head to head · open source
Wekan vs KaibanJS
Wekan has 21,089 GitHub stars, 3,000 forks, 165 open issues and last shipped yesterday. KaibanJS has 1,478 stars, 158 forks, 78 open issues and last shipped 4 months ago. Wekan leads on adoption by 1,327% (21,089 vs 1,478 stars). Wekan is written in JavaScript under MIT; KaibanJS is written in TypeScript under MIT. Wekan has attracted 14% as many forks as stars, KaibanJS 11%. Wekan was the more recently maintained of the two, and both are self-hostable with no licence fee. The two share 2 topic tags (javascript, 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 | KaibanJS | |
|---|---|---|
| GitHub stars | ★ 21K | ★ 1.5K |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Written in | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Last push | 2026-09-17 | 2026-05-15 |
| Forks | ⑂ 3.0K | ⑂ 158 |
| 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 KaibanJS if
- You want the KaibanJS feature set and don't need the biggest community
- You prefer the MIT license terms
- Your stack matches TypeScript
- You evaluated both and KaibanJS 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 KaibanJS
KaibanJS is an MIT licensed, TypeScript written JavaScript native framework for building and managing multi agent systems with a Kanban inspired approach. It lives in the JavaScript ecosystem and provides a way to create, visualize, and coordinate AI agents, tasks, tools, and teams.
read the full KaibanJS overview →
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Frequently asked questions
Is Wekan or KaibanJS more popular?
Wekan has 21,089 GitHub stars and KaibanJS has 1,478. Wekan has the larger community by that measure.
Are Wekan and KaibanJS free?
Both are open source. Wekan is licensed under MIT and KaibanJS under MIT. Neither carries a licence fee.
What is the difference between Wekan and KaibanJS?
Wekan is written in JavaScript and KaibanJS 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 KaibanJS?
Choose Wekan if you want the larger community (21,089 stars) or its MIT licence terms. Choose KaibanJS if its feature set, stack or MIT licence fits better. Both are self-hostable.