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Hey HN, I couldn’t find an open-source alternative to Trello that I liked so I built my own. It’s fast, free and fully-customisable. You can self host it, or

Hey HN, I couldn’t find an open-source alternative to Trello that I liked so I built my own. It’s fast, free and fully-customisable. You can self host it, or use the cloud version if you don’t want to manage your own infra. Repo -> https://github.com/kanbn/kan https://github.com/kanbn/kan Cloud -> https://kan.bn https://kan.bn Roadmap -> https://kan.bn/kan/roadmap https://kan.bn/kan/roadmap I’d love feedback, bug reports, or any feature suggestions!

stevekemp 1y ago
How does it compare to the existing open-source boards, such as: https://wekan.github.io/ https://wekan.github.io/ https://taiga.io/ https://taiga.io/ https://kanboard.org/ https://kanboard.org/
- walthamstow 1y ago
  Also https://github.com/plankanban/planka https://github.com/plankanban/planka
  - rodnim 1y ago
    I am using Planka for my personal projects. Works great!
  - senorrib 1y ago
    Planka is not open-source.
    - organsnyder 1y ago
      They don't appear to be using an OSI-approved license, but the source code is available. So depending on your use-case that may be an academic distinction.
      - kstrauser 1y ago
        Its license has strict limitations on what you can use it for. It’s not open source in any reasonable sense.
        Izkata 1y ago
        It is open source (the code is right there), but it's not Open Source due to what GP references. There is a distinction.
        7839284023 1y ago
        That’s just called „source available“.
        kstrauser 1y ago
        But since [oO]pen [sS]ource has a broadly understood meaning that's different, we shouldn't deliberately use the same description for both ideas. If you want to describe it as "source available", I'll happily go along with it. It's not open source, though. The source is visible, but it's not open to use. I mean, you can find the leaked Windows source code online, but it's not open source just because you can look at it.
        adastra22 1y ago
        That’s not what open source means. That is generally called source available.
        Xss3 1y ago
        Source available sounds like you gotta buy it. Think of it this way, if you were going to an event and saw 'buffet available' you'd enquire how to access it. If you saw 'open buffet' you'd know it's just there for the taking. Open source sounds like it's free to view. It's open. An open house isn't free to own. You view it. Open source not meaning the source code is free to view but instead having a meaning related to licensing is silly. Call it an open license, or just name the license. The code/source isn't the license. I'll die on this hill. Christine was cool but that doesn't make her infallible. Open source meaning open license was a mistake.
    - xet7 1y ago
      There is fork of Planka with MIT license: https://github.com/RARgames/4gaBoards https://github.com/RARgames/4gaBoards
- croisillon 1y ago
  and Nullboard: https://github.com/apankrat/nullboard https://github.com/apankrat/nullboard i don't understand the wave of downvotes but whatever
  - iLoveOncall 1y ago
    Pretty obviously because this one is very different in philosophy (minimalism) than the one OP is working on while the other ones that have been posted aim for feature parity (at least) with Trello?
    - croisillon 1y ago
      OK, i see
  - neuroticnews25 1y ago
    Thank you, hosted demo with no login required saving to local storage is exactly what i was looking for.
- pylotlight 1y ago
  https://github.com/usekaneo/kaneo https://github.com/usekaneo/kaneo / https://kaneo.app https://kaneo.app
- adr1an 1y ago
  Or this one that I've been self-hosting for my team: https://vikunja.io/ https://vikunja.io/
  - diggan 1y ago
    I've also been using Vikunja locally for myself, but the UX really isn't the best and it isn't keyboard-driven which is a bit of a shame. The mobile version also isn't really ready for real usage, seems to lose state every now and then, or disconnect in some manner.
  - zikani_03 1y ago
    We have been using Vikunja for our team for about 2/3 years and it's good. It has it's quirks but generally works. What we haven't done well is keeping up to date with development as the version we installed did enough for us. We recently found out that they moved main development to github and we are keen to contribute where we can as we have found value in it.
    - GlacierFox 1y ago
      Your comment just made me think about the fact I installed Vikunja like 2 years ago and I haven't updated it since. D:
- busssard 1y ago
  also Obsidian with Kanban plugin
  - mogoh 1y ago
    Obsidian is not open-source.
- dagelf 1y ago
  It takes forever to compile, the locally hosted solution links to the online one at https://kan.bn https://kan.bn and you've got to spend half a day to figure out how to truly self host
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- mbesto 1y ago
  I went down the rabbit hole of self hosted kanban boards recently. Honestly, nothing comes close to Trello and while I love the open source communities (and supporting them), these alternatives usually dont come close, or worse they try to be super feature rich and its get in the way of their functionality. The better open source options tend to be airtable alternatives or full blown project management tools (Eigenboard, Plane, etc)
  - yolkedgeek 1y ago
    Plane is so sick. I think it's better than trello
    - jasonm23 1y ago
      Thank you, I hadn't heard of Plane... and ... nice
  - IIsi50MHz 1y ago
    I think I found Plane[1], but Eigenboard? https://github.com/makeplane/plane?tab=readme-ov-file https://github.com/makeplane/plane?tab=readme-ov-file
    - mbesto 1y ago
      Eigenfocus, sorry! https://eigenfocus.com/ https://eigenfocus.com/
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
progx 1y ago
Sorry, but I can't see what is better or other than every existing kanban-tool. I tried it, but you have only drag & drop lists with items and labels, that is all.
- progx 1y ago
  I don't want to blame you, you have put in a lot of work. My point is, that at the current state, your kanban offers nothing special. It is like the other 1000 kanban boards. I think you should specialize your board for a selected audience. Not a board for all, that kind of boards we have. Example: Kanban with special features for game developement. More visual options, images and not only text. Currently there exists only some really overbloated tools.
cellularmitosis 1y ago
Nice project. Some of the workflows could be more keyboard friendly. I started an issue: https://github.com/kanbn/kan/issues/3 https://github.com/kanbn/kan/issues/3
jpc0 1y ago
I would love to see webhook support add to this. For many users this isn’t an issue but for use it’s a must have feature. Will stick to trello for the time being.
- xet7 1y ago
  WeKan https://wekan.github.io https://wekan.github.io has: 1) Per-board webhooks at board right sidebar / Board Settings / Webhooks 2) Global Webhooks at Admin Panel See right menu of https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki , scroll down to webhooks part of menu. It's possible to send board change events like move card as webhooks, for example to some chat: https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki/Outgoing-Webhook-to-Discord https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki/Outgoing-Webhook-to-Disc... Or to NodeRED: https://github.com/wekan/wekan/issues/2017 https://github.com/wekan/wekan/issues/2017 or to to some PHP webhook receiver like this, that can use Python code to call WeKan API: https://github.com/wekan/webhook/blob/main/public/index.php#L46 https://github.com/wekan/webhook/blob/main/public/index.php#... https://github.com/wekan/wekan/blob/main/api.py https://github.com/wekan/wekan/blob/main/api.py
  - smartbit 1y ago
    WeKan doesn’t seem to have an App for iOS https://wekan.team/app/ https://wekan.team/app/
    - xet7 1y ago
      WeKan works at iOS, it's mentioned at that page, I'll try to update that page to be more clear. WeKan is fully compatible with iOS webbrowsers, touch, drag drop etc. For free WeKan server, at iPhone or iPad make WeKan app icon like this: https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki/PWA https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki/PWA from free server hosted by me (no admin access) from address https://boards.wekan.team/sign-in https://boards.wekan.team/sign-in or from your own hosted server https://wekan.example.com/sign-in https://wekan.example.com/sign-in . From that icon, WeKan starts fullscreen, at iPhone in mobile board view, and at iPad desktop browser view, working exactly like app. There is not yet separate app at App Store, because figuring out releasing to App Store takes some time.
mbreese 1y ago
I think one thing that might help the discussion would be if you could explain a bit more about what you didn't like or thought was missing from other alternatives. IMO, there's nothing wrong with building an alternative because you wanted to, but if there is some feature that you're specifically trying to do support, it would be helpful to mention it here.
AntiqueFig 1y ago
Shouldn't this be a "Show HN:" post?
- henryball 1y ago
  You're right - I thought I had posted it to show HN but obviously not...
Closi 1y ago
Just as a heads up, that roadmap you linked is broken. The formatting looks all off for me on chrome mac (black bars) and then if I click on a card it opens a window but then doesn't load any data. Also it looks like a bug that if you filter by some tags, then click a card, the filter gets reset. This is 5 secs of testing on the one board you have publicly shared, so there might be a few bugs to iron out!
- Closi 1y ago
  A few other trivial bugs I have found: * Can create multiple workspaces with same name which then ticks both * Invite user seems to not work randomly or will not send the email * Cards with special characters like @ will just not be created, and won't show error messages.
  - Closi 1y ago
    oop found a security issue - you can abuse profile pictures to upload any file (e.g. to host malware if you were a bad actor!) IMO don't think this is ready for production use in the slightest - but cool project!
    - Xiol32 1y ago
      Would be interested to know if this was vibe coded.
    - henryball 1y ago
      This has been patched - thanks for flagging!
      - Closi 1y ago
        Not a bug necessarily, but one of the key features of trello is multi-user editing which doesn't seem to work. i.e. if I open two tabs, and edit one tab, the other tab doesn't update and visa-versa until refresh.
tiffanyh 1y ago
Feedback (since you asked) ... Using the kanban for your roadmap, https://kan.bn/kan/roadmap https://kan.bn/kan/roadmap two things I noticed: 1. When I click a card, no data is present. It's just an empty card that says "Activity". 2. After you click a few cards, it hijacks your browser Back button.
- johnisgood 1y ago
  +1
kadutskyi 1y ago
Scrollbar in Safari looks wrong.
andruby 1y ago
Really cool you built this! Can you elaborate a bit on what you were missing or didn’t like from the other existing open source Trello clones? I’m curious what potentially different choices/trade-offs you made.
caseysoftware 1y ago
Congrats, strong start. What are you doing (plan to do) that is more interesting/compelling/useful than anyone else? Also, what have you learned so far? What surprised you?

stevekemp 1y ago

How does it compare to the existing open-source boards, such as: https://wekan.github.io/ https://wekan.github.io/ https://taiga.io/ https://taiga.io/ https://kanboard.org/ https://kanboard.org/

walthamstow 1y ago
Also https://github.com/plankanban/planka https://github.com/plankanban/planka
- rodnim 1y ago
  I am using Planka for my personal projects. Works great!
- senorrib 1y ago
  Planka is not open-source.
  - organsnyder 1y ago
    They don't appear to be using an OSI-approved license, but the source code is available. So depending on your use-case that may be an academic distinction.
    - kstrauser 1y ago
      Its license has strict limitations on what you can use it for. It’s not open source in any reasonable sense.
      - Izkata 1y ago
        It is open source (the code is right there), but it's not Open Source due to what GP references. There is a distinction.
        7839284023 1y ago
        That’s just called „source available“.
        kstrauser 1y ago
        But since [oO]pen [sS]ource has a broadly understood meaning that's different, we shouldn't deliberately use the same description for both ideas. If you want to describe it as "source available", I'll happily go along with it. It's not open source, though. The source is visible, but it's not open to use. I mean, you can find the leaked Windows source code online, but it's not open source just because you can look at it.
        adastra22 1y ago
        That’s not what open source means. That is generally called source available.
        Xss3 1y ago
        Source available sounds like you gotta buy it. Think of it this way, if you were going to an event and saw 'buffet available' you'd enquire how to access it. If you saw 'open buffet' you'd know it's just there for the taking. Open source sounds like it's free to view. It's open. An open house isn't free to own. You view it. Open source not meaning the source code is free to view but instead having a meaning related to licensing is silly. Call it an open license, or just name the license. The code/source isn't the license. I'll die on this hill. Christine was cool but that doesn't make her infallible. Open source meaning open license was a mistake.
  - xet7 1y ago
    There is fork of Planka with MIT license: https://github.com/RARgames/4gaBoards https://github.com/RARgames/4gaBoards
croisillon 1y ago
and Nullboard: https://github.com/apankrat/nullboard https://github.com/apankrat/nullboard i don't understand the wave of downvotes but whatever
- iLoveOncall 1y ago
  Pretty obviously because this one is very different in philosophy (minimalism) than the one OP is working on while the other ones that have been posted aim for feature parity (at least) with Trello?
  - croisillon 1y ago
    OK, i see
- neuroticnews25 1y ago
  Thank you, hosted demo with no login required saving to local storage is exactly what i was looking for.
pylotlight 1y ago
https://github.com/usekaneo/kaneo https://github.com/usekaneo/kaneo / https://kaneo.app https://kaneo.app
adr1an 1y ago
Or this one that I've been self-hosting for my team: https://vikunja.io/ https://vikunja.io/
- diggan 1y ago
  I've also been using Vikunja locally for myself, but the UX really isn't the best and it isn't keyboard-driven which is a bit of a shame. The mobile version also isn't really ready for real usage, seems to lose state every now and then, or disconnect in some manner.
- zikani_03 1y ago
  We have been using Vikunja for our team for about 2/3 years and it's good. It has it's quirks but generally works. What we haven't done well is keeping up to date with development as the version we installed did enough for us. We recently found out that they moved main development to github and we are keen to contribute where we can as we have found value in it.
  - GlacierFox 1y ago
    Your comment just made me think about the fact I installed Vikunja like 2 years ago and I haven't updated it since. D:
busssard 1y ago
also Obsidian with Kanban plugin
- mogoh 1y ago
  Obsidian is not open-source.
dagelf 1y ago
It takes forever to compile, the locally hosted solution links to the online one at https://kan.bn https://kan.bn and you've got to spend half a day to figure out how to truly self host
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
mbesto 1y ago
I went down the rabbit hole of self hosted kanban boards recently. Honestly, nothing comes close to Trello and while I love the open source communities (and supporting them), these alternatives usually dont come close, or worse they try to be super feature rich and its get in the way of their functionality. The better open source options tend to be airtable alternatives or full blown project management tools (Eigenboard, Plane, etc)
- yolkedgeek 1y ago
  Plane is so sick. I think it's better than trello
  - jasonm23 1y ago
    Thank you, I hadn't heard of Plane... and ... nice
- IIsi50MHz 1y ago
  I think I found Plane[1], but Eigenboard? https://github.com/makeplane/plane?tab=readme-ov-file https://github.com/makeplane/plane?tab=readme-ov-file
  - mbesto 1y ago
    Eigenfocus, sorry! https://eigenfocus.com/ https://eigenfocus.com/
deleted 1y ago
[deleted]

progx 1y ago

Sorry, but I can't see what is better or other than every existing kanban-tool. I tried it, but you have only drag & drop lists with items and labels, that is all.

progx 1y ago
I don't want to blame you, you have put in a lot of work. My point is, that at the current state, your kanban offers nothing special. It is like the other 1000 kanban boards. I think you should specialize your board for a selected audience. Not a board for all, that kind of boards we have. Example: Kanban with special features for game developement. More visual options, images and not only text. Currently there exists only some really overbloated tools.

cellularmitosis 1y ago

Nice project. Some of the workflows could be more keyboard friendly. I started an issue: https://github.com/kanbn/kan/issues/3 https://github.com/kanbn/kan/issues/3

jpc0 1y ago

I would love to see webhook support add to this. For many users this isn’t an issue but for use it’s a must have feature. Will stick to trello for the time being.

xet7 1y ago
WeKan https://wekan.github.io https://wekan.github.io has: 1) Per-board webhooks at board right sidebar / Board Settings / Webhooks 2) Global Webhooks at Admin Panel See right menu of https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki , scroll down to webhooks part of menu. It's possible to send board change events like move card as webhooks, for example to some chat: https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki/Outgoing-Webhook-to-Discord https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki/Outgoing-Webhook-to-Disc... Or to NodeRED: https://github.com/wekan/wekan/issues/2017 https://github.com/wekan/wekan/issues/2017 or to to some PHP webhook receiver like this, that can use Python code to call WeKan API: https://github.com/wekan/webhook/blob/main/public/index.php#L46 https://github.com/wekan/webhook/blob/main/public/index.php#... https://github.com/wekan/wekan/blob/main/api.py https://github.com/wekan/wekan/blob/main/api.py
- smartbit 1y ago
  WeKan doesn’t seem to have an App for iOS https://wekan.team/app/ https://wekan.team/app/
  - xet7 1y ago
    WeKan works at iOS, it's mentioned at that page, I'll try to update that page to be more clear. WeKan is fully compatible with iOS webbrowsers, touch, drag drop etc. For free WeKan server, at iPhone or iPad make WeKan app icon like this: https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki/PWA https://github.com/wekan/wekan/wiki/PWA from free server hosted by me (no admin access) from address https://boards.wekan.team/sign-in https://boards.wekan.team/sign-in or from your own hosted server https://wekan.example.com/sign-in https://wekan.example.com/sign-in . From that icon, WeKan starts fullscreen, at iPhone in mobile board view, and at iPad desktop browser view, working exactly like app. There is not yet separate app at App Store, because figuring out releasing to App Store takes some time.

mbreese 1y ago

I think one thing that might help the discussion would be if you could explain a bit more about what you didn't like or thought was missing from other alternatives. IMO, there's nothing wrong with building an alternative because you wanted to, but if there is some feature that you're specifically trying to do support, it would be helpful to mention it here.

AntiqueFig 1y ago

Shouldn't this be a "Show HN:" post?

henryball 1y ago
You're right - I thought I had posted it to show HN but obviously not...

Closi 1y ago

Just as a heads up, that roadmap you linked is broken. The formatting looks all off for me on chrome mac (black bars) and then if I click on a card it opens a window but then doesn't load any data. Also it looks like a bug that if you filter by some tags, then click a card, the filter gets reset. This is 5 secs of testing on the one board you have publicly shared, so there might be a few bugs to iron out!

Closi 1y ago
A few other trivial bugs I have found: * Can create multiple workspaces with same name which then ticks both * Invite user seems to not work randomly or will not send the email * Cards with special characters like @ will just not be created, and won't show error messages.
- Closi 1y ago
  oop found a security issue - you can abuse profile pictures to upload any file (e.g. to host malware if you were a bad actor!) IMO don't think this is ready for production use in the slightest - but cool project!
  - Xiol32 1y ago
    Would be interested to know if this was vibe coded.
  - henryball 1y ago
    This has been patched - thanks for flagging!
    - Closi 1y ago
      Not a bug necessarily, but one of the key features of trello is multi-user editing which doesn't seem to work. i.e. if I open two tabs, and edit one tab, the other tab doesn't update and visa-versa until refresh.

tiffanyh 1y ago

Feedback (since you asked) ... Using the kanban for your roadmap, https://kan.bn/kan/roadmap https://kan.bn/kan/roadmap two things I noticed: 1. When I click a card, no data is present. It's just an empty card that says "Activity". 2. After you click a few cards, it hijacks your browser Back button.

johnisgood 1y ago
+1

kadutskyi 1y ago

Scrollbar in Safari looks wrong.

andruby 1y ago

Really cool you built this! Can you elaborate a bit on what you were missing or didn’t like from the other existing open source Trello clones? I’m curious what potentially different choices/trade-offs you made.

caseysoftware 1y ago

Congrats, strong start. What are you doing (plan to do) that is more interesting/compelling/useful than anyone else? Also, what have you learned so far? What surprised you?