head to head · open source
Wekan vs django-helpdesk
Wekan has 21,089 GitHub stars, 3,000 forks, 165 open issues and last shipped yesterday. django-helpdesk has 1,685 stars, 699 forks, 36 open issues and last shipped 3 days ago. Wekan leads on adoption by 1,152% (21,089 vs 1,685 stars). Wekan is written in JavaScript under MIT; django-helpdesk is written in Python under BSD-3-Clause. Wekan has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, django-helpdesk 41%. Wekan 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
| Wekan | django-helpdesk | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 1.7K |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Written in | JavaScript | Python |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-09-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 699 |
| 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 django-helpdesk if
- You want the django-helpdesk feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the BSD-3-Clause license terms
- Your stack matches Python
- You evaluated both and django-helpdesk 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 django-helpdesk
django helpdesk is a Django application for managing tickets in an internal helpdesk. It was formerly known as Jutda Helpdesk, and its description presents it as a ticket tracker for small businesses. The project lives in the Python and Django ecosystem, and it is distributed under the BSD 3 Clause license.
read the full django-helpdesk overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Wekan or django-helpdesk more popular?
Wekan has 21,089 GitHub stars and django-helpdesk has 1,685. Wekan has the larger community by that measure.
Are Wekan and django-helpdesk free?
Both are open source. Wekan is licensed under MIT and django-helpdesk under BSD-3-Clause. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Wekan and django-helpdesk?
Wekan is written in JavaScript and django-helpdesk in Python. 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 django-helpdesk?
Choose Wekan if you want the larger community (21,089 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose django-helpdesk if its feature set, stack or BSD-3-Clause licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.