Comparison

Glattice vs Trello

Trello is the most approachable board software ever made, and that is not faint praise — its lists-and-cards model is why most people know what a kanban board is. Glattice is the same idea with a second axis: cards sit where two fields meet rather than in one list, and you can swap which field drives which axis. If one axis has never felt limiting, Trello is the better tool. If you keep making a second board to track the thing the columns cannot, this is the difference.

The short version

Trello and Glattice compared across six dimensions
Dimension	Trello	Glattice
Board structure	One axis: lists. Swimlanes need a Power-Up.	Two axes. Any facet on the rows, any other on the columns.
Changing the question	Re-order or re-group lists by hand; the previous grouping is gone.	Swap the axes in one click; the same cards re-sort.
Public API	Mature REST API with API keys and tokens.	REST, 76 documented endpoints, not tier-gated.
AI agents	No first-party MCP server; automation via Butler and integrations.	Remote MCP server over OAuth 2.1; agents read and write the same board.
Change history	Per-card activity feed.	Append-only, tagged with the interface behind each change. 30 days on Free.
Seats	Every collaborator is a paid seat.	Viewers and billing-only members are free; you pay for people who edit.
Entry price	Free tier; paid from around $5/user/month.	Free for 5 boards per space; Pro $5/month.

Where Trello is strong

A comparison that concedes nothing is not worth reading, so here is the honest read on where Trello earns its place — and where the two of us are simply built for different jobs.

Fifteen years of Power-Ups and integrations. If a board's value comes mostly from what it connects to, that ecosystem is deep and it is Trello's.
The lowest-friction onboarding in the category. Nobody has ever needed a manual to understand a Trello list, and that is a real achievement.
Butler automation and a mature mobile story for people who run their work from a phone.

Where Glattice is different

The second axis is the whole difference, and it compounds. Dragging a card sets two fields instead of one and undoes as a single action. Swapping the axes re-asks the question — priority × status becomes owner × status without duplicating a card. And because every edit in the Glattice web app is itself a call to the public REST API, an agent connected over MCP is not working through a restricted integration surface; it is using the same endpoints with the same permissions, and every write it makes is recorded as coming from an agent.

Moving from Trello

Export your Trello board to CSV, then import it into Glattice — one column becomes the first facet, and you pick a second from whatever else the export carried. Glattice exports back to JSON or CSV at any time on any plan, including Free, so the door swings both ways.

Keep reading

What is a 2D kanban board?Browse the templates See pricing

Frequently Asked Questions

Only if one axis has stopped being enough — if you are maintaining a second board, or reading priorities card by card because the columns are already spent on status. Trello's mobile apps and its Power-Up ecosystem are genuinely strong, and a board that runs on those is doing its job.

Via CSV. Export from Trello, import into Glattice, and map one column to each axis. Cards, titles and descriptions come across; Power-Up data does not.

If one axis has always been enough and your board's value is in its integrations, stay on Trello — it is very good at that. Come here when you find yourself keeping a second board because the columns are already spent on status.