Trello Power-Ups

Productivity

Atlassian Corporation · Productivity & collaboration suites

Best for: Board-level enhancements and integrations for Trello users.

Overview

Trello Power-Ups extend Trello boards and cards with embedded, iframe-based capabilities and REST API integrations. Builders register a Power-Up in the Trello admin panel, define the capabilities their iframe implements (card badges, board buttons, card back-section), and use the Power-Up REST API client to obtain a user OAuth token from their public API key. The public API key alone grants no data access; the secret token obtained via the authorization flow does.

Distribution is comparatively lightweight: Power-Ups can be created and published as public without a multi-week security audit, though the public directory involves an approval step. Trello provides no native billing, so monetization is handled through third-party platforms — Optro and Salable both provide integrated licensing, subscription, and payment flows, acting as the billing and merchant-of-record layer. Choose Trello Power-Ups for a low-friction way to add board-level capabilities with a public directory presence, pairing with Optro or Salable if you intend to charge.

How to build & ship

  1. 1Create a Power-Up in the Trello admin portal and set your iframe connector (index) URL
  2. 2Include power-up.js and initialize TrelloPowerUp.initialize() with your capabilities
  3. 3Implement the capability callbacks (card buttons, badges, board buttons, popups, etc.)
  4. 4Use t.getRestApi() / the REST API client for authenticated Trello data access
  5. 5Configure listing details and public visibility, then submit for review to be listed

Key APIs & SDKs

Power-Up client library (power-up.js / TrelloPowerUp)
Power-Up capabilities framework
Trello REST API
REST API client (t.getRestApi)
t.set/t.get shared storage

Authentication & security

  • Primary auth: API key
  • Also supports: OAuth 2.0, PAT
  • Security review: Not required
  • Power-Ups can be created and made public from the admin panel; public directory listing has an approval step but no heavyweight security audit.
  • Power-Ups run as hosted iframes and must meet Atlassian/Trello's listing requirements and review before being publicly listed in the Power-Ups directory; no fixed timeline is published.
  • Documented per-key (300 requests/10s) and per-token (100 requests/10s) limits (approximate); 429 on exceed.

Monetization

Onboarding
$0
Commission
No native billing; monetization runs through third-party platforms (Optro, Salable)
Merchant of Record
Third-party licensing platforms act as billing/MoR

Pros & cons for builders

Pros

  • Lightweight, mostly front-end iframe model — no heavy platform SDK to learn
  • Large Trello board user base and simple capability-based extension points
  • Built-in per-card/board storage via t.set/t.get
  • Fast to prototype and self-host

Cons

  • Iframe/CORS and hosting responsibilities fall entirely on the developer
  • Capability model is deliberately narrow compared to full app platforms
  • No native billing; monetization requires third-party tooling