head to head · open source
kanboard vs nimbalyst
kanboard has 9,938 GitHub stars, 2,017 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. nimbalyst has 2,020 stars, 328 forks, 642 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. kanboard leads on adoption by 392% (9,938 vs 2,020 stars). kanboard is written in PHP under MIT; nimbalyst is written in TypeScript under MIT. kanboard has attracted 20% as many forks as stars, nimbalyst 16%. nimbalyst 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
| kanboard | nimbalyst | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 9.9K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-31 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 2.0K | ⑂ 328 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick kanboard if
- You weight community size — 9.9K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick nimbalyst if
- You want the nimbalyst feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and nimbalyst fits your workflow better
About kanboard
Kanboard ======== Kanboard is project management software that focuses on the Kanban methodology. This application is in maintenance mode . What does it mean? Citing Wikipedia: In the world of software development, maintenance mode refers to a point in a computer program's life when it has reached all of its goals and is generally considered to be "complete" and bug free. The term can also refer to the point in a software product's evolution when it is no longer competitive with other products or current with regard to the technology environment it operates within. The author of this application is not actively…
read the full kanboard overview →
About nimbalyst
Nimbalyst: Open source visual workspace for building with Codex, Claude Code, OpenCode, and other coding agents. Work on everything in one place: sessions, worktrees, tasks, docs, diagrams, mockups, commits, and code. Visually editable. Deeply linked. Free and MIT licensed. Desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux, with an iOS companion app. Website · Download · Documentation · Discord What you get Visual editing of the agent's work. WYSIWYG editors for markdown, mockups, Mermaid, Excalidraw, CSV, data models, and code in Monaco. You and the coding agent edit the same files. Red/green diff review. Step through…
read the full nimbalyst overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is kanboard or nimbalyst more popular?
kanboard has 9,938 GitHub stars and nimbalyst has 2,020. kanboard has the larger community by that measure.
Are kanboard and nimbalyst free?
Both are open source. kanboard is licensed under MIT and nimbalyst under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between kanboard and nimbalyst?
kanboard is written in PHP and nimbalyst 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, kanboard or nimbalyst?
Choose kanboard if you want the larger community (9,938 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose nimbalyst if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.