Self-Host a Kanban Board: Top Open-Source Options & Deployment Guide

Kanban boards keep product teams, support queues, and personal workflows flowing with visual cards and WIP limits. Instead of renting SaaS like Trello or Jira, you can self-host modern Kanban apps to keep sensitive roadmaps, compliance data, and customer details under your control. This guide compares the best open-source Kanban stacks, explains where each one shines, and walks through hardened deployment patterns.

TL;DR Recommendations

| Team Type | Best Pick | Why | |-----------|-----------|-----| | Product & engineering orgs | Focalboard | Integrated docs, Kanban + table views, Microsoft loop-style UX, self-hosted by Mattermost | | Customer success & sales | Teable | Spreadsheet-style data schema with Kanban view, great for CRM pipelines | | Lightweight personal boards | Planka | Trello-like UX, blazing fast Vue frontend | | Regulated industries | Wekan | Mature permissions, audit exports, Sandstorm support |

1. Focalboard – Full-Featured Kanban for Product Teams

Focalboard (already available in SelfHub services) delivers a Notion-style interface with nested pages, databases, and Kanban boards. It runs as a standalone server or inside Mattermost.

Why teams love it

• Multiple views (table, gallery, calendar) sitting on top of the same data.
• Per-column WIP limits, checklist automation, and templates for product sprints.
• Works with PostgreSQL or SQLite, ships official Docker images.

Deployment snippet

docker run -d --name focalboard \
  -p 8065:8000 \
  -v focalboard_data:/var/lib/focalboard \
  mattermost/focalboard

Add a reverse proxy (Caddy/Traefik) for HTTPS and set SITE_URL=https://kanban.example.com.

2. Teable – Airtable-Like Database with Kanban Views

Teable combines collaborative tables, forms, and Kanban boards with role-based permissions. It’s perfect for managing customer pipelines, onboarding tasks, or marketing calendars without losing spreadsheet flexibility.

Notable capabilities

• Field-level permissions & API tokens for automation.
• Kanban-by-any-field plus summary rollups for reporting.
• Works with PostgreSQL and exposes REST & GraphQL APIs.

Docker Compose example

version: '3.8'
services:
  teable:
    image: teableio/teable:latest
    ports:
      - "3001:3000"
    environment:
      - DATABASE_URL=postgresql://teable:secret@postgres:5432/teable
      - NEXTAUTH_SECRET=$(openssl rand -base64 32)
      - NEXTAUTH_URL=https://crm.example.com
    volumes:
      - ./uploads:/app/uploads
    depends_on:
      - postgres

  postgres:
    image: postgres:16
    environment:
      - POSTGRES_PASSWORD=secret
      - POSTGRES_USER=teable
      - POSTGRES_DB=teable
    volumes:
      - pg:/var/lib/postgresql/data
volumes:
  pg:

3. Planka – Trello Feel, Lightning Fast

Planka replicates Trello’s UX with swimlanes, drag-and-drop cards, labels, checklists, and file attachments. It’s ideal when you need something teammates can understand instantly.

• Written in Node.js + React with WebSocket updates.
• OAuth support for GitHub/Google, local auth for intranets.
• Ships with docker-compose that bundles PostgreSQL and backend in one command.

4. Wekan – Compliance-Friendly Kanban

Wekan has been around for years and focuses on enterprise security:

• LDAP/SAML auth, per-board permissions, and board export for audits.
• Runs on MongoDB and supports air-gapped setups.
• Active Sandstorm integration for sandboxed deployments.

Shared Hardening Checklist

1. TLS everywhere – Terminate at Traefik or Nginx, use Let’s Encrypt, and redirect HTTP→HTTPS.
2. Single Sign-On – Use Authentik, Keycloak, or existing SAML/LDAP to manage board access.
3. Backups – Snapshot PostgreSQL/MongoDB nightly, sync uploads to object storage (MinIO, S3).
4. Monitoring – Add Prometheus exporters or health checks via Uptime Kuma; alert on slow queries and disk growth.
5. Rate limiting – Protect login endpoints with Fail2ban or a WAF to stop brute force attacks.

Automation Ideas

• Auto-create sprint boards from templates using the Teable/Focalboard REST APIs.
• Pipe GitHub or GitLab issues into Kanban columns with webhooks.
• Mirror production incidents from PagerDuty into a “Hotfix” column automatically.

Choosing the Right Stack

• Pick Focalboard if you want docs, databases, and Kanban in one workspace.
• Choose Teable when your workflow is database-first but still needs Kanban visualization.
• Go with Planka or Wekan for straightforward Trello-like boards with long-term stability.

Whichever platform you select, self-hosting keeps your roadmap private, integrates seamlessly with existing infra, and avoids per-seat SaaS bills. Start with a small Docker Compose deployment, layer on SSO/monitoring, and scale to Kubernetes once adoption grows.