Guidon vs Trello: a simple board that keeps the why
Trello is the simplest Kanban board. Guidon stays simple but adds the reasoning and the dead ends to every card.
Checked 2026-11-09. Features change - see Trello's site for theirs. All comparisons
The short answer
Trello made Kanban simple. Guidon keeps that simplicity and adds what a growing project needs: decisions and attempts on each task, and knowledge a person verified - which AI agents get too, before they start.
Choose Guidon if
- Your Trello cards keep losing their context
- You want AI agents to see what was already tried before they start
- You want to self-host
Choose Trello if
- You only need the simplest possible board
- You rely on Power-Ups
- Your team already knows Trello
At a glance
Guidon is better on 5 of 7 topics below; Trello is better where it says so.
| Topic | Guidon | Trello |
|---|---|---|
| Self-hosting | Docker Compose with plain PostgreSQL; every feature, no plan limits on your own install. | Cloud only. |
| Source code | Open source (AGPL-3.0). | Closed source. |
| What was already tried | Better: attempts are part of every task - approach, outcome and why it failed. An agent starting the task gets the dead ends with start_task, and is reminded to record its own. | Not a built-in feature in their docs (as of 2026-11-09); attempts end up in comments, if anywhere. |
| Verified vs AI-guessed knowledge | Better: project memory keeps what a person verified apart from what an AI wrote; anything an agent adds or changes waits in a review queue. | No separate verified-vs-AI status in their docs (as of 2026-11-09). |
| Context in your repository | Better: export the project as AGENTS.md - approved brief, verified facts, known dead ends - for Claude Code, Codex and Cursor. | No AGENTS.md export in their docs (as of 2026-11-09). |
| AI agents (MCP) | MCP server and REST API; works with Claude, ChatGPT, Cursor, Codex and any MCP client. You bring the AI - no AI credits. | Official Trello MCP server (hosted by Atlassian). |
| Simplicity | A board first, with more one click away. | Better: nothing simpler to learn. |
Switching from Trello
Export your Trello board as JSON (Menu → Print, export and share → Export as JSON) and use Import on a Guidon board: cards, lists, labels and due dates come over, with a preview first.
Questions
Does Guidon import Trello's JSON export?
Yes - the board export's cards, lists and labels are read directly, archived cards skipped.
More comparisons
- Guidon vs Plane
- Guidon vs Linear
- Guidon vs Jira
- Guidon vs Notion
- Guidon vs Asana
- Guidon vs ClickUp
- Guidon vs monday.com
- Guidon vs GitHub Projects
- Guidon vs Codecks
- Guidon vs HacknPlan
Try Guidon free - start a project or explore the sandbox. Self-hosted with every feature: self-hosting guide.