head to head · open source
vibe-kanban vs django-helpdesk
vibe-kanban has 28,112 GitHub stars, 3,013 forks, 540 open issues and last shipped yesterday. django-helpdesk has 1,685 stars, 699 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. vibe-kanban leads on adoption by 1,568% (28,112 vs 1,685 stars). vibe-kanban is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; django-helpdesk is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. vibe-kanban has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, django-helpdesk 41%. vibe-kanban 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
| vibe-kanban | django-helpdesk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | Rust | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 699 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick vibe-kanban if
- You weight community size — 28K stars and counting
- You want the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches Rust
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick django-helpdesk if
- You want the django-helpdesk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and django-helpdesk fits your workflow better
About vibe-kanban
Vibe Kanban is an open source, Apache 2.0 kanban board written in Rust that lets software engineers plan work as issues and hand each issue to a coding agent such as Claude Code, Codex, Gemini CLI or Amp inside an isolated workspace.
read the full vibe-kanban overview →
About django-helpdesk
django helpdesk is a Django application for managing tickets in an internal helpdesk. It was formerly known as Jutda Helpdesk, and its description presents it as a ticket tracker for small businesses. The project lives in the Python and Django ecosystem, and it is distributed under the BSD 3 Clause license.
read the full django-helpdesk overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vibe-kanban or django-helpdesk more popular?
vibe-kanban has 28,112 GitHub stars and django-helpdesk has 1,685. vibe-kanban has the larger community by that measure.
Are vibe-kanban and django-helpdesk free?
Both are open source. vibe-kanban is licensed under Apache-2.0 and django-helpdesk under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vibe-kanban and django-helpdesk?
vibe-kanban is written in Rust and django-helpdesk in Python. The practical differences are community size, licence terms, language stack and release cadence — all compared in the table above.
Which should I choose, vibe-kanban or django-helpdesk?
Choose vibe-kanban if you want the larger community (28,112 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose django-helpdesk if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.