How do teams work in Free versus Business accounts
Asked by John Goodnough:

I'm considering Trello for my small business and cannot understand how teams work within the different accounts. The online help does not really detail how invited members can utilize the boards. For example do they receive "view only" type privileges or are they able to work with all included features?

If I sign up for a Free account and invite a team to work with me do they get to use the single included Trello power up too? Do they have access to all of the boards and information the same as me?

If I upgrade to the Business account is it the same structure as the Free account for the team members? They have access to all the features included with the Bus. account?

Thanks for your feedback. I appreciate it.


Answers:
author: Matthew N
body: Hi John

In both free teams and Business Class teams, each team member will be able to view any board that is associated with the team, unless the board is team based but marked as Private. If it's marked as private, only the team members that are invited directly to that board will be able to view it. Also in both instances, team members can self-join the boards within a team (unless it's private), so you don't have to spend time inviting each user directly to each board. But if you want a board to be team visible and have team members only be able to view it and not make changes, there's a setting that will not allow self-join on the board... so they can view only unless you invite them directly to that board.

Any power up that is enabled on a board will be able to be used by any member of the board. Anything that you see on the board as admin, anyone else will be able to see also.

Free teams are limited to 10 boards. Business Class teams don't have any board limits. With Business Class, the admin of the team becomes a **super admin**. A Super admin is able to view ALL team boards, regardless if they're set as private or not, and super admin also becomes admin to each board within the team (which is not the case on a free team, only board admins are admins on the team boards).

comments: author: John Goodnough
body: Matthew, thank you for this information. Very helpful. One last thing. If I upgrade to a business account do my team members need to as well? Or do they have access to all the features of my account since they are members of my team? Thanks again!


author: Matthew N
body: The only way Trello will know that these users are a member of your team is if you add them to your team. Business Class has to be an entire team upgrade, not partial.

You don't \*have\* to upgrade everyone, but if you don't then you need to remove each person from the team and add them directly to the boards instead. They won't be able to see all of the team boards like they would if they were a part of the team, only the boards they're invited to. They will, however, still be able to use any power ups that you enable.

It really all depends on what you're needing Business Class for. Are you wanting it to be able to seamlessly manage your team, allowing them to join boards, and have more admin control? Or are you wanting it for the unlimited power ups?


author: John Goodnough
body: Good question. We're a small team of three people. We each have different responsibilities but because they are interrelated we all need to know what the other person has accomplished or added to the boards. It's really more of an ongoing task-manager/checklist situation. But the power-ups are really important. We need to have access to Google docs, Dropbox, calendar and card aging/automation, which gets us into the multiple power ups conundrum. Honestly we can't afford $30 month to have Trello simply integrate the functions of email, notes, calendar and a to-do list for three people. Those Apps all exist on our laptops already and while we love the idea of Trello's integration, I feel like there should be something in between Free, and unlimited. A small cheaper plan for small businesses. Or possibly allow Free accounts to upgrade to paid power-ups. Any suggestions?


author: Matthew N
body: Ok, so you don't really need the administrative options that come with Business Class (which means like being able to deactivate users) and you don't really need for each person to be on the team, essentially.

Here's what I recommend:

* Have a team with just ONE user, perhaps yourself, as the admin (which means that if you already have a team, you need to remove any other user before upgrading)
* Upgrade the team to Business Class ($9.99/month for that 1 user if you pay annually)
* Ensure the visibility of the board is set to that upgraded team.
* Invite each user directly to the board instead of to the team

The boards, being associated with the Business Class team, have Business Class capabilities. So you, as admin, can enable the powerups. Anyone else on the board will be able to still work on the board as they need and use any power ups, but you're getting a cost savings because the other users are not a part of the team (which is where charges are incurred)


author: John Goodnough
body: Ok, this sounds like a good solution. Thanks for your help. We'll give this a try!