We don't view JIRA and Trello as competitors.

JIRA shines in areas that (a) have workflow and (b) require repeatable processes across a number of people.

Once you have 20+ people on a project, you need repeatable processes.

In cases like bug tracking, project management, customer service, help desks, HR onboarding and hundreds others you need workflow.

Trello shines in areas where you have (a) small teams or (b) require ad-hoc semi-structured data.

In small teams, even if repeatable process would help you, it's not worth the cost of setting up a system - you achieve it by social means.

Trello also has many, many use-cases where you want to start something quick, or personal. In this case it really shines, with near-zero friction to get started.

Scott, CEO Atlassian

I totally agree. Trello is not a competitor to JIRA.

Don't get me wrong – I like them both. When I have to plan out personal projects, Trello is great. During the day, we use JIRA. The use cases are different, and the products are both suitable. I'm madly bemused that people look at the very, very surface layer of the UI (oh look, it has cards in columns!) and assume the products are the same.

Yes, I just recently evaluated switching my small team from JIRA->trello. I'd do it in a heartbeat if the licensing costs were better aligned.

I think Trello fills a niche for people who don't need all of the features that JIRA provides, but they need something to track tickets/cards/whatever you want to call them. The products are pretty different but I can envision an overlap of users. I use both currently and if I didn't have Trello, I might have to use JIRA for everything.

"Is Trello really a competitor though?"

In the Innovator's Dilemma sense, absolutely.