head to head · open source
Leantime vs KaibanJS
Leantime has 11,612 GitHub stars, 1,131 forks, 328 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. KaibanJS has 1,479 stars, 158 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Leantime leads on adoption by 685% (11,612 vs 1,479 stars). Leantime is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; KaibanJS is written in TypeScript under MIT. Leantime has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, KaibanJS 11%. Leantime was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (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.
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Side by side
| Leantime | KaibanJS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-07 | 2026-05-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 158 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Leantime if
- You weight community size — 12K 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 KaibanJS if
- You want the KaibanJS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and KaibanJS fits your workflow better
About Leantime
Leantime is an open source project management system in the Business Software / Project & Work Management category, written in PHP and licensed under AGPL 3.0. It is aimed at non project managers and combines strategy, planning, and execution in one place. The project describes itself as built with ADHD, autism, and dyslexia in mind.
read the full Leantime overview →
About KaibanJS
KaibanJS is an MIT licensed, TypeScript written JavaScript native framework for building and managing multi agent systems with a Kanban inspired approach. It lives in the JavaScript ecosystem and provides a way to create, visualize, and coordinate AI agents, tasks, tools, and teams.
read the full KaibanJS overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Leantime or KaibanJS more popular?
Leantime has 11,612 GitHub stars and KaibanJS has 1,479. Leantime has the larger community by that measure.
Are Leantime and KaibanJS free?
Both are open source. Leantime is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and KaibanJS under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Leantime and KaibanJS?
Leantime is written in PHP and KaibanJS 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, Leantime or KaibanJS?
Choose Leantime if you want the larger community (11,612 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose KaibanJS if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.