head to head · open source
Planka vs paca
Planka has 12,567 GitHub stars, 1,378 forks, 425 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. paca has 1,836 stars, 154 forks, 8 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. Planka leads on adoption by 584% (12,567 vs 1,836 stars). Planka is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence; paca is written in Go under Apache-2.0. Planka has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, paca 8%. paca was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 3 topic tags (project-management, self-hosted, trello-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
| Planka | paca | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 13K | ★ 1.8K |
| License | Custom / other | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | Go |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-18 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 154 |
| 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 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 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 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 Planka or paca more popular?
Planka has 12,567 GitHub stars and paca has 1,836. Planka has the larger community by that measure.
Are Planka and paca free?
Both are open source. Planka has no licence declared in this registry, and paca is licensed under Apache-2.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Planka and paca?
Planka is written in JavaScript 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, Planka or paca?
Choose Planka if you want the larger community (12,567 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose paca if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.