head to head · open source
Planka vs SparkleShare
Planka has 12,567 GitHub stars, 1,378 forks, 425 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. SparkleShare has 4,979 stars, 569 forks, 69 open issues and last shipped 19 days ago. Planka leads on adoption by 152% (12,567 vs 4,979 stars). Planka is written in JavaScript under a custom or non-standard licence; SparkleShare is written in C# under GPL-3.0. Planka has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, SparkleShare 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 (collaboration), 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 | SparkleShare | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 13K | ★ 5.0K |
| License | Custom / other | GPL-3.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-01 |
| Forks | ⑂ 1.4K | ⑂ 569 |
| 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 SparkleShare if
- You want the SparkleShare feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the GPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and SparkleShare 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 SparkleShare
SparkleShare is a free and open source file sharing and collaboration application written in C and released under the GNU GPLv3 or later, with its Sparkles library under the GNU LGPLv3 or later. It runs on Linux distributions, macOS, and Windows, and it lives in the desktop and self hosted cloud storage ecosystem alongside the Git and Git LFS tooling it depends on. The project has been on GitHub for roughly sixteen years, carries about 4,979 stars and 569 forks, and had its most recent push in September 2026.
read the full SparkleShare overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Planka or SparkleShare more popular?
Planka has 12,567 GitHub stars and SparkleShare has 4,979. Planka has the larger community by that measure.
Are Planka and SparkleShare free?
Both are open source. Planka has no licence declared in this registry, and SparkleShare is licensed under GPL-3.0. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between Planka and SparkleShare?
Planka is written in JavaScript and SparkleShare in C#. 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 SparkleShare?
Choose Planka if you want the larger community (12,567 stars) or its Custom / other licence terms. Choose SparkleShare if its feature set, stack or GPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.