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Best open-source alternatives to Trello

Atlassian's kanban board for lightweight project management.

Trello popularized the digital kanban board with its simple list-and-card interface used for personal task tracking, agile planning, and lightweight project coordination. Its low learning curve and free tier drove broad adoption. Per-user pricing for advanced features and the desire to keep project data on private infrastructure motivate teams to evaluate self-hosted kanban tools.

30 alternatives listed
  1. 1AppFlowy logo
    74.2k
    GNU Affero General Public License v3.0Open Source — No Paywall

    AppFlowy is an open-source workspace application positioned as an alternative to Notion. It is designed for people who want a native, cross-platform productivity tool with stronger control over their data, and it also targets enterprises and builders who want to customize or extend the platform. The project combines Flutter and Rust to provide desktop and mobile clients, with self-hosting support for teams that want to run their own instance. The README highlights collaboration-oriented workplace management, AI capabilities, templates, databases, and documentation-style content, while emphasizing privacy, extensibility, and a community-driven approach to building productivity tools.

    Multi-UserDockerFlatpakSnapSource

    Features:

    • Kanban boards
    • databases
    • documentation sites
    • AI features
    • templates

    +4 more

  2. 2Plane logo
    54.8k
    GNU Affero General Public License v3.0Open Source — No Paywall

    Plane is an open-source project management platform designed for teams that need to organize work without spending time managing the tool itself. It centers on issue tracking, cycle planning, modular project breakdowns, configurable views, pages for notes and ideas, and analytics for monitoring progress. The project supports both a hosted cloud offering and self-hosted deployment on users’ own infrastructure. Its README highlights an instance-admin “God mode” for configuring server-level settings, along with dedicated product and developer documentation for setup, usage, and contribution. The software is positioned for collaborative team use and includes a rich text workflow for capturing and converting ideas into actionable work.

    Cloud OptionalMulti-UserDockerKubernetes

    Features:

    • work items
    • rich text editor
    • file uploads
    • sub-properties
    • issue references

    +5 more

    Auth:local
  3. 3Wekan logo
    21.0k
    MIT LicenseOpen Source — No Paywall

    WeKan is an open-source kanban board application designed for people and teams who want a visual way to organize tasks and projects. The README positions it as a collaborative tool suitable for a personal todo list, holiday planning, or team-based project coordination, and emphasizes that users can self-host it on their own computer or server. The project provides several deployment paths, including Docker images, docker-compose, Snap, and source-based development setup. It also highlights a real-time interface, broad language support, and a public demo board. The README includes explicit runtime and resource guidance, such as Node.js 24.x and Meteor for development, along with minimum RAM and backup recommendations for production use.

    Multi-UserDockerDocker ComposeSnapSource

    Features:

    • collaborative kanban boards
    • real-time user interface
    • personal todo lists
    • team planning
    • multi-language translations

    +3 more

  4. MIT LicenseOpen Source — No Paywall

    Super Productivity is a task and productivity application designed to help people organize work, track time, and manage day-to-day planning. It combines todo management with timeboxing, time tracking, summaries, and task importing from external services such as calendars and issue trackers. The project is aimed at individuals or teams who want a privacy-conscious tool that keeps data under the user's control. It emphasizes local planning, integrations with services like Jira and GitHub, and synchronization/backup via Dropbox or WebDAV. The README also highlights habits support such as break reminders, anti-procrastination prompts, and a Pomodoro timer, alongside a free and open-source model with no user accounts required.

    No TelemetryCloud OptionalOffline CapableDockerSourcePackage ManagerSnapFlatpak

    Features:

    • sub-tasks
    • projects
    • tags
    • timeboxing
    • time tracking

    +5 more

  5. 5Habitica logo
    14.0k

    Habitica is an open-source habit-building application that frames everyday goals as a role-playing game. It is aimed at people who want a more motivating way to track habits and personal productivity, with game-like feedback such as leveling up, losing HP when tasks are missed, and earning in-game currency for rewards. The repository README also indicates that the project is actively developed for both web and mobile platforms, with separate Android and iOS repositories linked for mobile contributors. For developers, it points to local setup instructions and an introduction to the technologies used and project organization, while also directing third-party tool authors to API usage guidelines.

    Cloud OptionalMulti-UserSource

    Features:

    • habit tracking
    • gamified progress
    • leveling up
    • health loss on failure
    • gold rewards

    +3 more

  6. GNU Affero General Public License v3.0Open Source — No Paywall

    solidtime is a modern open-source time tracking application aimed at freelancers and agencies. It provides a centralized way to record time, organize work into projects and tasks, manage clients, and set billable rates across different organizational levels. The project also supports multiple organizations under one account, with roles and permissions to help manage access within those organizations. It includes import capabilities for bringing in time tracking data from other tools such as Toggl, Clockify, and Timeentry CSV, and it is offered both as a self-hosted product and as a cloud service.

    Cloud OptionalMulti-UserMulti-Tenant

    Features:

    • time tracking
    • project management
    • task management
    • client management
    • billable rates

    +5 more

  7. MIT LicenseOpen Source — No Paywall

    Backlog.md is a Markdown-native task manager and Kanban visualizer designed for any Git repository. It turns a project folder into a self-contained board where tasks are stored as plain Markdown files inside a local backlog directory, keeping work human-readable and version-controlled. The project is aimed at developers who want a lightweight, local-first workflow for planning and tracking work, especially in AI-assisted development flows. It supports both manual task management and integrations with AI coding agents through MCP or CLI instructions, allowing users to break down work, plan changes, and implement tasks one at a time. In addition to a terminal-based board, it offers a web interface for visual management, search, filtering, archiving, and markdown report export.

    Offline CapablePackage Manager

    Features:

    • Markdown-native tasks
    • AI-ready workflows
    • terminal Kanban board
    • web interface
    • fuzzy search

    +5 more

  8. Apache License 2.0Open Source — No Paywall

    Colanode is an open-source collaboration workspace designed for self-hosting and local-first use. It targets individuals and teams that want chat, pages, databases, and file storage in a single platform while keeping control over their own data. The project emphasizes privacy, offline-friendly workflows, and the ability to connect to multiple servers from one client app. The system is built around a client app available on the web or desktop and a self-hosted server. Users choose a workspace after logging in, then collaborate through messages, page editing, and database updates. Data is written to a local SQLite database first and synchronized in the background, and the project uses CRDTs via Yjs to support concurrent edits on shared content.

    Cloud OptionalOffline CapableMulti-UserMulti-TenantDockerDocker ComposeKubernetesHelmSource

    Features:

    • real-time chat
    • rich text pages
    • customizable databases
    • table views
    • kanban views

    +5 more

    Auth:local
  9. BSD 2-Clause "Simplified" LicenseSource-Available — Not OSS

    Nullboard is a compact, browser-based kanban board and task list manager aimed at people who want a fast, low-clutter way to organize work. It emphasizes simplicity over collaboration features, with an interface built around editable cards, list rearrangement, and keyboard-driven workflows. The project stores all data locally in the browser using localStorage and supports exporting/importing board data as JSON text files. It also supports automatic local backups through companion tools, and the README highlights multiple boards, undo/redo history, link handling, theming, and other usability-focused behaviors. The project is positioned as a desktop-oriented tool that can be used completely offline.

    Offline CapableSourceDocker

    Features:

    • single-page web app
    • offline use
    • local storage
    • import/export JSON text files
    • automatic local backups

    +5 more

  10. MIT LicenseOpen Source — No Paywall

    This project is the backend for a personal management system intended to keep a user’s private information organized in one place. It is positioned as a self-hosted alternative to scattering data across services like cloud drives, notes apps, and other online tools. The system appears aimed at a technically inclined individual who wants to manage personal data locally and extend the application with custom modules. It includes modules for everyday organization such as tasks, notes, contacts, passwords, schedules, payments, shopping, images, files, video, and read-only reports. The README emphasizes modularity, extension development, and running continuously on a home-connected machine without internet access.

    Offline CapableSource

    Features:

    • todo/goals tracking
    • notes
    • contacts management
    • encrypted password storage
    • schedules

    +5 more

    Auth:local

What to look for in a Trello alternative

Card richness — checklists, attachments, due dates, custom fields, and labels — defines whether the tool can replace Trello for non-trivial projects. Evaluate automation rules (Butler-equivalent), board templates, and Power-Up or plugin ecosystems. Multi-board views, swimlanes, and WIP limits matter as teams move from personal task lists to shared development workflows.