Personal task management
boards for personal projects
// official site: focalboard.com ↗
PRODUCTIVITY · FREE TIER
Focalboardfree
Focalboard is a self-hosted project management tool — kanban boards, table view, gallery view, card properties, Notion-style nested pages. Built by Mattermost (the open-source Slack alternative) as a fully open Trello/Notion-board replacement.
// What it is
A closer look.
Focalboard is a self-hosted project management tool — kanban boards, table view, gallery view, card properties, Notion-style nested pages. Built by Mattermost (the open-source Slack alternative) as a fully open Trello/Notion-board replacement.
Lightweight, single-binary in Personal Server mode, scales up to multi-team via Mattermost integration.
// Use cases
What it's for.
Concrete scenarios where teams pick Focalboard over the SaaS alternative.
Small-team kanban
sprints, bug tracking, content calendars
Notion-board alternative
without Notion's pricing or cloud-only nature
Roadmap visualization
table + timeline views
Mattermost-integrated PM
bundle with Mattermost for chat + boards
// Who it's for
Built for these teams.
If your team profile matches one of these, Focalboard is a strong fit out of the box.
Solo developers / freelancers
managing personal projects
Small teams
(≤10) wanting Trello without paying per seat
Open-source projects
running public roadmap boards
Privacy-conscious users
rejecting Atlassian/Asana SaaS
Mattermost users
extending their stack with boards
// Differentiators
Why teams pick Focalboard.
When evaluating self-hosted options for this category, here are the dimensions on which Focalboard consistently lands above the alternatives.
- ✓MIT licensed (CE) — fully open Community Edition
- ✓Lightweight — single binary; minimal ops
- ✓Multi-view — kanban + table + gallery + calendar (Notion-class)
- ✓No per-seat pricing — self-hosted, unlimited users
- ✓Mattermost-backed — well-funded company maintaining it
- ✓Templates — onboarding, content calendar, bug tracking, sprint planning
// Integrations
Connects to.
The stack you'll plug Focalboard into — services, protocols, and adjacent apps in the BluixApps catalog.
◇
Mattermost
boards available inside Mattermost channels (Mattermost integration mode)
◈
Slack
limited via webhooks
◆
API
REST API for automation
▣
Webhooks
outbound events
▦
OIDC / OAuth
via reverse proxy
▩
Cards-to-issues
manual export, no native GitHub/Jira sync
// Adoption & deployment
Notable users & community
- 21k+ GitHub stars
- Backed by Mattermost Inc. (well-funded company)
- Used by open-source projects for public roadmaps
- Active community in Mattermost forum
- Multi-language support
What we ship
- Docker: Focalboard Personal Server
- Pinned
mattermost/focalboard:latest - Port 8088 (HTTP), reverse-proxy ready
- Persistent volume for /opt/focalboard/data (SQLite + uploads)
- Install report with first-user + workspace bootstrap
- Note on Personal vs Team mode difference
- Backup hook covers data directory
// Tips & operations
Run it properly.
Operational guidance from running this in production — what to lock down, what surprises people.
// PERFORMANCE
Personal Server mode
single-user oriented; no team RBAC
// SECURITY
Multi-user = Mattermost mode
deploy alongside Mattermost for full team setup
// OPERATIONS
SQLite default
simple ops; backup = single file copy
// RELIABILITY
Workspaces
separate "personal" / "work" / "client X" inside same instance
// DEPLOYMENT
Templates first
explore the built-in templates before building from scratch
// SCALING
Backup = data/ directory
sqlite + uploads in one place
512
// min ram (MB)
2
// min disk (GB)
8095
// access port
http
// protocol
free
// bluixapps tier
// Alternatives in Productivity
Compare with
Project resources
Official sitefocalboard.com ↗