Open Source Project Management
Every project plan starts drifting from reality the moment the work begins, so the tool that earns its place is the one that makes re-planning cheap, not the one that draws the prettiest initial timeline. That is really a question of work model: a software team living in issues, sprints, and pull requests needs different mechanics than a services team tracking client milestones or one person managing a personal task list. Open source options keep that whole history of tasks, comments, dependencies, and status changes in a database and behind an API you control, so a tool you adopt for one initiative can be reshaped, exported, or scripted against years later instead of trapping your record of decisions behind a per-seat license.
AppFlowy
Open source AI workspace for projects, wikis, and teams with self-hosting and data control
Plane
Open-source project management for tasks, cycles, docs, and triage, with cloud, self-hosted, and air-gapped options
Gogs
Self-hosted Git service with issues, pull requests, wiki, webhooks, and lightweight Go binaries
Focalboard
Open source, self-hosted project management with Kanban boards for Trello, Notion, and Asana users
Huly
Open-source team platform combining project management, chat, CRM, HRM, and applicant tracking
Super Productivity
Open-source todo list with timeboxing, time tracking, local planning, and issue tracker imports
OpenProject
Web-based project management software for planning, agile work, and time and cost reporting
OneDev
Self-hosted Git server with CI/CD, Kanban boards, package registries, and code search
PLANKA
Self-hosted Kanban board for agile project management with real-time collaboration
Our picks
These span the main work models, from issue tracking and classic planning to personal tasks, rather than ranking them.
Issue tracking for product teams: Plane Built for teams that track issues, run cycles, and plan product work. Work Items carry rich text, file uploads, and related-issue references, Cycles add burndown charts, Modules break large projects into parts, and Analytics reports in real time. It runs on Plane Cloud, your own servers, or air-gapped, under the AGPL.
Classic and hybrid project planning: OpenProject Combines classic, agile, and hybrid management in one place, with planning and scheduling, agile and Scrum boards, time tracking, cost reporting, and budgeting. Work packages link to GitHub pull requests, tying delivery to code. The Community Edition is free for self-hosted use, suiting teams that need date-driven planning as much as boards.
Flexible agile boards: Taiga Run it as a Kanban board with WIP limits, as Scrum with a backlog, sprints, and burndown charts, or switch between the two without losing work. Integrated issue tracking lets you promote an issue into a user story or pull it into a sprint. Self-hostable under the MPL 2.0.
Personal tasks that scale to a team: Vikunja Task management that keeps your data under your control, viewable as a list, Kanban board, Gantt chart, or table. It starts as a personal to-do list and grows into shared team projects when you need it. Built-in migration imports tasks from Todoist, Trello, and Microsoft To-Do, and you can self-host or use Vikunja Cloud.
Matching a project tool to how your team works
A tool that fights the way your team already works gets abandoned faster than one that is missing features. A software team living in issues, pull requests, and releases is well served by something like Plane, Taiga, or OpenProject, and if code hosting and tracking should sit together, Gogs or OneDev put issues and Kanban next to the Git repositories themselves. A services team planning delivery dates leans instead on scheduling depth: GanttProject and TaskJuggler center on dependencies, resource loading, and what-if timelines that lightweight boards treat as an afterthought. Name the model before comparing feature grids.
Next, decide how much structure you need around permissions and noise. Project tools become a second inbox when every comment and status change alerts everyone, and they become risky when contractors or clients can see more than intended. Check whether access control works at the project, board, and task level, and how mentions, watchers, and recurring tasks behave. Personal or focus-oriented tools such as Super Productivity and tududi sidestep most of this by design, keeping data local or single-user, which is the right call when the goal is one person's throughput rather than team coordination.
Finally, look at how the tool connects to the rest of your stack and how cleanly your data comes back out. Project data rarely stands alone; it links to chat, calendars, source control, and time tracking. Review the API, webhooks, and export formats, and pay attention to what an export actually preserves: comments, attachments, custom fields, and the dependencies between tasks, not just a flat list of titles. That record of why work changed is the part most worth protecting when a process later changes.
Related categories
Frequently asked questions
What should I match a project tool to first?+
Match it to the work model your team already uses, not the feature grid. A team moving through tickets, pull requests, and releases needs issue linking and sprint mechanics, so Taiga or Plane fit well. A services team planning client delivery dates needs milestones, dependencies, and Gantt views, which is where OpenProject and GanttProject are stronger. When people have to constantly reshape their work to fit the tool, adoption quietly fails.
Which of these suit agile teams running sprints?+
Look for more than a board with columns. Taiga runs either Kanban with WIP limits or full Scrum with a backlog, sprints, estimations, and burndown charts, and lets you switch modes. Plane adds Cycles with burndown and Modules for breaking down larger work. OpenProject and Leantime cover agile alongside classic planning. A lightweight Kanban team may not need sprint machinery, while a larger product group will, so match the depth to how you actually practice agile.
Do any combine code hosting with project management?+
Yes, which removes the gap between planning and code. Gogs is a lightweight self-hosted Git service with issues, pull requests, and a wiki right next to the repositories. OneDev goes further, pairing Git hosting and code review with automated Kanban boards, customizable issue workflows, CI/CD, and package registries in one platform. Both keep tasks and commits in the same place, so a work item and the branch that closes it live together.
Which tools work for a single person, not just teams?+
A few are designed around individual work. Super Productivity is a developer-focused to-do list with timeboxing, time tracking, and a Pomodoro timer, with no accounts and data stored wherever you choose. tududi organizes tasks, projects, and notes with recurring tasks and CalDAV sync. Vikunja starts as a personal to-do list and grows into shared projects only when you invite others, so it scales from one person to a team without switching tools.
Can I import tasks from Trello, Jira, or Todoist?+
Sometimes directly, but expect cleanup. Vikunja ships built-in migration from Todoist, Trello, and Microsoft To-Do, and Focalboard positions itself for people leaving Trello, Notion, and Asana. Titles, descriptions, assignees, and due dates usually survive an import; comments, attachments, dependencies, and history are less reliable. Run a trial import with one real project and have the people who manage that workflow verify the result before you commit the whole team.
Which are best for Gantt scheduling and resource planning?+
For date-driven work, the scheduling tools go deeper than a board. TaskJuggler runs an optimizing scheduler with resource leveling and what-if scenarios, working from plain text rather than a GUI. GanttProject offers task hierarchy, dependencies, milestones, and a resource load chart on the desktop. LibrePlan and Worklenz add web-based resource planning, and Worklenz includes a visual scheduler to avoid overallocation. Match the depth to how much your plans actually depend on dates and capacity.
Is self-hosting a project tool worth the operational work?+
It is worth it when project data includes sensitive client work, internal roadmaps, or attachments you cannot place in a third-party service, or when you need custom authentication and network controls. The trade-off is real operational work: upgrades, backups of both the database and uploaded files, storage growth, and mail delivery. Treat it as a business system rather than a weekend utility, and confirm the tool offers a clean export before you rely on it.