You needed to see what was happening. Not a spreadsheet with columns nobody updated. Not an email thread where tasks disappeared into the archive. Something the whole team could look at in one view and know exactly what was in progress and what was done.

You found Trello. Cards, lists, a board. You set it up in an afternoon. It worked.

One board. Three lists: To Do, In Progress, Done. Maybe a fourth for On Hold. Cards get moved. Due dates get added occasionally. The subscription renews. The Power-Ups stay unread. Butler automation has never been configured. The Timeline view has never been opened.

The Four Things Your Team Actually Does on Trello

Cards get created. Cards get assigned. Cards get moved from one list to another. Due dates go on the ones that matter.

That is the job most small businesses hired Trello to do. And Trello does all four.

It also does unlimited Power-Ups and integrations, Butler automation with scheduled commands, Timeline and Calendar views, Dashboard reporting, advanced checklists, custom fields, admin and permission controls, and Atlassian Intelligence AI features. You pay for all of it. Most small businesses move cards.

What your Trello subscription pays for
  • Unlimited Power-Ups and integrations
  • Butler automation and scheduled commands
  • Timeline and Calendar views
  • Dashboard view for reporting
  • Advanced checklist features
  • Custom fields
  • Admin and permission controls
  • Atlassian Intelligence AI features
What most small businesses actually open
  • Board with 3 to 4 lists
  • Cards with assignees and due dates
  • Basic checklists per card
  • The ability to move a card from one list to another

Who Trello Is Actually Built For

Trello is a serious kanban tool for remote teams and developers who use the full methodology. WIP limits. Swimlanes. Multiple boards with cross-board reporting. Integration with GitHub or Jira. For those teams, the Power-Up library is the entire value proposition. Butler automation saves hours a week.

If your business is a small team tracking jobs, tasks, or client work across a handful of stages, Trello is built for a different customer. You are using four features of a platform designed for engineering and product teams at scale. The Power-Up library is irrelevant. The subscription renews anyway.

The Platform You Do Not Own

Trello is an Atlassian product. Your board templates, your card configurations, your history: all of it lives in Atlassian's platform. Atlassian sets the pricing. Atlassian decides what the interface looks like next year. Atlassian can change the plan structure, remove features from lower tiers, or increase per-seat costs. You have no say in any of it.

A Merebase board is yours. The data is yours. The interface stays exactly as it was built. No Atlassian product decision affects what you paid for.

What a Small Team Pays Over Three Years

Trello Standard runs around A$6 per user per month. Premium runs around A$12. A team of five on Premium pays A$60 a month. Over three years that is A$2,160 paid to Atlassian to use a platform the team does not own, for features most of them have never opened.

That A$2,160 does not buy the board. It rents access to it. When Atlassian reprices, the rent goes up.

Trello Premium, 5 users, 3 years
A$2,160
A$60/mo. Platform you do not own.
Merebase Merebase task board
A$499
Once. Yours. No monthly fee after that.

What a Merebase task board Includes

A Merebase task board is built around the job your team actually has. You describe your lists, your stages, how cards get assigned, and what information matters on each card. The app is built to do exactly that.

What a Merebase task board includes:

A board with your lists and stages. Cards with assignees and due dates. Checklists per card. Status tracking. Notes per card. Search and filter. Data export. Unlimited users. A$499 once. You bring your own hosting. A basic plan runs A$5 to A$20 a month.

There is no Butler automation panel you will never configure. No Timeline view collecting dust. No Power-Up library prompting you to connect tools you do not use. The board does the job. Nothing else is in the way.

Your Data Is Already in Trello

This is the most common reason people stay. Their card history is in Trello and starting over feels like a loss.

Trello lets you export any board as a JSON file. Your cards, lists, labels, due dates, and member data are all in that file. A custom Merebase app can import from that export and continue from where Trello left off. The history comes with you.

Once the data is in your own app, it stays there. No platform can reprice it, restrict access to it, or change the interface around it.

Common questions
Is there a cheaper alternative to Trello for small businesses?
Yes. A Merebase task board built by Merebase does what most small businesses actually use Trello for: a board with lists, cards, assignees, and due dates. A$499 once. No subscription fee. No per-seat pricing. You bring your own hosting.
Can I get my data out of Trello?
Yes. Trello lets you export any board as a JSON file. That file contains your cards, lists, labels, due dates, and member data. A custom Merebase app can import from that export and continue from where Trello left off.
What does a Merebase task board include?
A Merebase task board from Merebase includes a board with your lists and stages, cards with assignees and due dates, checklists per card, status tracking, notes per card, search and filter, and data export. Unlimited users. A$499 once, agreed in writing before payment.
What happens to my board if Atlassian changes Trello's pricing?
With a Merebase app, pricing changes at Atlassian cannot affect you. You own the app. Atlassian cannot reprice it, restrict access to it, or change the interface on you. Your board and your data stay exactly as you left them.