Kanri vs Leantime
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted project management & tasks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
Leantime
Goal-oriented project management for teams
| Feature | Kanri | Leantime |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Under-an-hour setup |
| Health score | 77 · Good | 93 · Excellent |
| Category | Project Management & Tasks | Project Management & Tasks |
| License | MIT | AGPL-3.0 |
| Language | Vue | PHP |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 512 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | docker, bare-metal |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,035 | ★ 11,645 |
| First released | 2022 | 2019 |
| Replaces | Trello | Asana, Trello, Notion |
What are Kanri and Leantime?
Kanri
Kanri is an offline-first kanban board desktop application built with Tauri and Vue. Boards are stored locally on your machine and support drag-and-drop cards, custom themes, and import/export, with no server or account required.
- Offline kanban boards
- Drag-and-drop cards
- Cross-platform desktop app
- Local data storage
Leantime
Leantime is an open-source project management system designed around goals, strategy, and accessibility for non-technical teams. It targets small businesses and creatives. It is deployed via Docker or a PHP stack.
- Goals and strategy boards
- Idea management and research
- Kanban and gantt views
- Designed for non-technical users
Kanri vs Leantime: key differences
Kanri is written in Vue, while Leantime is built with PHP. Licensing differs — MIT for Kanri versus AGPL-3.0 for Leantime. Kanri is the lighter option, starting around 128 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Leantime. Leantime is the more established project (first released 2019), while Kanri arrived in 2022. Leantime has the considerably larger community, at 11,645 GitHub stars versus 2,035.
Why pick each one
Choose Kanri 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 Leantime if…
- Goal-focused approach
- Accessible to non-techies
- Active development
Watch out for
- Less known
- Some features still evolving
Frequently asked questions
Is Kanri or Leantime better?
Neither is universally better. Leantime has the larger community, while Kanri is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Kanri and Leantime free and open-source?
Yes. Kanri is licensed under MIT and Leantime under AGPL-3.0. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kanri and Leantime with Docker?
Kanri: yes. Leantime: yes.
Which is lighter on resources, Kanri or Leantime?
Kanri has the smaller minimum footprint at 128 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Leantime. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.