Hi everyone, Hudy here!
Today, I'm excited to share my open-source project manager with you all. I built this from the ground up with the goal of keeping operational costs under $15 per month.
Before I deciding to build it, I tried Trello, Jira and Clickup. All of them are fantastic tools, but the cost was a major barrier for us. As a small team of 7 - 10 members at a Vietnamese startup, we simply didn't have the budget for these paid platforms.
You might be wondering why we didn't just use the free tier. Here's the thing: I believed I could build a project manager that offered the specified features we needed, like Reports, Exporting capabilities, Boards, Calendars and more.
Additionally, I had a significant amount of free time at that point, which made it a good opportunity to take on this project.
I open-source this app on github: https://github.com/hudy9x/namviek or you can check out the website namviek.com
Who is this for ?
This project is a great fit for people with developer skills who are running a small team on a limited budget, similar to me.
It might seen daunting at first, but see the cost report below. I was able to significantly reduce the operational cost from $49 per month ($7 x 7 member) to less than $10 per month.
How did I keep the cost low ?
I leveraged a variety of free platforms to minimize operational costs. Here's a breakdown:
- Vercel: for the frontend (Free)
- Aws Lightsail: for the backend (Paid)
- Aws S3: for file storage (Paid)
- Resend: sending email (Free)
- Cloudflare: to manage my domain (Free)
- Github Action: CD automation (Free)
My Tech Stack
To ensure fast building and deployment, I opted for Next.js on the frontend as it seamlessly integrates with Vercel. For the backend, I currently use Node.js, but I have plans to migrate some funtionalities to Golang in the comming future.
What features are packed in ?
As mentioned before, this app includes some essential features for a small team such as:
List view
See it all at once. Prioritize and manage your tasks in a simple list.
Board view
Visualize your workflow. Move tasks between stages for clear progress tracking.
Goal view
Stay on target. See your progress at a glance and celebrate milestones.
Calendar view
Plan your days. Never miss a deadline with tasks scheduled on your calendar.
Custom view
Work your way. Design the perfect view to fit your specific needs.
How to use it.
Check out the setup guide. If you encounter any errors during the setup process, you can refer to the full guide here.
Maybe you prefer a step by step video guide? Check out this video below:
Contribute your features or bug fixes
This app is still under development, and I welcome your contributions to improve it! Feel free to submit feature requests and bug fixes.
Want to suggest a better solution or a code base refactoring? Just create a pull request and I'd be happy to discuss it.
Conclusion
Finally, I hope this open-source helps you and your team reduce operational costs while offering the opportunity to learn new skills by fixing bugs and building features. It will always be free to use.
See you in the next open-source app :D
Top comments (74)
This is cool. Will look this up next year with my students. Do you have a open repo for this project?
yes, i have github.com/hudy9x/namviek
Cool thx!
Hello, after running the backend and frontend, when I go to the login screen and enter my account and password like the clip, I get this error, I don't know what the error is.
I see you're using Windows, so please run these following command before starting the app:
1/ generate schema
2/ push schema to the mongodb database
3/ create a user
P/S: if you run these command already, but still got the error. Please run the 1/ command again. And go to MongoDB Atlas to check whether admin user has created or not.
Thank you for your reply, there is already a user on mongoDB but I don't understand why I still get the above login error, please help me.
Please double check the connection string.
The error shown above tell you that: " Error creating a database connection. " That means your MONGODB_URL might be incorrect.
Open up the .env file and go to Mongodb Atlas > Connect to view your domain.
Hello, I tried to do exactly the same as yours and my mod is also the same, it has already added the user so it will be the right link, right, but I still get this error. Please check
Please replace your username and password and try the following connection:
I removed the appName search param
mongodb+srv://demoHuyTran:PV9kFXHfZEGmKhPL@cluster0.mns2bti..../demodb?retryWrites=true&w=majority
This is my url, it's the same as yours and it still has the same error as above, hope you have a solution
after replacing the connection string, you should re-run this command again:
then restart the backend and try again.
Hi, please try to check. I can record a clip if you have free time. Please check this error for me. Thank you
drive.google.com/file/d/1xzPlgkgbu...
It's wierd :))
Your connection string works well for me bro
I just replace yours to mine and re-generate the schema.
So, please join my discord server I want to see all of your settings
Please let me go to the disco
Please let me go to the disco
Please give me the discord link
discord.gg/9BG8zmbt
P.S. not to be the paranoid person but please don't share connection string on comments 🙏🏽, their might be invisible 🎩 blackhats harvesting it, having an access. They will like to have access to your growth 🥶
You can reduce more on costs by utilizing Cloudflare more by using R2 for storage and Cloudflare workers for the backend with Hono
Thanks for your suggestion. I will add R2 support into the app.
Great work
Thank you for open-sourcing this incredible project. Your dedication and generosity are truly inspiring. Keep up the fantastic work 🚀
good job, bro. I also have a small team, we're using GitHub project to manage the tasks, i think it doesn't have Goal View and Calendar View, therefore your product is very nice.
Thanks for your comment. As a team leader, do you think the app should integrate Github to sync PR or issues ? I'd love to here from you.
Hey! So basically this is an open source host-yourself productivity app for teams?
Yes, It is bro.
Hey! I use Product Hunt, and X (Twitter) reach me out if you decide to create a product launch.
You may also be interested to add it to platforms such as PikaPods, Railway and elestio
Hello, to all my people who love FOSS software.. can you just help me with this react.js app? Whatever you do just make it better.. lets see where it ends...
Github URL
The first thing you should do is that update the README file bro.
Something like:
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The screenshots look very similar to Linear. Were you guys inspired by it?
No, it inspired by a design on dribble. And a lot of features are from Clickup and Trello
How can I get the frontend source code of the platform? (namviek.com/)
just visit my repo, you'll see frontend code in
packages/ui-appI mean the landing page of the website (namviek.com) not the application itself.
github.com/hudy9x/namviek-landingpage
Is the website open-source? I'd be happy to make it responsive.
I appreciate that, the repo here bro: github.com/hudy9x/namviek
This is for the application. I wanted the repo for the website.
Here it is: github.com/hudy9x/namviek-landingpage
This looks promising. Any chance that you'll include Appwrite (appwrite.io) support in the future?
No, I want to control the cloud, not using an All in one platform.
Maybe another FOSS
Appwrite is FOSS...
Awesome work. Love the clean look... Any plans to make a Docker version?
I do have a docker version. But it's under development. The major issue is the image too big (>2gb) :(
Great job on building a free, open-source project manager to help teams keep costs under $15/month! When working on such projects, it's important to be aware of the common reasons for project failure , such as poor resource allocation and inadequate planning. Understanding these factors can help you improve your project's success rate and efficiency. Additionally, the insights from the Epicflow blog can provide valuable strategies to mitigate these risks. Keep up the good work!