Kaneo vs Trello
The self-hostable Trello alternative
Trello nails simple kanban, but your boards live on someone else's servers and grow into paid Power-Ups. Kaneo keeps the simplicity, adds backlog and workflows, and lets you own the whole thing.
Short answer: is Kaneo a good Trello alternative?
Kaneo is a self-hostable, MIT-licensed Trello alternative. It keeps the drag-and-drop board Trello is loved for and adds backlog planning, configurable workflows, roles, and time tracking without Power-Ups. Self-hosting is free and unlimited, and the managed cloud starts at $4 a month.
- License
- MIT, versus a proprietary licence for Trello
- Hosting
- Self-host anywhere, or EU-hosted cloud
- Single sign-on
- Free on every Kaneo build, Enterprise-tier on Trello
- Pricing
- $0 self-hosted, cloud from $4 / month
Trello details checked on 19 August 2026. Trello pricing, Kaneo pricing.
Why teams choose Kaneo
Just as simple
A clean board you can use in minutes, with no manual and no onboarding wizard. Kaneo keeps the thing people love about Trello.
Room to grow
Backlog planning, custom workflows, and roles are built in, so you don't hit a wall and start bolting on paid Power-Ups.
Your boards, your servers
Self-host under MIT for free, or use our managed cloud. Your data is exportable and never locked in.
When Trello is the better choice
If you only need a couple of personal boards, never want to self-host, and Trello's free tier covers you, it's a perfectly good choice. Kaneo makes more sense the moment you care about owning your data or your team outgrows a simple board.
Kaneo vs Trello, answered
Can you self-host Trello?
No. Trello is a hosted Atlassian product with no on-premise edition, so the only way to run a Trello-style board on your own server is to use a different tool. Kaneo, WeKan, Kanboard, and PLANKA are the common self-hosted choices.
What is the best open-source Trello alternative?
It depends on how far you expect to grow. WeKan and Kanboard stay close to a pure board. Kaneo adds backlog planning, workflows, roles, time tracking, and an API while keeping the board simple, and it is MIT licensed with SSO included.
Can I import my Trello boards into Kaneo?
There is no one-click Trello importer yet. Trello exports each board to JSON, and Kaneo has a public, documented API you can post those cards to. If you want this as a built-in feature, open an issue on GitHub, since import work is prioritised by demand.
Is Kaneo free?
Self-hosting Kaneo is free forever under the MIT license, with unlimited users and projects and no feature gates. The managed cloud is $4 a month for one person or $5 per user a month for a team, after a 14-day trial.