The best free Trello alternative for teams that are scaling
Same boards, lists, and cards. With unlimited users, self-hosting, and no per-seat fees, ever.
Why teams switch to a free Trello alternative
Trello's workflow works. The problem is the model: every new hire means a higher bill. Timeline and Calendar views locked behind paid tiers. Your data inside a closed system.
The team at Journeyhorizon hit this wall. So they built Chimedeck.
A free Trello alternative with everything Trello has, and what it doesn't.
Familiar from day one. Far more flexible over time.
Boards, lists, and cards
The exact same workflow your team knows from Trello. Assign, label, drag. Everything feels familiar.
Unlimited users, no extra cost
Add your whole team, contractors, and clients. Your bill stays the same whether you have 10 or 500 people.
4 views. All free
Kanban, Table, Timeline, and Calendar on every plan. Not locked behind paid tiers like in Trello.
Open-source (AGPL-3.0)
Full source code on GitHub. Audit, fork, extend. No vendor dependency, no black boxes.
Self-host anywhere
One-liner install on Mac and Linux. Docker, Kubernetes, Terraform configs included.
AI-agent ready (MCP)
Supports MCP protocol. Connect AI agents directly to your boards.
Get started in one command.
Free and open-source under AGPL-3.0. The installer handles Node.js and everything else.
Self-hosted
Run it on your own infrastructure. Full sovereignty over your data and environment. Completely open-source.
curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Chimedeck/chimedeck/main/install.sh | bash
$tmp = "$env:TEMP\chimedeck-install.ps1"; Invoke-WebRequest -Uri https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Chimedeck/chimedeck/main/install.ps1 -OutFile $tmp; & $tmp; Remove-Item $tmp
Compose files for prod and staging included
Infrastructure configs in the repo
No seat limit on self-hosted, free forever
Feature by feature
What a free Trello alternative should actually give you.
Trello features based on publicly listed plans, 2026.
Pay for infrastructure,
not for people
Unlimited users on every plan.
Costs only scale when you need more server capacity.
Business
Enterprise
Enterprise Plus
Self-hosted
Run ChimeDeck on your own infrastructure.
Team
Reliable setup for small teams
Studio
High availability for growing teams
Business
Built for distributed teams
Built by people who paid the Trello tax.
"We were spending over $10,000 a year just to manage internal work. Nothing was broken. Everything felt limited and expensive."
Journeyhorizon built Chimedeck to solve their own problem: scaling a dev company with hundreds of team members while per-seat tools kept getting more expensive. The result, a system that keeps familiar board-based workflows and removes what holds teams back.
CTO · Software architecture and cloud infrastructure
Co-founder · 25+ years in product development
Co-founder · Human Capital and Internal Systems
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. The self-hosted version is free forever under AGPL-3.0. You run it on your own servers and only pay for your own infrastructure. No per-seat fees on any plan.
Same board, list, and card workflow — plus unlimited users at no extra cost, self-hosting, full open-source code, Timeline and Calendar views on all plans, CLI, plugin registry, and AI-agent connectivity via MCP. Trello locks most of these behind paid plans or doesn't offer them at all.
Yes. The workflow is identical — boards, lists, cards. Your team keeps the same mental model. Migration support is available on Enterprise plans.
No. No per-seat pricing means adding people never raises your bill. You only pay more when you need more infrastructure capacity.
Yes, anytime. Because you always have the full source code, you're never locked in to any deployment model