Kanboard vs Trilium Notes

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?
FeatureKanboardTrilium Notes
CategoryProject Management & TasksNotes & Knowledge Base
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguagePHPTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyEasy
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, bare-metal
GitHub stars★ 9,776★ 37,298
First released20142017
ReplacesTrelloEvernote, Notion

Why pick each one

Choose Kanboard if…

  • Very lightweight
  • Easy to learn
  • Stable
Kanboard details

Choose Trilium Notes if…

  • Powerful for big knowledge bases
  • Flexible structure
  • Scriptable
Trilium Notes details

Frequently asked questions

Is Kanboard or Trilium Notes better?

Neither is universally better. Trilium Notes has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Kanboard and Trilium Notes free and open-source?

Yes. Kanboard is licensed under MIT and Trilium Notes under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Kanboard and Trilium Notes with Docker?

Kanboard: yes. Trilium Notes: yes.

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