Project and task management decision

Whiteboards

A competent developer can build a useful kanban replacement (boards, realtime, attachments) in a few weeks, but reproducing Trello’s integrations ecosystem, polished apps, AI features, and enterprise controls is impractical for a solo build.

Visit website

You pay

$6/mo

$72/yr

Per seat. Read off the official pricing page.

You’d pay instead

$100one-off58 h to build

$50/mo6 h/mo upkeep

On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 10 seats.

Open-source builds that already do this

Every project below is open source and already does this job today. Fork one, self-host it, or take the parts you need - the build prompt further down assumes an empty file, and this is the shortcut past that. Licences differ; check the one on each card before you ship. All Whiteboards alternatives, with the arithmetic →

mattermost-community/focalboard26,405licence unclearSelf-hosted Trello-like kanban and board application for project and task management.Open on GitHub makeplane/plane56,057AGPL-3.0Open-source project management platform for tasks, sprints, docs, and triage.Open on GitHub

What a replacement has to do

Create boards → add lists and cards → move cards between lists (drag/drop) → assign people and due-dates → comment and attach files → optionally run simple automations

What it still won’t have

Catalog of 150+ Power-Ups / marketplace integrations
Polish, scale, and 24/7 enterprise admin/support from Atlassian
Mobile and desktop apps maintained by vendor
Built-in AI features and advanced workspace views
Enterprise-grade SSO, provisioning, and compliance controls

What remains hard

Integration maintenancePower-Ups Power up your teams by linking their favorite tools with Trello plugins.
Integration maintenanceUnlimited power-ups
Brand trustTrusted by millions.

Read the build prompt

First-year cost

Keep paying

Paying is—cheaper in year one.

On cash alone, building overtakes the subscription at 10 seats.

Paid seatsseats

Money you would actually spend

Keep paying

—

Subscription price × seats × 12

Build it

—

AI build —APIs + hosting —

Time you would spend

—

What you would spend

AI to build it$ onceAPIs + hosting$/mo

What we assumed

Initial buildhrsMonthly upkeephrsYour rate$/hr

The verdict above measures whether you could build it. This one is only about money.

Runnable build prompt

Not run yet

Build a self-hosted kanban board web app using React (frontend) + Node.js/Express (backend) + PostgreSQL (data) + Socket.IO for realtime; store attachments on S3-compatible storage. Implement: user auth (email + OAuth), workspace and per-user role model, board/list/card CRUD, drag-and-drop UI with persisted ordering, realtime client sync, attachments upload/serve, simple rule-based automations and webhooks, import/export CSV, and a basic admin UI. Exclude: mobile/desktop native apps, a Power-Ups marketplace, and enterprise SSO. Include error handling, input validation, and automated unit+integration tests; provide Docker compose and deployment docs.

How we checked5 sources · 3/3 runs agreed · evidence score 67

How the score was reached

Partly verdict base52
An open-source build was found+5
5 cited sources+3
Price verified on pricing page+3
3/3 assessment runs agreed+4
Evidence score67

The base comes from the verdict. Everything under it is a check that either happened or did not, and each one is a fact frozen in this record rather than a judgement made at render time - so the same evidence always produces the same number.

How scoring works →

Cited sources · 5

Every page the run actually retrieved.

official productTrello homepage
official pricingTrello pricing
official docsTrello for Product Management Teams
open sourcemattermost-community/focalboard
open sourcemakeplane/plane

Integrity checks

What held up, and what did not.

✓ Price read off the page✓ 3 independent runs, one answer✓ Citations limited to fetched pages! 3 moats quoted from the page