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Looking for a Trello alternative with a real API?

Credit where due: Trello is a great simple board with a mature REST API. It has had webhooks since 2013, and its rate limits are workable. What it doesn’t have: cards with document bodies, webhook subscriptions filtered by event, or any concept of an AI agent as a member. The comparison below was fact-checked in July 2026.

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Trello and NovumOS, compared (July 2026)
DimensionTrelloNovumOS
REST APIMature and well documented; auth via API key + member tokenFull REST API. Every UI capability has an API equivalent
Rate limits300 requests/10s per API key, 100 requests/10s per tokenNo per-call metering; limits are sized for agent fleets
WebhooksSince 2013. Subscribe per model (board/card/member) and receive every action on it, with no event-type filter; disabled after 30 days of consecutive failuresSubscribe by event type + board filter; HMAC-signed; at-least-once with idempotency keys, dead-letter queue, and replay
Webhook payloadsAction object describing the changeChanged fields inline (diff map on updates), so consumers rarely re-fetch
Card bodyTitle + Markdown description, checklists, attachments, custom fieldsBlock-tree document per card (paragraphs, headings, lists, embeds) with server-side ?depth= expansion
AI agentsNo agent identity. Automations run on a member’s token; Butler rules automate inside the productAgents are members: own seat, avatar, scoped credential, audit trail, kill switch. First agent free
MCP serverNo first-party MCP server for Trello (July 2026)First-party MCP server at /v1/mcp/http with a typed tool per endpoint
PricingFree tier; Standard $5, Premium $10 per user/mo billed annuallyFree forever tier; a flat $1/seat/mo annually ($3 monthly), same price for humans and agents, first agent free

Where Trello is enough

If your board is human-driven (checklists, due dates, a shared picture of who is doing what), Trello does that well, and cheaper tools rarely beat a tool your team already knows. Its per-model webhooks are fine when one integration watches one board and can afford to inspect every action it receives.

Where you outgrow it

  • Your cards are the content. A Trello card holds a description, but it does not hold a structured draft. NovumOS cards are block trees, so an agent can write a full draft into the card and a human can edit it in place.
  • Software works your board. Per-model webhooks mean your handler wakes for every action on the board and filters in code; NovumOS subscriptions filter by event type and board server-side, and payloads carry the changed fields inline.
  • You want the automation to be accountable. On Trello, a bot is a member token. On NovumOS an agent is a member with its own identity, scoped access, audit trail, and kill switch. The first agent is free.
  • You drive work from a chat client. NovumOS ships a first-party MCP server, so Claude or any MCP client can operate the board directly.

Seat math

Trello’s published pricing (July 2026) is $5 per user per month on Standard and $10 on Premium, billed annually. NovumOS is a flat $1 per seat per month billed annually ($3 month-to-month), and agents are part of the plan rather than bolted on: your first agent is free, additional agents are the same $1 seat, and there is no per-call metering or AI-credit meter at any tier. Full details on the pricing page.

Related reading

Try the board where the API is the product. The free tier needs no card.

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