head to head · open source
Leantime vs freeplane
Leantime has 11,612 GitHub stars, 1,131 forks, 328 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. freeplane has 4,368 stars, 498 forks, 453 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Leantime leads on adoption by 166% (11,612 vs 4,368 stars). Leantime is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; freeplane is written in Java under GPL-2.0. Leantime has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, freeplane 11%. freeplane was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
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Side by side
| Leantime | freeplane | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 4.4K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-2.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Java |
| Last push | 2026-09-07 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 498 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Leantime if
- You weight community size — 12K stars and counting
- You want the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick freeplane if
- You want the freeplane feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You evaluated both and freeplane fits your workflow better
About Leantime
Leantime is an open source project management system in the Business Software / Project & Work Management category, written in PHP and licensed under AGPL 3.0. It is aimed at non project managers and combines strategy, planning, and execution in one place. The project describes itself as built with ADHD, autism, and dyslexia in mind.
read the full Leantime overview →
About freeplane
Freeplane is a free and open source desktop application for mind mapping, concept mapping and information mapping, written in Java with OSGi and Java Swing. It lives in the Java desktop ecosystem and is distributed under the GPL 2.0 license, with source hosted on GitHub and binary downloads published through SourceForge. The project has been under development for roughly 14 years and sits in the business software category of project and work management tools.
read the full freeplane overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Leantime or freeplane more popular?
Leantime has 11,612 GitHub stars and freeplane has 4,368. Leantime has the larger community by that measure.
Are Leantime and freeplane free?
Both are open source. Leantime is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and freeplane under GPL-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Leantime and freeplane?
Leantime is written in PHP and freeplane in Java. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Leantime or freeplane?
Choose Leantime if you want the larger community (11,612 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose freeplane if its feature set, stack or GPL-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.