Open Source Trello Alternative

Why choose an open-source Trello alternative

Trello charges per user once a team needs features beyond the free tier, like unlimited boards, advanced checklists, or automation rules. An open-source kanban board tool removes per-seat licensing: cost becomes server hosting instead of a monthly charge that scales with headcount. Self-hosting also keeps task data, comments, and attachments on infrastructure the team controls rather than a third-party SaaS.

Integration depth is the other factor. Trello's automation (Butler) and Power-Ups are built around Trello's own ecosystem. An open-source board tool with an open API and database schema makes it straightforward to script custom automations or embed board data into internal dashboards without relying on a vendor's add-on marketplace.

What to look for

A Trello alternative needs a kanban board view at minimum, ideally alongside table and calendar or gallery views for different ways of looking at the same tasks. Checklists, due dates, labels, and file attachments cover the core Trello card feature set. Check for real-time collaboration between multiple people editing a board at once and an API for automation, since those are the features teams miss most when moving off Trello.

Focalboard as a Trello alternative

Focalboard is an open-source project management tool with kanban, table, gallery, and calendar views for the same underlying set of cards. It supports checklists, labels, due dates, file attachments, and real-time collaborative editing between team members on the same board. Focalboard is developed as part of Mattermost, so it integrates naturally with a self-hosted Mattermost chat deployment, though it can also run standalone via Docker or a personal desktop app. Because it is open source, boards and card data are stored in a database the team controls, with no per-user licensing fee. For teams that use Trello mainly for its kanban board and card checklist workflow, Focalboard covers that core feature set with additional view types built in.