Open Source Project Management Software: 2026 Guide
Open source project management software gives teams control over the code, the data and the infrastructure. Picking one isn’t just about features: you’re also weighing the licence, how much work self-hosting really is, whether the community is alive, and whether the project will still be maintained in two years.
This guide covers nine tools worth your time (Worklenz, Plane, OpenProject, Taiga, Redmine, GitLab, Leantime, Wekan and Vikunja), with honest notes on where each one falls short. Licences and repository activity were checked on GitHub in November 2026.
What Is Open Source Project Management Software?
Open source project management software is project management tooling whose source code is publicly available under a licence (MIT, MPL, GPL, AGPL and so on) that lets you inspect it, modify it and run it on your own servers.
Open Source vs. Source Available
Not every tool with a public repository is open source. Always check the licence:
- MIT: the most permissive. Use it commercially, modify it and self-host it with few conditions.
- MPL-2.0: weak copyleft. Changes to the licensed files must stay open; your own code around them doesn’t have to.
- GPL: strong copyleft for software you distribute.
- AGPL: like GPL, but it also covers software offered over a network. If you modify an AGPL tool and let others use it as a service, you must offer them your modified source.
- Open core: a free community edition plus paid, proprietary enterprise features (GitLab and OpenProject work this way).
- Proprietary with a public repo: the code is visible, but you can’t fork or self-host it without a licence.
Why Teams Choose Open Source for Project Management
Data ownership. This is the most common reason. Healthcare teams, legal departments, government agencies and agencies bound by client confidentiality often can’t send project data to a third-party SaaS vendor. Self-hosting an open source tool solves that without negotiating custom contracts. You can also read exactly how the software stores and handles your data.
Cost, which is more nuanced than it looks. Self-hosting isn’t free: you pay for a server, for maintenance, and for someone’s time when an upgrade breaks something. The licence costs nothing, so the savings grow with team size, as long as someone on your team is willing to own the infrastructure.
Vendor risk. When a company stops investing in a closed tool, the code freezes, security patches slow down, and you end up migrating anyway, on a worse timeline. With the source in hand you have options: fork it, find a community maintainer, or patch it yourself.
Quick Comparison
| Tool | Licence | Self-host | Built-in time tracking | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Worklenz | AGPL-3.0 | ✅ Docker | ✅ (cloud: Pro and up) | Agencies and service teams |
| Plane | AGPL-3.0 | ✅ Docker | ❌ | Product and engineering teams |
| OpenProject | GPL-3.0 | ✅ | ✅ | Enterprise and compliance-heavy teams |
| Taiga | MPL-2.0 | ✅ | ❌ | Scrum and Kanban teams |
| Redmine | GPL-2.0 | ✅ | ✅ | Issue tracking, existing installs |
| GitLab | MIT (CE) / proprietary (EE) | ✅ | ⚠️ Basic | DevOps-first teams |
| Leantime | AGPL-3.0 | ✅ Docker | ✅ | Teams that want low cognitive load |
| Wekan | MIT | ✅ | ❌ | A simple Kanban board you own |
| Vikunja | AGPL-3.0 | ✅ | ❌ | Personal and small-team task lists |
Cloud prices change often, so we link each vendor instead of quoting them. Check the vendor’s pricing page before you decide.
The Best Open Source Project Management Tools in 2026
1. Worklenz: Best for Agencies and Client-Service Teams
Licence: AGPL-3.0 (github.com/Worklenz/worklenz) Self-hosting: Yes. The Community edition is free, with unlimited users. Cloud: A Free plan, plus Pro and Business plans billed per active user (see pricing). Pro and Business have a free trial, no credit card required. Stack: React + Ant Design, TypeScript/Express, PostgreSQL, Redis
Worklenz is an open source PSA (professional services automation) platform for agencies and service firms that sell time. It’s built for teams that bill by the hour or by the project. Time tracking is wired into tasks, the workload view and project reporting from the start, instead of bolted on.
Strengths:
- Task lists and Kanban boards, with Gantt and a resource scheduler
- Time tracking with a task timer, manual logs, billable flags and estimated-vs-actual reports
- A workload view and scheduler that show each person’s capacity across all projects
- Client portal: clients log in, raise requests, follow their status and chat with your team
- Project finance (budgets, rate cards, costs) and invoicing: create, send, mark paid, record payments
- Imports from Asana, Trello, Jira, ClickUp, Monday and CSV
- iOS and Android apps
What’s on which plan (cloud): the Free plan covers task lists, Kanban, project templates and the mobile app. Time tracking, timesheets and the workload view start on Pro. The client portal, invoicing, project finance and full Gantt editing are on Business. On self-host, the Community edition includes projects, tasks, boards, time tracking, scheduling and the client portal.
Limitations:
- A smaller community and integration ecosystem than Plane or OpenProject
- No timesheet approval workflow yet
- Invoices can’t take online card payments; payments are recorded manually
- Not built around Scrum ceremonies; if sprints and story points are your core workflow, look at Plane or Taiga
Best for: agencies, consultancies and service teams running several client projects at once that need delivery, time and billing in one tool.
2. Plane: Best Self-Hosted Jira Alternative
Licence: AGPL-3.0 Self-hosting: Yes (Docker) Cloud: Free tier and paid plans (plane.so)
Plane has the most GitHub stars of any tool on this list, and it ships often. It covers issues, cycles (sprints), modules, views and pages (a built-in wiki), with a modern interface that makes it a direct alternative to Jira and Linear.
Strengths:
- Modern issue tracking with epics, cycles and modules
- Strong sprint planning
- Pages for documentation inside the tool
- Very active development and community
Limitations:
- No built-in time tracking, workload view or billing
- Built for product teams, not service businesses tracking billable hours
Best for: product and engineering teams that want a Jira alternative they can self-host.
3. OpenProject: Best for Enterprise and Compliance
Licence: GPL-3.0 (Community) / Enterprise edition available Self-hosting: Yes Cloud: Hosted Enterprise plans (openproject.org)
OpenProject is the most mature tool on this list, in active development since 2012 and widely used in the public sector, healthcare and enterprise IT. The Community edition includes Gantt charts, agile boards, time and cost tracking, and meeting management.
Strengths:
- The most complete Gantt and waterfall planning in open source
- Built-in time and cost reporting
- Enterprise features (SSO, LDAP group sync, support contracts) on paid editions
- Procurement and compliance needs are well covered
Limitations:
- The interface exposes a lot at once; new users can find it overwhelming
- Self-hosting and upgrades take more care than Docker-first tools
- Several enterprise features need a paid edition
Best for: enterprises, government teams and organisations with waterfall or hybrid workflows that must self-host.
4. Taiga: Best for Agile Teams
Licence: MPL-2.0 Self-hosting: Yes Cloud: Hosted plans (taiga.io)
Taiga is the most Scrum-native tool in this comparison: backlog, sprint planning, burndown charts, story points and epics, plus Kanban with WIP limits and swimlanes. Its interface is cleaner than OpenProject’s and Redmine’s.
Strengths:
- Clean Scrum and Kanban workflows
- User stories with point estimates
- GitHub, GitLab and Slack integrations
Limitations:
- No built-in time tracking, which rules it out for teams that bill hourly
- Self-hosting is a multi-container setup that takes longer on first install
- A smaller community and slower roadmap than Plane
Best for: small and mid-size agile software teams that want a self-hosted Scrum tool.
5. Redmine: Best for Existing Installations
Licence: GPL-2.0 Self-hosting: Yes (no official cloud)
Redmine has been around since 2006. It isn’t pretty, but it works: issue tracking with Gantt, time logging, wikis, document management, and integration with Git, SVN and other version control systems. Role-based access control is genuinely flexible.
Strengths:
- Stable and battle-tested
- A large plugin ecosystem (Kanban, Scrum, invoicing and more)
- Flexible issue tracking with custom fields and workflows
Limitations:
- A dated interface with full-page reloads for most actions
- Plugins need ongoing attention to stay compatible with core upgrades
- Setup and customisation need technical skills
Best for: teams already running Redmine, or shops with Rails experience that want something hackable.
6. GitLab: Best for DevOps Teams
Licence: MIT (Community Edition) / proprietary (Enterprise Edition) Self-hosting: Yes Cloud: Free tier and paid plans (about.gitlab.com)
GitLab’s project management features (issues, milestones, boards and labels) are solid, but they’re built around a code repository. If your team already uses GitLab for source control and CI/CD, the built-in issue tracker can save you a separate tool.
Strengths:
- Source control, CI/CD and issue tracking in one platform
- Issue boards and milestones on the free tier
Limitations:
- Roadmaps, epics and other advanced planning features are on paid tiers
- Heavy infrastructure for self-hosting
- Not designed for non-technical teams
Best for: software teams that want code and project tracking in one self-hosted platform.
7. Leantime: Best for Low Cognitive Load
Licence: AGPL-3.0 Self-hosting: Yes (Docker) Cloud: Hosted plans (leantime.io)
Leantime’s main difference is its explicit design for neurodivergent users. The interface reduces cognitive load with a clearer information hierarchy, and features like goals and retrospectives keep longer-term context visible.
Strengths:
- Kanban, time tracking, milestones and project wikis
- Strategy tools such as Lean Canvas and SWOT boards
- A focused, low-clutter interface
Limitations:
- A small community and a thin integration ecosystem
Best for: teams for whom accessibility and neurodiversity are real priorities.
8. Wekan: Best Simple Kanban Board
Licence: MIT Self-hosting: Yes (no official cloud)
Wekan is an open source Trello alternative: boards with cards, lists, labels, assignees, attachments, WIP limits and swimlanes. It’s translated into a very large number of languages, which helps multinational teams.
Strengths:
- Simple boards you own entirely
- The MIT licence fits any commercial environment
Limitations:
- Not a full project management suite: no time tracking, Gantt, budgets or real reporting
Best for: teams whose whole workflow fits on a board.
9. Vikunja: Best Self-Hosted Task List
Licence: AGPL-3.0 Self-hosting: Yes (Docker or a single binary) Cloud: Hosted plans (vikunja.io)
Vikunja sits between a to-do app and a full PM tool, closer to Todoist than to Jira. List, Kanban, Gantt and table views are all there, with recurring tasks, reminders and shareable links. Imports from Todoist, Trello and Microsoft To Do lower the switching cost, and the Go server runs well on modest hardware.
Limitations:
- No resource planning, workload view or billing-linked time tracking
Best for: individuals and small teams with simple task management needs.
Feature Comparison: Top Open Source PM Tools
| Feature | Worklenz | Plane | OpenProject | Taiga | GitLab CE |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Licence | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 | GPL-3.0 | MPL-2.0 | MIT |
| Self-hosting | ✅ Docker | ✅ Docker | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Time tracking | ✅ Built-in | ❌ | ✅ Built-in | ❌ | ⚠️ Basic |
| Workload / resource view | ✅ Built-in | ❌ | ⚠️ Paid editions | ❌ | ❌ |
| Sprint planning | ❌ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ | ✅ |
| Gantt chart | ✅ | ⚠️ Timeline | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Client portal | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Invoicing | ✅ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ | ❌ |
| Mobile app | ✅ iOS and Android | ⚠️ Check vendor | ⚠️ Check vendor | ❌ | ⚠️ Check vendor |
| Best for | Agencies | Dev teams | Enterprise | Agile teams | DevOps |
On Worklenz cloud, time tracking and the workload view start on Pro; the client portal, invoicing and full Gantt editing are on Business.
Open Source vs. SaaS: Which Should You Choose?
Choose self-hosting if:
- Data privacy is a requirement: client contracts, GDPR or company policy require data to stay on your infrastructure
- Customisation matters: you need to extend the tool with fields, workflows or integrations the cloud version doesn’t offer
- You want vendor independence: no lock-in and no surprise price increases
Choose managed cloud if:
- You have no DevOps capacity to maintain, update and back up a server
- You need to start today, in hours rather than days
- You want uptime handled for you
The middle path
Many open source tools, Worklenz included, offer a managed cloud version of the same product. Start on the cloud, and move to self-hosting later if your requirements change. Data portability is one of the main reasons to choose open source in the first place.
How to Self-Host Worklenz
Worklenz runs on Docker Compose. The stack includes the TypeScript/Express API, the React frontend, PostgreSQL, Redis and S3-compatible storage.
Requirements
- A Linux server or cloud VM with Docker and Docker Compose
- Git
- A domain name, if you want a public URL with SSL
Quick Start
# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/Worklenz/worklenz.git
cd worklenz
# Automated setup: creates .env with generated secrets,
# configures URLs and SSL, and starts all services
./quick-setup.shPrefer to configure it yourself? Copy .env.example to .env, set the required values (such as DB_PASSWORD and SESSION_SECRET), then run docker compose up -d.
Full instructions, including production setup and backups, are in the Worklenz GitHub repository and the documentation.
How to Choose
You bill clients by the hour or by the project
→ Worklenz. Time tracking is built into tasks and connected to workload and reporting, with project finance and invoicing on the Business plan. No separate time tracking app needed.
You run Scrum sprints and need a backlog
→ Plane for a modern Jira-style experience, or Taiga for the most Scrum-native workflow.
Compliance matters: data residency, LDAP, audit needs
→ OpenProject, with paid editions for LDAP group sync and support contracts. If you also bill for your time, evaluate self-hosted Worklenz alongside it.
Your team already uses GitLab for code
→ GitLab’s issue tracker, if your planning needs are light. Service teams often pair it with a separate tool for workload and billing.
You need the simplest possible board
→ Wekan. Most teams that start with a board eventually want time tracking or reporting, though.
Accessibility and neurodiversity are priorities
→ Leantime. It’s the only tool here designed explicitly around cognitive load.
Common Misconceptions About Open Source PM Tools
“Open source means unsupported”
The main tools here have active communities, public issue trackers and regular releases, and several (Worklenz, OpenProject, GitLab) offer paid support.
“Self-hosting is too complex”
Docker has made it much simpler. Worklenz ships an automated setup script, and Plane and Leantime are also Docker-first. Ongoing work is mostly updates and backups.
“Open source is only for technical teams”
Whoever runs the server needs some technical skill. Daily users (project managers, account managers, designers) don’t: Worklenz, Leantime and Vikunja are all designed for non-technical people.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the best open source project management tool?
It depends on how your team works. For agencies and service teams that bill for time, Worklenz combines projects, time tracking, workload, a client portal and invoicing. For product teams running sprints, Plane is the strongest modern option. For enterprise compliance, OpenProject is the most mature.
Is open source project management software secure?
It can be, with proper setup. Open source code can be audited, so vulnerabilities are found and reported in public. Most real risks in self-hosted tools come from configuration (default passwords, missing SSL, no backups), not from the code itself.
How much does it cost to self-host?
Most tools on this list are free to self-host. Your costs are the server and the time to maintain it. Some open-core tools, such as GitLab and OpenProject, charge for enterprise features even when self-hosted.
What licence does Worklenz use?
AGPL-3.0. You can self-host it, read and modify the source, and use it inside your organisation. If you modify it and offer it to others over a network, you must make your modified source available to them. The code is at github.com/Worklenz/worklenz.
Is Worklenz free?
The self-hosted Community edition is free under AGPL-3.0, with unlimited users. On the cloud, there’s a Free plan for getting started; time tracking and timesheets start on Pro, and the client portal, invoicing and project finance are on Business. Both paid plans are billed per active user and come with a free trial that needs no credit card. Current prices are on the pricing page.
Can open source PM tools scale to large teams?
Yes. OpenProject and GitLab run at enterprise scale, and the self-hosted Worklenz Community edition has no user limit. For large self-hosted deployments, the main work is sizing the server and database.
What happens to my data if I stop using a cloud version?
With an open source tool you can move the same product to your own server. If you self-host, you own the database outright: back it up, migrate it or shut it down whenever you like.
Final Thoughts
Open source project management tools have caught up with commercial SaaS on core features. The question now is which one fits how your team works.
For agencies and client-service businesses, Worklenz covers the delivery workflow (time tracking, workload, client portal and invoicing), with a free Community edition if you self-host.
For software teams, Plane or GitLab match sprint-based, developer-centric workflows.
For enterprises with Gantt and compliance requirements, OpenProject is the most complete option.