# Self-Hosted Trello Alternative - Kanera > Self-host Kanera on your own server from one Docker Compose file, with full feature parity with hosted Kanera, a reviewable Trello import, and no Kanera per-seat fee. Canonical page: https://www.kanera.app/self-hosted-trello-alternative Self-hosted Trello alternative # Boards your team knows. Infrastructure you run. Kanera runs on your own server from one Docker Compose file, with the same feature set as hosted Kanera and no Kanera per-seat fee. [Read the deployment guide](https://www.kanera.app/docs/self-host-getting-started)[Compare with Trello](https://www.kanera.app/vs/trello) Your infrastructure docker compose up -d Your network Web app API Worker Postgres Valkey Storage Every feature in the deployment, with no per-seat fee [Trello vs Kanera](https://www.kanera.app/vs/trello)[Import a Trello board](https://www.kanera.app/trello-migration)[Self-hosting docs](https://www.kanera.app/docs/self-host) One compose file to run Every feature included No Kanera per-seat fee Your database and files ## The whole stack in one compose file. Kanera brings its own database, cache, migrations, worker, and web tier. Nothing here is a managed service you have to buy first, and the browser only ever talks to the web container. - web ### Web app The built app behind nginx. The only service a browser needs to reach. - api ### App API and realtime Board traffic and Socket.IO, proxied internally by web. Two replicas by default. - worker ### Background worker Schedulers, notifications, webhook delivery, and cleanup. Exactly one of these. - postgres ### PostgreSQL 18 Application data on a persistent volume. No managed database to buy first. - valkey ### Valkey 9 Realtime fanout, presence, and shared rate limits across replicas. - migrate ### Migrations Runs pending schema changes once, before the app services start serving. - public-api ### Public API REST, webhooks, and the OpenAPI reference. Expose it only if you want it. - mcp ### MCP server Streamable HTTP for AI clients, backed by the public API. - db-backup ### Encrypted backups Optional scheduled Postgres dumps, GPG encrypted, pushed to S3-compatible storage. Uploads live on a Docker volume, or S3-compatible storage when you configure it. A Prometheus, Grafana, and Loki profile ships in the same file, off unless you opt in.[Environment, domains, and health checks](https://www.kanera.app/docs/self-host-getting-started) ## Size the server before you commit. Kanera is light at team scale. These are the baselines the deployment guide starts from, so you can price a machine now rather than after the first import. Planning baselines, not measured guarantees. Concurrent activity matters more than the number of registered accounts, and file retention usually drives disk before Kanera does. The optional Prometheus and Grafana profile adds roughly 0.7 to 1.5 GiB of memory on top. Starting capacity, from the deployment guide Typical team Server Disk Personal or light use 1 vCPU, 1 GiB 10 GiB 1 to 25 active users 1-2 vCPU, 2 GiB 20 GiB 26 to 100 active users 2-4 vCPU, 4 GiB 40 GiB Over 100 active users 4+ vCPU, 8+ GiB 80+ GiB ## Nothing is held back for the hosted plan. The self-hosted edition builds from the same codebase as hosted Kanera Pro. There is no community tier with the useful parts removed. Hosted Free caps users, boards, automations, and shared storage. A self-hosted organisation has no seat count, board limit, or plan check, agent connections carry no plan restriction, and attachment storage is your own disk or S3 bucket. - Workspaces that share lists, labels, and custom fields - Standalone boards that answer to nothing else - Board, Table, and Calendar views - Home, ranked Up next queues, My Cards, Team Cards, Portfolio, and Work Done - Table reporting with Excel and JSON export - Nested notes, attachments, and backlinks - Automations and checklist templates - Board guests for external collaborators - Notifications by email, push, ntfy, Gotify, or your own webhook - Slack, Discord, Telegram, and Zulip chat destinations - REST API with scoped keys and managed webhooks - MCP server for AI agents, over OAuth or API keys - Trello, CSV, and Kanera board imports Getting the work in ## Move the Trello boards into your own install. Trello has no self-hosted edition, so the move is an export and an import. The importer runs the same on your server as it does on ours, and it hands every mapping decision back to you. - 1 ### Export the board from Trello One board per JSON export, up to 50 MB. The Trello board is never changed by any of this. - 2 ### Review every mapping Workspace settings → Import walks the lists, labels, custom fields, and members, and each one is created, reused, or skipped on your say. Confirming is the first thing that writes data. - 3 ### Bring the files across too Set TRELLO_API_KEY in the environment file and users can connect Trello during an import so uploaded attachments are copied. Without it, links back to Trello are kept. Trialling hosted Kanera first? Export each board to JSON and import the archive into your own install. The route runs in both directions.[The Trello import in detail](https://www.kanera.app/trello-migration) The honest part ## Self-hosting is an operations commitment. Running Kanera is not the hard part; keeping it running is. Everything below moves from us to you the moment you deploy, and there is no support contract that quietly covers it. Two current limits either way: Kanera has no single sign-on today, and the interface is English only. [Where Kanera does not fit](https://www.kanera.app/who-its-for). - HTTPS in front of Kanera, through Caddy, Traefik, nginx, Dokploy, or a load balancer - SMTP credentials, or invites, verification, and notification email do not leave the box - Updates: pull the repository, rebuild the services, and let the migration service run first - Backups of both the database and the uploads volume, with restores you have actually tested - Backup storage off the server, and an alert on disk growth before it fills - Someone who answers when the deployment breaks outside working hours ## Two ways to run it. The same product either way. ### Run it yourself Docker Compose on your own server, your database, your files, your network boundary. There is no Kanera licence or per-seat fee, and the server does not contact us for update or licence checks. Best when deployment control is a requirement you can staff. [Read the deployment guide](https://www.kanera.app/docs/self-host-getting-started) ### Let us run it Hosted Kanera Pro is $5 per user per month, or $49 per user per year, and every workspace starts on a 30-day trial. Updates, backups, mail, storage, and uptime are ours. Best when nobody on the team should own infrastructure. [See hosted pricing](https://www.kanera.app/pricing) Kanera is source available under Elastic License 2.0. You can read, modify, and run it for your own organisation. You cannot provide it to third parties as a hosted or managed service.[The licence text](https://github.com/happendev/Kanera/blob/main/LICENSE) ## Self-hosting questions What do I need before deploying Kanera? A server with Docker and Docker Compose, a domain pointing at it, and HTTPS in front through Caddy, Traefik, nginx, Dokploy, or a cloud load balancer. Kanera brings its own PostgreSQL and Valkey, so there is no managed database to provision first. SMTP credentials are optional but recommended, since invites, verification, and notification email need them. Plan how the database volume and the uploads volume get backed up before you invite anyone. How much server does self-hosted Kanera need? The deployment guide starts from 1 vCPU and 1 GiB of RAM for personal use, 1 to 2 vCPU and 2 GiB for up to 25 active users, 2 to 4 vCPU and 4 GiB up to 100, and 4 or more vCPU with 8 GiB or more beyond that. Those are planning baselines rather than measured limits. Concurrent activity matters more than the number of registered accounts, file retention usually drives disk before Kanera does, and the optional Prometheus and Grafana profile adds roughly 0.7 to 1.5 GiB of memory. Which features are missing from the self-hosted edition? None. The self-hosted deployment builds from the same codebase as hosted Kanera Pro, including Table reporting, Global Work views, nested notes, automations, board guests, notifications through email, push, ntfy, Gotify, and personal webhooks, Slack, Discord, Telegram, and Zulip chat destinations, the REST API, managed webhooks, and the MCP server. A self-hosted organisation also has no seat count, board limit, automation limit, or plan check, and attachment storage is your own disk or S3-compatible bucket rather than a plan quota. Does a self-hosted deployment contact Kanera? No. The self-hosted server does not call us for update checks or licensing, and hosted billing checks are not active in normal self-hosted mode. Outbound traffic is what an administrator configures: SMTP, S3-compatible storage, webhooks, chat destinations, the notification receivers users choose, browser push, OAuth or MCP clients, Trello attachment copying, and monitoring alerts. How do updates and database migrations work? Pull the repository and rebuild the services with Docker Compose. The one-shot migration service applies pending schema changes before the API, worker, and public API start serving traffic. On Dokploy, redeploy the application after pulling the latest code and it rebuilds from the same compose file. How do backups work? Two things need backing up: the PostgreSQL data volume and the uploads volume, unless you have moved files to S3-compatible storage. A manual dump is a single pg_dump through Docker Compose. Kanera also ships an optional backup service that dumps PostgreSQL on a schedule, encrypts it with GPG symmetric AES-256, uploads it to S3-compatible storage, and prunes old copies. Keep the encryption passphrase somewhere durable outside the deployment, and test a restore before you rely on it. Can I import Trello boards into a self-hosted install? Yes. The Trello JSON importer is part of the product, so it runs the same reviewable mapping flow on your server as it does on hosted Kanera. To copy uploaded Trello attachments as well as their links, set a Trello API key in the environment file. Users then connect Trello during the import so Kanera can fetch the files. Can AI agents connect to a self-hosted deployment? Yes. Expose the MCP service on its own domain and point compatible clients at its /mcp address. Clients authenticate with a personal or workspace API key, or through browser-based OAuth once the public OAuth URLs are configured. Self-hosted deployments have no plan restriction on agent connections. Does self-hosted Kanera support single sign-on? Not today. Kanera authenticates with email and password, and has no SAML, OIDC, LDAP, or SCIM support. Some IT teams treat that as a gate, so confirm it before planning a wide rollout. The OAuth support in Kanera is for AI agents and API clients connecting to Kanera, not for signing users in from an identity provider. Can I host Kanera for my own customers? No. Elastic License 2.0 lets you run and modify Kanera for your own organisation, but not provide it to third parties as a hosted or managed service. Talk to us if you need different terms. ## Bring up the stack and judge it on your own box. The deployment guide covers environment, domains, health checks, updates, and backups. [Read the deployment guide](https://www.kanera.app/docs/self-host-getting-started)[Try hosted Kanera](https://board.kanera.app/signup) Docker Compose, source available under Elastic License 2.0, no Kanera per-seat fee ## Machine-readable resources - [Kanera AI index](https://www.kanera.app/llms.txt) - [Kanera documentation index](https://www.kanera.app/docs/llms.txt) - [Agent discovery guidance](https://www.kanera.app/agents.md)