Huly vs ZenTao
| Tagline | All-in-one project management, tracker, and team collaboration - a Linear/Jira alternative | Open-source Agile/Scrum project management with built-in bug tracking |
| Category | Project Management & Kanban | Project Management & Kanban |
| Replaces | Linear, Jira, Slack | Jira, Asana, Trello |
| GitHub stars | 26k | 1.6k |
| Language | TypeScript | PHP |
| License | EPL-2.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 4/5 Involved | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes Manual | Docker Docker Compose Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | today | 15 days ago |
| View repo | View repo |
Where each falls short
The honest trade-offs — what you give up with each, versus the proprietary tools they replace.
Huly
- Self-hosting the full multi-service architecture (MongoDB, MinIO, Elastic, transactors) is complex
- Documentation for self-hosting is sparse relative to its breadth
- Breadth over depth: individual modules are less mature than dedicated tools like Linear or Slack
- Self-hosted edition trails the managed cloud on some features
ZenTao
- UI/UX is noticeably less polished than Jira or Linear, with a steeper learning curve for Western users
- English documentation is incomplete; the product is primarily Chinese-market focused
- Integrations with third-party tools (Slack, GitHub, CI systems) are limited without the paid edition
- Reporting and analytics are basic compared to Jira's advanced query language
Bottom line
Choose ZenTao if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Huly for the larger community and ecosystem. Huly has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.
Huly
All-in-one project management, tracker, and team collaboration - a Linear/Jira alternative