head to head · open source
Kimai vs Kanri
Kimai has 5,129 GitHub stars, 878 forks, 350 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kanri has 2,080 stars, 178 forks, 140 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Kimai leads on adoption by 147% (5,129 vs 2,080 stars). Kimai is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; Kanri is written in Vue under GPL-3.0. Kimai has attracted 17% as many forks as stars, Kanri 9%. Kimai 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
| Kimai | Kanri | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 5.1K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | PHP | Vue |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 878 | ⑂ 178 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Kimai if
- You weight community size — 5.1K 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 Kanri if
- You want the Kanri feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Vue
- You evaluated both and Kanri fits your workflow better
About Kimai
Kimai 1 Open Source Time Tracker Kimai is a professional grade time tracking application, free and open source. It handles use cases of freelancers as well as companies with dozens or hundreds of users. Kimai was build to track your project times and ships with many advanced features, including but not limited to: JSON API, invoicing, data exports, multi timer and punch in punch out mode, tagging, multi user multi timezones multi language (over 30 translations existing!), authentication via SAML/LDAP/Database, two factor authentication (2FA) with TOTP, customizable role and team permissions, responsive design…
read the full Kimai overview →
About Kanri
Made with simplicity and user experience in mind, Kanri helps you create Kanban boards easily, right from your desktop. No internet connection or account needed. Demo Download Kanri is available for Windows, macOS and Linux (only supporting more recent versions of the respective operating systems). There are several ways to download Kanri: Recommended : Select the installer for your operating system on the official download page The same downloads can also be found under the GitHub releases For macOS, you can also use Homebrew: Note for Apple Silicon macOS users: Because Kanri is not signed (there is no funding…
read the full Kanri overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Kimai or Kanri more popular?
Kimai has 5,129 GitHub stars and Kanri has 2,080. Kimai has the larger community by that measure.
Are Kimai and Kanri free?
Both are open source. Kimai is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Kanri under GPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Kimai and Kanri?
Kimai is written in PHP and Kanri in Vue. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, Kimai or Kanri?
Choose Kimai if you want the larger community (5,129 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Kanri if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.