Kanboard vs Plane
| Tagline | Minimalist, fast kanban project management focused on the Kanban methodology | Open-source issue tracking, sprints, and roadmaps - a Jira and Linear alternative |
| Category | Project Management & Kanban | Project Management & Kanban |
| Replaces | Trello | Jira, Linear, Asana |
| GitHub stars | 9.9k | 59k |
| Language | PHP | TypeScript |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-host difficulty | 2/5 Easy | 3/5 Moderate |
| Deploy options | Docker Docker Compose Manual | Docker Docker Compose Kubernetes Manual |
| Managed hosting | ||
| Last updated | 4 days ago | 2 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.
Kanboard
- Intentionally minimal; lacks rich card content, comments threading, and modern UI of Trello
- No native mobile apps
- Automation is rule-based and basic
- No official cloud hosting
Plane
- Some advanced features (e.g. certain enterprise workflows, intake, advanced analytics) are gated behind the paid Pro/Enterprise tiers
- Self-hosted community edition lags behind the cloud version on newer features
- Automation rules are far less mature than Jira's
- Mobile apps are less polished than Linear's
Bottom line
Choose Kanboard if you want the lower-effort setup; choose Plane for the larger community and ecosystem. Plane has seen more recent development. Open each guide below for deploy steps and the full feature gap.