head to head · open source
vibe-kanban vs nimbalyst
vibe-kanban has 28,569 GitHub stars, 3,050 forks, 540 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. nimbalyst has 2,015 stars, 326 forks, 642 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. vibe-kanban leads on adoption by 1,318% (28,569 vs 2,015 stars). vibe-kanban is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; nimbalyst is written in TypeScript under MIT. vibe-kanban has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, nimbalyst 16%. nimbalyst 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 | nimbalyst | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 29K | ★ 2.0K |
| License | Apache-2.0 | MIT |
| Written in | Rust | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-10-29 | 2026-10-31 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 326 |
| 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 nimbalyst if
- You want the nimbalyst feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and nimbalyst 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 nimbalyst
Nimbalyst: Open source visual workspace for building with Codex, Claude Code, OpenCode, and other coding agents. Work on everything in one place: sessions, worktrees, tasks, docs, diagrams, mockups, commits, and code. Visually editable. Deeply linked. Free and MIT licensed. Desktop app for macOS, Windows, and Linux, with an iOS companion app. Website · Download · Documentation · Discord What you get Visual editing of the agent's work. WYSIWYG editors for markdown, mockups, Mermaid, Excalidraw, CSV, data models, and code in Monaco. You and the coding agent edit the same files. Red/green diff review. Step through…
read the full nimbalyst overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vibe-kanban or nimbalyst more popular?
vibe-kanban has 28,569 GitHub stars and nimbalyst has 2,015. vibe-kanban has the larger community by that measure.
Are vibe-kanban and nimbalyst free?
Both are open source. vibe-kanban is licensed under Apache-2.0 and nimbalyst under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between vibe-kanban and nimbalyst?
vibe-kanban is written in Rust and nimbalyst 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 nimbalyst?
Choose vibe-kanban if you want the larger community (28,569 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose nimbalyst if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.