Trello nails the simple case: drag a card across a few lists and your whole team instantly gets what's happening. That clarity is real, and for a lightweight backlog it's hard to beat. The friction shows up once a board stops being a to-do list and becomes actual project infrastructure - the moment you want real custom fields, reporting, or automation, you're stacking paid power-ups and bumping into the free plan's ceilings, and all of it lives on someone else's cloud.
The open source boards below give you the same fast, visual flow without the metered tiers. You self-host them next to your other tools, keep cards and attachments on storage you control, and the data stays in formats you can actually export and back up.
Plane is an open-source project management tool for teams that need to track issues, run cycles, plan product work, and keep projects organized. It is built to handle tasks, docs, and triage without forcing teams into a proprietary workflow.
Focalboard is an open source, multilingual, self-hosted project management tool for organizing and tracking work across individuals and teams. It offers a Trello, Notion, and Asana alternative for people who want to manage tasks and projects in a tool they can run themselves.
WeKan is an open-source collaborative kanban board application for organizing personal tasks or team work. It is built to be installed on your own computer or server, so your board data can stay under your control instead of being tied to a hosted service.
Super Productivity is an open-source todo list and deep work task manager for developers. It combines task planning, timeboxing, time tracking, and notes in one workspace for Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, and the web. It has no user accounts or registration, does not collect data, and lets you decide where to store your data.
OpenProject is web-based project management software for managing projects, tasks, and goals. It combines classic, agile, and hybrid project management in one place so teams can plan work, track progress, and collaborate on work packages.
PLANKA is a self-hosted Kanban-style project management tool for teams that organize work into projects, boards, lists, cards, and tasks. It is built for agile workflows and keeps all project data on infrastructure you control rather than in a hosted service.
Leantime is an open source project management system for non-project managers. It focuses on goals and combines strategy, planning, and execution so teams can connect high-level direction to day-to-day work in one web app. It is built with ADHD, dyslexia, and autism in mind.
Kanboard is project management software focused on the Kanban methodology. It is built for teams that want to organize work on boards and keep the workflow in a self-hosted system they control.
Redmine is a flexible project management web application that supports multiple projects from a single install. Each project gets its own issue tracker, Gantt chart and calendar, wiki, forums, news, and document and file storage, with role-based access control deciding who can do what.
Tasks.org is an open source, privacy-friendly to-do list and reminder app for Android, with desktop builds in alpha and Pebble watch support. Its code descends from the open source Android app behind Astrid, the cross-platform task service that shut down in 2013.
Vikunja is open-source task management for organizing personal or team work, with your data kept under your control rather than tied to one provider. Run it on your own server, or let Vikunja Cloud host a fully managed instance for you.
Worklenz is an open-source project management platform for teams that want planning, collaboration, and execution in one place. It covers project tracking, task management, resource planning, time tracking, financial insights, analytics, and reporting so work can stay organized from start to finish.
tududi is a task management app for organizing life and work with tasks, projects, areas, notes, and tags. It is built for people who want a clear structure for daily work, recurring follow-ups, and a place to keep related notes with the same system.
Donetick is an open-source app for managing tasks and chores for one person or a group. It helps households and teams organize shared work, assign items to others, and keep recurring chores on track.
WeekToDo is a free, open source minimalist weekly planner that mixes a calendar and to-do lists in one interface. Plan your week by scheduling tasks across days, set priorities, and keep everything on Windows, macOS, Linux, or straight from a web browser.
Kanri is a desktop Kanban board app for Windows, macOS, and Linux. It helps people create and manage boards locally without an internet connection or account, so work stays on the device instead of in a cloud service.
Taiga is open source agile project management software that adapts to how each team works. Run it as a Kanban board with swim lanes and WIP limits, as Scrum with a backlog and sprints, or switch between the two modes at any time without losing your work.
