Focalboard vs Scratch

Comparing two open source alternatives to Notion . Use the comparison below to decide which one fits your needs.

Focalboard

AGPL-3.0

Focalboard is an open-source, self-hosted project management tool — a free alternative to Trello, Notion, and Asana for boards, docs, and team planning.

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Scratch

MIT

Scratch is a minimalist, offline-first markdown note-taking app for macOS, Windows, and Linux. Plain text files, keyboard-driven, with no cloud lock-in.

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Side-by-side comparison

	Focalboard	Scratch
License	AGPL-3.0	MIT
Self-hostable	Yes	Yes
GitHub Stars	26,386	1,547
Forks	2,577	146
Open Issues	784	71
Last Commit	May 18, 2026	Jul 28, 2026
First Released	Oct 6, 2020	Jan 31, 2026
Categories	Time & Task Management Tools Knowledge Management Tools Collaboration & Communication Tools	Note Taking & Knowledge Management Tools
Tags	#kanban #project management #collaboration #docker #self hosted	#markdown #note taking #offline #cross-platform #desktop-app

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