head to head · open source
OpenProject vs kandev
OpenProject has 16,132 GitHub stars, 3,486 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped yesterday. kandev has 801 stars, 120 forks, 116 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenProject leads on adoption by 1,914% (16,132 vs 801 stars). OpenProject is written in Ruby under GPL-3.0; kandev is written in Go under AGPL-3.0. OpenProject has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, kandev 15%. kandev 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 | kandev | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 801 |
| License | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 120 |
| 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 kandev if
- You want the kandev feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and kandev 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 kandev
Kandev is an open source AI Kanban and development environment written in Go and licensed under AGPL 3.0. It lives in the developer tools and agentic AI ecosystem, providing a control plane for coding agents such as Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Cursor, Devin, and Qwen.
read the full kandev overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenProject or kandev more popular?
OpenProject has 16,132 GitHub stars and kandev has 801. OpenProject has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenProject and kandev free?
Both are open source. OpenProject is licensed under GPL-3.0 and kandev under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenProject and kandev?
OpenProject is written in Ruby and kandev in Go. 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 kandev?
Choose OpenProject if you want the larger community (16,132 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose kandev if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.