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Screenshot of Focalboard

// 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.

Productivity Min 512 MB RAM Port 8095 (http) Tier free
// 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.

Personal task management

boards for personal projects

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.

Profile A

Solo developers / freelancers

managing personal projects

Profile B

Small teams

(≤10) wanting Trello without paying per seat

Profile C

Open-source projects

running public roadmap boards

Profile D

Privacy-conscious users

rejecting Atlassian/Asana SaaS

Profile E

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

Project resources

Official sitefocalboard.com ↗