Focalboard vs Taskell
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted project management & tasks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Focalboard
Open-source project and task management boards
VS
Taskell
Command-line kanban board stored in Markdown
| Feature | Focalboard | Taskell |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Project Management & Tasks | Project Management & Tasks |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | TypeScript | Haskell |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 26,376 | ★ 1,783 |
| First released | 2021 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Trello, Asana, Notion | Trello, Things |
Why pick each one
Choose Taskell if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in Haskell
Frequently asked questions
Is Focalboard or Taskell better?
Neither is universally better. Focalboard has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Focalboard and Taskell free and open-source?
Yes. Focalboard is licensed under MIT and Taskell under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Focalboard and Taskell with Docker?
Focalboard: yes. Taskell: check the project docs for container support.