Kanboard vs TriliumNext Notes

A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted apps from related categories — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.

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FeatureKanboardTriliumNext Notes
CategoryProject Management & TasksNotes & Knowledge Base
LicenseMITAGPL-3.0
LanguagePHPTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB512 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metaldocker, kubernetes
GitHub stars★ 9,776★ 37,298
First released20142026
ReplacesTrello

Why pick each one

Choose Kanboard if…

  • Very lightweight
  • Easy to learn
  • Stable
Kanboard details

Choose TriliumNext Notes if…

  • Released under the AGPL-3.0 license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Kubernetes-ready with Helm charts available
  • Mature project with 37.3k GitHub stars
TriliumNext Notes details

Frequently asked questions

Is Kanboard or TriliumNext Notes better?

Neither is universally better. TriliumNext Notes has the larger community, while Kanboard is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.

Are Kanboard and TriliumNext Notes free and open-source?

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

Can I run Kanboard and TriliumNext Notes with Docker?

Kanboard: yes. TriliumNext Notes: yes.

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