Kanba is an open-source Kanban board application in the Business Software / Project & Work Management category, a lightweight Trello alternative written in TypeScript for makers, indie hackers, solo developers, and small teams who want to run their own project and task management boards.

What it is

Kanba is an MIT-licensed Kanban board built on a modern JavaScript stack: Tailwind CSS and shadcn/ui for the interface, Supabase for backend services, and Stripe for payment integration. The project describes itself as an open-source, lightweight Trello alternative designed for makers and indie hackers, with an emphasis on simplicity, speed, and scalability. It supports unlimited projects, team collaboration, and dark/light mode, and its repository carries 656 stars, 110 forks, and 11 open issues, with the last push on 2026-08-08.

The concrete problem Kanba solves is ownership of a hosted board. Where a Trello-style service keeps the boards, the accounts, and the billing relationship on someone else's infrastructure, Kanba ships as an application that a team deploys itself, pointed at its own Supabase project. The payment side is part of the same package rather than a separate service: the repository replaces Supabase Edge Functions with local Next.js API routes, so POST /api/stripe/checkout creates Stripe checkout sessions and POST /api/stripe/webhook handles Stripe webhook events from inside the deployed application. The result is a board that can take payments without standing up an additional payment backend or deploying separate edge functions.

Key capabilities

• Kanban boards with lists, notes, and task management, matching the project's kanban-board, lists, notes, and task-management topics.
• Unlimited projects per deployment, per the README's feature description.
• Team collaboration on shared boards, alongside dark and light mode.
• Stripe checkout sessions created through POST /api/stripe/checkout.
• Stripe webhook event handling through POST /api/stripe/webhook, verified with STRIPE_WEBHOOK_SECRET.
• Local Next.js API routes in place of Supabase Edge Functions, which the README lists as simpler deployment, standard .env file support, easier local debugging, tighter Next.js integration, and no vendor lock-in.
• NextAuth-based authentication configured through NEXTAUTH_URL and NEXTAUTH_SECRET.

Who uses it and how

• Solo developers and small teams that want a board with full control and without unnecessary complexity, the audience the README names directly.
• Makers and indie hackers shipping a paid product, who need the board's Stripe integration to accept payments without building a separate billing backend.
• Teams deploying to Vercel with npx vercel, then registering the production webhook at https://your-domain.vercel.app/api/stripe/webhook.
• Self-hosters who want board and account data to live in their own Supabase project rather than a hosted board vendor's.
• Developers testing payment flows locally with the Stripe CLI, forwarding events via stripe listen --forward-to localhost:3000/api/stripe/webhook.

Getting started

Local setup is npm install, then copy .env.example to .env.local and fill in the Supabase, NextAuth, and optional Stripe variables, then npm run dev. Production deployment is npx vercel with the same environment variables added through the Vercel dashboard or CLI, followed by pointing a Stripe webhook at https://your-domain.vercel.app/api/stripe/webhook.

How it compares

The README positions Kanba explicitly against Trello, and its topic list also names Notion: it is the free, self-hosted alternative to those hosted board and workspace products. Where those services bundle hosting and billing into a subscription, Kanba is MIT-licensed, runs on infrastructure the operator chooses, and keeps board data in the operator's own Supabase project. Payment handling is not a hosted add-on layer but routes inside the application, configured with the operator's own Stripe keys.

When to use it — and when not to

A self-hoster must run a Supabase project, supply a NextAuth secret, and, if payments are wanted, hold a Stripe account with a webhook secret, keeping STRIPE_SECRET_KEY and SUPABASE_SERVICE_ROLE_KEY server-side and rotating webhook secrets regularly. Teams that do not want to operate Supabase or Next.js hosting, or that want a zero-configuration hosted board, should not pick Kanba. The README is heavily weighted toward deployment and environment configuration rather than feature documentation, so expect to read configuration files to understand behavior.

cp .env.example .env.local

npm install

npm run dev

stripe listen --forward-to localhost:3000/api/stripe/webhook

npx vercel