2 Free & Open-Source Trello Alternatives
Trello's free plan is generous for a single board, but automation runs, board history, and advanced checklists are capped or paywalled once a team relies on it daily. Self-hosted kanban tools remove those caps — you're trading Trello's polish for a tool you maintain yourself.
The best Trello alternatives
Focalboard
Our top pickOpen sourceSelf-hostedAn open-source kanban board with table and calendar views too.
Focalboard covers the same drag-and-drop card workflow as Trello, with table and calendar views as alternatives to the board view when a project needs a different lens on the same data.
- Kanban, table, and calendar board views
- Custom fields and reusable templates per board
- Self-hosted, lightweight to run
- Can run standalone or alongside Mattermost
Wekan
Open sourceSelf-hostedA long-standing, close visual match to Trello's board style.
Wekan has been around since early in the open-source-kanban space and sticks closely to Trello's exact visual language — cards, lists, swimlanes — which makes it the easiest of the two for a team to adopt with zero relearning.
- Familiar card/list/swimlane layout
- Due dates, checklists, and card labels
- Multiple board backgrounds and themes
- Self-hosted via Docker or Snap
Licensing and pricing models change over time — confirm current terms on each project's own site before making a procurement or compliance decision.
Frequently asked questions
Which is more like Trello — Focalboard or Wekan?
Wekan is the closer visual and behavioral match to Trello specifically. Focalboard is a bit more ambitious, adding table and calendar views alongside the board, at the cost of being slightly less Trello-identical out of the box.
Do these tools support Trello's Power-Ups?
No — Power-Ups are Trello's own plugin system and don't carry over. Both alternatives have their own (smaller) extension options, so check whether a specific integration you rely on exists before switching.
Can I import my existing Trello boards?
Both tools support importing Trello's JSON export to varying degrees. Test the import on a copy of a real board first, since some card-level automation and Power-Up data won't carry over.
More free alternatives
Not sure which way to go?
A free Growth Audit can help you weigh self-hosting against the tool you already pay for.