Focalboard is unmaintained. Choose Kanera for an actively developed team system with reporting, integrations, and supported self-hosting.
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Its open-source desktop and personal-server editions remain available, but the official repository currently seeks maintainers and its latest release is v8.0.0 from June 2024.
Kanera provides active development, polished collaboration, reporting, automation, API access, webhooks, MCP, and a documented Docker Compose topology.
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Maintenance status is part of the product decision here, not a footnote. Verify Focalboard before any new deployment.
| Feature | Focalboard Unmaintained standalone project |  Kanera |
|---|---|---|
| Views & Planning | ||
| Board view | Included. Kanban board views are the central Focalboard planning surface. | Included. Kanban boards with drag-and-drop cards, collapsible lists, per-list sorting, list icons and colours, and card covers. |
| Table view | Included. Table and gallery-style views have been part of Focalboard, alongside board views. | Included. An editable table on boards and across Global Work, with filtering, grouping, custom columns, Sum and Avg calculations, second-dimension breakdowns, saved setup, and Excel or JSON export. |
| Calendar view | Included. Calendar view has been part of the project's multi-view model. | Included. A calendar for dated cards with month and week ranges, Today navigation, filtering, due-time slots, and card actions in place, on boards and across Global Work. |
| Overview, health, and cross-project visibility | Not available. The standalone project focuses on boards rather than Kanera-style Home, Global Work, Portfolio, and Work Done rollups. | Included. Home covers daily focus. Every board adds automatic overdue, unassigned, inactive, due-soon, and per-list signals with card drill-downs. Global Work adds My Cards, Team Cards, Portfolio, and Work Done across accessible boards. |
| Personal and team priority queues | Not available. Boards can sort and group by properties, but the unmaintained standalone project does not document personal cross-board queues or manager-curated teammate ordering. | Included. Up next keeps one ranked order across boards. Open your drawer anywhere, add, reorder, complete, or remove assigned cards in My Cards, filter to queued work, and manage permitted teammate queues from a focused dock or Team Cards grid and table views. |
| Cards & Work | ||
| Work item detail | Included. Cards and properties model tasks with descriptions, comments, files, assignees, and dates. | Included. Cards hold markdown descriptions with change diffs, due dates and time slots, assignees, labels, custom fields, attachments, covers, comments, checklists, watchers, and attributed activity. |
| Custom fields | Included. Board properties provide configurable fields for card data. | Included. Text, number, checkbox, date, URL, select, and user fields, with multi-value select and user fields, owned by one board or shared across a workspace. |
| Checklists | Partial or plan-gated. Card descriptions can hold checklist-style content; the project does not document Kanera-style assigned checklist templates. | Included. Reusable checklist templates with item assignees, due dates, descriptions, and one level of sub-checklists. Assigned items surface in Home, My Cards, and focused Team Cards. |
| Bulk editing | Not available. The repository does not document a broad multi-card bulk editor comparable to Kanera. | Included. Selected cards can change dates, labels, assignees, custom fields, completion, location, copies, or archive state together. |
| Structure & Workflow | ||
| Independent projects | Included. Boards are independently structured in the personal desktop and server editions. | Included. Standalone boards keep their own lists, labels, fields, templates, automations, permissions, and settings. |
| Shared structure | Partial or plan-gated. Templates and board properties help repeat structure, but shared cross-board fields and lists are not documented like Kanera workspaces. | Included. Workspace boards can reuse lists, labels, fields, checklist templates, automations, and reporting. |
| Automation | Not available. The standalone repository does not present a native rule builder comparable to Kanera automation. | Included. Six card triggers drive ordered actions across labels, assignees, checklist templates, due dates, custom field writes, moves, and completion, at board or workspace level. |
| Reporting | Not available. The public repository does not document Kanera-style Table calculations, Portfolio drill-downs, or completion history. | Included. Table calculations and breakdowns, Portfolio rollups and drill-downs, Work Done history, saved Global Work views, and Excel or JSON export cover operational reporting. |
| One-way board syncing | Not available. The standalone repository does not document native one-way card or list syncing between boards. | Included. Selected source lists can feed linked copies on another board, keeping shared card content and mapped workflow context current one way. |
| Collaboration & Access | ||
| Collaboration | Included. The multi-user server supports realtime collaboration, comments, mentions, and permissions. | Included. Comments with mentions, quote replies, and thumbs-up acknowledgement, plus attachments, realtime updates, presence, and an attributed activity history beside the work. |
| External access | Partial or plan-gated. Team collaboration and board sharing exist, though current support expectations are limited by maintenance status. | Partial or plan-gated. Pro keeps guests board-scoped: the first board is free, while a second or later board uses one purchased seat in total. Hosted Free has no guests, and self-hosted has no seat gate. |
| Notes and context | Not available. Card descriptions and board content hold context; there is no documented nested personal and shared notes system. | Included. Scratchpad keeps autosaved work in progress private to one person. Personal and shared Notes add nested trees, attachments, search, and card backlinks for durable context. |
| Notifications | Partial or plan-gated. Notification behavior exists in the collaboration product, but operators should verify the current release before relying on it. | Included. An in-app drawer plus per-type delivery to email, browser push, ntfy, Gotify, or your own signed webhook, with per-workspace pause and scoping rules, card and board watching, mentions, assignments, and due dates. The drawer, email, push, and rules are on every plan; ntfy, Gotify, and personal webhooks need Pro or self-hosted. |
| Data & Migration | ||
| API and webhooks | Partial or plan-gated. The project has had API and integration surfaces, but an unmaintained repository is a material risk for new integrations. | Included. Scoped API keys, a REST API, event-selective webhooks, and built-in Slack, Discord, Telegram, and Zulip chat destinations, all with delivery history, retries, pausing, and secret rotation. Included in Pro and self-hosted; hosted Free has none of them. |
| AI integration | Not available. The standalone repository does not document a native MCP server or built-in AI layer. | Partial or plan-gated. A native MCP server with OAuth gives compatible AI clients scoped access to live Kanera context and documentation search; AI is not built into the app. |
| Deployment | Included. The personal server is self-hostable and open source; official maintenance has stopped for now. | Included. Hosted plans, or a source-available Docker Compose deployment under Elastic License 2.0 with full feature parity and no Kanera per-seat self-hosting fee. |
| Import and export | Partial or plan-gated. The repository documents imports in older releases, but Kanera has no native Focalboard importer. | Partial or plan-gated. Reviewable Trello JSON, CSV, and Kanera archive import; Excel and JSON export; plus APIs for custom migrations. |
| Where each tool draws the line | ||
| Timeline, Gantt, and dependencies | Not available. Gantt and dependency planning are not part of the standalone project. | Not available. Not included. Kanera plans with due dates, Calendar, and Table. There are no Gantt bars, baselines, or dependency links between cards. |
| Time tracking and workload | Not available. The repository does not document time tracking or workload planning. | Not available. No timer and no capacity planning. Numeric custom fields hold estimates or hours, and Table can sum or average them by group. |
| Request forms | Not available. The repository does not document a form builder. | Not available. No form builder. Intake arrives through cards, one-way board syncing, or the REST API. |
| Sign-in and provisioning | Partial or plan-gated. The personal server manages its own accounts; an unmaintained project is a poor fit for enterprise identity requirements. | Partial or plan-gated. Email and password sign-in with organisation, workspace, and board roles. No SAML, OIDC, or SCIM for user accounts yet; AI clients authenticate to MCP with OAuth. |
| Apps and offline use | Partial or plan-gated. Single-user desktop apps for Windows, macOS, and Linux; no maintained mobile apps. | Partial or plan-gated. Installable PWA on desktop, iOS, and Android with offline board browsing, push notifications, and share-to-card. No native app-store builds. |
| Interface languages | Partial or plan-gated. Community translations exist, but coverage depends on the last release. | Not available. English only today. |
Competitor details checked August 11, 2026. Focalboard repository. Features and packaging can change.
Work Done shows a 60-day daily history of created, moved, and completed cards plus finished checklist items.
Use Home for today, per-board health for local risk, My Cards and Team Cards for execution, and Portfolio for cross-board drill-downs.
Open one keyboard palette to create a card, navigate, change theme, or search cards, notes, comments, and attachment names.
Use Scratchpad for private work in progress, then move durable material into personal or team Notes.
Keep boards fully independent, or reuse lists, labels, fields, checklist templates, and automations across a workspace.
Map source lists into another board so an internal team gets working copies, with local assignees and dates and no custom API bridge.
Use scoped API keys, managed webhooks, and MCP, and export reports to Excel or JSON. Self-host the same product when deployment control matters.
Start with CSV when boards and properties fit rows and columns. Users, files, and platform-specific structure may need a planned move.
Its official GitHub repository says it is currently not maintained and is looking for maintainers. The latest listed standalone release is from June 2024. Check the repository before choosing it for a new deployment.
Focalboard remains open source and offers single-user desktop apps plus a personal multi-user server. Its official repository says the standalone project is currently not maintained and is looking for maintainers.
Kanera is an actively developed team product with realtime collaboration, reporting, notes, automation, notifications, API, webhooks, MCP, and a supported Docker Compose deployment shape.
Focalboard offered free single-user desktop apps, board, table, gallery, and calendar views, configurable board properties, and a self-hostable personal server under an open-source licence.
If those are your requirements and the maintenance risk is acceptable, it remains an option. Kanera is a commercial source-available product with active development and support.
Use CSV when board properties can be represented as card rows. Plan a custom migration for users, files, and source structure outside the CSV.
Try the full product for 30 days. No card required.
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