Let's be real: if you're a solo recruiter, early-stage startup, or small recruiting team, you probably don't need a $15K-$30K ATS. You need something simple that helps you track candidates visually, collaborate with hiring managers, and not lose track of who you're talking to.

Enter Trello.

Trello is a visual Kanban board tool originally designed for project management, but thousands of recruiters use it for candidate pipeline management. It's insanely simple, costs $5-$10/month per user, and gives you 90% of what you need from an ATS without the bloat and cost.

User reviews rate Trello 4.4/5 stars for recruiting workflows, with recruiters praising the visual interface, ease of use, and affordability compared to traditional ATS platforms.

Is it perfect? No. But for basic candidate tracking and pipeline visualization, Trello is low-key one of the best budget tools in recruiting.

What Trello Actually Is (And Why Recruiters Love It)

Trello is a visual collaboration tool built around Kanban boards. You create boards with vertical lists representing stages, and cards representing tasks (or in recruiting, candidates).

Drag cards between lists as they progress, add details/attachments to cards, assign cards to team members, set due dates, and collaborate with comments.

For recruiting, this translates to:

Create a board for each open role (or one master board for all recruiting). Lists represent pipeline stages: "Sourced," "Screening Call," "Phone Interview," "Onsite Interview," "Offer," "Hired".

Each candidate is a card. Add their resume, LinkedIn profile, contact info, interview notes, and next steps to the card. As candidates progress, drag their card to the next list.

Hiring managers can view the board, comment on candidates, and see pipeline status in real-time. It's visual, intuitive, and requires zero training.

The Features That Make Trello Work For Recruiting

Visual Kanban boards: The main appeal—you can see your entire candidate pipeline at a glance. Sourced candidates in one column, phone screens in another, interviews in another, offers in another. User reviews consistently cite the visual pipeline as Trello's biggest recruiting advantage.

Cards with attachments and checklists: Each candidate card can include resume attachments, links to LinkedIn profiles, interview scorecards, notes, and checklists for next steps. Everything related to a candidate lives in one place.

Labels for categorization: Color-coded labels help you tag candidates by priority, source, role fit, or any other category you need. Example: Green = "Strong Fit," Yellow = "Maybe," Red = "Pass," Blue = "Waiting on Candidate Response".

Due dates and calendar view: Set due dates for follow-ups or interview deadlines, and view all upcoming deadlines in calendar view. This helps prevent candidates from falling through the cracks.

Collaboration and comments: Hiring managers can access boards, comment on candidate cards, and vote on candidates using Trello's voting feature. @mention team members in comments to pull them into discussions. User reviews note this collaboration feature is excellent for keeping hiring managers engaged without scheduling extra meetings.

Automation with Butler: Trello's built-in automation tool (Butler) lets you create rules like "When a card is moved to 'Offer' list, add a checklist for offer letter tasks and notify HR". Free plan includes limited automation; paid plans unlock more.

Power-Ups (integrations): Connect Trello with Slack, Gmail, Calendly, Google Calendar, and hundreds of other tools. Slack integration sends notifications when candidates move through stages. Calendly integration embeds interview scheduling links. Gmail integration adds emails to candidate cards.

Mobile app: Full iOS and Android apps let you update candidate status, add notes, and check pipeline from anywhere. User reviews note the mobile app is intuitive and doesn't feel like a stripped-down version.

Templates: Trello offers pre-built recruiting pipeline templates you can copy and customize. Set up a functional candidate tracker in 10 minutes without building from scratch.

What It Costs (Basically Nothing)

Free plan: Unlimited cards, up to 10 boards per workspace, unlimited Power-Ups (but only 1 per board), basic automation (50 commands/month), 10 MB file attachments. Good enough for solo recruiters or very small teams with 1-2 open roles at a time.

Standard plan: $5/user/month (billed annually) or $6/month (billed monthly). Unlimited boards, unlimited Power-Ups, advanced checklists, custom fields, 250 MB file attachments, advanced automation (1,000 commands/month). This is the sweet spot for most small recruiting teams.

Premium plan: $10/user/month (annually) or $12.50/month (monthly). Everything in Standard plus calendar view, timeline view, dashboard view, workspace-level templates, admin controls, 250 GB storage, advanced automation (unlimited commands). Recommended if you're managing multiple recruiters and need better reporting/visibility.

Enterprise plan: $17.50/user/month (annually, min 25 users). Power-Ups admin controls, organization-wide permissions, attachment permissions, SSO, multi-board guests, priority support. Only necessary for large organizations with enterprise security requirements.

Cost comparison: A 2-person recruiting team on Trello Standard pays $120/year. Trello Premium is $240/year for 2 users. The average small business ATS costs $3,000-$10,000 annually. Trello is 95-97% cheaper than traditional ATS platforms.

What Trello Does Better Than Spreadsheets And Traditional ATS

Visual clarity: Kanban boards are infinitely better than spreadsheet rows for understanding pipeline status. You can see at a glance who's where in the process and what needs attention. User reviews consistently cite visual pipeline management as Trello's biggest advantage over spreadsheets.

Collaboration: Trello is built for collaboration—hiring managers can see the board, comment on candidates, and stay in the loop without constant email updates. Spreadsheets require emailing files back and forth or managing messy Google Sheet permissions.

Organization: Everything related to a candidate (resume, notes, interview feedback, next steps) lives in one card. Spreadsheets force you to manage attachments separately or cram information into tiny cells.

Ease of use: Trello requires zero training—if you can drag and drop, you can use Trello. User reviews rate it 4.7/5 for ease of use. Traditional ATS platforms often require 2-4 weeks of training and onboarding.

Cost: At $5-$10/month per user, Trello is absurdly cheaper than ATS platforms. For small teams and startups, the ROI is immediate.

Setup speed: You can set up a recruiting pipeline in Trello in 10 minutes using templates. ATS implementations take 4-12 weeks.

What Trello Does Worse Than Traditional ATS (Because Of Course There Are Limits)

Trello is simple—and that simplicity comes with trade-offs.

No resume parsing: Trello won't automatically extract data from resumes. You're manually creating cards and uploading resumes as attachments. ATS platforms often include AI-powered resume parsing.

No candidate sourcing or job posting: Trello is a tracking tool, not a sourcing tool. It doesn't post jobs to job boards or search for candidates—you do that elsewhere and add them to Trello. Most ATS platforms include job board integrations and distribution.

Limited reporting and analytics: Trello doesn't have built-in recruiting metrics like time-to-fill, source quality, or funnel conversion rates. You can see how many candidates are in each stage, but deeper analytics require manual tracking or third-party Power-Ups. ATS platforms typically include analytics dashboards.

No compliance or EEOC features: Trello has no built-in EEOC reporting, adverse action workflows, or compliance management. If you need these features for legal/regulatory reasons, Trello isn't sufficient. Enterprise ATS platforms include compliance tools because large employers require them.

No bulk candidate communication: Trello doesn't have email sequencing, bulk messaging, or automated candidate outreach tools. You'll manage candidate emails separately in Gmail/Outlook and manually update Trello cards. Many ATS platforms include candidate communication features.

Scalability limitations: Trello works great for managing 10-50 active candidates. Beyond that, boards get cluttered and hard to manage. User reviews from high-volume recruiters note that Trello becomes unwieldy with 100+ active candidates per board. High-volume recruiting teams need more robust ATS platforms.

Manual data entry: Everything in Trello is manual—you're creating cards, uploading files, copying/pasting information. ATS platforms often automate data capture through resume parsing, form submissions, and integrations.

Who Should Use Trello For Recruiting

Solo recruiters or very small teams (1-3 recruiters): You're managing 5-20 open roles and don't need enterprise ATS complexity. Trello gives you professional candidate tracking for $60-$360/year total.

Startups without recruiting software: You're hiring 10-30 people per year and currently using spreadsheets or email to track candidates. Trello is a massive upgrade without requiring budget approval for expensive software.

Hiring managers who want visibility: You're a hiring manager frustrated with lack of recruiting transparency and want a simple board to track your own role's candidates. Trello Free is perfect for this—zero cost, easy setup, visual clarity.

Recruiters at companies with bad ATS systems: Your company ATS is terrible and you want a personal candidate organization system. Many recruiters use Trello as a "shadow tracker" to supplement official ATS. Just make sure you're still entering data into the official system for compliance.

Niche/boutique recruiting firms on a budget: You're placing 20-50 candidates per year and can't justify $10K+ for recruiting software. Trello gives you client-facing boards, candidate organization, and collaboration for under $250/year.

Recruiters who prioritize visual workflows: If you're a visual thinker who hates spreadsheets and loves drag-and-drop interfaces, Trello is perfect. User reviews from visual-preference recruiters rate Trello 5/5 for interface design.

Who Should NOT Use Trello For Recruiting

Large companies with compliance requirements: If you need EEOC reporting, OFCCP compliance, adverse action workflows, and audit trails, Trello can't provide this. Use enterprise ATS platforms designed for compliance.

High-volume recruiting operations: If you're processing hundreds of applications per month, Trello will be limiting. It's not designed for resume parsing, bulk screening, or large-scale candidate management. Choose a high-volume ATS like Lever, Greenhouse, or iCIMS.

Companies needing job board integrations: If automatic job posting to Indeed, LinkedIn, ZipRecruiter is critical, Trello doesn't do this. You'll need an ATS with built-in job distribution.

Recruiting teams needing advanced analytics: If you need detailed recruiting metrics, funnel analysis, source quality reporting, and executive dashboards, Trello won't cut it. Invest in ATS platforms with robust reporting or standalone recruiting analytics tools.

Companies with complex multi-stage interview processes: If you have 6+ interview stages, multiple interviewers per candidate, and complex scheduling requirements, Trello becomes cumbersome. You'll want purpose-built interview scheduling and coordination features.

The Bottom Line

Trello is a dead-simple, visual candidate pipeline tool that costs $5-$10/month per user. User reviews rate it 4.4/5 stars for recruiting workflows.

It's not a full ATS—no resume parsing, job posting, compliance features, or advanced analytics. But for small teams, solo recruiters, and startups who need to upgrade from spreadsheets without spending thousands on enterprise software, Trello is perfect.

Set up a recruiting board in 10 minutes using templates. Drag candidates through pipeline stages. Collaborate with hiring managers. Track everything visually.

If you're managing 5-30 active candidates at a time and don't need enterprise ATS features, try Trello. You can start on the free plan and upgrade to Standard ($5/month) if you need more features.

It's not fancy. But it works—and for $60-$120/year, it's one of the best recruiting ROIs you'll find.

Pricing: Free plan available. Paid plans $5-$10/user/month.

Best for: Solo recruiters, small teams, startups, hiring managers, budget-conscious recruiting firms

Not for: Large enterprises, high-volume recruiting, compliance-heavy industries, complex interview processes

User rating: 4.4/5 stars on G2 (recruiting use case)

Try it: trello.com/templates/recruiting-pipeline