Trello is the standard for Kanban task management, but free-plan limits push people toward alternatives. Search results are dominated by commercial SaaS comparisons (Asana, Notion), so devpick focuses on free, self-hostable open-source Kanban: the actively developed Planka and Vikunja, the veterans Wekan and Kanboard, and the Notion-style Focalboard.
- Trello-like Kanban — Planka offers a real-time collaborative Trello-style board
- Multi-view tasks — Vikunja adds list, Gantt, and table views on top of Kanban
- The veteran board — Wekan has long served as the open-source Trello alternative
- Stable by design — Kanboard officially declares maintenance mode while regular releases continue
- Notion-style boards — Focalboard officially positions itself as a Trello/Notion/Asana alternative (standalone edition unmaintained)
5 tools
focalboard
Focalboard is an open source, self-hosted alternative to Trello, Notion, and Asana.
wekan
The Open Source kanban, built with Meteor. GitHub issues/PRs are only for FLOSS Developers, not for support, support is at https://wekan.fi/commercial-support/ . PR source translation to imports/i18n/data/en.i18n.json, other translations at https://app.transifex.com/wekan/wekan
planka
PLANKA is the Kanban-style project mastering tool for everyone
kanboard
Kanban project management software
vikunja
The task manager you actually own.
How to Choose an Alternative
When to replace Trello with self-hosted OSS
The trigger is usually outgrowing the free plan or wanting data under your own control. Self-hosted OSS Kanban has no per-user limits; the trade-off is running a server.
Always check maintenance status
OSS Kanban varies widely here. Planka and Vikunja are actively developed; Kanboard officially declares maintenance mode (complete, with regular releases); Focalboard's standalone repo states it is unmaintained. Check the repository before adopting.
Choose by the views you need
Kanban alone: Planka, Wekan, or Kanboard. Multiple views like lists and Gantt: Vikunja. A Notion-like board-and-docs feel: Focalboard.
Team size and operations
With Docker, any of these runs in a few containers for a small team. For the long run, pick either an actively developed tool or a deliberately stable one like Kanboard.
Trello vs Open-Source Alternatives
- Rich ecosystem: Power-Ups and mobile apps
- As SaaS, new features arrive automatically
- Self-hosted, free, with unlimited users
- Trello-style real-time Kanban with data under your control
- Polished collaboration flows like board sharing and templates
- Low learning curve, friendly to non-engineers
- List, Gantt, and table views beyond Kanban
- Free self-hosting keeps data on your infrastructure
How to Choose
Planka for real-time collaborative Kanban, Vikunja for view variety, Kanboard for battle-tested stability. Maintenance status varies — check each tool's detail page notes.
FAQ
- What can replace Trello?
- Commercial picks are Asana and Notion, but for free self-hosted open source the main options are the Trello-style Planka, the multi-view Vikunja, the veteran Wekan, the stability-focused Kanboard, and the Notion-style Focalboard.
- Can I keep using a Trello alternative for free?
- Every OSS on this page is license-free with no user limits. You do pay with server costs and operations; a single VPS with Docker is the standard small-team setup.
- Can I migrate my Trello data?
- It varies by tool. Check each tool's official documentation for import support and coverage, and export your Trello data first to be safe.
- What should I watch out for with OSS Kanban?
- Maintenance status above all. This space mixes actively developed tools (Planka, Vikunja), maintenance-mode ones (Kanboard), and unmaintained ones (Focalboard standalone). Check repository activity before adopting.