Best Open-Source Kanban Boards 2026: 6 Options Compared
Best open-source Kanban Boards compared: WeKan, Kanboard, Vikunja, Plane and 2 more, with licenses, platforms and prices from official pages checked October 24, 2026.
•3 min read•Project & Task Management
Quick comparison
| Tool | Price | Platforms | Best for | Tested |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| WeKan | Free (MIT-licensed Kanban app you host yourself) | Web, Self-hosted | Trello refugees | Docs only |
| Kanboard | Free (Free self-hosted Kanban) | Web, Self-hosted | Small teams on basic hosting | Docs only |
| Vikunja | Free (Self-host free forever); paid from EUR 4 per month, Vikunja Cloud Personal (Organization EUR 5 per user/month) | Web, Self-hosted | Personal and family tasks | Docs only |
| Plane | Free (up to 12 users with basic roles and views); paid from $6 per user/month, billed annually ($8 billed monthly, Pro) | Web, Self-hosted | Software teams leaving Jira | Docs only |
| Taiga | Free (Free and open source; you host it yourself) | Web, Self-hosted | Agile teams wanting Scrum plus Kanban | Docs only |
| OpenProject | Free (Community edition with no minimum users and community-only support); paid from EUR 5.95 per user/month, 25-user minimum (Basic) | Web, Self-hosted | Teams needing timelines | Docs only |
Independent comparison. Paid placements are labelled separately; editorial links earn no affiliate commissions. Learn more.
Good fit if
- You want a Trello clone on a small VPS (WeKan is the pick)
- You run a software team and need sprints and issues (Plane is the pick)
- You have a shared hosting plan and want the lightest install (Kanboard is the pick)
- You also need Gantt charts and time tracking (OpenProject is the pick)
Not ideal if
- You cannot host, patch and back up a server yourself and want a vendor to run it
A Kanban board is columns and cards, and open-source versions range from bare-bones to full project suites. Wekan and Kanboard stay close to the pure board idea: Wekan is a Trello-style board app under MIT, Kanboard is a minimalist PHP tool that installs on almost any server and is also MIT. Vikunja pairs boards with lists and calendars for personal tasks. Plane and Taiga add sprints, issue tracking and roadmaps, which suits software teams and costs more setup time. OpenProject adds Gantt charts, time tracking and work packages, and is the heaviest here. If you are replacing Trello for a small team, start with Wekan or Kanboard because the learning curve is minutes. If you are tracking software bugs and releases, Plane or Taiga fits better. A trade-off to know up front: the lighter tools lack automation and polished mobile apps, so you may feel the gap after the first month. Hosting is cheap, but backups and updates are yours, and each project also sells a hosted or supported plan with its own limits. Licences and free-plan limits below come from the projects' pages as of the check date, and the tools were not installed for this comparison.
WeKan
MIT-licensed Trello-style Kanban app you host yourself. A hosted option is mentioned on GitHub without a price, so confirm before relying on it.
Price: Free (MIT-licensed Kanban app you host yourself) (WeKan pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. MIT (open source) (license source).
Project activity: 21.1k GitHub stars · latest release v12.65 (Oct 25, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Trello refugees.
Kanboard
MIT-licensed minimalist Kanban in PHP, free to self-host and light on resources. Few frills and no built-in sprints or roadmaps.
Price: Free (Free self-hosted Kanban) (Kanboard pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. MIT (open source) (license source).
Project activity: 9.9k GitHub stars · latest release v1.2.56 (Oct 21, 2026) · last commit Oct 24, 2026
Best for: Small teams on basic hosting.
Vikunja
AGPL-3.0 task app with kanban views next to lists and calendars, free to self-host forever. Better for personal and small-group tasks than for big projects.
Price: Free (Self-host free forever); paid from EUR 4 per month, Vikunja Cloud Personal (Organization EUR 5 per user/month) (Vikunja pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. AGPL-3.0 (open source) (license source).
Project activity: 5.9k GitHub stars · latest release v2.7.1 (Oct 20, 2026) · last commit Oct 28, 2026
Best for: Personal and family tasks.
Plane
AGPL-3.0 issue and project tracker with a board view. The hosted free plan lists up to 12 users; self-hosting removes that cap.
Price: Free (up to 12 users with basic roles and views); paid from $6 per user/month, billed annually ($8 billed monthly, Pro) (Plane pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. AGPL-3.0 (open source) (license source).
Project activity: 61.6k GitHub stars · latest release v1.4.2 (Aug 23, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Software teams leaving Jira.
Worth knowing: SSO (SAML, OIDC), wiki, time tracking and intake forms are paid features.
Taiga
Back end under MPL-2.0 and front end under AGPL-3.0, with Kanban and sprint views for agile teams. Hosted plans were not checked.
Price: Free (Free and open source; you host it yourself) (Taiga pricing, checked 2026-10-24).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. MPL-2.0 (back end); AGPL-3.0 (front end) (open source) (license source).
Project activity: 858 GitHub stars · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Agile teams wanting Scrum plus Kanban.
OpenProject
GPL-3.0 community edition, no minimum users and community-only support. Adds Gantt-style planning, so it is heavier than a board.
Price: Free (Community edition with no minimum users and community-only support); paid from EUR 5.95 per user/month, 25-user minimum (Basic) (OpenProject pricing, checked 2026-10-22).
Platforms and license: Web, Self-hosted. GPL-3.0 (open source) (license source).
Project activity: 16.7k GitHub stars · latest release v17.9.4 (Oct 26, 2026) · last commit Oct 27, 2026
Best for: Teams needing timelines.
Which one to pick
- You want a Trello clone on a small VPS: WeKan
- You run a software team and need sprints and issues: Plane
- You have a shared hosting plan and want the lightest install: Kanboard
- You also need Gantt charts and time tracking: OpenProject
Limits of this review
Docs-only for WeKan, Kanboard, Vikunja, Plane, Taiga, OpenProject: we did not install or run them, so feature claims come from vendor pages. Vendor prices and free limits change; confirm on the linked pricing page before you commit.
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Kevin Fan
Kevin Fan is a SaaS founder. He runs Free Instead Of, which tracks free and open-source alternatives to paid software and checks each price and free-plan limit against the vendor's own pages.
Methodology
Based on official pricing, license and product pages checked between 2026-10-22 and 2026-10-24: WeKan, Kanboard, Vikunja, Plane, Taiga, OpenProject. Prices, free limits and licenses are the figures shown on those pages on those dates. No tool on this page was installed or run. No accounts were created.