Kanri vs Taskell
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted project management & tasks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Kanri | Taskell |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 77 · Good | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Project Management & Tasks | Project Management & Tasks |
| License | MIT | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | Vue | Haskell |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 2,035 | ★ 1,783 |
| First released | 2022 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Trello | Trello, Things |
What are Kanri and Taskell?
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
Taskell
Taskell is an open-source command-line kanban board application that stores boards as Markdown files. It offers a keyboard-driven terminal interface for managing personal task lists.
- Terminal kanban board
- Markdown file storage
- Keyboard-driven
- No database needed
Kanri vs Taskell: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Taskell's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Kanri is actively maintained. Kanri is written in Vue, while Taskell is built with Haskell. Licensing differs — MIT for Kanri versus BSD-3-Clause for Taskell. Taskell is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 128 MB for Kanri. Taskell is the more established project (first released 2018), while Kanri arrived in 2022. Kanri lists first-class Docker deployment; Taskell does not.
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 Taskell if…
- Released under the BSD-3-Clause license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.8k GitHub stars)
- Written in Haskell
Frequently asked questions
Is Kanri or Taskell better?
Neither is universally better. Kanri has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Kanri and Taskell free and open-source?
Yes. Kanri is licensed under MIT and Taskell under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kanri and Taskell with Docker?
Kanri: yes. Taskell: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Kanri or Taskell?
Taskell has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 128 MB for Kanri. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.