Stack Momentum vs Trello
Stack Momentum vs Trello — which one is right for you?
Trello invented the modern kanban board for the rest of us. A decade later, the Trello card-on-a-list metaphor is still the most recognizable project UI on the internet — your team almost certainly knows it without a demo. That recognition is also Trello’s constraint: the board view is the product, the list view is a Power-Up away, and most of the features grown-up teams expect — calendar, dashboards, automation runs, advanced checklists — are gated by tier or paid extension. Stack Momentum takes a different bet: ship list and kanban as first-class views in the same workspace, bake assignees and due dates into the core, and put the whole thing inside a flat-priced bundle so per-seat math doesn’t define what you can use. This page compares them on the dimensions that actually decide which one your team picks.
Pick Stack Momentum if…
Pick Momentum if you want list + kanban in one tool, with no per-seat tax.
Momentum is the right call when half your team thinks in lists ("what am I working on today?") and the other half thinks in boards ("where is this in our pipeline?"). You get both views over the same data, no Power-Up dance, no upgrading to Premium just to see a list. Due dates, assignees, and threaded comments are built into every task — they’re not paid add-ons. Pricing is flat: $20/month for the whole Stack bundle (Momentum + 7 other apps) or $13/month for Momentum standalone, regardless of seat count. For a five-person team, that’s $240/year vs $360/year on Trello Standard, and you also get notes, meetings, time-tracking and chat at no marginal cost.
Pick Trello if…
Pick Trello if your team only ever wants a board, and they want the best one.
Trello’s pure-kanban dialect is more refined than anyone else’s, including ours. A decade of focus on cards-on-lists shows up in a hundred small places: drag interactions feel right, mobile parity is genuinely excellent, Butler automation is the best no-code rules engine in the category, and the Power-Up ecosystem covers nearly any extension you can think of. If your workflow is exclusively kanban — a content calendar, a CRM-lite pipeline, a personal Getting Things Done board — and you have no appetite for a list view in the same workspace, Trello is hard to beat. Universal team familiarity is also worth real money; nobody needs onboarding for a Trello board.
Feature-by-feature breakdown
| Feature | Stack Momentum | Trello | Winner |
|---|---|---|---|
| List view | Native, first-class | Power-Up only (Standard tier or higher) | Stack |
| Kanban board view | Native, first-class | Native — the Trello core | Trello |
| Switch between list and kanban on the same data | One click, same workspace | Separate views with different feature sets | Stack |
| Due dates on tasks | Built in | Built in | Tie |
| Assignees | Built in, multi-assignee | Built in, multi-member | Tie |
| Threaded comments | Threaded with @mentions | Flat comments per card | Stack |
| Automation rules | Basic recurring tasks + status rules | Butler — best-in-class no-code rules | Trello |
| Power-Up / extension ecosystem | Built-in features, no marketplace | Massive Power-Up marketplace | Trello |
| Mobile app | Web (PWA) + Mac, no native iOS yet | Excellent native iOS + Android | Trello |
| Asana CSV import | Native importer | Via paid Power-Up or manual | Stack |
| Pricing model | Flat — $20/mo bundle, $13/mo standalone | Per-seat — $6/user/mo Standard, $12.50/user/mo Premium | Stack |
| Pricing (5 seats / yr) | $240 flat (whole bundle) | $360 (Trello Standard) | Stack |
| Brand familiarity | New product, low recognition | Decade of brand recognition — instant team buy-in | Trello |
| Calendar view | Included | Standard tier and higher only | Stack |
Pricing
Stack Momentum
$20/mo flat for the whole Stack bundle (Momentum + 7 other apps, unlimited users), or $13/mo for Momentum standalone
Trello
Free; Standard $6/user/mo; Premium $12.50/user/mo; Enterprise custom (annual billing)
At five seats on annual billing, Trello Standard runs $6 × 5 × 12 = $360/year. Momentum inside the Stack bundle is $240/year flat — no per-seat math, and you get Slate, Stream, Scribble, Sync, Chat, SpeakBar and Timekeeper alongside it. If you’d need Premium for views like Calendar or Dashboard (which Momentum includes), Trello jumps to $750/year for the same five seats. The crossover where Stack is cheaper than just-Trello-Standard is roughly 3.5 seats; beyond a tiny team, the bundle wins on price, and the gap widens as you grow.
UX differences worth knowing
Switching views
Stack Momentum: Toggle between list and kanban with one keystroke; same tasks, same filters
Trello: Board is the default surface; list view requires switching to a Power-Up or upgraded tier
New task flow
Stack Momentum: ⌘N from anywhere → blank task with assignee + due date inline
Trello: Click into a list → click "Add a card" → open card to set due date / assignee
Comments
Stack Momentum: Threaded replies with @mentions; collapses long discussions cleanly
Trello: Flat reverse-chronological comments per card
Automation
Stack Momentum: Basic rules: recurring tasks, status transitions, assignee defaults
Trello: Butler: triggers, scheduled commands, calendar commands — visibly more powerful
Mobile
Stack Momentum: PWA — works fine, but no native iOS app yet
Trello: Native iOS / Android with offline mode and push — class-leading
Switching from Trello
Migrating from Trello to Momentum is straightforward for the data that matters and lossy for the Power-Ups. Trello’s built-in JSON export (Show menu → More → Print and Export → JSON) gives you boards, lists, cards, members, due dates, labels, checklists and comments. Momentum’s importer reads that JSON directly: each Trello list becomes a kanban column, each card becomes a task, due dates and assignees carry over, labels become Momentum tags, and checklists convert to subtasks. Comments import with author and timestamp preserved. What does not migrate is anything that lived inside a Power-Up — custom fields beyond the basics, calendar overlays, third-party integrations. If you depend on a specific Power-Up, check whether Momentum has the equivalent built in (most of the popular ones — calendar, dashboard, repeating cards — are native here) before committing to the move. For Asana refugees, Momentum also accepts Asana’s CSV export directly, which Trello does not without a paid Power-Up.
FAQ
Is Stack Momentum a Trello alternative?+
Yes, for teams that want a kanban board but also want a real list view in the same workspace. Momentum gives you both views over the same data, with assignees and due dates built in. It does not try to replicate Trello’s Power-Up marketplace or Butler automation depth — those remain Trello’s strengths.
Can I import my Trello boards into Momentum?+
Yes. In Trello, open a board, then Show menu → More → Print and Export → JSON. Drop the JSON file into Momentum’s importer. Lists become kanban columns, cards become tasks, due dates / assignees / labels / checklists / comments carry over. Power-Up data does not migrate — anything stored in a Power-Up will need to be reconstructed using Momentum’s native fields.
How does pricing compare for a small team?+
For a 5-seat team on annual billing: Trello Standard is $6 × 5 × 12 = $360/year. Stack is $20/month flat = $240/year, which includes Momentum plus 7 other apps. If you’d otherwise need Trello Premium (for Calendar, Dashboard, Workspace views), it’s $750/year at 5 seats — Momentum includes those views in the base price.
Does Momentum have a kanban board?+
Yes — kanban is one of two first-class views in Momentum, alongside list. You can drag cards between columns, set WIP limits, and toggle to list view at any time without losing context. The board view is intentionally simpler than Trello’s decade-polished kanban; if your team only uses kanban, Trello’s board is more refined.
What about Trello’s Butler automation — does Momentum have an equivalent?+
Not at Butler’s depth. Momentum has basic automation: recurring tasks, status-change rules, default assignees per project. Butler offers richer triggers, scheduled commands, and calendar commands that Momentum does not match today. If your team depends heavily on Butler rules, that’s a real reason to stay on Trello.
Is there a native mobile app?+
Momentum runs as a progressive web app (PWA) — installable from Safari or Chrome — plus a native Mac app. There is no native iOS or Android app yet. Trello’s native mobile apps are class-leading; if mobile-first is non-negotiable for your team, that’s a meaningful gap on our side and we’re honest about it.
Why pick Trello over Momentum?+
Three honest reasons: (1) you only ever want a kanban board and you want the most polished one in the category; (2) you depend on Butler automation or a specific Power-Up that Momentum doesn’t replicate; (3) class-leading native mobile apps matter more than list-view parity. For those teams, Trello is the right call.
Verdict
Momentum and Trello aim at the same job from opposite directions. Trello is a kanban board that has, over a decade, accumulated the polish, mobile parity, automation depth and brand recognition that come from doing one thing extremely well. Momentum is a list-and-kanban tool that ships the second view as a first-class citizen, bakes assignees and due dates into the core instead of a tier, and lives inside a flat-priced bundle that resets the per-seat math. If your team only ever wants a board and you value class-leading mobile + Butler automation more than a list view, pick Trello. The polish is real, the team familiarity is real, and the Free tier is genuinely usable for small projects. If your team is split between people who want lists and people who want boards — or if you’ve felt the per-seat tax start to bite as the team grew, or you want calendar and dashboard views without a Premium upgrade — Momentum is built for exactly that team. The bundle math seals it: $240/year flat for the whole Stack lineup vs $360/year for Trello Standard at five seats, and Momentum’s feature parity for everyday task work is honest. Trello’s pure-kanban dialect is more refined; that’s the trade.
Try Stack — $20/mo flat for all 8 apps.
Stack Momentum comes bundled with seven other work tools. One subscription, no per-seat surprise.