head to head · open source
vibe-kanban vs epiq
vibe-kanban has 28,678 GitHub stars, 3,062 forks, 540 open issues and last shipped 2 days ago. epiq has 584 stars, 24 forks, 0 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vibe-kanban leads on adoption by 4,811% (28,678 vs 584 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.
← all 20902 open source comparisons
Side by side
| vibe-kanban | epiq | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 584 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-12 | 2026-11-13 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.1K | ⑂ 24 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick vibe-kanban if
- You weight community size — 29K 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
Get 10X more out of Claude Code, Gemini CLI, Codex, Amp and other coding agents... Vibe Kanban is sunsetting. Read the announcement. Overview In a world where software engineers spend most of their time planning and reviewing coding agents, the most impactful way to ship more is to get faster at planning and review. Vibe Kanban is built for this. Use kanban issues to plan work, either privately or with your team. When you're ready to begin, create workspaces where coding agents can execute. Plan with kanban issues — create, prioritise, and assign issues on a kanban board Run coding agents in workspaces — each…
read the full vibe-kanban overview →
About epiq
Epiq Issue tracking as code. Open source, distributed, local first, and code native. See docs → Epiq provides issue tracking as a portable, integrated part of the development environment, with access to all the powerful tooling developers are used to. Kanban to review workflows in your terminal or in your browser while keeping all state local, Git backed, and versioned. With great attention to user ergonomics and developer experience, epiq strives to make project management painless and friction free. Audit the workflow Agents now run whole sprints unattended. Because state is a full event log, you can replay…
More in Business Software
Related comparisons
More Project & Work Management projects
Compare either of these against the rest of the Project & Work Management field.
Frequently asked questions
Is vibe-kanban or epiq more popular?
vibe-kanban has 28,678 GitHub stars and epiq has 584. 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 (28,678 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose epiq if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.