Would ProofHub or Trello be the better project management tool for your requirements? Which would be simpler for your entire team to learn to use in a short time so that you can minimize the adoption duration? Does such simplicity come at the expense of good features? The questions are probably many. Do read on to find the answers.

ProofHub

User-friendliness is an aspect we have come to expect from just about everything since the concept became intrinsic to electronic and digital utilities. Be it a packet of confectionaries that comes sealed but is easy to open or the simple interface of a digital kiosk, we appreciate user-friendliness in its different guises.

ProofHub doesn’t let you down in that regard. In fact, project management software is among the easiest to use in the market. A highly intuitive user interface is the main reason for this. In fact, the interface on this project management software is so simple that even new users wouldn’t have any trouble using its features-an important reality given how multiple users would need to learn how to use such a tool in a short span of time if it is adopted by a whole team or an enterprise.

ProofHub gives you the option to organize teams into different groups according to a parameter of your choice. This helps further enhance the ease of use. For one thing, doing so results in a much simpler layout- with meaningful segregations making it easier to access information. Also, clustering by groups helps increase the data security in the project management software. After all, it is easier to set security norms when the teams are more in number but lesser in size.

To help ensure that you stay updated about every new development relevant to you, the project management tool also brings you instant alerts via email. You could choose only those notifications that are relevant to you so that your email inbox wouldn’t be inundated with unwanted alerts.

To make managing projects easy, ProofHub lets you sync the calendar in the project management tool with third-party calendar apps including iCal and Google Calendar. Files and documents- including discussions, tasks and people- could be imported from Basecamp and Basecamp Classic, freeing you from the hassles of setting everything up from scratch if you are migrating to ProofHub.

Aside from such cross-platform functionalities, ProofHub also works well on all the leading operating systems- including Android, iOS and Windows. This ensures that regardless of the system you are on, you could use the project management tool with maximum efficiency. The tool also lets you customize its appearance according to your wishes.

Such customizations and compatibility aside, one of the coolest things about ProofHub is that if offers advanced features which are not typically seen as part of offerings from project management tools. For instance, you get features for both time tracking and proofing in ProofHub. Then, there are features like workflows and steady boards that can be used for improving team productivity.  The latter features also make it easier to guide the task flow thereby aiding in task management.

While we are talking about the great features of ProofHub, it should also be mentioned that the project management software is optimized for mobile.

This is more important than you may imagine. For no matter how efficient a project management tool is while its’s run on a computer, it needn’t be so in the mobile version- an unfortunate problem that mars many an otherwise fine project management tool. Thankfully, the ProofHub app works seamlessly on Android and iOS. So you could track tasks, manage projects and do more on the go. 

The useful features in the project management software are perfectly backed by solid customer support. To solve any common queries that you may have, you could access use cases, video tutorials and FAQs of which there are quite a few on the platform.

To keep a tab on what new features have been added and also to learn about any new issues that may have been reported, there is a dedicated Update page. The fact that ProofHub has an active presence across various social media pages also makes it easy to get answers to your queries.

Since the bulk of the software development projects that happen in the current era are agile projects, it is only right to expect that a project management tool should support agile project management. You can be sure that such expectations are met by ProofHub. For instance, Kanban boards that are included in the system make it easy for you to arrange and systemize tasks in an agile project.

You also get the provision to add specific subscribers to a distinct stage of a workflow, so that only those team members you want would have access to that particular stage. This, obviously, is not a provision that is exclusive to agile projects. But given how agile projects typically involve a large number of smaller teams, with each requiring its own set of access, it is logical to assume this will aid agile project management a lot more than other types of project management.

Whether you are involved in agile project management or not, it is imperative that team members collaborate, and communicate well with each other. To this end, the project management tool brings you a good number of tools- including ones which let you comment and proof designs.  You could even add images to your comments, using a simple drag and drop method.

There are, of course, provisions to communicate with your team members in real-time, so that you wouldn’t have to switch to a third-party tool every time that is required. To find any specific topic from among the many that are discussed by the team, you could search using keywords.

To share knowledge with others, the project management tool helps you share files and documents.

 You also get provisions for tracking time and also invoicing, so that you bill those involved for the right lengths of time that they spent doing their tasks. In fact, for instances of multi-tasking, there are multiple timers available, so that you could switch from one task to another and back again without having to restart a timer each time.

Trello

One main reason why Trello is widely used for task management is the ease of use it offers. In fact, even those without a technical background would be able to learn how to use its features with minimal external guidance. This talks as much about the intuitive design of the platform as to the excellent guidance elements built inside the system.

 Particularly delightful is how easy it is to onboard a new team member into this tasks management platform. Once you give him or her the required access, you could just permit them to roam free, so to speak, and learn how to navigate the simple interface by themselves.

Typically, task management systems are adopted by teams involving a large number of people simultaneously. In this backdrop, Trello’s simplicity is a trump card for the platform, making it attractive for the users. That’s something that cannot be claimed by many of its competitors.

Trello also brings you a dedicated automation bot. Using it, you could set up triggers that would result in desired actions. The bot named Butler would ask you a set of questions, and the triggers would be automatically configured based on the answers you provide. You could automate everything from commands for setting due dates to notifying your team about any major change in tasks and moving a card from one column to the next. This, needless to say, frees up your valuable time, so you needn’t dabble in redundant tasks but focus on more crucial matters.

One frequent complaint project managers have regarding tasks management systems is how they don’t support integration with third-party applications- at least, not to the extent that you want them to.

There is a fair chance that you wouldn’t need to raise such complaints about Trello. Among other applications, Trello lets you integrate with Google Drive, Microsoft Teams and Zoom. You also get Power-Ups, which help you with multiple aspects of project management including communication, file management and reporting. These are essentially extended features that are not necessarily part of every tasks management system in the market.

An oft-repeated mantra in workplaces is “There are no individual rock stars, the team is more important than any one person.” This ethos is reflected in the centrality of collaboration for effectively carrying out a project.

Trello brings some great tools to help team members collaborate well.

Among these are tools which help you comment and share documents with team members. You could also mention specific team members in your comments(by using @ symbol, of course). In Trello, tasks are represented in cards, and you could assign cards to different team members as is required.

 Aside from tagging each other, users could also comment on their cards and channel conversations in such a way that all discussions about a particular card would happen in a single space. As mentioned before, Trello can be integrated with Slack, which makes communication even easier. This also means that you needn’t leave the platform when you have to communicate with a team member, thereby helping you save time.

Individual users also get a fair amount of control over how use the platform. For instance, they could configure notifications using email or push notifications and also customize the user experience according to their wishes.  

Trello’s eclectic features work not just on computers. They are equally functional- and accessible- in the app’s mobile version. You could effectively manage a project using the platform’s mobile app even when you are on the move- a functionality that’s becoming increasingly important in a world where the divide between professional workspaces and personal arenas is getting blurred. This level of optimization for mobile is not available in all project management tools either. In fact, there are quite a few tasks management tools which are excellent in their desktop versions but function terribly in their mobile counterparts. 

But that’s not to say that the tasks management system doesn’t have its downsides.

The number of project views available in the system is a typical point of contention among users. The system affords the Kanban view- supportive of agile project management. But that doesn’t negate the fact that it brings only a limited number of views. In fact, at the time of writing this, Kanban is the only view available in the free version of the tool. This is especially problematic if you need more detailed views of the tasks. However, you could access other views- including map and calendar - by upgrading to the premium plan.

The lack of an in-built tool for reporting also poses a problem. You could add third-party tools for the same, using Power-Up. However, that overhead could have been avoided with an in-built tool. Indeed, some of the other task management systems available in the market come with such tools integrated into them.

Should you choose Trello or ProofHub?

As mentioned before, Trello has a highly intuitive interface and affords plenty of scope for customization. In addition, the free version of the app supports up to ten boards, making it an attractive option if your team size is small. However, for bigger teams and especially when you are handling complex projects involving a large number of tasks and people, Trello is not the best option. In such cases, you can always rely on ProofHub.

Is any essential feature missing from ProofHub or Trello?

ProofHub and Trello bring you great functionalities to aid you in your project management. Depending on the type of project you are handling, you could choose one or the other, that would satisfy your requirements. Or would they?

Would they be able to help you find out when you could deliver a project? The answer is an unequivocal no. For neither tool has a mechanism to accurately measure the time a team member spends on a task, without counting the break time etc. Unless you get that measure right, then, you cannot possibly accurately predict the project delivery time.

But you do have a viable alternative in the form of I’m Productive- a project management system that incorporates an AI with which you could make the aforementioned prediction with just the click of a button. Check out their website to learn more about the features.