head to head · open source
vibe-kanban vs itsaplan
vibe-kanban has 28,569 GitHub stars, 3,050 forks, 540 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. itsaplan has 2,139 stars, 277 forks, 29 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vibe-kanban leads on adoption by 1,236% (28,569 vs 2,139 stars). vibe-kanban is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; itsaplan is written in TypeScript under AGPL-3.0. vibe-kanban has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, itsaplan 13%. itsaplan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (ai-agents, 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 | itsaplan | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 2.1K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-11-02 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 277 |
| 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 itsaplan if
- You want the itsaplan feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and itsaplan 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 itsaplan
Open source alternative to Linear, Jira, Trello, and Plane, with AI agents built in Self hosted project management and issue tracking. The difference: AI agents work here like any teammate — and everything is available over the REST API, webhooks, and MCP. If It's a Plan looks useful to you, star the repo ⭐ — it helps other people find it. Website · Discussions · Contributing · Security · Leave a review About It's a Plan is a full issue tracker on its own: projects, boards, cycles, custom fields, and dashboards. Use it that way and never turn on a single agent. The difference: AI agents work here like any…
read the full itsaplan overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vibe-kanban or itsaplan more popular?
vibe-kanban has 28,569 GitHub stars and itsaplan has 2,139. vibe-kanban has the larger community by that measure.
Are vibe-kanban and itsaplan free?
Both are open source. vibe-kanban is licensed under Apache-2.0 and itsaplan under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vibe-kanban and itsaplan?
vibe-kanban is written in Rust and itsaplan 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 itsaplan?
Choose vibe-kanban if you want the larger community (28,569 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose itsaplan if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.