head to head · open source
OpenProject vs kanboard
OpenProject has 16,132 GitHub stars, 3,486 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kanboard has 9,873 stars, 1,996 forks, 160 open issues and last shipped 7 days ago. OpenProject leads on adoption by 63% (16,132 vs 9,873 stars). OpenProject is written in Ruby under GPL-3.0; kanboard is written in PHP under MIT. OpenProject has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, kanboard 20%. OpenProject 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
| OpenProject | kanboard | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 9.9K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Ruby | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-11 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 2.0K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenProject if
- You weight community size — 16K stars and counting
- You want the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Ruby
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick kanboard if
- You want the kanboard feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and kanboard fits your workflow better
About OpenProject
OpenProject is a web based open source project management software for teams and organizations that need transparency, flexibility, and data sovereignty. It lives in the open source project management ecosystem, with Ruby as the repository language and Angular as a listed topic. The project is positioned as an open alternative to Asana and Basecamp, and the README also compares it with Jira, MS Project, Monday, and YouTrack.
read the full OpenProject overview →
About kanboard
Kanboard is MIT licensed, self hosted Kanban project management software written in PHP, aimed at teams and individuals who want to run their own board based task tracking instead of renting a hosted service.
read the full kanboard overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenProject or kanboard more popular?
OpenProject has 16,132 GitHub stars and kanboard has 9,873. OpenProject has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenProject and kanboard free?
Both are open source. OpenProject is licensed under GPL-3.0 and kanboard under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenProject and kanboard?
OpenProject is written in Ruby and kanboard 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, OpenProject or kanboard?
Choose OpenProject if you want the larger community (16,132 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose kanboard if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.