Vikunja: Self-Hosted Task Management That Replaces Todoist and Trello

Your task management probably lives in someone else's cloud. Todoist knows every project you're working on. Trello sees your workflow. Notion has your entire second brain. And all of them have pricing tiers designed to extract more money as you rely on them more.

Vikunja is a self-hosted, open-source task management tool that combines the best ideas from Todoist, Trello, and Microsoft To Do into a single application you control completely.

What Vikunja Does

Vikunja isn't trying to be a Notion clone or a full project management suite. It's focused on tasks — and it does them well:

• Lists and projects — Organize tasks into projects with sub-projects
• Kanban boards — Drag-and-drop board view (like Trello)
• Gantt charts — Timeline view for project planning
• Labels, priorities, due dates — All the standard task metadata
• Reminders — Email and push notification reminders
• Assignees — Assign tasks to team or family members
• Recurring tasks — Daily, weekly, monthly, or custom recurrence
• File attachments — Attach files to tasks
• CalDAV sync — Sync tasks with any CalDAV client (Thunderbird, Apple Reminders, etc.)
• Link sharing — Share lists with others, even without accounts

Feature Comparison

The big Vikunja advantage: no artificial limits. No "upgrade to Pro for reminders" or "5 project maximum on free tier." You get everything, because you're running it.

Installation

Vikunja runs as a single binary or Docker container with a database backend.

Docker Compose (recommended)

services:
  vikunja:
    image: vikunja/vikunja:latest
    environment:
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_TYPE: sqlite
      VIKUNJA_SERVICE_JWTSECRET: change-this-to-a-random-string
      VIKUNJA_SERVICE_PUBLICURL: https://tasks.example.com
    volumes:
      - ./data:/app/vikunja
    ports:
      - "3456:3456"
    restart: unless-stopped

For multi-user setups with better performance, use PostgreSQL:

services:
  vikunja:
    image: vikunja/vikunja:latest
    environment:
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_TYPE: postgres
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_HOST: db
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_DATABASE: vikunja
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_USER: vikunja
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_PASSWORD: changeme
      VIKUNJA_SERVICE_JWTSECRET: change-this-to-a-random-string
      VIKUNJA_SERVICE_PUBLICURL: https://tasks.example.com
    ports:
      - "3456:3456"
    depends_on:
      - db
    restart: unless-stopped

  db:
    image: postgres:16
    environment:
      POSTGRES_USER: vikunja
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: changeme
      POSTGRES_DB: vikunja
    volumes:
      - ./db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    restart: unless-stopped

docker compose up -d

Visit http://your-server:3456 and create your account.

Migrating from Other Tools

Vikunja has built-in migration support for several popular tools:

• Todoist — Import all projects, tasks, labels, and due dates via API token
• Trello — Import boards, lists, and cards via JSON export
• Microsoft To Do — Import lists and tasks
• TickTick — CSV import

To migrate from Todoist:

1. Generate an API token in Todoist settings
2. In Vikunja, go to Settings → Migration → Todoist
3. Enter your API token
4. Vikunja imports everything, preserving project structure

CalDAV Integration

This is Vikunja's killer feature for Apple users. CalDAV support means your Vikunja tasks appear natively in Apple Reminders:

1. On your iPhone, go to Settings → Calendar → Accounts → Add Account → Other → CalDAV
2. Enter your Vikunja URL: https://tasks.example.com/dav
3. Enter your Vikunja username and password
4. Your lists appear in Reminders

This also works with Thunderbird, GNOME Calendar, and any other CalDAV-compatible client. Tasks sync bidirectionally — add a task in Apple Reminders, it appears in Vikunja, and vice versa.

Keyboard Shortcuts and Quick Add

Vikunja's web interface supports keyboard-driven workflows:

• Quick add: Type a task with natural language — "Buy groceries tomorrow at 5pm #shopping" creates a task with a due date and label
• Keyboard shortcuts: Navigate between projects and views without touching the mouse

The natural language parser understands:

• Dates: "tomorrow", "next monday", "jan 15"
• Times: "at 3pm", "at 14:00"
• Priorities: "!1" through "!5"
• Labels: "#label-name"
• Assignees: "@username"

Mobile Access

Vikunja doesn't have a dedicated mobile app, but it works well through several options:

• Progressive Web App — The web interface is responsive and can be installed as a PWA on iOS and Android
• CalDAV — Use your phone's native reminder app (Apple Reminders, Tasks.org on Android)
• Third-party apps — Apps like Tasks.org (Android) connect via CalDAV and provide a native experience

Automations and Webhooks

Vikunja supports webhooks that fire on task events (created, updated, completed, deleted). Connect it to:

• n8n — Trigger workflows when tasks change
• Ntfy — Send push notifications on task completion
• Home Assistant — Trigger smart home actions based on task status

Backup

SQLite makes backups trivial:

cp /path/to/vikunja/vikunja.db /backup/vikunja-$(date +%F).db

For PostgreSQL:

docker exec vikunja-db pg_dump -U vikunja vikunja > /backup/vikunja-$(date +%F).sql

Include the files/ directory in your backup to preserve task attachments.

Known Limitations

• No offline support — The web interface requires a connection. CalDAV clients do cache locally, though.
• No native mobile app — The PWA works, but it's not the same as a dedicated app.
• Smaller community — Fewer plugins and integrations compared to Todoist or Trello.
• No built-in time tracking — If you need Toggl-style time tracking, you'll need a separate tool.

The Bottom Line

Vikunja hits a sweet spot: it's powerful enough for project management with Kanban boards and Gantt charts, but simple enough for a personal to-do list. The CalDAV support means you can use native apps on your phone while keeping the data on your server.

If you're paying for Todoist Pro just to get reminders, or you've hit Trello's free tier limitations, Vikunja gives you everything both tools offer — and it runs on a Raspberry Pi. The migration tools make switching painless, and once you're set up, it just works.