Mattermost Boards: Setup Guide and Feature Overview

Mattermost Boards is a lightweight project management plugin that brings kanban-style task tracking directly into your Mattermost workspace. Originally built as Focalboard, it is now distributed as an optional plugin and maintained in a stable maintenance mode, meaning it works reliably for current users but receives no new features.

What is Mattermost Boards?

Mattermost Boards descended from Focalboard, an open source project with 26.5K GitHub stars. Focalboard was designed as a self-hosted alternative to tools like Asana and Trello. When Mattermost integrated it into the platform, it evolved into Boards: a plugin that lets teams organize work inside their chat application without context-switching to external tools.

Boards lets you create multi-view project spaces with kanban cards, table layouts, calendar views, and gallery/roadmap displays. Each board can use built-in templates for sprint planning, project tasks, or OKR tracking. Cards support properties (assignee, priority, due date, custom fields), markdown descriptions, and channel integration so team members get notified of changes without leaving Mattermost.

The core appeal is integration: your standup happens in Mattermost, your sprint planning happens in Mattermost, and your task board lives in the same application. No toggling between tabs. No duplicate notifications. No fragmented history.

Boards has always been a plugin, separate from core Mattermost. This separation matters because Mattermost can evolve independently, and teams can choose whether to enable Boards at all.

Is Mattermost Boards Still Actively Supported?

Yes, Boards is stable and supported. No, it is not actively developed. Mattermost officially maintains Boards in maintenance mode, which means:

Existing features work reliably. The plugin receives bug fixes and security patches. No new features are planned. The codebase is essentially frozen as of 2024.

This happened because Mattermost shifted focus to core collaboration features. Boards became optional. On newer Mattermost versions, Boards is available only on Entry and Enterprise tiers, not Professional. This is a hard paywall: if you want Boards, you upgrade your plan or stick with an older Mattermost version.

For teams already using Boards, this stability is fine. For teams evaluating it now, maintenance mode should factor into your decision. You will not get a redesigned UI, new integrations, or AI-powered features. You get a working tool that does not break.

The parent Focalboard project on GitHub carries a warning: the repository is unmaintained. If you were considering standalone Focalboard as a fallback, that door is largely closed. Mattermost Boards plugin is your only path forward for active support.

How Do You Enable Boards on a Self-Hosted Server?

Enabling Boards on a self-hosted Mattermost instance involves four steps: verify your plan, download the plugin, enable it in System Console, and grant user access. Here is the process:

1. Check Your Mattermost Version and Plan

Boards runs on Mattermost Server 5.35+. If you are on an older version, upgrade first. Verify your plan tier: Entry and Enterprise support Boards. Professional does not. Check System Console > About > Edition to see which tier you are running.

2. Download the Boards Plugin

Go to the Mattermost plugin marketplace or GitHub releases for mattermost-plugin-boards. Download the latest release (.tar.gz file). Place it in the Mattermost server's plugin directory: <mattermost-install>/plugins/.

Alternatively, use the web upload: System Console > Plugins > Management > Upload Plugin, then select the.tar.gz file.

3. Enable and Configure in System Console

Navigate to System Console > Plugins > Boards (or search for "Boards"). Toggle the plugin to enabled. Check settings like board creation permissions, database details, and data retention.

If you are upgrading from Focalboard, you may need to migrate your boards data. Mattermost provides scripts for this, but it is manual and requires database access. Plan for downtime.

4. Grant User Permissions

Boards respects Mattermost roles. Channel members can view and edit boards based on channel permissions. Set role-based access in Channel Management or team settings. Users do not need additional licenses to use Boards; they just need access to the channel where a board is created.

Once enabled, Boards appears as a tab in any channel. Clicking "Create Board" gives users a blank board or a template to start from.

What Templates and Features Are Available?

Boards ships with three built-in templates and a blank option. Each is optimized for a specific workflow:

Sprint Planner: Organize work into sprints. Columns represent sprint phases (Backlog, This Sprint, In Progress, Review, Done). Properties default to story points, assignee, and priority. Use this for agile teams running fixed-length sprints.

Project Tasks: Simple task tracking. Default columns are To Do, In Progress, and Done. Good for smaller projects or non-sprint workflows. Lighter weight than Sprint Planner.

OKRs: Objectives and Key Results tracking. Organize initiatives and outcomes. Suited for goal-setting and quarterly planning.

Blank Board: Start from scratch with no columns or properties. You define the structure.

Once you pick a template, you customize views and properties. Mattermost Boards supports four view types:

Kanban View: Cards in columns. Standard workflow visualization. Drag cards between columns to update status.

Table View: Spreadsheet-like grid. All properties visible at once. Good for bulk editing and data entry.

Calendar View: Cards displayed by due date. See your workload across weeks or months. Useful for deadline-heavy projects.

Gallery View: Card preview tiles with cover images. More visual and less dense than kanban or table.

Each board can have multiple views simultaneously. A sprint planner might use kanban as the main view and table for reporting. Users switch views without switching boards.

Properties are customizable. Add custom fields (text, number, select, multiselect, date, checkbox, user, URL). Filter and sort by any property. Search across boards.

How Do You Use Boards Daily?

Day-to-day usage is straightforward for both team members and managers. Here is the typical workflow:

Creating Cards: Click a column (kanban view) or the "New" button to add a card. Enter a title and description. Markdown is supported, so you can include links, code blocks, and formatted text.

Setting Properties: Assign the card to a team member, set priority, add a due date, and add custom fields. All visible in the card details panel.

Linking to Channels: Associate a card with a Mattermost channel so that updates to the card trigger notifications in that channel. Useful for keeping related discussion in sync.

Moving Cards: Drag between columns to update status. Status updates do not notify the assignee automatically, so check in via message if the change is urgent.

Filtering and Sorting: Use the filter pane to show only cards assigned to you, or cards due this week, or cards with high priority. Save filters as quick views.

Sharing Boards: Boards inherit channel permissions. If you want a board visible to a broader audience, create it in a public channel or grant read access explicitly.

Board Templates: After you build one board structure, save it as a team template. Other team members can create new boards from that template instead of reinventing the structure.

What Are Alternatives to Boards for Kanban-Style Work?

If Boards does not fit your needs, several alternatives exist. Some live inside Mattermost; others are external tools with integrations.

Inside Mattermost: Mattermost Plugins marketplace includes task management plugins like Jira for Mattermost (read-only integration) and other third-party options. These typically sync with external tools rather than storing data in Mattermost.

Jira: Full-featured issue tracking with advanced workflows, reporting, automation, and integrations. Pricing starts at $7/user/month for Jira Cloud (pay-as-you-go) or $1,200/year for Server (self-hosted, older model). Jira integrates with Mattermost via slash commands and notifications but is not embedded.

Asana: Visual project management with timeline, kanban, and list views. Starts at $13.49/user/month (Premium). Strong integrations ecosystem. More polished UI than Boards, more overhead to manage.

Trello: Lightweight kanban boards. Free tier available; paid tiers at $5-$17.50/user/month. Very simple compared to Boards. Limited custom fields and automation.

OpenProject: Open source project management. Self-hosted or cloud. Supports kanban, gantt, agile, and waterfall workflows. Roadmap and resource management built in. Free for small teams; paid cloud plans start at 8 EUR/user/month.

Standalone Focalboard: The parent project that inspired Mattermost Boards. However, the Focalboard GitHub repository is no longer maintained. Not recommended for new deployments unless you plan to fork and self-maintain.

Each has different trade-offs. Jira excels at complex workflows and automation. Asana is polished but pricey. Trello is simple but limited. OpenProject offers open source self-hosting. Boards loses to all of them on features but wins on integration and context.

Boards vs External Tools: When Each Makes Sense

The choice between Boards and an external tool depends on your team size, workflow complexity, and whether you want work visible inside or outside Mattermost.

Use Boards if: Your team is small to medium (under 50 people). You want tasks visible alongside your chat history. You do not need advanced reporting or automation. You already pay for Mattermost and want to avoid tool sprawl. You value simplicity over feature depth.

Boards keeps everything in one place. A team lead can post a message, create a task from it, assign it, and track progress without opening another application. This is powerful for fast-moving teams.

Use an external tool if: Your workflow is complex (multiple approval stages, conditional logic, custom automations). You need advanced reporting, time tracking, or resource allocation. You have many teams using different tools that need to interoperate (Jira for engineering, Asana for marketing, spreadsheets for finance). You want a tool your entire organization can standardize on across departments.

External tools are stronger when your process is sophisticated or when you need to coordinate across teams that are not all in Mattermost. They are also stronger when you want the task board visible to non-chat users (executives viewing progress, clients accessing a shared board, etc.).

Hybrid approach: Use Boards for lightweight sprint planning inside product teams, and Jira or Asana for cross-functional projects or long-term roadmaps. Sync critical items via integrations so leadership sees progress in their preferred tool.

Scaling Boards: Self-Hosted vs Managed Hosting

Once you decide to adopt Boards, the next question is infrastructure: do you self-host Mattermost yourself, or use managed hosting like Opsily?

Self-Hosted Mattermost + Boards: You control the server, data, and plugin versions. You can customize anything. You own the operational burden.

Running Mattermost yourself means managing database upgrades, plugin compatibility, backups, security patches, and scaling. If Boards hits performance issues (slow card loads, database locks), you debug and fix it. This is feasible for small teams but becomes time-consuming as your user base grows.

Boards adds database tables and indexing requirements. On large instances (thousands of cards, hundreds of boards), queries can slow down if your database is not optimized. Self-hosted teams must monitor this.

Managed Hosting with Opsily: Opsily hosts Mattermost for you and handles plugin management, database optimization, and backups. You deploy, enable Boards, and it works.

Managed hosting abstracts away infrastructure concerns. You do not wake up at 3am because Boards queries locked the database. You do not spend Friday afternoon debugging a plugin update. Your team focuses on work, not ops.

For Boards specifically, managed hosting is valuable because Boards database queries can degrade performance if not tuned. A managed provider optimizes your database and monitors resource usage so Boards stays fast as you scale.

If your team is under 10 people and Mattermost is a side responsibility, self-hosted is reasonable. If Mattermost is core to your operations and you want Boards reliable at scale, managed hosting removes a category of risk.

Start by evaluating Opsily's managed Mattermost hosting to see how it compares to your current setup. Then decide if the operational relief is worth it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Mattermost Boards free?

Boards is included with Mattermost Entry and Enterprise plans. Professional tier does not include it. On self-hosted, Boards is free to deploy if you already have a Mattermost instance, but you need an Entry or Enterprise license to use it.

Can I migrate data from Asana or Jira to Mattermost Boards?

No direct migration exists. You would need to manually recreate boards, properties, and cards or build a custom import script. Boards does not have a built-in importer for external tools. This is a limitation if you are switching from Asana or Jira.

Does Mattermost Boards work on mobile?

Boards is available on Mattermost mobile apps (iOS and Android). Functionality is limited compared to web: you can view cards and mark them done, but board creation and property editing are desktop-only. Mobile is useful for quick updates, not full board management.

What database does Boards use?

Boards uses the same database as Mattermost (PostgreSQL or MySQL). It does not create a separate database. This means backups and disaster recovery use your existing Mattermost strategy.

Can I use Boards across multiple Mattermost workspaces?

No. Boards are scoped to a single Mattermost instance and the channels within it. You cannot share a board between two Mattermost servers.

Does Boards support automation or webhooks?

Boards does not have a native automation engine like Zapier or Airtable. You can use Mattermost webhooks to create cards from external events, but there is no "if card status changes, send email" type of automation built in. This is a gap compared to Jira or Asana.

How do I back up my Boards data?

Boards data lives in your Mattermost database. Back up Mattermost, and you back up Boards. Use your database backup tool (pg_dump for PostgreSQL, mysqldump for MySQL). Test restores regularly.

Can I use Boards without the Mattermost chat app?

No. Boards only exists inside a Mattermost instance. If you only want a kanban board tool without chat, use Trello, Asana, or OpenProject instead.

The Bottom Line

Mattermost Boards is a stable, lightweight project management tool for teams that already use Mattermost and want to minimize context switching. It works reliably but is in maintenance mode: no new features are coming, and it is available only on higher-tier plans.

For small, fast-moving teams, Boards is a win. For teams with complex workflows or multi-department coordination needs, external tools like Jira or Asana are stronger. The real value of Boards is keeping work conversations and task tracking in one place, which saves time and reduces notification fatigue.

If you decide to use Boards, your next step is picking a hosting model. Explore Opsily's managed Mattermost hosting to see how managed infrastructure can let your team focus on work instead of database maintenance.