Focalboard vs Pad
Comparing two open source alternatives to Notion and Jira and Linear. Use the comparison below to decide which one fits your needs.
Focalboard
AGPL-3.0Focalboard is an open-source, self-hosted project management tool — a free alternative to Trello, Notion, and Asana for boards, docs, and team planning across every workflow.
Pad
Apache-2.0Local-first project management for developers and AI agents, with a CLI, web UI, SQLite backend, and native skills for Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, and more.
Side-by-side comparison
| Focalboard | Pad | |
|---|---|---|
| License | AGPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Self-hostable | Yes | Yes |
| GitHub Stars | 26,486 | 182 |
| Forks | 2,582 | 24 |
| Open Issues | 784 | 6 |
| Last Commit | May 18, 2026 | Sep 27, 2026 |
| First Released | Oct 6, 2020 | Mar 26, 2026 |
| Categories | ||
| Tags |
GitHub stars over time
GitHub stars over time
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