Vikunja vs Plane vs Trello: Self-Hosted Project Management
Most small teams start project management in whatever’s free and already installed — a shared spreadsheet, a Trello board — and outgrow it the moment more than one person needs visibility into what’s actually in progress. Trello is the default most teams reach for first; Vikunja and Plane are the two most-recommended self-hosted alternatives once per-seat SaaS pricing or data-ownership concerns come up.
Search intent
Someone searching “Vikunja vs Plane vs Trello” is a small team or solo operator deciding between staying on a familiar hosted SaaS board (Trello) and self-hosting a more feature-rich, ownership-free alternative — and wants to know what each self-hosted option actually costs and includes before migrating a team’s task history.
Quick take
- Want the simplest, lightest self-hosted task manager with a Kanban/list/Gantt view and nothing extra to configure: Vikunja
- Want a fuller project-management suite closer to Linear/Jira (cycles, modules, wikis) that you still self-host for free: Plane
- Want the least setup effort and don’t mind per-user SaaS pricing once your team grows past the free tier: Trello
The three options
Vikunja is a deliberately lean, open-source task and project manager: lists, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and a simple filter/label system, released under the AGPLv3 license. The self-hosted version is completely free with every feature included — there’s no paid self-hosted tier or feature gate. Vikunja also sells a hosted Cloud version for people who don’t want to run their own server: Personal is €4/month (single user), Family is €10/month (up to 5 users), and Organization is €5/user/month — all confirmed on vikunja.io/pricing — but self-hosting costs nothing beyond your own server.
Plane aims higher up the feature ladder, closer to Linear or Jira: cycles (sprints), modules, built-in wikis, time tracking, and AI-assisted features on top of standard issue tracking. The open-source Community Edition is free and self-hostable under the AGPLv3 license (48,000+ GitHub stars) with every advanced feature “off by default” so a small team isn’t overwhelmed by options it doesn’t need yet. Plane also runs a hosted Cloud product: Free covers up to 12 users, Pro is $6/seat/month, Business is $13/seat/month, and Enterprise is quote-only — confirmed on plane.so/pricing. For a small team happy to self-host, the free Community Edition covers essentially the same ground as the paid cloud tiers, minus AI credits and enterprise-only admin controls.
Trello is the incumbent most teams already know, built around a simple, well-understood Kanban-board metaphor with no self-hosting option at all — it’s SaaS-only. Free covers up to 10 collaborators per workspace with unlimited boards for personal use; Standard is $5/user/month (annual billing) once a team needs more; Premium is $10/user/month for multiple views (calendar, timeline, dashboard) and admin tools; Enterprise runs $17.50/user/month annually for organization-wide permissions and security controls — all confirmed on trello.com/pricing. Trello wins on zero setup effort, but a growing team on Standard or Premium is paying monthly, indefinitely, for something Vikunja or Plane can do self-hosted for the cost of a small VPS.
Cost compared (2026)
| Vikunja | Plane | Trello | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Self-hosted option | Yes — free, all features (AGPLv3) | Yes — free Community Edition (AGPLv3) | No — SaaS only |
| Free hosted tier | — (self-host instead) | Free, up to 12 users | Free, up to 10 collaborators/workspace |
| Entry paid tier | Cloud Personal — €4/month | Cloud Pro — $6/seat/month | Standard — $5/user/month (annual) |
| Feature depth | Lists, Kanban, Gantt — intentionally lean | Cycles, modules, wikis, time tracking — closer to Linear/Jira | Kanban board plus Power-Ups; no native sprints/cycles |
Both Vikunja and Plane make self-hosting free at full feature parity with their own paid cloud tiers (minus a few enterprise/AI extras for Plane) — the real trade for either is running and maintaining the server yourself instead of paying Trello monthly for a hosted board.
Which one should you actually pick?
- A small team that just needs boards/lists and nothing more, and wants the lightest self-hosted footprint: Vikunja.
- A team that’s outgrown simple boards and wants cycles, modules, and a built-in wiki without paying per seat: Plane, self-hosted Community Edition.
- Not ready to run your own server, or need a tool non-technical collaborators can join instantly: Trello — the SaaS convenience is the actual product here.
- Already self-hosting a wiki alongside project tracking: see BookStack vs Outline vs Confluence — Plane’s built-in wiki may cover this need without a second tool.
- Running either self-hosted option on your own server: Portainer vs Yacht vs Dockge covers managing the container, and Caddy vs Nginx Proxy Manager covers exposing it securely on your own domain.
- Need to log billable hours against the tasks tracked here: see Clockify vs Toggl Track vs Homebase.
- Also need client-facing appointment booking, not just internal task tracking: see Cal.com vs Calendly vs Acuity Scheduling — Cal.com follows the same self-hosted-vs-SaaS pattern applied to scheduling instead of project management.
VPS/hosting referral placeholder — swap for a real hosting/VPS affiliate link once a program is confirmed, for readers who’d rather self-host Vikunja or Plane on a cheap VPS than existing homelab hardware.
Bottom line
Vikunja and Plane both give you a genuinely free, full-featured self-hosted option — Vikunja for a lean board/list/Gantt tool, Plane for something closer to a full Linear/Jira replacement with wikis and cycles built in. Trello remains the easiest on-ramp with zero setup, but that convenience turns into a recurring per-seat bill the moment a team outgrows its free tier.