Kanban vs OpenEMR
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?
Kanban
Minimal kanban board for personal task tracking
VS
OpenEMR
Electronic health records and medical practice management solution
| Feature | Kanban | OpenEMR |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Project Management & Tasks | Project Management & Tasks |
| License | MIT | GPL-3.0 |
| Language | Vue | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 50 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,988 | ★ 5,352 |
| First released | 2022 | 2025 |
| Replaces | Trello | — |
Why pick each one
Choose Kanban if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- First-class Docker support for quick deployment
- Active community (2k GitHub stars)
Choose OpenEMR if…
- Released under the GPL-3.0 license
- Mature project with 5.4k GitHub stars
- Written in PHP
- Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
Frequently asked questions
Is Kanban or OpenEMR better?
Neither is universally better. OpenEMR has the larger community, while Kanban is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Kanban and OpenEMR free and open-source?
Yes. Kanban is licensed under MIT and OpenEMR under GPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kanban and OpenEMR with Docker?
Kanban: yes. OpenEMR: check the project docs for container support.