head to head · open source
Planka vs Leantime
Planka has 12,567 GitHub stars, 1,378 forks, 425 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Leantime has 11,612 stars, 1,131 forks, 328 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. Planka leads on adoption by 8% (12,567 vs 11,612 stars). Planka is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence; Leantime is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. Planka has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Leantime 10%. Planka 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
| Planka | Leantime | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 13K | ★ 12K |
| License | Custom / other | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 Leantime if
- You want the Leantime feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Leantime 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 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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Planka or Leantime more popular?
Planka has 12,567 GitHub stars and Leantime has 11,612. Planka has the larger community by that measure.
Are Planka and Leantime free?
Both are open source. Planka has no licence declared in this registry, and Leantime is licensed under AGPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Planka and Leantime?
Planka is written in JavaScript and Leantime 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, Planka or Leantime?
Choose Planka if you want the larger community (12,567 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose Leantime if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.