The archive · Developer & Business Tools · Product decision · 2025–2026
kan.bn bets Trello's simplicity can be rebuilt open source with a modern UI
henryball's open-source Trello alternative ships cloud and self-hosted editions plus an MCP server; Show HN 509 points, 5.6k stars.
Kan (kan.bn)
What the business is
Kan is an open-source (AGPLv3) project-management app positioned as the Trello alternative: boards, workspaces, labels, comments, templates, activity logs and one-click Trello imports, self-hostable via Docker Compose or an official Railway template, with a hosted cloud at kan.bn and an MCP server exposing 46 tools.
How it started
Creator henryball launched Kan on Hacker News on 2025-06-02 as an open-source alternative to Trello and used the thread to state the bet against the field: Planka was great but cloned Trello's UI, Kanboard's UI/UX was lacking, and Linear was not open source — he wanted Trello's simplicity and customisability on a modern UI/UX. On the business model he said cloud and self-hosted would stay feature-identical, and he would only consider open-core if no reliable alternative income appeared.
What happened
The launch thread ran to 509 points and 220 comments, mixing praise, bug reports and roadmap requests that the author answered and added (WIP limits, multi-language support, custom field restrictions). He called MCP support for the API a good starting point for AI features. By the 2026-09-05 archive crawl the repo showed 5.6k stars, 461 forks and 826 commits; the README documented Docker Compose self-hosting, an official Railway template, an MCP server with 46 tools across seven resource types, TestMu AI sponsorship, and a kan.bn cloud offering unlimited boards with no credit card required.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
Kan (kan.bn) is an open-source project-management app positioned as the Trello alternative: drag-and-drop boards, workspaces, labels, filters, comments, activity logs, templates and one-click Trello imports, licensed AGPLv3 and self-hostable through Docker Compose or an official Railway template, with a hosted cloud at kan.bn and an MCP server that exposes 46 tools across seven resource types to any MCP-compatible client.
Creator henryball launched it on Hacker News on 2025-06-02 with a positioning argument rather than a feature list: Planka was great but cloned Trello's UI, Kanboard's UI/UX was lacking, and Linear was not open source. His bet was to keep Trello's simplicity and customisability while building a modern interface, and to make the open-source claim credible by keeping cloud and self-hosted editions feature-identical — open-core only as a last resort for income.
The Show HN ran to 509 points and 220 comments, mixing praise, bug reports and roadmap requests the author added (WIP limits, multi-language, custom field restrictions). He called MCP support for the API a good starting point for AI features; by the 2026-09-05 crawl the repo showed 5.6k stars, 461 forks and 826 commits, the README shipped the MCP server, TestMu AI sponsored the project, and the kan.bn cloud site was live with testimonials.
What has to be true
- It attacked the category's real sins instead of cloning the winner: Planka cloned Trello's UI, Kanboard lacked UI/UX polish, and closed products like Linear were disqualified by definition.
- One-click Trello import plus board visibility, workspaces and templates removed the switching costs that keep Trello users from leaving.
- Cloud and self-hosted feature parity made the open-source promise credible; the author said he would only open-core if no other income appeared.
- Shipping an MCP server turned AI control into a concrete interface — 46 tools any MCP client can drive — instead of a roadmap promise.
What can be applied
Name the category's actual sins and fix those: don't out-clone the incumbent, don't ship dated UI, and make leaving the incumbent trivial with an importer.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-05 Kan is live on both tracks: the kanbn/kan repo shows 5.6k stars, 461 forks and 826 commits with Docker Compose and an official Railway template for self-hosting, and kan.bn runs a hosted cloud (unlimited boards, no credit card required) with user testimonials, a public roadmap and integrations marked coming soon. TestMu AI (formerly LambdaTest) is listed as the project's sponsor. The material discloses no funding or revenue figures, so the bet remains in its growth stage — testing whether a sponsor- and cloud-supported open-source kanban can take users from Trello.
Sources
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Your turn
You just read one. Describe what you are building, and see who is betting on the same thing.
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