Kanboard is MIT-licensed, self-hosted Kanban project management software written in PHP, aimed at teams and individuals who want to run their own board-based task tracking instead of renting a hosted service.
What it is
Kanboard is a web application for project management built around the Kanban methodology. It lives in the self-hosted PHP web application ecosystem, is distributed under the MIT License, and is maintained in the open on GitHub, where it has accumulated 9,871 stars and 1,996 forks. The main developer is Frédéric Guillot, with contributions from a broader contributor base, and the project maintains an official website at kanboard.org alongside versioned documentation at docs.kanboard.org.
The concrete problem it solves is ownership of project data. Teams that need their boards, tasks and workflow state to live on infrastructure they control can run Kanboard themselves rather than depending on a hosted vendor. That is the specific thing it replaces: the rented, externally hosted board rather than a locally operated one. The topic list makes the positioning explicit, combining "self-hosted" with "kanban", "agile", "project-management" and the project's own name.
Key capabilities
- Kanban methodology as the organising model for project management, with "kanban" and "agile" both listed as project topics.
- Self-hosted operation, so the application and its data run on infrastructure the operator controls.
- Documented Docker deployment path, published at
docs.kanboard.org/v1/admin/docker/.
- Written in PHP, which places it in the standard server-side web application stack rather than a compiled binary distribution.
- MIT License, which permits forking, modification and redistribution, including closed internal variants.
- Community-driven release cadence, where new releases are published depending on contributions made by the community.
- Contribution workflow governed by a pull request template at
.github/pull_request_template.md, with new features and bug fixes accepted when the guidelines are followed.
Who uses it and how
- Teams that must keep project tracking on their own servers, which is the scenario the "self-hosted" topic and the self-operated deployment model point to.
- Organisations standardised on PHP hosting, since the application is written in PHP and documented for direct installation.
- Container-based deployments, using the Docker instructions the project publishes for operators who prefer that path.
- Contributors and forkers, evidenced by 1,996 forks and an explicit pull request process; contributors include the 160 currently open issues and the accepted feature and bug fix guidelines.
- Community members who need support and discussion, served by the project forum at
kanboard.discourse.group.
Getting started
Installation follows the official instructions at docs.kanboard.org/v1/admin/installation/, and Docker users should follow the separate guide at docs.kanboard.org/v1/admin/docker/. Upgrades are documented at docs.kanboard.org/v1/admin/upgrade/.
How it compares
No comparable or competing tools and no list of paid products it replaces are named in the facts provided. On that basis, Kanboard stands alone in this registry.
When to use it — and when not to
Kanboard is a reasonable choice for an operator who wants a self-hosted PHP Kanban board under an MIT License and is willing to follow the documented installation, Docker and upgrade paths, and to check requirements at docs.kanboard.org/v1/admin/requirements/ before deploying. It is a poor fit for anyone expecting an actively developed product: the README states the application is in maintenance mode, the author is not actively developing any new major features beyond small fixes, and new releases depend on community contributions. The licence and deployment model are clear, but the roadmap is not, so teams needing continuous feature development should look elsewhere.