Short answer: if you want a mature kanban board with Power-Ups for everything and you are happy in Atlassian's cloud, Trello is the safer pick. If you want to run the tool on your own server, or you want tasks, a calendar, notes and files in one place for a flat price, Jinear is worth a look. I build Jinear, so weigh my opinion with that in mind.
The short version
Trello does one thing and does it very well: boards with cards you drag between columns. It has been doing that since 2011, it has native apps on every platform, and its Power-Up ecosystem covers most integrations you can think of.
Jinear is a smaller product, built by one person since November 2022. A board of tasks is one part of it, next to a calendar, notes and file storage. It is an open-source (AGPL-3.0) Trello alternative, and you can run all of it on your own server with Docker Compose.
| Jinear | Trello | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Hosted, or self-hosted with Docker Compose | Cloud only. Trello calls itself a cloud-only product |
| Source code | Open source, AGPL-3.0 | Closed source |
| Free plan | Up to 3 people per workspace | Up to 10 collaborators and 10 boards per workspace, 10 MB per file |
| Paid plans | Team: $24.90/mo flat, unlimited people | Standard $5, Premium $10, Enterprise $17.50 per user/mo (billed yearly) |
| Board views | List and status board (kanban) | Board, plus Table, Calendar, Timeline, Dashboard and Map on Premium |
| Calendar | Built in, two-way Google Calendar sync, iCal feed | Calendar view on Premium |
| Docs and notes | Notebooks with nested rich-text notes | Card descriptions only |
| Automation | None | Butler automations on every plan |
| Integrations | Google Calendar, MCP for Claude and ChatGPT | Hundreds of Power-Ups |
| Mobile | Installable web app (PWA), no native apps | Native iOS, Android and desktop apps |
| Import | No importer | Not applicable |
Where Trello is better
- Scale and polish. Trello has a large team, millions of users and more than a decade of polish. Jinear has been in development for almost four years, with one maintainer and a small community.
- Integrations and automation. Power-Ups and Butler cover Slack, GitHub, Jira, forms and custom rules. Jinear has no automation engine and very few integrations.
- Native apps. Trello has proper mobile and desktop apps. Jinear is an installable web app. It sends push notifications and keeps note drafts offline, but it is not a native app.
- Free plan size. Trello's free plan allows up to 10 collaborators per workspace. Jinear's hosted free plan stops at 3 people.
- Extra views. Timeline, table and map views exist on Trello Premium. Jinear has no timeline or Gantt view.
Where Jinear is better
- Self-hosting. Trello has no self-hosted option. Jinear runs on your own server, with every feature included and no license key. Your data never leaves your machine.
- More than a board. Jinear has a full calendar (month, week and two-day views, drag to reschedule), notes in shared notebooks, and file storage with folders and access control. In Trello you usually add other tools for those.
- Flat price. Jinear's Team plan is $24.90 a month for any number of people. Trello charges per user.
- Task structure. Jinear has subtasks, assignees plus collaborators, and custom workflow statuses per team.
- AI assistants. Jinear has an MCP server, so Claude or ChatGPT can read and create tasks, notes and calendar items for you.
What it costs a team of 10
- Trello Standard (billed yearly): 10 x $5 = $50 a month
- Trello Premium (billed yearly): 10 x $10 = $100 a month
- Jinear Team (billed monthly): $24.90 a month
- Jinear self-hosted: $0, plus the cost of your server
For a team of 3, Trello Standard is $15 a month and Jinear's free plan costs nothing. For a team of 5 on Trello Standard ($25 a month), the prices are about the same, so the decision should come down to features, not price.
Which one should you pick?
Pick Trello if a kanban board is all you need, you rely on integrations or automations, you want native mobile apps, or you want a product with a long track record.
Pick Jinear if you need to self-host (for privacy, compliance, or because you simply want to own your data), or if you want tasks, a calendar, notes and files in one tool without paying per seat.
There is no Trello importer in Jinear today. If you move, you move your cards by hand or through an AI assistant connected over MCP.