Quick answer
Yes — Boardly is a one-time-purchase alternative to Trello. It costs $49 once, while Trello runs $5/user/mo — about $60 per year, every year. Self-hosted kanban — drag & drop boards, checklists, labels, attachments, full JSON export. It is for people who want the job done on their own hardware without a renewal date — not for teams that live inside Trello's ecosystem.
The verdict
Switch to Boardly if you are an individual or small team paying Trello $5/user/mo for work your own machine can do. Boardly costs less than ten months of a single Trello seat — for a team it pays for itself the day you install it.
Stay with Trello if your workflow depends on its integrations, you need enterprise features (SSO, admin controls, SLAs), or your team is large enough that per-seat collaboration tooling is worth the bill. Boardly does not try to replicate those.
Head to head
| 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 |
| 5-year cost | $49 | $300 |
Where Trello still wins
- Ecosystem and integrations. Established tools accumulate years of third-party integrations, templates and add-ons. If your workflow is wired into Trello's ecosystem, switching means rebuilding that plumbing — a real cost.
- Team and enterprise features. Shared workspaces, granular permissions, SSO, audit logs and a vendor to call when something breaks — that is what the higher subscription tiers actually buy, and a pay-once app does not come with it.
- Familiarity and hiring. Trello is the name people already know. Onboarding a team onto a tool nobody has used before takes time the subscription never charges for.
Where Boardly wins
- Price, permanently. $49 once versus $60/yr for as long as you use it. There is no renewal, no seat count and no tier gate.
- 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.
The math
Boardly costs less than ten months of a single Trello seat — for a team it pays for itself the day you install it.
- After 1 year: Boardly has cost you $49 total — Trello has cost $60.
- After 3 years: Boardly is still $49 — the subscription is at $180.
- After 5 years: Boardly is still $49 — the subscription is at $300.
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.
Is there a mobile app?
No native app — the web UI works in a phone browser when you host it on a VPS. Desktop mode is Windows-first, and the MIT source builds anywhere Electron runs.
Try Boardly — $49, one time
Or get Boardly plus every other app in the suite: the OneTimeSuite bundle is currently $97, one time.