Why Planka instead of a SaaS?
Planka delivers the essential Kanban features — multiple boards, lists, cards, team members, colored labels, due dates, file attachments — without a monthly subscription or data hosted on third-party servers. With around 12,400 GitHub stars and an active community, it's one of the most mature self-hosted alternatives to Trello. Its real-time interface (WebSocket) syncs changes between all connected members instantly.
What you get
- Unlimited Kanban boards — separate projects, teams, and workspaces
- Real-time sync via WebSocket — cards update without page reload
- Member management — email invitations, per-project roles
- Labels, due dates, checklists, and file attachments
- OIDC authentication (SSO) on recent versions
- Export and import — full state backup in JSON
Deploy Planka on a VPS in 4 steps
Order a VPS
Choose a VPS with at least 1 vCPU and 1 GB RAM (recommended: 2 GB for multiple users). Planka runs in Docker — any Linux distribution with Docker installed will work.
Launch automatic deployment
ServOrbit installs Docker, sets up PostgreSQL and Planka in a single Ansible run. The database, persistent volumes, and healthchecks are configured automatically. You receive the URL and credentials by email as soon as it's ready.
Log in and create your first board
Open your instance URL, sign in with the admin account provided, then create a workspace and your first Kanban board. Invite collaborators from the interface — they receive an invitation link by email.
Secure access
ServOrbit configures nginx as a reverse proxy with HTTPS (Let's Encrypt) in front of Planka. If you don't have a domain, access is available via IP + SSH tunnel. For teams, a dedicated domain with HTTPS is strongly recommended — Planka does not encrypt data in transit on its own.
Planka exposes port 1337 internally. ServOrbit protects it behind nginx with HTTPS — never expose port 1337 directly to the Internet. The initial admin account ([email protected]) can be renamed from the profile settings after the first login.
Planka architecture
Planka is a Node.js application using Sails.js on the server side and React on the client. It stores data in PostgreSQL and files (avatars, attachments) on the local filesystem (Docker volume). Real-time sync uses native WebSockets. Memory footprint is low: around 200 MB for the application, plus PostgreSQL memory (50 to 200 MB depending on load).
Backing up Planka
Two elements to back up: the PostgreSQL database (pg_dump planka_db > backup.sql) and the Docker data directory (/var/lib/docker/volumes/planka_*). ServOrbit can configure automatic backups to object storage. To restore: import the SQL dump then put the volumes back in place before restarting the containers.
