head to head · open source
Leantime vs nimbalyst
Leantime has 11,612 GitHub stars, 1,131 forks, 328 open issues and last shipped 13 days ago. nimbalyst has 1,751 stars, 254 forks, 642 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Leantime leads on adoption by 563% (11,612 vs 1,751 stars). Leantime is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0; nimbalyst is written in TypeScript under MIT. Leantime has attracted 10% as many forks as stars, nimbalyst 15%. 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
| Leantime | nimbalyst | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 12K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | PHP | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-07 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.1K | ⑂ 254 |
| 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 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 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 nimbalyst
Nimbalyst is an open source visual workspace for Claude Code, Codex, OpenCode, and other coding agents. It lives in the agentic coding ecosystem and brings sessions, worktrees, tasks, docs, diagrams, mockups, commits, and code into one desktop application. It is written in TypeScript, uses Electron, and is MIT licensed.
read the full nimbalyst overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Leantime or nimbalyst more popular?
Leantime has 11,612 GitHub stars and nimbalyst has 1,751. Leantime has the larger community by that measure.
Are Leantime and nimbalyst free?
Both are open source. Leantime is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and nimbalyst under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Leantime and nimbalyst?
Leantime 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, Leantime or nimbalyst?
Choose Leantime if you want the larger community (11,612 stars) or its AGPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose nimbalyst if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.