head to head · open source
Wekan vs Backlog.md
Wekan has 21,150 GitHub stars, 3,002 forks, 165 open issues and last shipped yesterday. Backlog.md has 7,245 stars, 479 forks, 55 open issues and last shipped 5 days ago. Wekan leads on adoption by 192% (21,150 vs 7,245 stars). Wekan is written in JavaScript under MIT; Backlog.md is written in TypeScript under MIT. Wekan has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, Backlog.md 7%. Wekan 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
| Wekan | Backlog.md | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 7.2K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-11-02 | 2026-10-29 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 479 |
| Self-hosting | Yes | Yes |
| Data ownership | Your server | Your server |
pick Wekan if
- You weight community size — 21K stars and counting
- You want the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches JavaScript
- You value the larger contributor base for long-term maintenance
pick Backlog.md if
- You want the Backlog.md feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and Backlog.md fits your workflow better
About Wekan
WeKan ® Open Source kanban Downloads Docker Containers GitHub Docker Hub RedHat Quay.io docker compose.yml at Standards WeKan and Standard for Public Code assessment was made at 2023 11. Currently Wekan meets 8 out of 16 criteria out of the box. Some others could be met with small changes. Code stats CII Best Practices Code Climate Open Hub OSS Insight Translate WeKan ® at Transifex Translations to non English languages are accepted only at Transifex using webbrowser. New English strings of new features can be added as PRs to master branch file wekan/imports/i18n/data/en.i18n.json . WeKan ® feature requests and…
read the full Wekan overview →
About Backlog.md
Backlog.md Markdown‑native Task Manager & Kanban visualizer for any Git repository AI agents write the code. You review the tasks: before, during, and after. npm i g backlog.md Backlog.md turns any folder into a self‑contained project board powered by plain Markdown files and a zero‑config CLI. Why Backlog.md in the AI era AI agents can now produce more plausible code in an hour than you can carefully read in a day. The bottleneck is no longer writing code. It's your attention. You can't meaningfully review 15,000 generated lines in one sitting, but you can read a screenful of task specs with acceptance criteria…
read the full Backlog.md overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Wekan or Backlog.md more popular?
Wekan has 21,150 GitHub stars and Backlog.md has 7,245. Wekan has the larger community by that measure.
Are Wekan and Backlog.md free?
Both are open source. Wekan is licensed under MIT and Backlog.md under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Wekan and Backlog.md?
Wekan is written in JavaScript and Backlog.md 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, Wekan or Backlog.md?
Choose Wekan if you want the larger community (21,150 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose Backlog.md if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.