head to head · open source
OpenProject vs Planka
OpenProject has 16,933 GitHub stars, 3,676 forks, 224 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Planka has 12,663 stars, 1,396 forks, 425 open issues and last shipped yesterday. OpenProject leads on adoption by 34% (16,933 vs 12,663 stars). OpenProject is written in Ruby under GPL-3.0; Planka is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence. OpenProject has attracted 22% as many forks as stars, Planka 11%. 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 | Planka | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 17K | ★ 13K |
| License | GPL-3.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Ruby | JavaScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.7K | ⑂ 1.4K |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick OpenProject if
- You weight community size — 17K 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 Planka if
- You want the Planka feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You evaluated both and Planka fits your workflow better
About OpenProject
OpenProject We empower teams to achieve great things together for the good of society. OpenProject is a web based open source project management software for teams and organizations that require transparency, flexibility, and data sovereignty. Manage projects, portfolios, products, tasks, bugs, agile workflows, roadmaps, and team collaboration in a single platform. OpenProject can be self hosted and is designed for organizations looking for an open source enterprise ready alternative to tools such as Jira, MS Project, Monday, Asana, YouTrack while maintaining full control over their data and infrastructure…
read the full OpenProject overview →
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 →
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Frequently asked questions
Is OpenProject or Planka more popular?
OpenProject has 16,933 GitHub stars and Planka has 12,663. OpenProject has the larger community by that measure.
Are OpenProject and Planka free?
Both are open source. OpenProject is licensed under GPL-3.0, and Planka has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between OpenProject and Planka?
OpenProject is written in Ruby and Planka in JavaScript. 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 Planka?
Choose OpenProject if you want the larger community (16,933 stars) or its GPL-3.0 licence terms. Choose Planka if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.