Choosing the Right Task Tracker in 2025: From Trello to ClickUp and Everything in Between

Hi everyone,
This is my first post here on dev.to. I’ve been a backend developer for about 6 years, recently transitioned into a more hybrid product/dev role, and somewhere along the way I became slightly obsessed with productivity tools. Especially task trackers.

I've used a bunch of them — some for personal side projects, some in teams of 3–5, and others in fast-moving startups. What started as a search for “just a clean to-do list” turned into a bit of a rabbit hole.

So here’s a summary of what I learned after testing (and fighting with) a dozen+ task trackers in 2025. If you’re looking for something that fits your brain, team, or workflow — maybe this helps.

Why this even matters

Choosing the right task tracker isn’t just about features. The way your tasks are organized affects how clearly you think, how well your team communicates, and whether you spend your day actually building things — or stuck trying to remember what you were doing in the first place.

In 2025, most tools go beyond checkboxes. Many have built-in documentation, automations, integrations with your repo and calendar, and some try to be your second brain entirely.

But sometimes, all you want is: “Where’s my task list?”
So I’ll try to cover both ends of that spectrum.

The main players I’ve tried (and how they feel)

Trello

Still super relevant. Visual. Simple.
It’s basically a Kanban board with power-ups. Great for side projects, visual thinkers, or teams that want something lightweight and fast to set up. But lacks structure for more complex workflows.

ClickUp

Wildly customizable.
You can make it do almost anything — custom fields, views, automations, dependencies. But that power comes with a learning curve. If you enjoy building your own system and tweaking things, it’s fantastic. Otherwise, it might feel overwhelming.

Vaiz

This one caught me by surprise. It combines task tracking and documentation in one space, kind of like if Trello and Notion had a child. You can fully customize boards (down to fields and automation), link tasks to docs, and automate a lot without code.
Feels like a good middle ground between ClickUp and Trello — powerful, but not messy.

Linear

If you’re a dev and want something fast, clean, and keyboard-friendly, this might be your thing.
Feels like a polished, stripped-down Jira, with built-in GitHub integration. No fluff, but limited flexibility if your team isn’t strictly dev-focused.

Notion

Technically not a task tracker, but many teams use it as one.
You can build anything in it — databases, docs, task views — but it's also easy to get lost in building instead of doing. I used it for solo work for a while, but for team task management, it can be too loose.

Height

Built with engineering/product teams in mind.
Supports sprints, cycles, automations, GitHub integrations, and has a nice balance of structure + speed. Kind of like a more polished Linear but with more flexibility.

Todoist

Clean, simple, linear (not the app).
It’s a fantastic personal task manager, especially if you follow GTD-style methods. Lacks deeper team collaboration tools, though.

Basecamp

Minimalist by design.
Great if your team values simplicity and writing over process. You won’t get Gantt charts or custom automations here — but maybe that’s the point.

Quire

Sleek and underrated.
Supports nested tasks, timelines, kanban — but with a smoother UI than expected. I used it for a few weeks with a freelance team and it felt surprisingly good.

Monday.com

Very visual, very flashy.
Good for marketing or cross-functional teams. Has all the bells and whistles, but can feel a bit heavy or "enterprise" depending on how you use it.

So which one should you pick?

Honestly, it depends on your priorities. But here’s how I’d personally break it down:

• If you want maximum control and customization → go with ClickUp
• If you need balanced structure and ease of use, plus docs and tasks in one place → try Vaiz
• If you’re after pure visual simplicity → Trello is still great
• If you want speed, GitHub links, and clean sprints → Linear or Height
• If you just want a personal todo list that feels satisfying → Todoist
• If your team is remote, chill, and writes well → Basecamp
• If you're a builder and want to tweak endlessly → Notion

Final thoughts

There’s no “best” task tracker — there’s just the one that disappears into the background and lets you do your best work.

Try a few. Break them. Restart. That’s how I found what worked for me (for now).

Would love to hear what’s worked for you too. What are you using in 2025? Still on Jira? Moved to something obscure but amazing?

by Alex Navak