head to head · open source
kanboard vs itsaplan
kanboard has 9,938 GitHub stars, 2,015 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. itsaplan has 2,139 stars, 277 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kanboard leads on adoption by 365% (9,938 vs 2,139 stars). kanboard is written in PHP under MIT; itsaplan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. kanboard has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, itsaplan 13%. itsaplan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (agile, kanban), so they are genuine substitutes rather than adjacent tools.
Two open source projects, one decision. Both are free and self-hostable — the differences are community size, license terms, language stack and release pace.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| kanboard | itsaplan | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.9K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 277 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kanboard if
- You weight community size — 9.9K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick itsaplan if
- You want the itsaplan feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and itsaplan fits your workflow better
About kanboard
Kanboard ======== Kanboard is project management software that focuses on the Kanban methodology. This application is in maintenance mode . What does it mean? Citing Wikipedia: In the world of software development, maintenance mode refers to a point in a computer program's life when it has reached all of its goals and is generally considered to be "complete" and bug free. The term can also refer to the point in a software product's evolution when it is no longer competitive with other products or current with regard to the technology environment it operates within. The author of this application is not actively…
read the full kanboard overview →
About itsaplan
Open source alternative to Linear, Jira, Trello, and Plane, with AI agents built in Self hosted project management and issue tracking. The difference: AI agents work here like any teammate — and everything is available over the REST API, webhooks, and MCP. If It's a Plan looks useful to you, star the repo ⭐ — it helps other people find it. Website · Discussions · Contributing · Security · Leave a review About It's a Plan is a full issue tracker on its own: projects, boards, cycles, custom fields, and dashboards. Use it that way and never turn on a single agent. The difference: AI agents work here like any…
read the full itsaplan overview →
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More Project & Work Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Project & Work Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is kanboard or itsaplan more popular?
kanboard has 9,938 GitHub stars and itsaplan has 2,139. kanboard has the larger community by that measure.
Are kanboard and itsaplan free?
Both are open source. kanboard is licensed under MIT and itsaplan under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kanboard and itsaplan?
kanboard is written in PHP and itsaplan in TypeScript. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, kanboard or itsaplan?
Choose kanboard if you want the larger community (9,938 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose itsaplan if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.