head to head · open source
Planka vs KaibanJS
Planka has 12,567 GitHub stars, 1,378 forks, 425 open issues and last shipped 4 days ago. KaibanJS has 1,479 stars, 158 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Planka leads on adoption by 750% (12,567 vs 1,479 stars). Planka is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence; KaibanJS is written in TypeScript under MIT. Planka has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, KaibanJS 11%. Planka 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 | KaibanJS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 13K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | Custom / other | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-05-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 158 |
| 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 KaibanJS if
- You want the KaibanJS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and KaibanJS fits your workflow better
About Planka
Planka is a self hosted Kanban board for project and task management. It lives in the open source project and work management ecosystem, with JavaScript as its implementation language, and it positions itself as an open alternative to Trello and Monday.com. The project provides a free Community edition for self hosting, while PLANKA Pro adds organization features and developer support.
read the full Planka overview →
About KaibanJS
KaibanJS is an MIT licensed, TypeScript written JavaScript native framework for building and managing multi agent systems with a Kanban inspired approach. It lives in the JavaScript ecosystem and provides a way to create, visualize, and coordinate AI agents, tasks, tools, and teams.
read the full KaibanJS overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Planka or KaibanJS more popular?
Planka has 12,567 GitHub stars and KaibanJS has 1,479. Planka has the larger community by that measure.
Are Planka and KaibanJS free?
Both are open source. Planka has no licence declared in this registry, and KaibanJS is licensed under MIT. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Planka and KaibanJS?
Planka is written in JavaScript and KaibanJS 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 KaibanJS?
Choose Planka if you want the larger community (12,567 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose KaibanJS if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.