head to head · open source
vibe-kanban vs epiq
vibe-kanban has 28,214 GitHub stars, 3,027 forks, 540 open issues and last shipped 10 days ago. epiq has 501 stars, 18 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vibe-kanban leads on adoption by 5,532% (28,214 vs 501 stars). vibe-kanban is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; epiq is written in TypeScript under MIT. vibe-kanban has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, epiq 4%. epiq was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (kanban, task-manager), 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 | epiq | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 501 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-19 | 2026-09-28 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 18 |
| 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 epiq if
- You want the epiq feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and epiq 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 epiq
Epiq is a distributed, code native, self hosted issue tracker for developers and teams who want kanban style review workflows in the terminal or browser while keeping project state local, Git backed, and versioned alongside their code.
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Frequently asked questions
Is vibe-kanban or epiq more popular?
vibe-kanban has 28,214 GitHub stars and epiq has 501. vibe-kanban has the larger community by that measure.
Are vibe-kanban and epiq free?
Both are open source. vibe-kanban is licensed under Apache-2.0 and epiq under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vibe-kanban and epiq?
vibe-kanban is written in Rust and epiq 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, vibe-kanban or epiq?
Choose vibe-kanban if you want the larger community (28,214 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose epiq if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.