Focalboard vs Zettlr
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Focalboard with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Memos Mark Text Joplin Plane SiYuan Logseq Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Chatwoot Wiki.js Notable Docmost Super Productivity Wekan Obsidian SimpleX Chat BookStack Etherpad Docs by Suite Numerique OpenProject Notesnook Gollum Habitica Self-Hosted Quartz MarkText Workspace Planka Leantime Centrifugo Screego Typebot git-bug Kanboard Berty TiddlyWiki Anytype Mumble Kaneo The Lounge Papercups Taskwarrior Zammad WorkAdventure OpenEMR Maybe Tasks Taskcafe Vikunja Kimai2 Octobox Nullboard Godo Worklenz Donetick Tasks.md Restyaboard Kanban Tegon Taskell FossBilling Nextcloud Deck Kanban Lite eLabFTW Tracks Gerrit OrangeHRM GanttProject eigenfocus osem Taiga Firefly III Importer LibreBooking 4ga Boards Todoman Web Vikunja Frontend Mobile Admidio Agorakit Facilmap LibrePlan HamsterBase Tasks DumbBudget WorkAdventure Tasks ShipShipShip TaskLite OpenHabitTracker Fab-manager May croodle rgit Traq myTinyTodo Our Shopping List DumbDo DumbKan SCM Manager FlowInquiry Satdress motion.tools (Antragsgrün) Grr Task Keeper Mergeable Bileto Mobilizon Tasks Galette phpCollab minimal-git-server Rukovoditel PyInventory CiviCRM on Drupal Listaway 92five Active Collab Bénévalibre BitBucket Server Buddy Enterprise Coin Crucible Cultivons Diacamma Dokos Kanban Tool Kantree Liberaforms Paheko PMB Pollaris ProjeQtOr Smederee Solo Tuleap
Compare Zettlr with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Memos Mark Text Joplin SiYuan Logseq Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Wiki.js Notable Docmost Obsidian BookStack Foam Docs by Suite Numerique Notesnook Gollum Quartz VNote MarkText Workspace Self-hosted LiveSync Leantime Blinko Laverna TiddlyWiki Anytype Reor nb Notes Athens Research org-roam SilverBullet zk NoteDiscovery Outline Desktop Many Notes Notabase mdSilo Tangent Notes
Feature Focalboard Zettlr Category Project Management & Tasks Notes & Knowledge Base License MIT GPL-3.0 Language TypeScript TypeScript Setup difficulty Easy Easy Min. RAM 512 MB 256 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal bare-metal, binary GitHub stars ★ 26,376 ★ 13,354 First released 2021 2017 Replaces Trello, Asana, Notion Notion, Obsidian
Why pick each one
Choose Focalboard if… Clean Trello-like UI Lightweight Mattermost integration Focalboard details Choose Zettlr if… Strong academic features Plain Markdown files Zettlr details
Frequently asked questions Is Focalboard or Zettlr 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 Zettlr free and open-source? Yes. Focalboard is licensed under MIT and Zettlr under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Focalboard and Zettlr with Docker? Focalboard: yes. Zettlr: check the project docs for container support.