head to head · open source
kanboard vs Kaneo
kanboard has 9,874 GitHub stars, 1,996 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Kaneo has 9,134 stars, 800 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kanboard leads on adoption by 8% (9,874 vs 9,134 stars). kanboard is written in PHP under MIT; Kaneo is written in TypeScript under MIT. kanboard has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, Kaneo 9%. Kaneo was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (kanban, project-management, self-hosted), 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.
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Side by side
| kanboard | Kaneo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.9K | ★ 9.1K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-11 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 800 |
| 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 Kaneo if
- You want the Kaneo feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Kaneo fits your workflow better
About kanboard
Kanboard is MIT licensed, self hosted Kanban project management software written in PHP, aimed at teams and individuals who want to run their own board based task tracking instead of renting a hosted service.
read the full kanboard overview →
About Kaneo
Kaneo is an open source project management tool for development teams, published under the MIT license and written in TypeScript. It describes itself as "all you need, nothing you don't," and its README frames the design goal around restraint: the project's authors argue that the problem with most project management platforms is not a lack of features but an excess of them, where notifications, unnecessary buttons and complex workflows pull teams away from building products. Kaneo belongs to the self hosted project and work management ecosystem, and its topic list places it explicitly alongside issue trackers and…
read the full Kaneo overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kanboard or Kaneo more popular?
kanboard has 9,874 GitHub stars and Kaneo has 9,134. kanboard has the larger community by that measure.
Are kanboard and Kaneo free?
Both are open source. kanboard is licensed under MIT and Kaneo under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kanboard and Kaneo?
kanboard is written in PHP and Kaneo 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 Kaneo?
Choose kanboard if you want the larger community (9,874 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Kaneo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.