Trello charges $5 per user per month — a 10-person team pays $600 every year, forever, for lists with cards on them. Boardly is the same kanban workflow on your hardware: unlimited boards, unlimited cards, no per-seat meter, and your data in a single SQLite file you can copy, back up and export any time. It also speaks MCP, so Claude and other AI agents can read and update your boards directly.
If you've searched for a Trello alternative, Boardly is the pay-once option worth putting at the top of the list: Boardly is $49, one time, and covers the same core job Trello charges $5/user/mo for.
What makes Boardly the pick for 2026
- Multiple boards — Color themes, emoji icons, starred favorites — organize work, clients or your whole life.
- Drag & drop everything — Reorder lists, drag cards between lists — order persists exactly where you dropped it.
- Rich cards — Markdown descriptions, due dates with overdue highlighting, colored board-scoped labels.
- Checklists — With live progress bars right on the card front.
- Attachments — Upload files straight onto cards — stored on your disk, with your limits, not a 250 MB plan cap.
Boardly vs Trello, at a glance
| Boardly | Trello | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $49 once | $5/user/month (Standard) |
| 10-person team, 3 years | $49 total | $1,800 |
| Boards | Unlimited | Limited on free tier |
| Attachments | Your disk, your limits | 250 MB/file cap, plan-gated |
| Data ownership | SQLite file on your box | Atlassian's cloud |
| Works offline / air-gapped | Yes | No |
| Full JSON export | One click, attachments included | Plan-gated |
| Telemetry | None | Plenty |
Boardly costs less than ten months of a single Trello seat — for a team it pays for itself the day you install it.
Common questions
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.
Does it have automations like Butler?
No — no rule engine, no scheduled commands. Boardly bets that most Trello boards never touch Butler, and most don't. If yours does, keep Trello.
The bottom line
Boardly won't out-feature Trello on every axis — no subscription tool with a bigger team and a bigger roadmap loses on everything. But for the core job, $49 once against $5/user/mo forever is a trade most people should at least look at. Boardly is part of OneTimeSuite, a catalog of pay-once apps that replace subscription SaaS.
Try Boardly — $49, once
Self-hosted kanban — drag & drop boards, checklists, labels, attachments, full JSON export.