I replaced Trello and Notion with this open source app to boost my productivity and here’s what happened

Focalboard is a worthy self-hosted option to manage your personal projects, and gives you complete ownership of your data.

Jun 18, 2025 - 23:03
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I replaced Trello and Notion with this open source app to boost my productivity and here’s what happened

Using a combination of Trello and Notion gets overwhelming when managing personal projects. While both are efficient tools, I began to dread the charade of switching between two apps. After trying several alternatives, I followed my colleagues' recommendation and gave Focalboard, an open-source app, a try as a personal project management tool. I self-hosted the Focalboard server for personal use since it combines calendars, to-do lists, and Kanban-style cards in a single interface. Here's my account of how Focalboard helped me replace Trello and Notion to boost my productivity.