Trello vs Leantime®
Self-hosted for $4/mo on hetzner CAX11, versus $5-$17/user/mo on Trello.
Side-by-side
| Trello | Leantime® (self-hosted) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $5-$17/user/mo | $4.13/mo flat (any team size) |
| Hosting | Trello's servers | Your VPS (hetzner CAX11) |
| Data ownership | Trello controls the data | Your disk, your encryption |
| Source code | Closed | Open (AGPL-3.0) |
| Customization | API + integrations only | Full source access; modify freely |
| Maintenance burden | Zero | Backups + updates (Docker available) |
| Health score (ossreplace) | — | 76 / 100 |
Why teams leave Trello
- Free tier capped at 10 boards per workspace
- Power-Ups gated behind paid tiers
- Atlassian-owned, cloud-only
- Per-user fees stack across teams
Leantime® answers this by: Focalboard, Wekan, and Planka give a Trello-style kanban experience self-hosted, unlimited boards.
The cost math
Assumes 5-person team using Trello at the midpoint price ($11/user/mo).
| Period | Trello | Leantime® on hetzner | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $55 | $4.13 | $50.87 |
| Yearly | $660 | $49.56 | $610.44 |
| 3 years | $1,980 | $149 | $1,831 |
Deploy Leantime® now
One-click deploys at the cheapest provider for this workload:
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Common questions
Is Leantime® a good alternative to Trello?
Leantime® is an open-source, self-hostable alternative to Trello with an ossreplace health score of 76/100 — a composite of project activity, maturity, community, security, and adoption. It runs on your own hetzner VPS from $4.13/mo with full source access under the AGPL-3.0 license, versus Trello's $5–17/user/mo hosted plans.
How much cheaper is Leantime® than Trello?
A 5-person team pays about $55/mo on Trello. Self-hosting Leantime® on hetzner CAX11 costs a flat $4.13/mo regardless of team size — roughly $1,831 less over three years (92% lower).
Is Leantime® hard to self-host?
Leantime® ships a Docker setup, so deployment is usually a single docker-compose command on a $4.13/mo VPS. You own the backups and updates, and there are no per-seat fees.
Do you keep control of your data with Leantime® vs Trello?
Yes. Because Leantime® runs on your own server, the data lives on your disk under your encryption. With Trello, Trello controls the hosting, storage, and access.