Trello alternatives for service businesses: a board that knows your customers
Short answer: Trello is a simple, flexible board of cards that many teams love. If you are looking at Trello alternatives because your cards keep pointing to customers, quotes and jobs that live somewhere else, Alori puts the task board, projects and repeating tasks in the same all-in-one app as your customers and your work.
Who Trello fits well
Trello is a great fit when:
- You want a visual board you can shape any way you like, with your own lists and cards.
- The work is mostly internal: content, planning, small team checklists.
- You are happy to connect other tools through add-ons when you need more.
As of October 2026, Trello's pricing page lists a Free plan for up to 10 collaborators per Workspace, Standard at $5 per user per month billed annually ($6 monthly), Premium at $10 billed annually ($12.50 monthly), and Enterprise at $17.50 per user per month billed annually.
Why service owners look for an alternative
In a service business, almost every task is about a customer: call back Mrs. Benali, order the part for the Gagnon job, chase the unpaid invoice. On a separate board:
- Cards copy information that already lives in your CRM or job software, and they drift out of date.
- Nobody knows who said yes. A card moved to someone's list is not the same as that person accepting it.
- Repeat work is manual. Seasonal maintenance, monthly checks and yearly renewals get recreated by hand.
- One more login for the team, in a tool that does not see your quotes, jobs or invoices.
Side by side
| Trello | Alori | |
|---|---|---|
| Board view | Yes, its core, with lists you name | Yes: columns To do, Waiting, In progress, Done |
| Columns | Fully custom | Fixed task statuses |
| Linked to customers, jobs, invoices | Through links or add-ons | Built in: a task or project points to the customer, job, quote or invoice |
| Assign and accept | Assign members | Assign; the teammate accepts or sends it back with a reason |
| Repeating tasks | Through automations or add-ons | Every week, month or year, built in |
| Projects | Boards | Projects with suggested tasks, a lead, a target date and progress |
| Import | Excel or CSV task import, with Undo |
What Alori replaces, and what it does not
Alori replaces the board you use to run customer work:
- Tasks with priorities, due dates and an assignee. Add one quickly, or let Alori add the ones that slip. See tasks.
- A board to drag tasks between statuses, with filters for assignee, priority and project. It is for computers; on a phone, tasks show as a list.
- Projects that group tasks and jobs, like a renovation or the maintenance season. Alori suggests the tasks when you name the project, and you can link a job, quote or invoice. See jobs.
- Repeating tasks: when you mark one done, the next one is created with its new date.
- Assign and accept: teammates click Accept, or Can't do it with a reason and a new date.
- Ask Alori: "give the furnace check to Tom" or "start a project for the Benali renovation, due end of month".
What it does not replace: Trello's free-form boards, custom lists for any process, and its large catalog of add-ons. If you use Trello for things unrelated to customers, like an editorial calendar, it may still be the simpler tool for that. Comparing other task tools? See the Asana alternative.
How to switch
- Export your board from Trello as CSV, or open it in a spreadsheet.
- Import it. In Tasks, click Import and choose the file. Alori reads the columns on its own: titles, due dates, people, customers, projects and statuses. Columns it cannot place go into each task's description, so nothing is lost.
- Check and undo if needed. One click removes every task from that file.
- Invite the team. Every plan has unlimited users. Plans are on pricing, with a free plan and no card needed.
FAQ
Is Alori a good Trello alternative? For a service business whose tasks are about customers, jobs and invoices, yes: the board lives next to that data. For free-form boards with custom lists for any purpose, Trello stays more flexible.
Can I import my Trello cards? Export them to CSV or Excel, then use Import in Tasks. Up to 2,000 rows per file, with an Undo for the whole file.
Can I make my own board columns? Not on the task board: its columns are the task statuses To do, Waiting, In progress and Done. For sales, the deals board has stages you name yourself.
Do tasks repeat? Yes. Pick every week, month or year, and the next task appears when you mark the current one done. Ask Ask Alori for other rhythms, like every 3 months.