Focalboard vs Kimai2
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted project management & tasks options
— licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one
replaces.
Not the right match-up?
Compare Focalboard with
choose an app… AppFlowy AFFiNE Memos Mark Text Joplin Plane SiYuan Logseq Outline Trilium Notes TriliumNext Notes Khoj Chatwoot Wiki.js Notable Docmost Super Productivity Wekan Obsidian SimpleX Chat BookStack Etherpad Docs by Suite Numerique OpenProject Notesnook Gollum Habitica Self-Hosted Zettlr Quartz MarkText Workspace Planka Leantime Centrifugo Screego Typebot git-bug Kanboard Berty TiddlyWiki Anytype Mumble Kaneo The Lounge Papercups Taskwarrior Zammad WorkAdventure OpenEMR Maybe Tasks Taskcafe Vikunja Octobox Nullboard Godo Worklenz Donetick Tasks.md Restyaboard Kanban Tegon Taskell FossBilling Nextcloud Deck Kanban Lite eLabFTW Tracks Gerrit OrangeHRM GanttProject eigenfocus osem Taiga Firefly III Importer LibreBooking 4ga Boards Todoman Web Vikunja Frontend Mobile Admidio Agorakit Facilmap LibrePlan HamsterBase Tasks DumbBudget WorkAdventure Tasks ShipShipShip TaskLite OpenHabitTracker Fab-manager May croodle rgit Traq myTinyTodo Our Shopping List DumbDo DumbKan SCM Manager FlowInquiry Satdress motion.tools (Antragsgrün) Grr Task Keeper Mergeable Bileto Mobilizon Tasks Galette phpCollab minimal-git-server Rukovoditel PyInventory CiviCRM on Drupal Listaway 92five Active Collab Bénévalibre BitBucket Server Buddy Enterprise Coin Crucible Cultivons Diacamma Dokos Kanban Tool Kantree Liberaforms Paheko PMB Pollaris ProjeQtOr Smederee Solo Tuleap
Compare Kimai2 with
choose an app… Plane Super Productivity Wekan ActivityWatch OpenProject Habitica Self-Hosted Planka Leantime git-bug Kanboard Kaneo Taskwarrior Toggl Selfhost Pomotodo OpenEMR Maybe Tasks Taskcafe Vikunja Octobox Wakapi Nullboard Godo Worklenz Donetick Tasks.md Restyaboard Kanban Tegon Hamster arbtt
Feature Focalboard Kimai2 Category Project Management & Tasks Project Management & Tasks License MIT MIT Language TypeScript PHP Setup difficulty Easy Easy Min. RAM 512 MB 200 MB Deployment docker, bare-metal bare-metal GitHub stars ★ 26,376 ★ 4,871 First released 2021 2023 Replaces Trello, Asana, Notion Hamster, RescueTime, Toggl Track
Why pick each one
Choose Focalboard if… Clean Trello-like UI Lightweight Mattermost integration Focalboard details Choose Kimai2 if… Released under the MIT license Easy to set up — beginner-friendly Active community (4.9k GitHub stars) Written in PHP Kimai2 details
Frequently asked questions Is Focalboard or Kimai2 better? Neither is universally better. Focalboard has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Focalboard and Kimai2 free and open-source? Yes. Focalboard is licensed under MIT and Kimai2 under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Focalboard and Kimai2 with Docker? Focalboard: yes. Kimai2: check the project docs for container support.