head to head · open source
Wekan vs cairoshell
Wekan has 21,089 GitHub stars, 3,000 forks, 165 open issues and last shipped yesterday. cairoshell has 3,371 stars, 271 forks, 246 open issues and last shipped 9 days ago. Wekan leads on adoption by 526% (21,089 vs 3,371 stars). Wekan is written in JavaScript under MIT; cairoshell is written in C# under Apache-2.0. Wekan has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, cairoshell 8%. 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 | cairoshell | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 3.4K |
| License | MIT | Apache-2.0 |
| Written in | JavaScript | C# |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-09 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 271 |
| 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 cairoshell if
- You want the cairoshell feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the Apache-2.0 license terms
- Your stack matches C#
- You evaluated both and cairoshell fits your workflow better
About Wekan
Wekan is an open source collaborative kanban board application written in JavaScript and built with Meteor. It is licensed under the MIT license and is positioned as a free and open source alternative to Jira and Monday.com. The project lives in the self hosted business software and project management ecosystem.
read the full Wekan overview →
About cairoshell
Cairo is a customizable, intuitive desktop environment for Windows. It is a C application that provides a shell experience on the Windows desktop, and its listed topics identify it as a launcher, task manager, Windows desktop tool, and WPF project. The repository describes Cairo as a desktop environment whose stated goal is to increase productivity and advance current technology standards, with a focus on stability, performance, and ease of use. It lives in the Windows desktop ecosystem rather than a server or cloud application ecosystem.
read the full cairoshell overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Wekan or cairoshell more popular?
Wekan has 21,089 GitHub stars and cairoshell has 3,371. Wekan has the larger community by that measure.
Are Wekan and cairoshell free?
Both are open source. Wekan is licensed under MIT and cairoshell under Apache-2.0. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Wekan and cairoshell?
Wekan is written in JavaScript and cairoshell in C#. 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 cairoshell?
Choose Wekan if you want the larger community (21,089 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose cairoshell if its feature set, stack or Apache-2.0 licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.