Pivotal Tracker vs. Trello

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Pivotal Tracker
Score 7.2 out of 10
N/A
Pivotal Tracker is a project management program primarily for software developers. It is built from the ground up to facilitate the agile development cycle, and is optimized for structuring projects in sprints, or “stories.” The solution is now owned and supported by VMware, and is part of the Pivotal / Tanzu product line up.N/A
Trello
Score 8.4 out of 10
N/A
Trello from Atlassian is a project management tool based on a Kanban framework. Trello is ideal for task-management in a to-do list format. It supports sharing boards and cards across users or teams. The product offers a free version, and paid versions add greater automation, collaboration, and administrative control.
$6
per month per user
Pricing
Pivotal TrackerTrello
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Standard
$6
per month per user
Premium
$12.50
per month per user
Enterprise
$17.50
per month per user
Free
Forever Free
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Pivotal TrackerTrello
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional DetailsA discount is offered for annual billing and for larger numbers of users.
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Pivotal TrackerTrello
Considered Both Products
Pivotal Tracker
Chose Pivotal Tracker
JIRA is very user friendly. It's ideal for people new to the software development lifecycle and the tracking of the work. They have simply nailed the intuitiveness. Pivotal Tracker might be the better long-term tool because of the flexibility that comes with it. But as …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
I have used a number of systems like Pivotal Tracker over the last 15 years. I have had several occasions to use Wrike separate from and alongside Pivotal Tracker. Wrike was more difficult to use and seems to either be locked down by permissions, so I had to "fight" to do my …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
The only thing that PT compares to is Salesforce and we now utilize both platforms - Salesforce is a bit more organized in its automated task flow and allows us to connect our other platforms to it for efficient data transfer and data consistency.
Chose Pivotal Tracker
I haven't used dev-specific tools other than Pivotal Tracker but it's useful because it is built for a specific use case. The simplicity of an Asana or Trello is great and they have their advantages, but the additional functionality mentioned was worthwhile and a compelling …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
It's not necessarily a matter of better vs. worse when it comes to all of these different tools. They all serve a different purpose to different sized teams. I found Pivotal Tracker and monday.com to be a matter of preference while serving a similar purpose. Good for smaller …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
Pivotal Tracker keeps users 'close' to the software project(s) by allowing users to understand, in plain words, the tasks and expectations of each software release, whereas other tools are either way too close to the source code or require an extensive amount of maintenance. …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
JIRA allows teams to tailor the application workflow to meet their needs, while "opinionated" Pivotal Tracker enforces a consistent workflow approach on all team members. While I, personally, may prefer to have a system configured to my particular habits and desires as a …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
We selected Pivotal Tracker because it is highly opinionated about the process. It worked quite well for what we were expecting from it. Other software we tried were much more flexible, so we could implement our own process there.
Chose Pivotal Tracker
Pivotal Tracker, Asana and Trello all have free versions making them ideal for smaller companies to try out. All of them blast Kannan boards and issue tracking capabilities. While Trello and Asana are great products in themselves, Pivotal Tracker edges them out with its wealth …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
I've used Jira ages ago, and it was still a young product in its initial iterations. The UI was a clunky and was missing a lot of ease with drag and drop for individual stories, uploads, etc. Management of users was useable, but not as ideal as it could be.
Chose Pivotal Tracker

We selected Pivotal Tracker because of its simple, elegant workflow. This is the ideal; it's where we want to be. So we continue to improve, and as we get better, we get more out of the software.

The other software products we evaluated were too complex, and we found that …

Chose Pivotal Tracker
We have had employees in the past look at Drupal, and other open source project management tools to assist in our needs. Unfortunately each solution took too much time to implement, design and configure that we could not stop the work we were doing for clients to complete a …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
We were using JIRA and found it lacking in their UI and some of their services, especially communication. PT communicates much easier with simple links to tasks for execution and QA review.

Basecamp is just really a super note taking and asset depot. I would not consider true …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
Compared to other task management tools, Pivotal Tracker has the best blend of functionality and cost. When you need something simpler than Jira, and not solely focused on code or UI related tasks like BugHerd, and have a more direct approach to completing tasks than Trello - I …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
Pivotal Tracker, for better or worse, provides a more structured and rigid workflow than most. That makes it easy to get started, but if you have your own workflow you want to integrate into it, it could mean it'll take longer to get used to or customize. It's still more …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
Our team has evaluated Basecamp, Trello, and others but overall preferred the simple and flexible layout of Pivotal Tracker.
Chose Pivotal Tracker
Our organization actually does not exclusively use Pivotal. We also have teams on solutions like Trello and LeanKit. It's all preference, those who buy into all the agile features that pivotal provides, love it. Those who do not need all the overhead, simply use a different …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
Rally is too complicated - there are far too many fields that all have the same meaning. It's a better agile tool in my opinion since it it was designed purely as an agile tool, but since the CA technologies acquisition, the tool has become more complicated and there are far …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
Compared to Rally the tool seems more accessible because or the suite of apps available. It also feels more polished and stable than Rally. It definitely has more tools and features but again it can be overkill for a smaller team or project.
Chose Pivotal Tracker
Overall I have found that I prefer using Pivotal over all the competitors I've tried. There are certain aspects of the other products which I do like but as a whole Pivotal does a better job. My one request is that I feel it is very much a web app and the other products have …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
I have also used Trello and Jira. A small company with only a couple of projects may be best suited with Trello due to its cost and simplicity, whereas Jira may be better suited for a large company that can afford a dedicated Jira manager, due to its complex configurations and …
Chose Pivotal Tracker
Jira is very complex, while tracker is more straightforward to use. Tracker requires less micromanagement and upkeep.
Asana is pretty but not useful for product and engineering build. It is more geared towards design projects.
Chose Pivotal Tracker
For teams less than a dozen or so, Jira is total overkill. PT is just the right amount of complexity for our company.
Trello
Chose Trello
Our business ended up using Monday due to the holistic nature of the tool. It allows us to collaborate amongst teams and see the project as a whole easier. Trello is for personal usage and task management. I use Monday to organize my overarching needs, and then put specific …
Chose Trello
I don't feel that Trello stacks up to these other tools as well. I used to use Trello much more in the past and, over the last 5 years, have consistently used it less and less because it is easier to stay within the workflow of the tools I listed above.
Chose Trello
Okay, I have to say that at the organization where I work, we completely switched from Trello to Monday.com, and it wasn't an easy decision. As I've mentioned throughout this review, I think Trello works perfectly for small and medium-sized businesses and/or entrepreneurs …
Chose Trello
We actually use both in our company. I personally prefer Slack just because I feel like it gives me more avenues of communication with my peers and coworkers then Trello does.
However, Slack would fail to meet our business requirements for what we need to succeed with new …
Chose Trello
Ease of adaption for small startups.
Chose Trello
Trello is more visual than Todoist and MS To Do. For me, the major advantage of Trello is its functionality around creating Kanban Boards—there is not the same flexibility or options in either of the other two products. I was also able to seek advice from colleagues who were …
Chose Trello
Asana is awesome but it comes with a price. For a startup pricing hurts. ClickUp is so vast and has a lot of areas to get lost in, if you don't set some standards there are many ways to do it wrong. Slack is just a communication platform, you can collaborate and stuff but not …
Chose Trello
Trello is more simple and not as "robust" as the other tools, but it's easier to use and manage and understand and ACTUALLY get stuff done with. It's simplicity is part of the beauty of using it. You don't need a million options that nobody uses, you just need to get stuff done.
Chose Trello
We found that those software, while they included Kanban boards, offered a lot more features. Our tickets tended to get lost and it was harder to navigate through. Our Product team didn't particularly like how they functioned as much.
Chose Trello
Trello won becuase of the easy drag and drop feature that makes it simple for team members to jump on and use from day one. That said, Asans has way more features and for a tech-savvy person it would be the choice; it is still user-friendly. While it has a steeper learning …
Chose Trello
Trello provides precise goal setting, targets, and activity tracking with minimal human intervention, while Trello provides tags and tasks to add users and communicate visual task organization. Trello also offers real-time updates, team collaboration, and project progress …
Chose Trello
Easier to use and easier to integrate with 3rd party software. Better design and we don't need to build everything from scratch.
Chose Trello
For our purposes and my role in the business, Trello is simpler and easier to use. I found Jira very hard to navigate to individual projects, and the process of creating a card was very time-consuming. That said, I think Jira performs a number of roles that Trello doesn't, and …
Chose Trello
Trello offers wide range of features even for free users which other vendors rarely offers.
Chose Trello
I have been able to use the free version of Trello for many years and for the free version, this platform offers incredible value. I have not yet found such value in other free versions of similar platforms. This platform is also very easy to use as a first time user.
Chose Trello
Trello is more in-depth and task-driven, whereas 15Five is more accountable and has personal weekly goals and accomplishments. Trello can be divided up to allow others to do the listed task, and all employees work together to accomplish and complete each required ticket/card …
Chose Trello
We are still transitioning into using Trello but used ActiveCollab in the past for our website management and projects. I do like the layout of Trello better and feel that the notifications work well.
Chose Trello
I also use Whatsapp chat as a task management tool. Whatsapp group chat is very convenient for assigning tasks and making follow-ups. Trello currently lacks here. Whatsapp chat is also way more handy and user-friendly than Trello, because of its better interface and engagement. …
Chose Trello
Atlassian Jira Align (formerly AgileCraft)
Chose Trello
Trello offers more functionality and features for use before forcing you to purchase.
Chose Trello
Trello is convenient for tasks management of the team, there are columns, additional tools, and integrations. Regular to-do lists are better to add routine tasks that you need to do daily. In Trello, It is convenient to add small projects or add smaller tasks for a big project …
Chose Trello
Trello is better than Gitlab CI and other tools because it provides a very simple way of managing project with just lists and draggable components. Also, thanks to Mobile version, it is really easy for a team lead to manage his projects at anytime of a day. So I widely …
Chose Trello
Trello has a better and easy UI, very quick learning curve. Flexibility to add plugins.
Chose Trello
Trello looked very simple to use compared to others. And basic features mostly suffice the requirement.
Features
Pivotal TrackerTrello
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Pivotal Tracker
-
Ratings
Trello
9.5
Ratings
22% above category average
Task Management00 Ratings9.80 Ratings
Resource Management00 Ratings9.50 Ratings
Gantt Charts00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Scheduling00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Workflow Automation00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Team Collaboration00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology00 Ratings9.40 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology00 Ratings6.60 Ratings
Document Management00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Email integration00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Mobile Access00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management00 Ratings8.10 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management00 Ratings10.00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
Pivotal Tracker
-
Ratings
Trello
5.0
Ratings
41% below category average
Quotes/estimates00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Invoicing00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software00 Ratings5.00 Ratings
Best Alternatives
Pivotal TrackerTrello
Small Businesses
GitLab
GitLab
Score 8.7 out of 10
Stackby
Stackby
Score 9.0 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Planview AgilePlace
Planview AgilePlace
Score 9.9 out of 10
InEight
InEight
Score 8.3 out of 10
Enterprises
Planview AgilePlace
Planview AgilePlace
Score 9.9 out of 10
InEight
InEight
Score 8.3 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Pivotal TrackerTrello
Likelihood to Recommend
8.0
(0 ratings)
9.8
(0 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
10.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Usability
6.0
(0 ratings)
9.6
(0 ratings)
Availability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Performance
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Support Rating
8.0
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
In-Person Training
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Implementation Rating
-
(0 ratings)
8.0
(0 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
5.0
(0 ratings)
Product Scalability
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
-
(0 ratings)
10.0
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Pivotal TrackerTrello
Likelihood to Recommend
The UI of the Pivotal tracker is really beautiful and amazing, which looks trivial, but we have it open all the time, so it's nice for us. In Pivotal tracker for me its very Easy to create tasks or stories anytime without facing any problems. Pivotal tracker provides us a ton of features to track the tasks and manage a team and the projects. Pivotal tracker allows for a entire team to be on the same page of the tool in regards to where is the project right now, right status of every task, what is being worked on and by whom.
Read full review
Trello is great for cross-team communication and intra-team organization. It's simple to get setup, with flexible tools that give businesses control over how to make Trello work the best for them. It is an amazing platform for operations tracking, project management, and even organizing customer service requests for a smaller business.
Read full review
Pros
  • Pivotal Tracker helps our team visualize our projects in the form of stories (virtual cards) moving through our workflow. This encourages us to break down projects into manageable chunks and have important conversations about deliverables and scope.
  • The forced-prioritization allows our team to have a shared understanding about what is most important and make collective decisions about what our team will work on next.
  • By dividing future iterations by our team's velocity, Pivotal Tracker accurately predicts when we will complete future work.
Read full review
  • Helps track employees "to do before hire", "to do after hired," and "to do when employee leaves"
  • Provides important information on each employee like personal information along with data collected during the time of hire and during employment time
  • Allows more than one person to be assigned to a task per employee and will remain open until everyone involved has completed their task
Read full review
Cons
  • Used to have a newsfeed-type feature with all the updates from the previous day. They removed it. I liked getting a snapchat of what changed from before.
  • When signing up for email alerts, can be inundated with emails for every change to the status of a story.
  • Communication on stories through the comment section can be a little difficult, and not very organized.
Read full review
  • I use colour coding a lot so I would like a wider range of colour options.
  • Also as a visual thinker I would like to be able to easily add images to cards.
  • I would like to be able to attach a wider range of file formats to cards.
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Likelihood to Renew
I love the simplicity, non-configurability, and price/performance of this tool. Hands down my favorite project management tool for agile.
Read full review
I am very likely to renew Trello, because it doesn't cost anything to do so. I am also very likely to use Trello's upgraded features in the future because a lot of my team's data is stored on there and they have already gotten used to the platform. Trello is very easy for new team members to pick up, making the onboarding and usability very streamlined.
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Usability
It works good enough. I didn't have many problems with that. The user interface is a bit confusing though. The team took some time to understand where some configurations were.
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I am technology illiterate, it's my Achilles heel and this program is so easy to use. I have been utilizing it for a decade now. It makes organizing and prioritizing my life, my work, my business, my kids life, etc so much more manageable and without having to hold on to a bunch of into in my head. I can find it and locate it quickly and easily in Trello.
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
No answers on this topic
yes always support available when I need it!
Read full review
Performance
No answers on this topic
Never experienced issues with the above!
Read full review
Support Rating
We've never had to request support in the 5 years I have been using it. A solid solution! Everything I have had questions about is on the website. New features are in their newsletter with more details on their website. Often I am using the new features within a few minutes of reading the article.
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I haven't had much need to contact their support because the product is easy to use and pretty bug-free. I did reach out to them about swimlanes and I was able to find the information I needed very quickly and it was thorough and accurate information about current functionality. I love that they use their own product. That's always a good sign.
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In-Person Training
No answers on this topic
It was helpful and informative! It was back before the pandemic in 2019 so I'm not sure if they still do it but I really enjoyed the experience
Read full review
Implementation Rating
No answers on this topic
For our small business, getting a few of us started well on Trello was the key, I think. As long as a couple of us were really comfortable with the interface, we could lead others and help them with any questions. From now on, anyone who works with us just naturally uses Trello for information sharing - it's just part of what we do.
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Alternatives Considered
Pivotal Tracker, Asana and Trello all have free versions making them ideal for smaller companies to try out. All of them blast Kannan boards and issue tracking capabilities. While Trello and Asana are great products in themselves, Pivotal Tracker edges them out with its wealth of features including trackability of epics, burndowns, better reporting, and analytics. JIRA, on the other hand, is way more customizable, has more reporting capabilities and more features than Pivotal Tracker but is more expensive too. At the end of the day, it comes down to what you're looking for in an agile project management tool as well as how much you're willing to pay for it.
Read full review
Our business ended up using Monday due to the holistic nature of the tool. It allows us to collaborate amongst teams and see the project as a whole easier. Trello is for personal usage and task management. I use Monday to organize my overarching needs, and then put specific tasks into Trello to stay organized.
Read full review
Scalability
No answers on this topic
Feels like anyone across the org (no matter their location) can use the tool easily!
Read full review
Return on Investment
  • Pivotal Tracker has been a cost-effective solution for what we need. It has allowed our ROI to be greater than if we went with another system.
  • Learning curve; with this easy to use tool, it has been a shorter learning curve for new hires to find what they need to accomplish their task.
  • Flexibility; we are right now stuck at 4 levels of classification; project; Story, Task, Comments. If we were able to expand on this, we would be able to role this out faster to other departments within our business.
Read full review
  • It's been an essential tool for our onboarding team. We wouldn't be able to operate without it.
  • It's been a very affordable investment for our team as well since we still use the free version.
  • We have had a negative return in the fact that there aren't any reporting tools within the app. We have to spend time tracking certain elements manually.
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ScreenShots