OpenProject vs Trello
OpenProject is a European alternative to Trello: same project management & productivity use case, headquartered in Germany and governed by EU GDPR, while Trello (Atlassian) is based in the United States.
By the EU Alternatives team Last updated
Achieve project success with versatile open source software for classic, agile, or hybrid management. Features task tracking, Gantt charts, boards, and secure collaboration.
- Jurisdiction
- EU / EEA
- Primary privacy law
- EU GDPR
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- No
- Open source
- Yes
- Free tier
- Yes
Trello made the kanban board mainstream and is still the quickest way to get a team moving without configuring anything first, which is precisely what people miss on heavier tools. A free tier allows unlimited cards, with limits on boards and automation. Atlassian owns it, and though the company began in Sydney it redomiciled to Delaware in 2022, so it is American now.
- Jurisdiction
- United States
- GDPR by default
- Requires DPA + TIA
- US CLOUD Act exposure
- Yes
OpenProject vs Trello at a glance
| OpenProject | Trello | |
|---|---|---|
| Headquarters | Germany | United States |
| Data jurisdiction | EU / EEA | United States |
| Primary privacy law | EU GDPR | Requires DPA + transfer assessment |
| US CLOUD Act exposure | No | Yes |
| Best for | Teams that need project management & productivity built for European data-protection requirements | Teams already invested in the Atlassian ecosystem |
Choose OpenProject if…
- You want a provider governed by a European privacy regime
- GDPR or public-sector data-protection requirements apply to you
- You want to start free and scale up later
- Open-source code and self-hosting matter to you
- You'd rather back the European tech ecosystem
Stick with Trello if…
- You depend on integrations only available in the Atlassian ecosystem
- Your organisation has no EU data-residency constraints
- Migration costs outweigh the jurisdiction benefits for now
About OpenProject
OpenProject is Germany's leading open-source project management platform, supporting classic, agile, and hybrid workflows in a single tool. Gantt charts, Scrum and Kanban boards, time tracking, cost reporting, and built-in wikis cover the full project lifecycle, from initial planning through to billing.
Teams choose between the free Community Edition (self-hosted), Enterprise on-premises, or Enterprise Cloud hosted on EU servers in Germany. A full REST API and webhooks connect to GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Nextcloud, and Slack, while granular role permissions and two-factor authentication keep sensitive projects secure.
Key benefits:
- Gantt charts and work packages with cross-project dependencies and baseline comparisons
- Scrum and Kanban boards with sprint planning, backlogs, and burndown charts
- Time and cost tracking with budgets, hourly rates, and earned value analysis
- Built-in wikis and document management for centralised team knowledge
- Self-hosted or EU cloud with full data sovereignty and no vendor lock-in
- Free Community Edition under GPLv3 for unlimited users and projects
- REST API and integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Jira, Nextcloud, and Slack
All cloud infrastructure is hosted on EU data centres in Germany, with no third-party hyperscalers involved. The platform is fully GDPR-compliant and, as open-source software under GPLv3, every line of code is auditable, and self-hosting teams maintain complete control over where their project data lives.
Trusted by Siemens, Deutsche Bahn, Greenpeace, and the Linux Foundation, with 20M+ downloads and 14,800+ GitHub stars.
Why choose OpenProject over Trello?
The decisive argument is data jurisdiction. Trello is headquartered in the United States, which means personal data processed through it can be subject to non-EU legal regimes: the US CLOUD Act, FISA 702, or similar laws depending on the provider. After the 2020 Schrems II ruling, EU organisations must carry out a transfer impact assessment for every such data flow.
OpenProject removes that overhead. As a Germany-based provider, it operates under EU GDPR, and data stays inside the EU/EEA by default. For regulated sectors such as health, public administration, and finance, that's not a nice-to-have but a requirement. For everyone else, it's concentration-risk insurance: you avoid depending on a single jurisdiction that can change the rules without warning.