Managing social media approvals effectively requires the right tools. Planable, Notion and Trello are popular platforms that offer collaboration and project management capabilities, but they differ greatly in how they handle approvals. This comparison will help you decide which solution fits your workflow.
How we compared
We evaluated each platform across the following factors:
- Ease of use. How intuitive is the interface for setting up and managing approval workflows?
- Approval workflows. Can you customise approval steps, assign multiple reviewers and track status?
- Collaboration features. Are comments, mentions and file attachments linked directly to posts or tasks?
- Asset management. Does the tool provide a central location to store images, templates and brand guidelines?
- Integration and automation. Does the platform connect to social networks, design tools or automation services?
- Cost and scalability. How does pricing change as your team or client list grows?
Planable
Planable is designed for social media teams who need a straightforward approval solution. Strengths include a visual calendar, multi-channel previews and simple client approvals. However, customisation is limited: you can’t build multi-stage workflows or enforce checklists. Pricing is per user and can add up quickly.
- Best for: Small teams needing a ready-made social media approval tool.
- Limitations: Limited workflow flexibility, basic analytics and rising costs as your team grows.
Notion
Notion is a modular workspace that combines documents, databases and project boards. With templates, you can create a content calendar, assign tasks and embed assets. Add comment threads and status properties to track approvals. Notion offers maximum flexibility, but there’s no native scheduling or publishing. You must build your own workflow and maintain it.
- Best for: Teams looking for an all-in-one workspace and willing to customise their own approval process.
- Limitations: No native social media integrations, manual setup required, limited version control.
Trello
Trello uses cards on Kanban boards to visualise projects. You can create lists for Draft, Review and Approved, attach files and add comments. Power-Ups enable calendar views and automation. Trello is simple to learn and free for small teams. However, like Notion, it lacks native social media integrations and advanced approval features.
- Best for: Simple, lightweight approval flows and teams already using Trello for project management.
- Limitations: Manual workflow configuration, minimal reporting, doesn’t scale well for many clients.
Feature comparison
- Approval workflows: Planable offers basic single-step approvals; Notion and Trello rely on manual updates; custom workflows require creative use of statuses and automations.
- Asset management: Planable has limited asset storage; Notion allows embedding files within databases; Trello relies on attachments on cards.
- Collaboration: Planable provides inline comments; Notion supports rich comments and discussion threads; Trello allows comments on cards but lacks version history.
- Integrations: Planable connects to social networks; Notion integrates with thousands of apps via Zapier; Trello Power-Ups connect to Google Drive, Slack and more.
- Pricing: Planable charges per user; Notion offers a generous free tier and flat-rate plans; Trello’s free version is robust, with optional paid upgrades for advanced features.
Which should you choose?
- Choose Planable if you need a plug-and-play social media approval tool with a visual calendar and simple sign-off process.
- Choose Notion if you value flexibility and want to manage approvals alongside documents, notes and knowledge bases.
- Choose Trello if you prefer a Kanban-style board and your approval process is simple enough to manage with lists and cards.
If you require advanced approval workflows, multi-client management and integrated analytics, consider a dedicated platform like 21m.space. It combines the ease of a visual calendar with custom approval stages, asset libraries and pricing that scales with your agency, not your headcount.
Conclusion
Planable, Notion and Trello can all support social media approvals to a certain extent, but they vary in workflow flexibility, collaboration features and scalability. Identify your team’s must-have features and choose the tool that aligns with your processes. For agencies managing multiple clients, exploring specialised approval platforms may yield greater efficiency and fewer headaches.
