We love tools that solve real problems. Project management software is one of the most crowded categories in SaaS — and also one of the most frustrating to navigate. The most popular tools are either over-engineered for enterprise teams or hamstrung by free-tier limitations that force you to upgrade before you've even decided whether the tool is right for you.
We've used all of the big names. Here's our honest take on each, and why we ended up building something different.
The Big Three
Jira
Jira is genuinely impressive software. If you're managing a 50-person engineering organization with multiple squads, sprint ceremonies, and a backlog that runs into the hundreds of tickets, Jira can handle it. It was built for exactly that use case — and it shows.
The problem is that it was only built for that use case. Getting started with Jira takes days, not minutes. You need to understand projects, boards, epics, sprints, issue types, workflows, and permission schemes before you can reliably move a card from "To Do" to "Done." Most small teams end up with one person who becomes the de facto Jira administrator — a role nobody asked for.
Pricing starts at $8.15 per user per month for the Standard plan. For a team of 15 people, that's $122/month for software that most of those 15 people will find confusing and avoid using whenever possible.
Trello
We have genuine affection for Trello. It was one of the tools that showed the world what kanban could look like in a browser, and its UX is still some of the cleanest in the category. Cards, columns, drag and drop — simple and satisfying.
But the limitations are real. The free plan caps you at 10 boards — not workspaces, not users, boards. No automations. No time tracking. By the time you hit those limits and start looking at the paid plan, you're at $5 per user per month. For 15 people, that's $75/month with still no built-in time tracking. You'd need to add a separate tool for that, which means another subscription and another integration to maintain.
Trello is great if your team is small, your projects are simple, and you never need to know how long anything took. For everyone else, you'll outgrow it.
Asana
Asana is a powerful tool, but it's timeline-first rather than kanban-first. Its core mental model is closer to a project plan than a visual board, which makes it excellent for project managers running complex programs with dependencies, milestones, and cross-team coordination.
For a small team that just wants to move cards around and track time, it's a steep learning curve for limited benefit. The Premium plan starts at $10.99 per user per month. There's no built-in time tracking — you'd need an integration. And onboarding a new team member takes hours rather than minutes, because there's simply a lot to understand before you can work effectively.
How They Compare
| Tool | Price / user | Time tracking | Kanban-first | Setup time | Free trial |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jira | $8.15/mo | ✗ | ✗ | Days | Yes |
| Trello | $5/mo | ✗ | ✓ | Minutes | Limited |
| Asana | $10.99/mo | ✗ | Partial | Hours | Yes |
| SimpleBoard | 1€/mo | ✓ | ✓ | 30 seconds | 30 days full |
Why SimpleBoard Does Things Differently
SimpleBoard starts from a different premise: most teams don't need a project management platform. They need a fast, visual board that gets out of the way and lets them work.
We built SimpleBoard to be kanban-first by design. There's no timeline view to configure, no sprint ceremony to set up, no permission scheme to worry about. You create a board, add columns, start adding cards, and you're done. From signup to first card: under 30 seconds.
Time tracking is built in — not bolted on. Every card has a built-in timer. One click to start, one click to stop. Time entries aggregate into reports you can filter by board, member, date range, or label. Export to CSV or PDF for client billing. No third-party integration required.
And the price is 1€ per user per month. Not $5, not $8, not $11. One euro. For a team of 15 people, that's 15€/month total — with time tracking included.
When to Choose Something Else
We're not going to pretend SimpleBoard is right for everyone. If you're running a 60-person engineering organization with multiple product lines, Jira's power and flexibility will serve you well. If your work is primarily timeline and milestone driven, Asana is an excellent fit. If your team is tiny and never needs time data, Trello's free plan is hard to beat.
But if you're a small team — an agency, a startup, a freelancer with clients — who just needs a clean board with time tracking at a price that doesn't require a budget approval meeting, SimpleBoard was built for you.
The right tool is the one your team actually uses.