Best open-source alternatives to Trello

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.

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.

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.

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.

Habitica is an open-source habit-building application that frames personal productivity as a role-playing game. It is aimed at people who want a playful system for tracking habits and staying motivated through game mechanics rather than a conventional to-do list or tracker. The README presents the project primarily as a self-hostable codebase for contributors and developers, with links for local setup guidance and technical onboarding. It also points developers toward API usage guidelines for third-party tools, suggesting that Habitica is part application and part platform with an ecosystem around it. The project’s public contribution policy is notable in the README, as it states that code-based community pull requests are paused while the repository remains open source and visible.

Kaneo is a self-hosted project management platform aimed at teams that want a simpler alternative to more complex collaboration tools. Its README emphasizes a minimal, fast interface designed to keep users focused on work rather than on managing the software itself. The project can be deployed in several ways, including a one-click setup via drim, Docker Compose, Kubernetes with a Helm chart, or from source for development. The documentation also covers configuration, environment variables, database setup, and advanced deployment options, and the project exposes separate API and web images for more flexible installations.

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.

tududi is a web-based productivity application designed to help users organize personal or team work in a structured hierarchy. It centers on tasks, projects, areas, notes, and tags, giving users a way to break down work, group related items, and keep track of due dates and recurring items without losing context. The project appears aimed at individuals and teams who want a private, self-hosted alternative for task management with collaboration features. It supports project sharing, Telegram-based task capture and digests, and multilingual use, and it also exposes a versioned REST API with personal access tokens for automation and external integrations. Deployment is presented primarily through Docker, with a source-based development workflow also documented.

4ga Boards is a web-based project management application built around boards, lists, cards, and tasks. It is positioned as a straightforward tool for teams that want realtime collaboration, a compact interface, and a Markdown-friendly workflow for organizing work visually. The project supports self-hosted deployment and development workflows, with documented installation paths for Docker Compose, Kubernetes, and manual setup. It includes authentication via Google, GitHub, Microsoft, and OIDC single sign-on, plus backup and restore scripts, Trello import, and multilingual support. The README also points users to hosted professional deployment options and separate documentation for installation, configuration, and SSO setup.

This project is a backend for a personal management system designed to help one person keep track of many kinds of personal information in one place. The README frames it as similar in spirit to a CMS or CRM, but focused on private data management rather than business workflows. It includes modules for goals, notes, contacts, passwords, health, schedules, issues, travel planning, payments, shopping, job tracking, images, files, video, and reports. It is aimed at someone who wants a self-hosted, highly customizable system that can be extended with additional modules. The author emphasizes running it on a terminal or Raspberry Pi 24/7 on a home network, ideally without internet access, which suggests a local personal information hub rather than a cloud service. The backend is presented as part of a larger application with a separate frontend and online documentation, and a demo instance is publicly available.

Donetick is an open-source task and chore management application aimed at individuals, families, and small groups that want to coordinate responsibilities together. It combines a shared task list with collaboration features so users can assign work, create groups, and track completion across multiple people. The project emphasizes flexible automation and scheduling. It supports plain-English task creation, recurring schedules, assignee rotation, subtasks, labels, priorities, analytics, and completion restrictions. It also includes authentication options, notifications, a REST API, webhooks, and integrations such as Home Assistant, making it suitable for self-hosted personal productivity setups and household organization.

jotty·page is a self-hosted web application for personal checklists and notes. It is aimed at people who want a lightweight, easy-to-deploy alternative that keeps data on their own server and supports encrypted note storage for added privacy. The project stores content in a file-based data directory instead of requiring a database, using Markdown and JSON files for checklists, notes, users, sharing, and encryption data. It provides a modern UI with checklists, rich text note editing, sharing, an admin panel for user management, REST API access, themes, custom emojis, keyboard shortcuts, and PWA behavior with limited offline caching. The README also describes SSO via OIDC and MFA support for environments that need centralized authentication.

MantisBT is a web-based bug tracker designed to help teams track issues and manage projects. The README presents it as a self-hosted application that is installed by extracting a tarball onto a web server and then completing a browser-based database setup. It is intended for administrators and operators who need a configurable issue tracking system backed by common database and PHP infrastructure. The project emphasizes customization and maintainability. The README points to an administration guide and coding guidelines, and it describes a structured configuration system with default and override files. It also notes API library functions in the codebase, suggesting extensibility for developers integrating or extending the tracker.

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.

Windshift is a self-hosted work management platform aimed at teams that want to plan, track, and collaborate on projects while keeping data under their own control. It combines a familiar kanban-style starting point with more structured views such as hierarchy trees, roadmaps, milestones, backlogs, and dashboards, making it suitable for teams that need both lightweight task management and deeper project organization. The project emphasizes configurability and extensibility. Users can tailor workflows, item types, fields, priorities, and recurring work, while also using features like comments, mentions, attachments, knowledge pages, and saved searches to keep project context together. It also supports integrations with GitHub, Gitea, Forgejo, Jira imports, and notifications, and includes capabilities such as test management, time tracking, and asset management. Windshift is distributed as a single Go binary with a built-in Svelte frontend and supports SQLite by default with PostgreSQL as an option.

Tracks is a web-based Getting Things Done (GTD) application built on Ruby on Rails. It is aimed at users who want a structured personal productivity system for capturing, organizing, and tracking actionable items in a GTD-style workflow. The README emphasizes project resources such as the homepage, manual, installation wiki, issue tracker, mailing list, and hosted service. It also points users to upgrade guidance and recommends backing up data during upgrades, indicating that it can be self-hosted and maintained by the user or an administrator. The mention of hosted services and paid consulting suggests there is also a hosted deployment option available for those who do not want to run it themselves.

Manage my Damn Life (MMDL) is a self-hosted web frontend for managing CalDAV tasks and calendar events. It is aimed at users who want a desktop-first interface for interacting with their CalDAV data, including task lists, calendar views, and Gantt-style planning. The project supports multiple CalDAV accounts and multiple user accounts, and it has been tested with Nextcloud and Baikal. It is described as being in beta, and the README notes that current CalDAV authentication support is basic authentication, with OAuth support documented separately. Translation management is handled through Weblate.

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.

A tiny PHP-based todo list application.

Tasks.md is a self-hosted task management board designed around Markdown files and a simple filesystem-based structure. It is aimed at users who want a lightweight, local, and maintainable way to organize tasks without relying on a hosted SaaS product. Lanes map to directories and individual tasks map to files, making the board easy to understand and back up using normal file tools. The project supports a modern web interface for creating cards, lanes, and tags, along with Markdown editing, theme customization, and multilingual UI behavior. It can be deployed with Docker, Docker Compose, or from source, and it includes support for running behind a subpath reverse proxy and for installing as a PWA. The README also emphasizes customizable styling via user-provided CSS and notes that subdirectories can function as separate projects.

ZenTao is an open source project management platform aimed at teams and organizations that need to manage the full software delivery lifecycle. It positions itself as an all-in-one system for product planning, project tracking, QA, documentation, organizational structure, and office-related management. The README describes ZenTao as supporting common project management methodologies such as Scrum, Waterfall, and Kanban, and it highlights modules for data visualization, measurement, DevOps, document asset management, and automated testing. The project also notes a broader product line: ZenTao Open Source, ZenTao Biz, ZenTao Max, and ZenTao Cloud, with the paid offerings expanding functionality for enterprise and process-management use cases.

HamsterBase Tasks is a task and idea organization application aimed at creators who want to plan, organize, build, and ship work while keeping control of their data. It emphasizes immediate local access, device-to-device syncing, and privacy through end-to-end encryption. The project appears designed for people who want a web-accessible and self-hostable productivity tool with offline support and long-term data availability. The README highlights a free online demo, download options, and self-hosted deployment guidance, suggesting it can be used both as a hosted service and in self-managed environments.

Traq is a self-hosted project management and issue tracking application built with PHP. It is aimed at users or teams that need to organize work across more than one project while keeping track of milestones and related issues in a centralized web interface. The README describes a traditional server-based deployment: the application is uploaded to a web server, dependencies are installed with Composer and pnpm, and the UI is built from source before use. It depends on PHP, a MariaDB/MySQL database, and a web server configured for Traq's routing setup. The project is released under GPLv3, indicating an openly licensed software model.

Task Keeper is a list editor aimed at power users who want a fast, keyboard-oriented way to manage structured notes and task lists. It is presented as a tool for use cases like TODO lists, meal planning, meeting notes, and general reminders. The application centers on document-based editing with nested tasks, tags, collapsible sections, and extensive shortcut support for common actions such as moving tasks, changing case, duplicating content, and navigating within a document. It also supports working across many documents with quick switching, and the README includes installation instructions for both a released binary distribution and a Docker-based setup backed by a database.

ShipShipShip is a self-hostable platform for publishing product changelogs and roadmaps. It is designed for teams that want a public-facing update page backed by an admin interface for managing events, statuses, themes, and newsletter automation. The project combines a SvelteKit-based admin panel with a Go backend and SQLite storage. Users can create and organize events, collect emoji reactions and votes, customize the look and feel with installable themes, and automatically send newsletters when items change status. It also exposes a REST API for integrations and provides Docker-based deployment plus local development scripts.

FocusFlow is a self-hosted Pomodoro time-management system made up of a Rust backend and a native client built with Tauri and SvelteKit. It is aimed at people who want to organize work and break sessions, manage tasks, and review productivity data across devices. The project includes cloud infrastructure, a backend API, and a native app for macOS, Windows, Linux, and Android. It supports real-time synchronization through WebSockets, provides a documented REST API, and offers self-hosted deployment through Docker Compose or Kubernetes. The client connects to a user-supplied backend URL on first launch, making it suitable for personal or privately hosted use.

Listaway is a self-hostable web application for creating, managing, and publishing lists and collections. It is aimed at individuals or teams that want to share tracking lists, wishlists, or task lists publicly while still keeping control over access and administration. The application supports authenticated use with email/password or OIDC/OAuth2 single sign-on, along with group and instance administration. Users can manage lists, items, and collections, and optionally expose them through randomized public read-only URLs or share them with other group members. It uses Postgres for persistence and can be deployed via Docker Compose or built from source for local development.

Helium Platform is the backend service for Helium, a student planner aimed at organizing classes, homework, grades, and notes. It provides the server-side functionality that powers the product, including an API and background worker processes. The README indicates that the platform is built with Python and Django and is intended to run in containers for development and deployment. It supports local development with Docker, includes an admin interface, and can emulate some AWS services locally through LocalStack. The project also exposes API documentation and is structured into modules for authentication, feeds, import/export, and planning.

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.

Eigenfocus is a self-hosted project management application built for teams that want a simpler alternative to cluttered project tracking tools. It is presented as a free edition with core project management capabilities, while the README also highlights a paid PRO edition and a managed cloud offering. The free edition supports multiple projects, boards, issues, time tracking, attachments, comments, labels, due dates, and visual customization through light and dark themes. The README indicates that the software runs via Docker or Docker Compose and can be configured with environment variables for host URL and SSL behavior. The paid tier adds capabilities such as multiple users with roles and permissions, custom fields, grid and timeline views, project templates, and SSO integration.

Our Shopping List is a collaborative web application for managing shared shopping lists and small todo lists. It is designed for groups of users who need to edit lists together in real time, whether at home, in a team, or for other shared planning use cases. The project organizes content into boards and lists, supports checkable items with fields such as name, quantity, and details, and provides search plus multiple display modes. It also includes a mobile-first interface, basic PWA support, and internationalization. The README indicates that the app is backed by MongoDB and uses WebSockets for server-to-client updates, with Docker-based deployment options and configuration through environment variables.