Small Business Owners

Boardly for Small Business Owners: The self-hosted Trello replacement

The self-hosted Trello replacement — unlimited boards, your data in one SQLite file.

Small businesses get nickel-and-dimed by per-user pricing on helpdesks, forms, signatures and scheduling. One-time software makes the toolset a capital expense instead of a creeping payroll line.

The tool this job usually means renting is Trello, at $5/user/mo — roughly $60 a year, every year. Boardly does the job for a one-time $49 — running on infrastructure you control.

Fit check

Why it fits how small business owners work

🗂️ Multiple boards

Color themes, emoji icons, starred favorites — organize work, clients or your whole life.

For small business owners, multiple boards pays off without adding another line to the monthly overhead — and it's covered by the same one-time $49, not metered per month.

✋ Drag & drop everything

Reorder lists, drag cards between lists — order persists exactly where you dropped it.

For small business owners, drag & drop everything pays off without adding another line to the monthly overhead — and it's covered by the same one-time $49, not metered per month.

🃏 Rich cards

Markdown descriptions, due dates with overdue highlighting, colored board-scoped labels.

For small business owners, rich cards pays off without adding another line to the monthly overhead — and it's covered by the same one-time $49, not metered per month.

Workflow

A typical workflow

STEP 01

Buy once on Whop

One-time $49 — one of the cheapest apps in the suite. Installer, updates and setup support included.

STEP 02

Run it anywhere

Desktop app for personal boards, or docker compose up -d on a $5 VPS for the whole team.

STEP 03

Move your boards in

Create lists, drag cards, attach files, tick checklists. Export everything to JSON whenever you want proof you own it.

What it costs, honestly

Boardly is $49, once. Trello at $5/user/mo — roughly $60 a year, every year. Boardly costs less than ten months of a single Trello seat — for a team it pays for itself the day you install it.

FAQ

Small Business Owners ask

Is Boardly worth it for small business owners?

Boardly costs less than ten months of a single Trello seat — for a team it pays for itself the day you install it. Boardly costs $49 once; Trello charges $5/user/mo — about $60 a year. For small business owners, that fixed cost is the whole point: the tool is a one-time line item, not a monthly one.

Is it really free on GitHub?

Yes — MIT source at github.com/bensblueprints/boardly-kanban-mvp, always. $49 buys the packaged installer, updates and setup support.

How do team members log in?

One shared password protects the whole install — there are no per-user accounts, permissions or assignee fields yet. That's fine for small teams on a trusted server or VPN; if you need granular roles and member management, Trello still wins there.

Own Boardly forever — $49