Issue trackers for product and engineering teams
If your team plans in sprints, tracks bugs and links work to releases, start with these. If you want a Jira alternative, open source trackers in this group are the closest match.
Plane is the modern choice. It organises work into issues, cycles (its name for sprints), modules and pages, and the interface feels close to Linear. It is AGPL-3.0 licensed and installs with Docker. Pick it if you want a clean tracker that new team members understand quickly.
OpenProject is the most complete option for classic project management. It covers Gantt charts, work packages, time and cost tracking, wikis and agile boards under GPL-3.0. It suits organisations that report on budgets and timelines, and it takes more setup than Plane.
Redmine has been around for many years. It is a Ruby on Rails tracker with issues, Gantt charts, wikis and per-project roles, plus a large plugin ecosystem. The interface looks old, but it is stable and well documented. The GitHub repo is a mirror; the official code lives in Redmine’s own Subversion repository.
MantisBT is a long-running PHP bug tracker for logging, assigning and following issues through to a fix. It suits teams that need bug tracking without the wikis and Gantt charts that Redmine adds. Our catalogue has no licence recorded for it, so check the licence terms in the repo before you rely on it.
Huly combines issue tracking with chat, documents, HR and recruiting modules under EPL-2.0. It is a good fit if you want to replace several tools at once, and it is heavier to run than a single-purpose tracker.
Simpler tools for teams without a project manager
Not every team wants sprints and story points. These open source tools for project management keep the setup light, trading advanced reporting for screens that anyone can use on the first day.
Leantime is designed for people who are not trained project managers, and its authors build with ADHD, autism and dyslexia in mind. It links goals, ideas, timesheets and roadmaps under AGPL-3.0. Choose it for small businesses and non-technical teams.
Vikunja starts as a to-do app and grows into projects with list, Kanban, Gantt and table views. It is AGPL-3.0 licensed and light enough for a small home server.
Kaneo is a minimal MIT-licensed board with Gantt charts and a GitHub integration, aimed at teams who want task tracking without clutter.
Worklenz is built for agencies, with resource planning, time logging and workload views under AGPL-3.0. It helps when you need to see who is overloaded across several client projects.
Open source Kanban boards
If your team thinks in columns and cards, a board may be all you need. Each open source Kanban tool here can replace Trello for most teams. Boards are also the easiest format to share with clients and part-time helpers, because everyone can see the status of every task at a glance.
Wekan is an MIT-licensed board with swimlanes, checklists and import from Trello. It is mature and has many options, which also means more settings to learn.
Planka is a Trello-style board with real-time updates, attachments and notifications. It offers a free Community edition and a paid Pro edition, so read the licence file before you rely on it for commercial work.
Kanboard is a lightweight MIT-licensed board on a plain PHP stack, with plugins and automatic actions such as moving a card when a date passes. It is one of the easiest tools here to host.
Kan is a board with workspaces, labels and an importer for Trello boards, under AGPL-3.0. It started in 2023 and is a good pick for teams moving off Trello.
Deck adds Kanban boards to Nextcloud for team and personal tasks, with cards linked to files, calendars and chat. It uses AGPL-3.0. Choose it if you already run Nextcloud, because there is no separate server to maintain.
Tasks.md is a small MIT-licensed board that stores every card as a Markdown file in folders. Your tasks stay readable in any text editor, even if you stop using the app.
Focalboard, which offers Kanban and table boards for Mattermost users, is not in this kit. Its README says plainly that the repository is currently not maintained.
All-in-one workspaces with docs and tasks
AppFlowy is a Notion-style workspace for notes, docs, databases and Kanban boards under AGPL-3.0. You can run it locally on your own computer or self-host the server for a team. It suits teams whose projects live in documents as much as in task lists. Huly, covered above, is the other option in this group.
Time trackers that pair with your project tool
Time tracking often sits beside the project tool rather than inside it. A separate tracker keeps your billing history in one place even if you change project tools later.
Kimai is an AGPL-3.0 time tracker for freelancers and teams, with timesheets, budgets, invoices and exports. It works well for client billing.
solidtime is a newer AGPL-3.0 time tracker with projects, clients and billable rates in a modern interface.
Super Productivity is a personal task manager under MIT with timeboxing and time tracking. It can import issues from Jira, GitHub, GitLab and OpenProject, so each person can plan their own day from the team tracker.
How to choose open source project management software
Choose by how your team plans work, then check the effort of running it:
- Software teams with sprints and bug tracking: Plane, or OpenProject if you also need Gantt charts and budgets.
- Teams without a dedicated project manager: Leantime or Vikunja.
- Visual task boards: Kanboard for the lightest setup, Wekan, Planka or Kan for more features, or Deck if you already run Nextcloud.
- Bug tracking only: MantisBT.
- Agencies juggling clients: Worklenz, paired with Kimai or solidtime for billing.
- Projects that live in documents: AppFlowy or Huly.
There is no single best open source project management software for everyone. Self-hosted project management also means you own updates and backups, so pick a tool your team will use daily and that someone on the team is willing to maintain. Try two finalists with one real project for two weeks before you migrate everything. Most of these projects publish Docker images, which is the easiest way to test them on a laptop before you rent a server. Before you move, export a sample from your current tool and test the import in each finalist; Wekan, for example, can import Trello boards directly. For more options in open source project management, the explorer button above lists every repo in our catalogue with this workflow tag.