How to choose the right Free Gantt chart for Trello?

Google “Trello Gantt chart” and you’ll see quite a number of solutions. Since they all appear attractive we take a closer look at them. Very few of them are Power-Ups and the majority are standalone apps. Some of them are free of charge, whereas the rest of them cost money, at least after their trial periods.

Interestingly, only one Gantt chart for Trello is both a Power-Up and is available for free, namely BigPicture. Let’s pick the right Gantt chart for Trello!

BigPicture is the only Gantt chart for Trello that is both a Power-Up and unconditionally free. Founded on our mature Gantt chart for Jira.

Gantt chart tools for Trello compared

	BigPicture Gantt charts for Trello	TeamGantt	Elegantt	TrelloGantt	Ganttify	Placker	Taskworld	Planyway Calendar
Power-Up? Why it’s important
Available FREE of charge (beyond trial period)
Dependencies between cards/tasks			in paid version only
Multiple Trello boards on one Gantt chart Why it’s crucial					in Ganttify Pro			yes, in paid version
Milestones			in paid version only
Resourcing (see who’s busy and who’s not)
Re-sync with Trello when you drag&drop a task on Gantt chart
Explicitely recommended for mobile devices
	Add to your Trello

Would you like to improve the table or add another Gantt plugin for Trello? E-mail us at marketing(_)softwareplant.com.

Let’s get into more details…

BigPicture vs. Elegantt

Things to consider when deciding between BigPicture for Trello and Elegantt:

• BigPicture is a Power-Up while Elegantt is a Chrome extension.  What does this mean to you? You can use BigPicture in every browser (Chrome, Safari, Firefox, IE, Edge, Opera and others), and you can use Elegantt in Chrome only.
• With BigPicture you can see multiple Trello boards on a single Gantt chart – why it’s important. You can only see one Trello board at a time on an Elegantt chart.
• Dependencies, or links, between cards are available in BigPicture free of charge, while in Elegantt you need to pay for them.
• You get unlimited history in BigPicture, whereas in the free version of Elegantt you only get 1-month history.
• The same applies to milestones – they are free in BigPicture and you have to pay for them in Elegantt.
• The left part of Elegantt is extremely simplified. Basically all you can see there are avatars there and the tasks/cards are grouped by labels, i.e. by whatever you named your Trello board’s columns. With BigPicture you get multi-column left half of the screen, e.g. various grouping, sorting, task modes are available.
• Elegantt is by its authors’ own admission “awesome”. BigPicture is both awesome and advanced. Why? We’ve gained a lot of experience developing Gantt chart software for Jira.

BigPicture vs. TeamGantt

• BigPicture is unconditionally free, while TeamGantt has the free 14-day trial period, after which you need to pay.
• Both BigPicture and TeamGantt are Power-Ups. These are in a way superior to the remaining standalone Gantt chart apps for Trello. Expect better Trello integration from a Power-Up, but be aware that they occupy the single “Power-Up slot” you have available in each of your boards in the free edition of Trello. Luckily, BigPicture can overcome this.

BigPicture vs. Ganttify

• BigPicture is a Power-Up while Ganttify isn’t.
• BigPicture features dependencies between cards, and Ganttify doesn’t.
• Remember the left half of a Gantt chart? BigPicture is capable of grouping the cards by various criteria, whereas Ganttify can only group by labels, i.e. the headers of your Trello board.

The button of BigPicture Gantt Power-Up on a Trello board. Power-Up ~ better integration.

Gantt chart for Trello Q&A

Are Power-Ups better than external apps?

Yes, for most users.

You could be surprised that out of this immense number of Gantt tools available for Trello, only few of them are present on trello.com/power-ups. This is because most of them are not Power-Ups, instead they are standalone applications. “Power-up” is a relatively new term, launched just before Atlassian aquired Trello in January 2017. A Power-Up tends to be better integrated with Trello, and will likely have that look&feel of Trello, while non-Power-Up Gantt charts are just standalone apps that only have permissions to access Trello data.

Why it’s better to have a Gantt chart that can display multiple Trello boards at a time?

If you use the free version of Trello, you are bound by the “one Power-Up per board” limitation. Now, imagine you have boards A, B and C, and you add a Gantt chart Power-Up to board A. You are left with free Power-Up slots on boards B and C, whereas you can still see the tasks from the B and C boards on the Gantt chart launched from the board A.

Go back to the table above and check which Gantt chart Power-Ups have this beneficial “multiple boards per Gantt chart” feature.

Who needs a Gantt chart, and who doesn’t?

First of all we recommend a Gantt chart to teams. The larger a team is, the more rational it seems to have a Gantt chart tool in place.

How about individuals, or small teams of two or three? If you are that small “organization”, think whether your “project” is actually a longer, sequential process. Say, you’re launching a startup or you are about to build your own home – both will surely take longer time, and dozens of activities/events/tasks have to be completed in some strict order. “Do I need to plan three months ahead?” is the key question when deciding whether the Gantt tool will come in handy.

At the other end of the scale are routinely performed, day-to-day, recurring tasks, or “chores” – these kind of “planning” rarely calls for a Gantt chart.

Why is the Gantt tool so popular with Trello users?

Well, let’s put our thoughts into reverse for a while. The Gantt chart was invented over a hundred years ago by Henry Gantt. The “technology” is certainly proven but with the advent of more modern, agile project management methodologies, the Gantt chart has been “outperformed” by tools such as roadmaps, especially in larger organizations.

Now, Trello tends to be utilized by small to medium organizations, so you have to consider this. Another pro-Gantt chart factor is that those large teams are very sensitive and terrified about inertia that could potentially happen in a fossilized corporation. This is why they are after those modern, that help them gather every 2 weeks or so to re-check whether they follow the right path. This is rarely the case with small teams, which are agile and flexible per se, so they can brazenly got away with the somewhat outdated Gantt tool ;)

You might also check Trello Gantt chart alternatives.