Personal Kanban Board App for Mac: Local Options vs Trello

For a personal Kanban board on a Mac, Trello is the usual choice if you want your boards online, on your phone and shared with other people. If you want boards that stay on your own computer with no sign-up, look at Gubb (quick boards inside a notes window, $59 one-time) or Obsidian (a free Markdown notes app that added a kanban view in version 1.14). If all you track is To Do, Doing and Done, a checklist in Apple Notes or a sectioned list in Reminders costs nothing.

Quick picks (as of November 2026):

• Trello: best for boards you share, open on your phone, or attach files to.
• Gubb: best for small private boards next to your quick notes, with no account and no subscription.
• Obsidian: best if you already keep Markdown notes in Obsidian and want boards in the same place.
• Todoist: best if you want a full task manager and boards are one way to view your tasks.
• Apple Notes or Reminders: best free fallback when you don't need draggable columns.

We make Gubb, so weigh our view accordingly. We've tried to be fair to every app here, including the ones that will suit many readers better than ours.

Trello comes first because it's the app most people compare against. Then come the local options, a full task manager, and the free apps already on your Mac.

How we chose

A personal board does a different job from a team board. These are the things that decide whether an app fits:

• Where the board lives. Online in an account, or on your computer only. This decides privacy, offline use and whether your phone can see it.
• Account and sharing. Whether you have to sign up, and whether anyone else can use the board.
• Card basics. Dragging cards between columns, plus due dates, checklists and labels on a card.
• Price model. Free, subscription or one-time purchase.
• Overhead. How many steps it takes to go from "I need a board" to typing your first card.

A personal board with three columns and 20 cards needs very little, so we didn't reward feature count for its own sake.

Summary table

Prices are as of November 2026. Trello and Obsidian figures come from third-party pricing reviews, so check the official pricing pages before you buy.

Local or cloud: what changes

A cloud board like Trello lives online in your workspace. You can open it on your phone, invite people and attach files. In return, your board sits on someone else's servers and the paid tiers are subscriptions.

A local board (Gubb, or Obsidian without Sync) stays on your computer. Your tasks don't leave the machine. In return, your phone can't see the board, nobody else can edit it, and backups are up to you.

For a solo board you check from your desk, local is usually enough. If you plan tasks on your phone during the commute, it usually isn't.

Trello

Trello is a work-organization tool built around boards and cards, and it's the reference point for most Kanban searches.

Good at:

• The free plan is generous for one person: unlimited cards, up to 10 boards per workspace, unlimited Power-Ups per board and unlimited storage with a 10 MB limit per file.
• Due dates and assignees are included on the free plan.
• iOS and Android apps are included on the free plan, so your board goes where you go.
• Sharing is built in. The free plan allows up to 10 collaborators.

Lacks, for a personal board:

• Trello is built for teams. Paid plans are charged per user by subscription, and you pay that even when the only user is you.
• Your boards live in an online Trello workspace. If you want your task list to stay on your own computer, it isn't the right fit.

Price (as of November 2026, from third-party reviews): Free; Standard $5 per user per month, billed annually; Premium $10 per user per month, billed annually; Enterprise from $17.50 per user per month, billed annually.

Pick Trello if you want to check your board on your phone, share it with a partner or a small team, or attach files to cards. If you need any of those, the free plan probably covers you and nothing else on this page will do it better.

Gubb

Gubb is our app: a small window for quick notes, with to-do lists, voice-to-text into notes, clipboard history and timers. Boards are one of its typed commands. Type gubb@board on a line by itself and that note becomes a Kanban board, stored with your other notes in a local database on your computer.

Make a board in Gubb

1. Hover over the title bar and click + (Create New Note).
2. Type gubb@board on a line by itself. Or type gubb@, choose Board with the arrow keys, and press Return or Tab.
3. Click Add a card, type a title and press Return.
4. Drag cards between To Do, In Progress and Done.
5. Click a card to add a description, a checklist, labels or a due date.
6. To add a column, click Add another column, type a name and click Add Column.

Keep gubb@board alone on its line. If it sits inside other text, the note can open in an older board view that doesn't work properly.

What Gubb boards do

• Columns: the board starts with To Do, In Progress and Done. You can add columns and use Edit column and Delete column on each one.
• Cards: hover a card for Edit card, Copy card and Delete card. Badges show labels, the due date, whether the card has a description, checklist progress (for example "Checklist: 2/5") and the comment count.
• Card detail: an editable title, a Description, checklists, Comments, and Add to card for Labels, Checklist and Due Date. Actions has Move, Copy and Delete.
• Labels: six fixed labels: "Priority: High", "Priority: Medium", "Priority: Low", "Type: Bug", "Type: Feature" and "Type: Improvement".
• More than one board: start a new note for each board. If the title "Kanban Board" is already taken, Gubb adds the time, for example "Kanban Board 14:05". In Notes History, the Board filter shows only your boards.
• No account and no sync. The board is stored in a local SQLite database and works offline.

What Gubb boards lack

• No custom labels. You get the six built-in ones.
• No attachments. Cards show an attachments list, but there's no way to add a file.
• Due dates are badges, not reminders. Gubb won't notify you when a card is due.
• Just you. There's no sharing, and comments always show the author as "Current User", so treat them as notes to yourself.
• No phone app or sync. There's no iPhone or iPad app, so the board stays on the computer where you made it.
• No readable export of a board. In the current version, Markdown and plain-text exports contain raw editor data rather than readable lists.
• Deletes are final. Deleting a note in Notes History has no confirmation and no trash, so a deleted board is gone.
• An occasional online check. The gubb.net version re-checks its license online about once a week and locks after 30 days without a successful check. Your board itself never leaves the computer.
• Small window by default. Gubb opens at 600×600; resize it when you add columns. Pin window on top in the right-edge buttons keeps the board visible over other apps.

Price (as of November 2026): $59 one-time for the version sold on gubb.net, with no subscription. The license activates on up to 3 devices, and the direct Mac download has a 7-day free trial. Gubb is also on the Mac App Store and the Microsoft Store, sold separately.

Pick Gubb if you want a private board for your own week or a side project, you like having it in the same window as quick notes and checklists, and you'd rather pay once than subscribe. If you only want a board, Trello's free plan or Obsidian's free app may suit you better, and if you need to share, Trello will. The Kanban section of the Gubb help center covers every board control.

Obsidian

Obsidian is a Markdown note-taking app that keeps notes in local vaults. Version 1.14 added a kanban view for Bases, so boards can live in the same place as your notes. As of November 2026, the latest desktop release is 1.14.4 (October 5, 2026).

Good at:

• The core app is free.
• Optional Sync adds end-to-end encryption, version history and shared vaults.
• It's updated often, with desktop and mobile apps.

Lacks:

• Syncing between devices with Obsidian Sync is a paid subscription, and so is publishing notes as a website.
• The kanban view is part of Bases, so you'll need to learn that feature first. We don't have details on how far it goes with card features like due dates or checklists; check Obsidian's site for what it does today.

Price (as of November 2026, from third-party reviews): app free; Sync $4 per user per month billed annually or $5 monthly; Publish $8 per site per month billed annually or $10 monthly.

Pick Obsidian if you already keep notes there, or you want a free local app that can grow into a full notes system.

Todoist

Todoist is a cross-platform task manager from Doist with projects, filters, team workspaces and board views. Tasks on Today, Upcoming, label and filter boards can expand to show their sub-tasks.

Good at:

• Runs on Mac, Windows, Linux, iPhone, iPad, Android, Apple Watch and the web.
• Boards sit inside a full task system, including boards for Today, Upcoming, labels and filters.
• A free Beginner plan.

Lacks:

• It's a task manager, not a scratchpad or notes app.
• Paid features are subscription only. Third-party sources say the free plan is limited to 5 active projects; we couldn't confirm that on an official page.

Price (as of November 2026): Beginner free; Pro $7 a month or $60 a year, with a 7-day free trial; Business $10 per user per month, or $8 billed yearly.

Pick Todoist if you want a real task system with boards as a bonus, on every device you own. Our best to-do list apps for Mac roundup covers that direction in more detail.

Apple Notes or Reminders (free, built in)

Neither gives you cards to drag between columns. For a personal board with a handful of items, that may not matter.

• Apple Notes: make a note with three headings (To Do, Doing, Done) and a checklist under each. Notes syncs through iCloud to your iPhone and iPad.
• Apple Reminders: make a list and add sections named after your stages. Reminders supports subtasks, tags, flags, dates and repeating reminders, and it syncs through iCloud.

Reminders also does what Gubb's boards don't: it alerts you when something is due.

Pick these if your "board" is really a short list with stages, you live on Apple devices, and you don't want another app. If you'd rather keep stages as plain checklists in a Markdown app, our Markdown checklist syntax guide shows the typing shortcuts.

Trello vs a local board (Gubb)

Most readers end up choosing between an online board and a local one. Here's where Trello's free plan and Gubb differ.

Trello wins on reach: phone, sharing and files. Gubb wins on privacy and simplicity for one person at one computer. If you're unsure, answer one question first: do you need this board on your phone? If yes, start with Trello's free plan. If no, try a local board.

How to choose a Kanban board app for Mac

• You need the board on your phone or shared with someone: Trello. The free plan covers most personal use.
• You want it private, on your Mac, with no account: Gubb or Obsidian. Pick Gubb for a board in one typed line and a one-time price; pick Obsidian if you want a free app and already think in Markdown files.
• You want an alert when a task is due: Apple Reminders. Gubb's due dates don't notify you.
• You want a full task system, not just a board: Todoist.
• You only track a few things through three stages: Apple Notes or Reminders. No new app needed.
• You're planning a project before you need a board: start with a project outline template, then turn the steps into cards.

If you're new to the method, what is a Kanban board explains how columns and cards work, with examples.

FAQ

Is there a free Kanban board app for Mac?

Yes. Trello's free plan allows up to 10 boards per workspace, and Obsidian's core app is free. Apple Notes and Reminders are free too, though they don't give you drag-and-drop cards.

Can I use a Kanban board without creating an account?

Yes. Gubb needs no account: you install it, type gubb@board, and the board is stored on your computer. Trello is built around online workspaces.

Do Gubb boards sync to my iPhone or another Mac?

No. Gubb has no sync and no iPhone or iPad app. A board stays on the computer where you made it, even though one license covers up to 3 devices.

Will Gubb remind me when a card is due?

No. A due date shows as a badge on the card, but Gubb doesn't send a notification. Use Apple Reminders if date-based alerts matter to you.

If a local board in your notes window sounds right, you can download Gubb for Mac and try it free for 7 days before paying the $59 one-time price.