Best Self-Hosted Alternatives to Trello
Trello made the kanban board the default mental model for project work — drag a card, done, no onboarding required. It's still the simplest tool in this cluster, but its free tier caps out fast, and its no-code Butler automation and Power-Ups marketplace start costing real money once a team leans on them. Vikunja, Leantime, and Plane below give you boards and task management without a per-seat bill, though none is quite as fast to just start using.
Trello costs about $72/year and keeps your data on its servers. These researched, open-source alternatives give you the same workflow on hardware you own — here's what each needs to run.
The alternatives
What you give up by leaving Trello
Leaving Trello means giving up its famous simplicity: a board every new hire already understands, Butler's no-code automation, a Power-Ups marketplace with an integration for nearly anything, and mobile apps polished over more than a decade. Vikunja and Leantime keep things lightweight, and Plane adds more structure (cycles, modules) if your team has outgrown pure kanban — but all three ask for at least a little setup and admin time Trello never did. It's worth it once board sprawl or per-seat pricing gets annoying; it's a real step down in immediacy for a team that just wants to drag cards around.
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Head-to-head
A lean, free-by-default task manager vs. a feature-rich PM platform with a wider paywall.
A fast, Linear-style tracker vs. a full project-and-portfolio suite.
A lean Trello-style board under a fair-code licence vs. the feature-packed MIT kanban.
Common questions
Are these Trello alternatives really free?
The software is open-source and free to run. Your only cost is the server it runs on — often a few dollars a month, less than most SaaS subscriptions.
How much server do I need to self-host one?
Most of these run comfortably on a small VPS — 1–2 GB of RAM is enough for a single-user or small-team setup. Each app's page lists its minimum RAM.
Will I lose features by leaving Trello?
It depends on the app. The alternatives below cover the core workflow; polish and integrations vary, so check each one's stack and difficulty before you commit.