head to head · open source
OpenProject vs paca
OpenProject has 16,132 GitHub stars, 3,486 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped yesterday. paca has 1,831 stars, 154 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenProject leads on adoption by 781% (16,132 vs 1,831 stars). OpenProject is written in Ruby under GPL-3.0; paca is written in Go under Apache-2.0. OpenProject has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, paca 8%. OpenProject was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 1 topic tag (jira-alternative), 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 | paca | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 16K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | Ruby | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.5K | ⑂ 154 |
| 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 paca if
- You want the paca feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Go
- You evaluated both and paca 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 paca
Paca is a free, open source, self hosted, AI native project management platform in which human Scrum teams and AI agents work as equal teammates on the same board, the same sprints, and the same goals.
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenProject or paca more popular?
OpenProject has 16,132 GitHub stars and paca has 1,831. OpenProject has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenProject and paca free?
Both are open source. OpenProject is licensed under GPL-3.0 and paca under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between OpenProject and paca?
OpenProject is written in Ruby and paca 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 paca?
Choose OpenProject if you want the larger community (16,132 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose paca if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.