Trello alternatives: 4 free & open-source picks
Curated, verified, and actually free. No trials, no crippled tiers. Star counts and last-activity dates checked by hand, not scraped and forgotten.
Trello's boards without Butler, upsells, or anyone else holding the database
Spartan kanban that is finished, not fashionable; maintenance mode means only fixes
Scrum baggage aside, its kanban boards comfortably replace Trello's core job
A polished self-hosted Trello clone; the free edition keeps the core board-and-card job intact
last updated 2026-08-06 · no votes, no pay-to-list · just what's real
FocalboardStill recommended everywhere; Mattermost stopped maintaining it and the last standalone release was April 2023
| tool | license | running it | platforms | stars | active |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Wekan | open source | docker to self-host | web, self-hosted | 21,000 | 2026-08 |
| Kanboard | open source | docker to self-host | web, self-hosted | 9,800 | 2026-04 |
| Taiga | open source | self-host, real ops | web, self-hosted | 844 | 2026-08 |
| PLANKA | free (closed) | docker to self-host | web, self-hosted | — | — |
People still pay for Trello because teams pay because project state has to remain authoritative through staff changes, outages, and years of accumulated workflow exceptions. The recurring cost buys auth, permissions, notifications, search, migrations, audit history, integrations, backups, and uptime, not just the visible interface. If none of that applies to you, any pick above saves $150 a year.
Is there a free alternative to Trello?
Yes: Wekan, Kanboard, Taiga and 1 more. Every tool on this page is either open source or genuinely free to use long-term: no trials, no crippled tiers.
Should I just build my own Trello?
Our verdict is KINDA. The core loop is buildable, but a dependable replacement becomes a real weekend or multi-day project. For Trello, run kanban boards with cards, checklists, labels, dates, and simple automation. The hard boundary is atlassian ecosystem, power-ups, mobile apps, automation, and reliable collaboration, plus collaboration, integrations, and organizational trust. If you'd rather build, the exact one-shot prompt is free at canivibecodeit.com/trello.
