head to head · open source
Planka vs nimbalyst
Planka has 12,666 GitHub stars, 1,397 forks, 425 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. nimbalyst has 2,020 stars, 328 forks, 642 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Planka leads on adoption by 527% (12,666 vs 2,020 stars). Planka is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence; nimbalyst is written in TypeScript under MIT. Planka has attracted 11% 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
| Planka | nimbalyst | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 13K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-03 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 328 |
| 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 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 Planka
PLANKA Project mastering driven by fun Install · Demo · Docs · API · Cloud · Pro version PLANKA Pro When the whole team runs on PLANKA. Phones and tablets · five themes · a dashboard across every project · calendar, timeline and map views · cards on more than one board · templates · guest roles · SSO · PDF export. Self hosted exactly as you host it now, supported by the people who build it. Pro upgrades an existing Community installation in place — your database, your volume, your data. It is a real migration rather than a new image: Pro adds a Valkey service and a one off schema promote. The promote accepts…
read the full Planka 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 Planka or nimbalyst more popular?
Planka has 12,666 GitHub stars and nimbalyst has 2,020. Planka has the larger community by that measure.
Are Planka and nimbalyst free?
Both are open source. Planka has no licence declared in this registry, and nimbalyst is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Planka and nimbalyst?
Planka is written in JavaScript 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, Planka or nimbalyst?
Choose Planka if you want the larger community (12,666 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose nimbalyst if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.