We package Wekan as an AWS AMI, so weigh that against everything below. Wekan vs Trello isn't a close contest on polish, Trello's UI and Power-Up ecosystem are genuinely more refined. It's closer on the two things that actually push teams to switch: the free tier's board cap, and what you can and can't take with you if you ever leave.
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Wekan: an open source Trello, self-hosted from day one
Wekan is MIT licensed with no restriction on users, boards, or cards at any team size. It covers the same core workflow Trello made popular: boards, lists, cards, swimlanes, checklists, due dates, and drag-and-drop, stored in MongoDB and self-hosted through Docker. There's no Power-Up marketplace or Butler-style automation builder, Wekan's philosophy is closer to "do the Kanban board well" than "become a general-purpose work platform," and for a lot of teams that's exactly the right amount of product.
Key facts
- MIT licensed, free and self-hosted, no user or board limit at any scale
- Boards, lists, cards, swimlanes, checklists, and due dates
- MongoDB-backed, self-hosts easily via Docker
- No Power-Up marketplace or Butler-equivalent automation builder
Trello: polished, Atlassian-owned, priced per seat
Trello is owned by Atlassian and remains the reference point most Kanban tools get compared against, for good reason, the drag-and-drop UI and Power-Up ecosystem are genuinely well built. Free covers small teams within specific limits (below); Standard runs $5/user/month billed annually ($6 monthly), Premium $10/user/month annually ($12.50 monthly), and Enterprise $17.50/user/month annually with a 50-user minimum. Pricing has stayed stable through 2026, with roughly 20% savings for annual billing across every paid tier.
Key facts
- Free tier with real caps on boards, collaborators, and automation (below)
- Standard: $5/user/month (annual), Premium: $10/user/month (annual)
- Enterprise: $17.50/user/month (annual), 50-user minimum
- Large Power-Up marketplace and Butler automation builder
Trello's free tier limits, exactly
The free plan caps out at 10 boards per workspace and 10 collaborators per workspace, plus 250 automation runs a month and a 10MB limit per file attachment. Cards and Power-Ups themselves are unlimited within that structure. For a small team running two or three active projects, that's often enough. For an agency or a team juggling client work across more than 10 active boards, the cap forces a decision: archive old boards constantly to stay under it, or move to Standard at $5 a seat, every month, indefinitely.
Cost at team scale
Wekan's cost is the server it runs on, flat, regardless of team size or board count. Trello's Standard plan for a 15-person team runs $75 a month at the annual rate, Premium for the same team runs $150 a month, both numbers that grow every time someone joins the team. Run that over three years and Trello's per-seat billing adds up to real money for a tool that, for most teams, is being used for a fairly simple job: cards moving between columns.
Trello data ownership: what export actually gives you
This is the part worth being specific about rather than vague. Trello's JSON export covers boards, cards, and lets you download attachments individually; CSV export requires Business Class or above. What doesn't come with the export: Butler automation rules and Power-Up configurations, both of which have to be manually recreated in whatever tool you move to next. That's not a huge deal if your usage is simple boards and cards, but if you've built real automation into Trello over a few years, "exporting your data" doesn't mean "exporting your setup." Self-hosting Wekan sidesteps the whole question, since the data never left your infrastructure to begin with.
Wekan vs Trello: feature comparison
| Criterion | Wekan | Trello |
|---|---|---|
| License / model | MIT, self-hosted | Proprietary, SaaS (Atlassian) |
| Free tier board limit | None | 10 boards per workspace |
| Pricing past free tier | None, self-hosted at any scale | $5-$17.50/user/month |
| Automation / Power-Ups | Limited, no marketplace | Butler + large Power-Up marketplace |
| Data export completeness | Full, it's your own database | Boards/cards yes, Butler/Power-Ups no |
| Self-hostable | Yes, default deployment | No, SaaS only |
| Best for | Cost-sensitive teams, many active boards | Small teams wanting zero setup and rich integrations |
Where each one falls short
Wekan
- No Power-Up marketplace, integrations you'd get free on Trello need building yourself
- No Butler-equivalent visual automation builder
- UI is functional, not as polished as Trello's after years of dedicated design investment
Trello
- Free tier's 10-board cap forces constant archiving or an upgrade for busy teams
- Per-seat pricing that grows every time someone joins, with no ceiling
- Data export excludes Butler rules and Power-Up configs, real setup work to leave
Wekan vs Trello comes down to whether the Power-Up ecosystem and Butler automation are things you actually use, or things you're paying for without touching. If your team's real requirement is "cards moving between columns, cheaply, at any scale," Wekan does that with nothing held back by a board cap or a per-seat bill. If Trello's integrations and polish are earning their cost, there's no reason to switch just to save money.
Our Wekan developer guide and Wekan install guide cover the self-hosted setup end to end. If your team needs more than a Kanban board, sprints, roadmaps, and a fuller project management workflow, our Jira alternatives roundup and Plane self-hosting guide cover that heavier end of the spectrum.
Frequently Asked Questions
Wekan vs Trello: which should I actually pick?
Wekan if board count or per-seat cost is the issue, it's free and self-hosted with no limits at any team size. Trello if you want zero setup and your team is small enough to stay under the free tier's 10-board cap, or you're already paying for Standard or Premium and it's working fine.
Is there a genuine trello alternative self hosted that isn't a downgrade?
Wekan. It covers the core Trello workflow, boards, lists, cards, swimlanes, checklists, due dates, drag-and-drop, with no board limit and no per-user fee. What it doesn't have is Trello's Power-Up marketplace or Butler automation.
What is a real open source trello alternative, not just Trello-styled?
Wekan qualifies specifically: MIT licensed, source code public, self-hostable with no vendor dependency. Several other 'Trello-like' tools are proprietary SaaS with a similar UI but no path to running your own instance.
What does trello data ownership actually mean when you export?
Less than it sounds. Trello's JSON export covers boards, cards, and attachments, but Butler automation rules and Power-Up configurations don't come with it, you'd rebuild those manually elsewhere. Self-hosting Wekan sidesteps the question, the data was always yours because it never left your server.
How many boards does Trello's free plan actually allow?
10 boards per workspace, plus a 10-collaborator cap and 250 automation runs a month. Teams that outgrow that need Standard at $5/user/month or higher, per user, indefinitely.
Does Wekan have Power-Ups or automation like Trello's Butler?
Not in the same packaged form. Wekan has its own automation and integration options, but it doesn't have Trello's Power-Up marketplace or Butler's rule-builder UI. If your workflow depends heavily on a specific Power-Up, check it has a Wekan equivalent before switching.
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