selfhostedworld.com logoselfhostedworld.com

Try describing what you need:

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.

6 alternatives listed
  1. 1AppFlowy logo
    72.0k
    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. 2AFFiNE logo
    69.1k
    MIT LicenseOpen Source — No Paywall

    AFFiNE is an open-source workspace platform designed for writing, drawing, planning, and organizing knowledge in one place. It combines document editing and whiteboard-style canvas interactions, aiming to serve users who want a Notion- and Miro-like experience in a single product. The project emphasizes a local-first approach, so users keep data on their own devices while still getting real-time sync and collaboration across web and cross-platform clients. It also includes AI-assisted creation workflows, such as turning outlines into slides or summaries into mind maps, and supports self-hosting for teams or individuals who want more control over deployment and data.

    Cloud OptionalOffline CapableMulti-UserDockerDocker ComposeSource

    Features:

    • edgeless canvas
    • rich text editing
    • sticky notes
    • embedded web pages
    • multi-view databases

    +5 more

  3. AFFiNE is an open-source workspace platform designed for people who want to combine note-taking, whiteboarding, planning, and knowledge management in one place. The README presents it as a local-first alternative to Notion and Miro, with emphasis on owning data on disk while still supporting cloud-based synchronization and collaboration. The project appears aimed at individuals and teams that need a flexible canvas for creative and structured work. It highlights an edgeless canvas where documents, tables, sticky notes, embedded web content, shapes, and slides can coexist, plus AI-assisted workflows for drafting reports, turning outlines into slides, summarizing content into mind maps, and prototyping ideas. It also mentions self-hosting and a plugin ecosystem, suggesting it is intended for users who want both a hosted product and the option to run and extend their own deployment.

    Cloud OptionalOffline CapableMulti-User

    Features:

    • edgeless canvas
    • rich text editor
    • sticky notes
    • embedded web pages
    • multi-view databases

    +5 more

  4. 4Plane logo
    50.4k
    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
  5. 5Wekan 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

  6. 6docmost logo
    20.5k
    GNU Affero General Public License v3.0Open Core — Some Features Paid

    Docmost is an open-source collaborative wiki and documentation platform aimed at teams that need a shared place to write, organize, and maintain knowledge. It combines wiki-style pages with documentation features and emphasizes real-time collaboration for multiple contributors working together. The project highlights spaces, permissions, groups, page history, search, file attachments, embeds, and diagram support, making it suitable for internal documentation, team knowledge bases, and structured collaboration. The README also points users to hosted cloud pricing and to self-hosting/development documentation, suggesting both managed and self-hosted usage paths.

    Cloud OptionalMulti-User

    Features:

    • Real-time collaboration
    • Diagrams
    • Spaces
    • Permissions management
    • Groups

    +5 more

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.