head to head · open source
vibe-kanban vs Operately
vibe-kanban has 28,112 GitHub stars, 3,013 forks, 540 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Operately has 554 stars, 70 forks, 85 open issues and last shipped yesterday. vibe-kanban leads on adoption by 4,974% (28,112 vs 554 stars). vibe-kanban is written in Rust under Apache-2.0; Operately is written in Elixir under a custom or non-standard licence. vibe-kanban has attracted 11% as many forks as stars, Operately 13%. Operately was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee.
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 | Operately | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 28K | ★ 554 |
| License | Apache-2.0 | Custom / other |
| Written in | Rust | Elixir |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-17 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 70 |
| 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 Operately if
- You want the Operately feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Custom / other license terms
- Your stack matches Elixir
- You evaluated both and Operately 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 Operately
Operately is an open source company operating system, written in Elixir with a TypeScript and React front end, and distributed under the Apache 2.0 license according to its README. It is pitched as an opinionated operating system for running an organization rather than as another generic project management tool. The project lives in the open source business software and project management ecosystem, with a hosted home at operately.com and a self hostable release archive on GitHub.
read the full Operately overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is vibe-kanban or Operately more popular?
vibe-kanban has 28,112 GitHub stars and Operately has 554. vibe-kanban has the larger community by that measure.
Are vibe-kanban and Operately free?
Both are open source. vibe-kanban is licensed under Apache-2.0, and Operately has no licence declared in this registry. Both are free to self-host.
What is the difference between vibe-kanban and Operately?
vibe-kanban is written in Rust and Operately in Elixir. 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 Operately?
Choose vibe-kanban if you want the larger community (28,112 stars) or its Apache-2.0 licence terms. Choose Operately if its feature set, stack or Custom / other licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.