head to head · open source
onedev vs kanboard
onedev has 15,257 GitHub stars, 979 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped today. kanboard has 9,874 stars, 1,996 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. onedev leads on adoption by 55% (15,257 vs 9,874 stars). onedev is written in Java under MIT; kanboard is written in PHP under MIT. onedev has attracted 6% as many forks as stars, kanboard 20%. onedev was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (kanban, 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
| onedev | kanboard | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 15K | ★ 9.9K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | Java | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-20 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 979 | ⑂ 2.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick onedev if
- You weight community size — 15K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches Java
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick kanboard if
- You want the kanboard feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and kanboard fits your workflow better
About onedev
OneDev is a self hosted, MIT licensed development platform written in Java that unifies Git hosting, code review, issue tracking, Kanban boards, service desk, time tracking, packages, and CI/CD in one system, aimed at teams that run the whole development lifecycle on their own infrastructure.
read the full onedev overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is onedev or kanboard more popular?
onedev has 15,257 GitHub stars and kanboard has 9,874. onedev has the larger community by that measure.
Are onedev and kanboard free?
Both are open source. onedev is licensed under MIT and kanboard under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between onedev and kanboard?
onedev is written in Java and kanboard in PHP. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, onedev or kanboard?
Choose onedev if you want the larger community (15,257 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose kanboard if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.