head to head · open source
vibe-kanban vs Leantime
vibe-kanban has 28,112 GitHub stars, 3,013 forks, 540 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Leantime has 11,597 stars, 1,128 forks, 328 open issues and last shipped 11 days ago. vibe-kanban leads on adoption by 142% (28,112 vs 11,597 stars). vibe-kanban is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; Leantime is written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. vibe-kanban has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Leantime 10%. 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 | Leantime | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 12K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Written in | Rust | PHP |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-07 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 1.1K |
| 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 Leantime if
- You want the Leantime feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the AGPL-3.0 license terms
- Your stack matches PHP
- You evaluated both and Leantime 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 Leantime
Leantime is an open source project management system in the Business Software / Project & Work Management category, written in PHP and licensed under AGPL 3.0. It is aimed at non project managers and combines strategy, planning, and execution in one place. The project describes itself as built with ADHD, autism, and dyslexia in mind.
read the full Leantime overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vibe-kanban or Leantime more popular?
vibe-kanban has 28,112 GitHub stars and Leantime has 11,597. vibe-kanban has the larger community by that measure.
Are vibe-kanban and Leantime free?
Both are open source. vibe-kanban is licensed under Apache-2.0 and Leantime under AGPL-3.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vibe-kanban and Leantime?
vibe-kanban is written in Rust and Leantime in PHP. 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 Leantime?
Choose vibe-kanban if you want the larger community (28,112 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Leantime if its feature set, stack or AGPL-3.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.