Leantime vs May

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?
FeatureLeantimeMay
CategoryProject Management & TasksProject Management & Tasks
LicenseAGPL-3.0MIT
LanguagePHPPython
Setup difficultyMediumMedium
Min. RAM512 MB50 MB
Deploymentdocker, bare-metalbare-metal
GitHub stars★ 11,271★ 233
First released20192026
ReplacesAsana, Trello, Notion

Why pick each one

Choose Leantime if…

  • Goal-focused approach
  • Accessible to non-techies
  • Active development
Leantime details

Choose May if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • Written in Python
  • Tiny footprint — runs in 50 MB RAM
May details

Frequently asked questions

Is Leantime or May better?

Neither is universally better. Leantime has the larger community; both share a medium setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.

Are Leantime and May free and open-source?

Yes. Leantime is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and May under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.

Can I run Leantime and May with Docker?

Leantime: yes. May: check the project docs for container support.

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