Focalboard — Open-Source Project Management Alternative to Trello and Notion

Introduction

Focalboard was created by Mattermost and open-sourced in 2021 as a free alternative to Trello, Asana, and Notion's project management features. It ships in three flavors: a personal desktop app, a standalone server, and a Mattermost plugin that deeply integrates task tracking with team chat.

With over 26,000 GitHub stars, Focalboard targets small teams that want self-hosted task management without the complexity of Jira. Boards, cards, properties, and multiple views cover 80% of what most teams need for agile-lite project tracking.

What Focalboard Does

Focalboard organizes work into boards, each with a set of cards (tasks). Each card has typed properties (status, owner, priority, tags, dates, numbers, checkboxes). You view the same data as a kanban board, table, gallery, or calendar — picking the right representation for the moment.

Architecture Overview

[Focalboard Server (Go)]
  or [Mattermost + Focalboard plugin]
      |
[REST API + WebSocket]
      |
+------+------+------+------+
|      |      |      |      |
Boards Cards Views Users Templates
      |
[Storage]
  SQLite (personal desktop)
  Postgres / MySQL (server)
      |
[Clients]
  Web UI (React)
  Desktop apps (Electron)
  iOS + Android (via Mattermost)

Self-Hosting & Configuration

// config.json (standalone server)
{
  "serverRoot": "https://board.example.com",
  "port": 8000,
  "dbtype": "postgres",
  "dbconfig": "postgres://user:pass@localhost/focalboard?sslmode=disable",
  "postgres_dbsql_driver": "pgx",
  "useSSL": false,
  "webpath": "./pack",
  "filespath": "./files",
  "telemetry": false,
  "enablePublicSharedBoards": true,
  "enableAuthProxy": false
}

# Reverse proxy (Nginx) for HTTPS
# proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:8000;
# proxy_set_header Upgrade $http_upgrade;
# proxy_set_header Connection "upgrade";

# Import from Trello
# Settings -> Import -> Trello JSON export
# All lists become columns, cards + labels + comments migrate

# Templates
# Create reusable board structures for: Sprints, Roadmap, Bug tracker,
# Meeting notes, Personal tasks, OKRs

Key Features

• Kanban + table + gallery + calendar views — same data, many lenses
• Typed properties — status, owner, date, number, checkbox, link, tags
• Templates — sprint, roadmap, bug tracker, personal tasks
• Import from Trello/Notion/Asana — JSON import tools
• Markdown editor — rich card descriptions
• Real-time collaboration — websocket-powered updates
• Mattermost integration — discuss cards directly in team chat
• Personal desktop app — single-user SQLite mode for solo use

Comparison with Similar Tools

FAQ

Q: Is Focalboard actively maintained? A: Development has slowed since 2023 — Mattermost shifted focus back to chat. The codebase is stable and usable, but new features arrive slowly. For mission-critical needs, evaluate continued active alternatives.

Q: Focalboard vs Notion? A: Focalboard is focused on task management. Notion covers docs, databases, wikis, and tasks as a superset. For project-only needs, Focalboard is lighter; for docs + tasks, Notion or AppFlowy is better.

Q: Can I export my data? A: Yes. Any board can be exported as JSON or Markdown (cards). Export + import is lossless within Focalboard.

Q: Is the Mattermost plugin the same as the standalone? A: Very similar UI; the plugin inherits Mattermost's authentication and lets you attach cards to chat channels. The standalone server works without Mattermost.

Sources

• GitHub: https://github.com/mattermost/focalboard
• Website: https://www.focalboard.com
• Company: Mattermost
• License: MIT (client), Apache-2.0 (server)