Motion vs Trello: which one fits your team?
One of these knows when and not what. The other knows what and not when. Put plainly, they are two halves, and people usually end up running both.
It turns on which half you already have covered, because on their own neither is a complete answer.
Pick Motion if
your calendar is chaotic, you mostly work alone, and you would rather software reconciled it than do it yourself. Where it stops: the plan is the algorithm’s, and the price is set for people who want that.
Pick Trello if
you want a board everyone gets instantly, for free, and tracking state is all you need. Where it stops: a board says what state something is in, never when it happens.
What it costs
For a team of 5, billed yearly: Motion is about $1140 a year, Trello is about $300 a year, and UnaTask is €480 plus VAT. Between the two of them Trello is $840 a year cheaper at that size.
Motion: Around $19 to $29 per seat per month billed annually, more monthly. No free plan. Trello: Free up to 10 collaborators. $5 Standard and $10 Premium per user per month billed annually.
Where they part company
Motion does more on 8 of them
- time blocking on a calendar
- having a plan for today
- two way calendar sync
- booking links
- dependencies and a timeline
- turning meetings into tasks
- docs and a wiki inside
- AI that does the work rather than the scheduling
Trello does more on 4 of them
- having a free plan
- being the place the tasks actually live
- linking pull requests to the work
- being useful before you configure it
Side by side
| What it does | Motion | Trello | UnaTask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time blocking on a calendar | Core. The blocks are placed by the algorithm, not by you. | No | Core |
| A plan for today and this week | Core | No | Core |
| Two way calendar sync | Core | Partly. A calendar power up on the board, not a calendar you plan a week on. | Yes |
| It is the task manager itself | Yes | Core | Core |
| Dependencies and a timeline | Partly | No | Yes. Dependencies with a timeline that shows what is waiting on what. |
| See who has room | Partly. Team features are layered on an individual first product. | Partly | Core |
| Booking links | Yes | No | Yes |
| Meetings become tasks | Partly | No | Yes |
| Email and chat become tasks | Partly | Partly | Yes |
| Pull requests linked to work | No | Partly. Through a power up rather than natively. | Yes |
| Docs and wiki inside | Partly | No | Partly. Docs live on a project, they are not a wiki you would run a company from. |
| Portfolio or agile reporting | Partly | Partly | Partly. Team workload and project progress, not portfolios that roll up to a board. |
| Rules that fire on their own | Yes | Yes. Butler rules on the board are genuinely good and free to start. | Yes |
| AI that does the work, not just the scheduling | Partly. The AI schedules the work. It does not do the work. | No | Yes. AI teammates you assign a task to. The work comes back on the task for review. |
| Useful before you configure it | Yes | Core | Core |
| A free plan | No | Yes | Yes |
What should not decide it
They answer the same on 4: showing who has room, turning email and chat into tasks, portfolio and agile reporting and rules that fire on their own.
And where UnaTask sits
UnaTask is the halves joined: the pile and the hours in one tool, so nothing has to be kept in sync between them.
It does more than both of them on dependencies and a timeline, showing who has room, turning meetings into tasks, turning email and chat into tasks, linking pull requests to the work and AI that does the work rather than the scheduling.
Common questions
Motion vs Trello: which should I pick?
Pick Motion if your calendar is chaotic, you mostly work alone, and you would rather software reconciled it than do it yourself. Pick Trello if you want a board everyone gets instantly, for free, and tracking state is all you need.
What is the biggest difference between Motion and Trello?
The clearest gap is time blocking on a calendar, where Motion does more than Trello. Underneath that, Motion is software that arranges your calendar for you and defends what it put there, and Trello is a list or a board that everybody understands without being taught.
Is Motion or Trello cheaper?
For a team of 5, billed yearly: Motion is about $1140 a year, Trello is about $300 a year, and UnaTask is €480 plus VAT. Between the two of them Trello is $840 a year cheaper at that size.
What do Motion and Trello have in common?
They answer the same on 4 of our 16 axes, among them showing who has room, turning email and chat into tasks and portfolio and agile reporting. Those are the things that should not decide it for you.
Where does UnaTask fit against Motion and Trello?
UnaTask does more than both on dependencies and a timeline, showing who has room and turning meetings into tasks. It is free on your own and €10 per seat for a team, with every feature included. Where it does less: it is not an issue tracker with sprints and burndown, and it is not a documentation workspace.
Details checked June 2026 and 2 August 2026.