Open Source Project Management Software 2026: 6 Tools Compared

Open source project management grew up: the best tools in 2026 ship kanban boards, Gantt charts, wikis and time tracking behind one Docker command — and most offer a hosted plan if you would rather not run a server at all. This comparison covers the six open source project management tools actually worth adopting as a freelancer or small team, with licenses, hosted prices and maintenance status verified in the repos and on the official sites in August 2026. Just as important: the two former favorites that quietly died — and that many older listicles still recommend.

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Comparison: the six maintained tools at a glance

Licenses and prices verified August 2026 in the GitHub repos and on official pricing pages. Vendors bill in their own currency (EUR or USD) — shown as listed, not converted. All six offer official Docker-based self-hosting at $0.

1. OpenProject — the full suite, and the reason many teams never pay for Jira

OpenProject (built by OpenProject GmbH in Berlin) is the most complete package in open-source PM: kanban boards, real Gantt charts, agile backlogs with sprints and story points, a per-project wiki, meeting management — and free built-in time tracking with hourly rates and timesheet widgets. Development pace is serious: version 17.7 shipped in August 2026, with collaborative document editing added earlier in the year.

The honest caveats: it is a heavyweight (recommended 4 GB RAM, PostgreSQL — this is a proper server app, not a weekend container), some newer modules like resource management are Enterprise add-ons, and the cloud version has a 25-user minimum at €5.95/user/month — which effectively rules out hosted OpenProject for freelancers. Self-hosting the free Community edition is where solo users and small teams land.

Best for: small teams that want one self-hosted tool to replace Jira, MS Project and a wiki at once.

2. Leantime — the freelancer pick, timesheets included

Leantime (Charlotte, NC) is the tool in this list actually designed for people who do not want to think in project-manager categories — the founders position it explicitly as ADHD- and neurodivergence-friendly, organized around goals and to-dos rather than ticket hierarchies. Kanban boards, milestone timelines, docs and free time tracking with timesheets are all in the AGPL core — the one feature combination freelancers actually bill with.

It is also the lightest serious option to run: a standard PHP/MySQL app with an official Docker image that fits on any $5 VPS or even shared hosting. The hosted plan is $8/user/month (billed annually, 14-day trial, no free cloud tier); paid AI features and a plugin marketplace layer on top but stay optional.

Best for: freelancers and duos who want tasks, timelines and billable-hours tracking without running a heavyweight suite.

3. Plane — the modern one, free in the cloud up to 12 users

Plane is what you pick when Jira feels bureaucratic and Linear is not open enough: a fast, keyboard-driven issue tracker with cycles (sprints), burndown charts, docs pages and both kanban and Gantt views. It is the biggest community in this comparison (roughly 56k GitHub stars) and ships releases weekly; self-hosting is first-class with Docker, Kubernetes and a one-line installer at around 4 GB RAM.

Two things to know before committing: the Community Edition is AGPL but the project is unapologetically open-core — SSO, and notably time tracking, sit in the paid tiers (Pro at $6/seat/month). And the sweetest deal is arguably not self-hosting at all: Plane Cloud is free for up to 12 users, which covers most freelancer collaborations outright.

Best for: developers and technical freelancers who think in issues and sprints, not client folders.

4. Vikunja — the lightweight all-rounder from Germany

Vikunja started as an open-source Todoist alternative and grew into a compact PM tool: lists, kanban, a table view and a genuine Gantt chart, plus CalDAV support so tasks appear in your calendar app. Built by a solo developer in Lübeck, Germany, it moved fast in 2026 — a plugin system, a new API and two major releases in four months.

The pricing stays friendly: self-hosting is free (official Docker compose), and Vikunja Cloud starts at €4/month with EU hosting — one of the cheapest hosted options in this list. Since July 2026 there is an open-core footnote here too: a paid Pro tier appeared, and time tracking lives there, not in the free core. No docs/wiki module either — this is a task tool, not a workspace.

Best for: solo freelancers who want kanban plus Gantt in something that feels as light as a to-do app.

5. WeKan — pure kanban under a true MIT license

WeKan is the purist's choice: an open-source kanban board with swimlanes, a calendar view and an OpenAPI-documented REST API — and nothing else. It is one of the few tools here under a permissive MIT license with zero proprietary components, and its Finnish maintainer releases updates at a near-daily pace (version 10.91 shipped the day we checked).

The hosted offer is a genuine outlier: €50 per year, flat — not per user — hosted in Finland/EU. There is no Gantt, no wiki and no documented time tracking; if your process is "cards move left to right", that absence is the feature.

Best for: privacy-focused freelancers and micro-teams who need exactly kanban, nothing more.

6. Redmine — the 20-year veteran that refuses to die

Redmine has tracked issues since 2006, and 2026 brought its biggest release in years: version 7.0 with webhooks, a navigation redesign and a Rails 8 core. What it offers is unmatched issue-tracker depth — granular roles, per-project wikis, Gantt and calendar views, and stable built-in time tracking exposed through a battle-tested REST API. What it lacks out of the box is a kanban board (third-party plugins fill that) and, frankly, modern looks.

There is no official cloud; the largest third-party host is Planio (Germany) from $25/month, with a free 2-user tier. Community Docker images make self-hosting routine. Pick it for durability, not delight.

Best for: teams that want a proven, conservative tracker they can still run unchanged in ten years.

The 2026 status check: two former favorites to avoid, one rumor to correct

This is where most open-source PM listicles are out of date, so let's be precise about what changed:

• Focalboard — do not adopt. The repo now states it is not maintained; the standalone edition has had no release since October 2023. It still appears in "best Trello alternative" lists — in 2026 that means unpatched software with no exit path. Vikunja or WeKan cover the same ground, alive.
• Huly — cloud shut down. The hosted service was discontinued in July 2026 ("hosting is no longer being funded"); the pricing page was still online when we checked, which makes the trap worse. The code (EPL-2.0) remains active for self-hosters with 8 GB RAM to spare, but the managed option many articles recommend no longer exists.
• Taiga — alive, despite the rumors. After Kaleidos pivoted to Penpot, Taiga moved to Taiga Cloud Services (Spain) in 2024 and keeps shipping, if slowly. Its scrum focus and per-instance pricing (from €5/month, unlimited users) remain unique — just know there is no Gantt and no time tracking, and momentum is modest. Newcomers worth watching instead: Kaneo, a fast-rising MIT-licensed minimalist.

When hosted SaaS is the honest choice

Open source pays off when you can name the reason: client-data ownership, per-seat costs at team scale, or independence from free-plan cuts. If none of those apply, a strong SaaS free plan is simply less work: ClickUp offers unlimited members and tasks at $0 with native mobile apps — the practical benchmark any self-hosted setup has to beat. Our comparison of free Trello alternatives covers that route in detail.

Try ClickUp for free

Verdict: match the tool to the job, not the star count

OpenProject if you want the whole suite and have a real server; Leantime if you are a freelancer who bills hours; Plane if you think in sprints (or just want its free 12-user cloud); Vikunja for light structure with a Gantt view; WeKan for kanban purism; Redmine for institutional durability. All six can be left without vendor lock-in — which remains the strongest argument open source has.

Keep reading: every project management tool we list, filterable, in the project management category — plus Notion vs ClickUp and the big picture in the best freelancer tools 2026.