Productboard is $20/maker/mo (Essentials). Spur is a self-hosted alternative at $0.99/mo. Here's when each makes sense.
| Spur | Productboard | |
|---|---|---|
| Hosting | Self-hosted, your infra | Managed SaaS (cloud only) |
| Data location | Your server, your disk | Productboard's cloud |
| Free tier | 10 entries | Paid only |
| Pro pricing | $0.99/mo | $20/maker/mo (Essentials) |
| Dependencies | None (single binary + SQLite) | N/A (managed) |
| Setup time | ~30 seconds | Account signup |
| Dashboard | Built-in at /ui | Cloud dashboard |
| License | BSL 1.1 | Proprietary SaaS |
Spur is a single Go binary with embedded SQLite. Install it with one command, and you are running in under a minute. Your data stays on your server.
curl -fsSL https://stockyard.dev/spur/install.sh | sh
Productboard is a strong product. There is no point pretending otherwise. Where Spur earns its place is in situations where Productboard cannot be used — airgapped environments, regulated industries, teams with strict data sovereignty requirements, or simply developers who prefer tools they can inspect end to end. If none of those constraints apply, Productboard may genuinely be the better choice.
The operational difference is significant. Productboard requires you to trust their infrastructure, their security practices, and their business continuity. Spur requires you to run a process and keep the data directory backed up. If your server dies, restore the binary and the SQLite file to a new server. The entire recovery procedure fits in a single paragraph because there is nothing else involved.
Moving from Productboard does not have to be all-or-nothing. Some teams run Spur for new data while keeping Productboard as a read-only archive of historical records. The API makes it straightforward to build a sync script if you need both systems to reflect the same data during a transition period.
Single binary. Free to start. $0.99/mo for Pro.