Show HN: A dead-simple Trello-like TODO manager | Hacker News Reader

Show HN: A dead-simple Trello-like TODO manager

todox.app

106 pointsyanis_t39 comments

> Currently the project is in beta so it's free. But we are planning to take payments ($1 per month, $10 per year). This will be more than enough to cover all the expenses (hosting, domains, etc).

More likely is that it will stay around for a few months / maybe a year and then die off because it's not worth the time to maintain. Not trying to be negative, but it's what I have seen from similar projects.

Maybe, maybe not.

As a random counterexample, take Carrd.co, as recently featured on the Indie Hackers podcast: simple web page generator, with a free plan and a $9/year plan, currently making more than $30k/month.

https://www.indiehackers.com/podcast/087-aj-of-carrd

The current wisdom is to start charging immediately, and charge more. Otherwise you'll end up abandoning it once it stops being fun.

How does that happen? It's generating income with no dev and minor devops. If it came to need to scale, that would again be interesting.

There is probably some form of constant maintenance, email requests, updating things and so on. It is -really- easy to lose motivation when you get a few dollars here and there.

Why not make it a stand-alone app and charge right away?

There is also Wekan https://wekan.github.io - Node+MongoDB, www.meteor.com web framework - Open Source, MIT license - Import from Trello - Import/Export Wekan JSON that has includes attachments as base64 encoded - But: No CSV Import/Export, and not full keyboard navigation yet.

Install: Snap: https://github.com/wekan/wekan-snap/wiki/Install Docker: https://github.com/wekan/wekan/blob/devel/docker-compose.yml Sandstorm: https://sandstorm.io https://sandstorm.io/install

I have been maintaining Wekan since 2016-12. Anyway, it's still hard to predict to the future, how long each kanban software will be around. I think Open Source code has better chance on that.

> I think Open Source code has better chance on that.

I agree and have used GitLab's kanban issue board for some time now.

- Free and "open core" - Mobile friendly - Hosted for no charge - Tags

I also tried Kanboard and really enjoyed it.

- PHP, HTML, CSS -- all customizable - Ultra lightweight. Takes virtually no resources. - Works on mobile.

I would love to use such a tool if it was a cloud-free local app backed with an open-format file.

I prefer Kanbanier (http://kanbanier.com) to web based alternatives because it is simpler and 100% local (unless you optionally sync across devices with icloud).

The file format is .kanbanier.

There is a free version and an optional upgrade.

Looks cool but seemingly iOS-only. I need Linux desktop (and would also find an Android version handy). It's also isn't clear if it supports custom columns or can only do classic 3-column Kanban.

It does support custom columns - seems possible to add columns indefinitely and rename them.

I agree with you, it would be great if it was truly cross-platform (ie. also available for Android, Linux, etc).

Not clear if developer(s) are still working on it.

This looks absolutely fantastic, what’s the catch?

Do you know of any other apps that use this App Store + native iOS and macOS client model by the way? I’ve never seen this done properly before (i.e. no electron, cross platform UI)

> "...what’s the catch?"

I'm still looking for a catch. I will say it's not clear if the developer(s) are still focused on this, unfortunately. I hope they continue to develop it and attract more users. Also, I'm not sure if the .kanbanier file type is convenient if you want to export data.

> "Do you know of any other apps that use this App Store + native iOS and macOS client model by the way? I’ve never seen this done properly before (i.e. no electron, cross platform UI)"

I like this model too. The native BOOKS application for Mac OS X and iPad equivalent seems similar. It syncs well with icloud in my experience.

https://tiddlywiki.com/

Well trello covers your second point (see .json suffix)

This is fantastic. It utilizes exactly the right elements for me to replace Trello. You’ve got yourself a new user and customer.

My only feature requests would be, - the ability to quickly add a time estimate on tasks. That way if I get an email with daily todos i can get a total estimated time

- ability to get the todo list of tomorrow in my inbox the night before, so I can mentally prepare for the next day.

I would easily pay 5x that $1/mo if those features were added.

Could you just put the time estimate in the title of the task?

For such a simple project, there is going to be strong urge (from both internal and external sources) to go down the path of feature creep.

First an hour estimate, then uploading photos, then descriptions... pretty soon you've got a half-baked Trello and user attrition because you're not as good as Trello... or Airtable.

Keep it as simple as possible for as long as possible OP.

This is very nice, but why would I choose it over Trello?

And at $5 a month, has way more features

I use Trello a lot. The free version is fine for me. The only non-free feature I want would be to set the background image to a custom one. But no way in hell will I pay a subscription fee for that * . I wish I could just pay a one off fee for that one feature

*I live with almost no income, but almost no expenses either. So I only need to work when my money is getting low, and otherwise can just do what I want. A constant subscription type expense that constantly drains my money is something I avoid. eg I have a 'pay as you go' mobile phone contract.

This sounds like something the Stylish browser addon could do for you easily.

Lol, yep, I was about to recommend stylebot

Thanks for the suggestion I'll give it a go!

Sign-up driven development hits again.

What do you mean by 'Sign-up driven development'?

The creator will stop working on it if there are no sign ups. Basically, if you move to it now you're taking a big risk that the whole thing will just be shuttered because it's generally more likely than not that no one will sign up.

Start charging today. Charge $10 per month and $100 per year. If this sounds crazy to you, check out the Indie Hackers podcast for loads of stories of this working.

Cool, great if you could slow down the animation so we can understand what each action means. (It's hard to see this from your side as you've seen this perhaps hundreds of times)

Supreme (https://www.supreme.li) is another alternative on this same philosophy. Disclosure: I made it.

link doesnt work for me. https://cl.ly/bd74bbbc194a/Image%2525202019-05-31%252520at%2...

IS there a TODO app with google spreadsheet as backend?

I love Kanban boards. I would happily use a real one if my team were not remote. I'm using the MS tasks one that comes with 365 at the moment.

I've found that a pull-based system like Kanban works really well for remote teams due to the coordination overhead they bring. Scrum, not so much...

Many big A Agile process depend on reducing communication overhead by collocation of people.

For remote teams I have used Podio. Really good for my team over past 5 years.

I just launched https://www.kanrails.com, a kanban workflow management tool. Please do check it out and provide feedback!!

I don't see anything to provide feedback on - no screenshots, no features lists. Just some generic marketing blurbs and a sign-up form.

Apologies, still working on putting in feature lists. That's a feedback in itself! But yes, you're right.

You can actually sign up and start using KanRails via "Get Started" / "Sign Up"

Reply on news.ycombinator.com