head to head · open source
Planka vs Kaneo
Planka has 12,567 GitHub stars, 1,378 forks, 425 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Kaneo has 9,134 stars, 800 forks, 70 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Planka leads on adoption by 38% (12,567 vs 9,134 stars). Planka is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Kaneo is written in TypeScript under MIT. Planka has attracted 11% 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
| Planka | Kaneo | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 13K | ★ 9.1K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-19 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 800 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Planka if
- You weight community size — 13K stars and counting
- You want the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- 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 Planka
Planka is a self hosted Kanban board for project and task management. It lives in the open source project and work management ecosystem, with JavaScript as its implementation language, and it positions itself as an open alternative to Trello and Monday.com. The project provides a free Community edition for self hosting, while PLANKA Pro adds organization features and developer support.
read the full Planka 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 Planka or Kaneo more popular?
Planka has 12,567 GitHub stars and Kaneo has 9,134. Planka has the larger community by that measure.
Are Planka and Kaneo free?
Both are open source. Planka has no licence declared in this registry, and Kaneo is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Planka and Kaneo?
Planka is written in JavaScript 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, Planka or Kaneo?
Choose Planka if you want the larger community (12,567 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Kaneo if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.