Migration guide · Project Management

The 4 best Trello alternatives

Trello is a visual, card-based task and project management tool built around the Kanban model — boards, lists, and drag-and-drop cards. Originally an independent product, it was acquired by Atlassian in 2017 and is now part of the Atlassian product family alongside Jira and Confluence. It's a hosted SaaS product: your boards live on Atlassian's cloud, and Trello adds automation (Butler), multiple views (Timeline, Calendar, Table, Dashboard), and Power-Up integrations on top of the core board.

Bottom line

Wekan gives you the Trello card-and-board feel, free and self-hosted with no board limits. If you want boards that grow into real project management, OpenProject stretches further.

Jump to the full comparison →

The cost

Free tier: unlimited cards, up to 10 boards per workspace, 250 automation runs/month. Paid: Standard ~$5/user/month, Premium ~$10/user/month, Enterprise from ~$17.50/user/month (all billed annually; monthly billing costs more per seat).

Is Trello free? The exact limits

Why people consider an alternative

Teams considering an alternative usually cite one of: the per-seat cost scaling quickly once a team grows past a handful of people, the 10-board cap on the free plan forcing an upgrade for organizations with many small projects, wanting their task data to live on infrastructure they control rather than a vendor's cloud, or needing views/automation that are gated behind the Premium or Enterprise tier. For some teams — especially small, mostly-solo users happy with the free tier's limits — Trello remains the simpler, zero-maintenance choice.

When Trello is still the right call

For one personal board or a small family list, Trello's free tier is still the path of least resistance — hosted, polished, zero setup. It's when you hit the 10-open-boards Workspace cap or need real permissions that the alternatives start paying for themselves.

The verdict — at a glance

ranked by Sovereignty Score — how we score →

Alternative	License	Self-host	Pricing	Sovereignty
Wekan★	MIT	Yes	Free / self-host (commercial support available separately)	90
OpenProject	GPL-3.0	Yes	Free / self-host (Community edition); paid Enterprise on-premises support from ~$5.95/user/month, or Enterprise Cloud hosting from ~$4.95/user/month	91
Vikunja	AGPL-3.0	Yes	Free / self-host for all core features; Pro add-ons (admin panel, audit logs, time tracking) via a paid license from ~$5/user/month; managed Cloud hosting also available	89
Kanboard	MIT	Yes	Free / self-host (paid cloud hosting plans available from the maintainer)	86

Macrostack's top pick

Wekan

The closest open-source, self-hosted match to Trello's own card-and-list model.

Which one fits your situation?

There is no single best answer — it depends on what you are actually trying to do.

Just tell me the best Trello alternative

Wekan90

Our top pick — the highest Sovereignty Score at 90, and the one we would choose ourselves.

Wekan vs OpenProject →

I want to self-host it and own the data

OpenProject91

Self-hostable, so your data stays on your own server. Free / self-host (Community edition); paid Enterprise on-premises support from ~$5.95/user/month, or Enterprise Cloud hosting from ~$4.95/user/month

OpenProject vs Wekan →

It is just me — I do not want to run a server

Vikunja89

Offers a hosted option, so you can start without infrastructure. Free / self-host for all core features; Pro add-ons (admin panel, audit logs, time tracking) via a paid license from ~$5/user/month; managed Cloud hosting also available

Vikunja vs Wekan →

Every alternative, compared

#1★ TOP PICK

Wekan

The closest open-source, self-hosted match to Trello's own card-and-list model.

OPEN SOURCEMITSELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST

Wekan is a free, open-source Kanban board that deliberately mirrors Trello's UI: boards, swimlanes, lists, and cards with labels, checklists, due dates, and attachments. It self-hosts via Docker, a Linux Snap package (with automatic updates), or from source, and stores everything in MongoDB you control. It even ships a dedicated Trello-import tool for migrating existing boards and attachments.

Strengths

+Free MIT license, no per-seat cost ever
+UI and workflow are the most Trello-like of any open-source option, so the switch is low-friction for a team used to Trello
+Dedicated Trello JSON/attachment import tool eases migration
+Active project with regular releases and a large, engaged community (20k+ GitHub stars)

Trade-offs

−Interface is functional but less visually polished than Trello's current design
−Advanced reporting/analytics views are limited compared to Trello Premium
−You are responsible for your own backups, updates, and uptime once self-hosted
−MongoDB dependency adds a small extra piece of infrastructure to operate versus a single-binary tool

Free / self-host (commercial support available separately)

Website Source Docs

OpenProject

A full open-source project management suite for teams that outgrow a simple board.

OPEN SOURCEGPL-3.0SELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST 16kupdated 1 mo ago

OpenProject is a complete, self-hostable project management platform: Kanban-style boards sit alongside Gantt charts, backlogs, roadmaps, work packages, time tracking, and fine-grained permissions. The Community edition is the entire open-source codebase and is fully functional with no feature paywall; paid Enterprise tiers add professional support and a handful of add-ons (which are themselves open source and periodically folded back into Community).

Strengths

+Genuinely not an open-core product — the vendor states plainly that Enterprise plans pay for support and add-ons, not for unlocking withheld features
+Covers a much broader project-management surface than Trello: Gantt charts, backlogs, budgeting, and formal work-package tracking
+Strong documentation and an active global community with regular releases
+Enterprise add-ons are periodically released back into the free Community edition

Trade-offs

−Heavier to run than a Kanban-only tool — a Ruby on Rails + PostgreSQL stack needs more server resources than Wekan or Kanboard
−The extra structure (work packages, roadmaps, backlogs) is more than most Trello users need if all they want is a simple card board
−Steeper learning curve for a team used to Trello's minimalism
−Professional support requires an Enterprise subscription; community-only support is the default on Community edition

Free / self-host (Community edition); paid Enterprise on-premises support from ~$5.95/user/month, or Enterprise Cloud hosting from ~$4.95/user/month

Website Source Docs

Vikunja

A modern task manager with List, Kanban, Gantt, and Table views in one app.

OPEN SOURCEAGPL-3.0SELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST

Vikunja is an open-source task and project manager that goes beyond a pure Kanban board: the same tasks can be viewed as a list, a Kanban board, a Gantt-style timeline, or a table. It ships as a single Go binary plus a Vue.js frontend, supports PostgreSQL/MySQL/SQLite, and includes CalDAV sync so tasks show up in any calendar app. A small set of admin-oriented features (admin panel, audit logs, time tracking) require a paid 'Pro' license key even for self-hosted instances; every core feature — including Kanban, Gantt, and the full API — remains free.

Strengths

+Four task views (List, Kanban, Gantt, Table) cover more workflows than a Kanban-only tool
+Natural-language 'Quick Add Magic' parses due dates, priority, labels, and assignee from one line of text
+CalDAV support integrates tasks into existing calendar apps
+Very actively developed with a comprehensive test suite and seven built-in importers, including one specifically for Trello

Trade-offs

−AGPL-3.0 requires anyone who modifies and network-serves Vikunja to release those changes — a real consideration for companies building a hosted product on top of it
−A handful of genuinely useful admin/audit features sit behind a paid license even when self-hosting, so 'fully free' has a practical asterisk
−More moving parts (Go backend + Vue frontend + DB) than a single-file tool like Kanboard
−Newer project than Wekan or OpenProject, so its long-term enterprise track record is shorter

Free / self-host for all core features; Pro add-ons (admin panel, audit logs, time tracking) via a paid license from ~$5/user/month; managed Cloud hosting also available

Website Source Docs

Kanboard

A minimalist, low-overhead Kanban board for teams who want speed over features.

OPEN SOURCEMITSELF-HOSTLOCAL-FIRST

Kanboard is a lightweight, self-hosted PHP Kanban application focused on simplicity: boards, swimlanes, task automation rules, subtasks, and time tracking, extendable through a plugin system. It runs on very modest hardware (a small VPS is plenty) and has no external database service dependency by default (SQLite works out of the box, with MySQL/PostgreSQL supported for larger installs).

Strengths

+Very low resource requirements — runs comfortably on a small, cheap VPS
+Free MIT license with a genuinely simple, fast interface
+Built-in automation rules and time tracking without needing plugins
+Plugin ecosystem covers common gaps (Gantt, LDAP, extra integrations)

Trade-offs

−Visual design is utilitarian — noticeably plainer than Trello or Wekan
−Smaller contributor base than Wekan or Vikunja, so feature velocity is slower
−Fewer native views than richer PM tools (no built-in Gantt or table view without a plugin)
−Collaboration features (comments, mentions, notifications) are narrower than larger suites

Free / self-host (paid cloud hosting plans available from the maintainer)

Website Source Docs

Questions people ask

▸ Which Trello alternative is the easiest to switch to?

Wekan is the closest match to Trello's own interface and workflow — boards, lists, and cards behave almost identically — and it ships a dedicated tool for importing Trello's JSON export and attachments, which makes it the lowest-friction first stop for most teams.

▸ Do any of these alternatives have a catch, like Trello does with its free-tier limits?

Vikunja is fully open-source (AGPL-3.0) and self-hostable at no cost, but a few admin-facing features — an admin panel, audit logs, and time tracking — require a paid 'Pro' license key even when self-hosted. Everything else, including the core Kanban board, stays free. OpenProject's paid tiers are support contracts, not feature unlocks — its vendor is explicit that it is not an open-core product.

▸ Why isn't Planka on this list?

Planka switched from AGPL-3.0 to a proprietary 'Fair Use License' (based on the Sustainable Use License) in its 2.0 release — free for internal use, but not an OSI-approved open-source license and not something we can label 'open source' in good conscience. Its earlier MIT-licensed fork, 4gaBoards, remains open but is a smaller, less established project; we're watching it rather than recommending it yet.

▸ What is the best free app like Trello?

Self-hosted: Wekan — the most Trello-like board experience, free with no artificial limits. If you want something hosted for free without running a server, Vikunja instances and Kanboard's simplicity are the honest picks. All three are open-source.

▸ Is there a Trello alternative without the 10-board limit?

Every self-hosted option here — Wekan, Kanboard, Vikunja, OpenProject — has no artificial board cap. The only limit is your server's capacity, which for kanban boards is effectively none.

▸ Can I import my Trello boards?

Yes — Wekan imports Trello's JSON board exports directly, and Vikunja has a Trello importer as well. Cards, lists, and descriptions come across; Power-Up data and automations don't.

Compare them head-to-head

Wekan vs OpenProject→Wekan vs Vikunja→Wekan vs Kanboard→OpenProject vs Vikunja→OpenProject vs Kanboard→Vikunja vs Kanboard→

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Entry last verified 2026-07-18. Licenses and pricing change — spotted something out of date? That's a correction we want.

The cost

Why people consider an alternative

When Trello is still the right call

The verdict — at a glance

Wekan

Which one fits your situation?

Every alternative, compared

Wekan

Strengths

Trade-offs

OpenProject

Strengths

Trade-offs

Vikunja

Strengths

Trade-offs

Kanboard

Strengths

Trade-offs

Questions people ask

Compare them head-to-head

Related comparisons

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