficiency by having to do many calls to get all the information you need.

Jestor, on the other hand, uses a simpler REST API, which is immediately the best alternative to Trello cause it’s familiar to most developers or tech-oriented individuals who will be able to understand and easily keep track of. 

This doesn’t mean it’s a weaker API. On the contrary, virtually anything you’re able to do manually in Jestor, such as creating fields, tasks, or fetching nested structures, is possible to be done through Jestor’s endpoints. It’s just that, because of Jestor’s database-first approach to how tables and apps are created, data is organized in an easier to fetch and manipulate way. 

13. Jestor has Low Code and Developer tools

Trello has no low-code/development area. There is a way to use custom code to create new fields or functionalities in the means or Power-Ups, but it’s essentially just a way to access something you code and maintain on your end, and not on a Trello low-code platform. 

Jestor has a feature-rich development environment that allows developers or tech-oriented individuals to create complex and unique solutions to their problems. 

The development area encompasses:

• Triggers: you can create custom low-code automations called triggers. They’re lines of code that will run whenever the trigger you set up (such as After a record is created in Receivables) is activated. This allows you to create a plethora of complex automations that no-code automations are too generic to do, such as running financial predictions or treating data before sending a POST request.
  • There’s a wide variety of native methods that allow you to fetch and manipulate data inside Jestor, as well as specific things such as cURL requests or creating files.

• Pages: you can create fully customizable (back-end and front-end) pages inside Jestor, allowing for custom-built interfaces for specific processes. More on that in the Pages section of this comparison.

• Back-end functions: you can create back-end functions that will behave similarly to triggers, but can be invoked in other situations, such as through a webhook or in the middle of a trick.

• Styles/CSS: you can create CSS styles to be easily accessed when creating Pages, facilitating the process of creating customized interfaces.

• Profiles: you can create access levels that follow custom permissioning rules. More on that in the Permissioning section of this comparison.

• Webhook: you can create incoming webhooks that either create records directly into a table or run custom functions from the data you receive, which can be particularly useful to integrate event-heavy platforms, such as PMSs. 

Coming soon to Jestor: 

• Python and other languages.
• Better UI and UX, including IDE. 

14. More interactive Fields

There are currently 5 types of custom fields in Trello (checkbox, date, dropdown, number, and text), apart from the main structure of the card. This allows for only superficial customization, and you may find that this is extremely limiting when you have complex or even just data-rich processes.

Jestor currently has 33 fields. As well to direct data input fields, there is a better alternative to Trello with interactive fields (such as Checklist or To-Do Lists), technical fields (such as Query, which runs an SQL query), and even integrated fields (such as Address, which integrates to Google Maps to search for a location). 

15. Chat behaves more like Slack

Trello allows you to comment on cards, and tagging other users. The comment section of the card also functions as a card history, registering changes made to it. 

Jestor also allows you to comment on records and tag other users. However, Jestor operates more like a chat section than a card history. In this manner, Jestor’s chat behaves more like Slack than Trello. It’s possible to open a record and see the comments, but also check out Jestor’s chat section and see ongoing conversations, with reading and unread messages, and use tables and records as channels.

16. Dedicated Feature for Tasks

Trello takes a cards-as-things-to-do approach to tasks. The platform considers that a card assigned to a user is a task currently being worked on, and the Cards section in the user provides links to the current ongoing cards. 

Jestor has a dedicated feature for task management. Tasks are not the records themselves. Rather, tasks can be assigned to users/groups, as well as to tables or specific records. This means Sale #0352 is not a task by itself but can have many different tasks attached to it, with varying deadlines and owners. Tasks can be checked by record and table, and users have their own My Tasks Management section where they can see their pending tasks (with overdue and approaching deadlines given priority).

As with other parts of Jestor, task management creation can be automated as well.

17. No-code Buttons

Trello allows you to create buttons as part of the Butler feature. It allows you to create board or card buttons that auxiliary with navigation or with custom automations. For example, you may create a card button that sends a card to the next list on the kanban, or a board button that orders cards by name.

Jestor allows you to create three types of buttons:

1. Buttons that add connected records (for example, add an Apartment record to the Hotel record you’re currently seeing).
2. Buttons that navigate to a link, can also be used to open pre-filtered apps.
3. Buttons that run automations, such as sending an email, removing an item from stock, or even starting a shift on a timesheet (marking the current time).

These buttons can be accessed not only on the tables and kanbans, but in apps components as well, allowing users to have a better alternative to Trello by creating a more intuitive experience (for example, a green button that approves a payment request, and a red button that denies the request and sends an email to the requestee).

18. Organized Workspaces and Bundles

Trello has workspaces, which are a combination of boards. All boards appear on the main page of the workspace and, while you can filter to search for a specific board, it can be a bit clunky to manage all the boards when you have many of them. One thing that helps is being able to create collections, but they’re always some clicks away from the main page. This means it can get a little confusing and slow to navigate in a big workspace.

Also, while you may have different workspaces, you can not have the same board between workspaces. 

Jestor allows you to create workspaces, a more organized way of grouping up apps, tables, and pages. Not only it is the best alternative to Trello, but easier to find what you’re looking for, but when accessing a workspace, the menu is contextually updated to facilitate navigation. 

Notice that an app or table can be in more than one workspace at the same time. This means the same database (such as Clients) can be shared between many workspaces, eliminating a common problem many software have of segregating data between teams.

Jestor also has Bundles, which is like a dedicated app with its own navigation bar, making mobile use and ultra-focused operations easier for the end user.

19. Allows to create Custom Pages

As we’ve mentioned before, Trello has a way to access external code through its Power Ups feature. This means you can code things on your end and display them to the user on Trello, but that is not done in a Trello-side platform.

In Jestor, you can create customized pages by providing the back-end and front-end codes directly into the development area, which is stored and run entirely by Jestor and effectively allows you to make a new second-level interface for a specific process or need. 

As a lighthearted example, here’s a Flappy Bird-Esque game running on a Jestor page (code by w3schools).

20. Hybrid combinations of Pricing Models

Trello’s pricing model is user-based. That is, you’ll always pay a monthly fee for the number of active users you have on the platform. As such, low-usage users can seriously impact your billing, even if they perform only an action or two daily.

Jestor has pure usage-based plans, as well as user-based plans and hybrid combinations, which is already a better alternative to Trello. Big operations can have as many users as they need without paying extra for it, and small-scale teams can purchase a few users if it’s more economical for them. This freedom and flexibility ensure that you can always find the plan that makes the most sense for your needs. 

Trello Pros

There are some places in which Trello has some advantages over Jestor. 

1. Trello allows for more aesthetically choices. You can choose a background color or picture for the board.  
2. Trello allows for more positional actions in its kanban boards, either manually or through automations, which can be beneficial for personal to-do lists with few cards.
3. Trello’s focus on kanban boards allows it to have a more niched UI inside its cards, like headers for assigning owners or labeling cards. Jestor is built for more possible uses, so it starts with a more generic record structure.

Why Jestor is the best alternative to Trello?

As we’ve said before, Trello is the original kanban software. As such, it set the standards that many similar, more modern software follow to this day. This means that it works well for most of what it proposes to do, and has had a lot of time to improve on its original features. However, it also means it can be too simple for current audiences that have more dynamic and complex processes, and demand more adaptive and customizable tools.

While it works really well as a personal productivity manager, there are some really noticeable drawbacks that may make it not suitable for your team or company:

• Lack of variety when it comes to native no-code automations or integrations.
• Almost nil flexibility and no developer tools.
• Non-scalable data structure.
• Unimpressive mobile experience.
• Shallow permissioning/access levels structure.
• Limited options when it comes to apps and dashboards.

In Jestor, you have a wide array of features that will not only cover your kanban needs but can be used or adapted to any process in your company at any size, from an individual freelancer to thousands of employees. 

Schedule a meeting with our team here to understand why Jestor is the best alternative to Trello and why many companies are migrating from Trello to Jestor.