Leantime 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.
Leantime
Goal-oriented project management for teams
VS
Taskell
Archived
Command-line kanban board stored in Markdown
| Feature | Leantime | Taskell |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 93 · Excellent | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Project Management & Tasks | Project Management & Tasks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | PHP | Haskell |
| Setup difficulty | Medium | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 512 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker, bare-metal | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 11,645 | ★ 1,783 |
| First released | 2019 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Asana, Trello, Notion | Trello, Things |
What are Leantime and Taskell?
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
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
Leantime vs Taskell: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Taskell's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Leantime is actively maintained. Leantime is written in PHP, while Taskell is built with Haskell. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Leantime versus BSD-3-Clause for Taskell. Taskell is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 512 MB for Leantime. Leantime has the considerably larger community, at 11,645 GitHub stars versus 1,783. Leantime lists first-class Docker deployment; Taskell does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Leantime if…
- Goal-focused approach
- Accessible to non-techies
- Active development
Watch out for
- Less known
- Some features still evolving
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 Leantime or Taskell better?
Neither is universally better. Leantime has the larger community, while Taskell is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Leantime and Taskell free and open-source?
Yes. Leantime is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Taskell under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Leantime and Taskell with Docker?
Leantime: yes. Taskell: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Leantime or Taskell?
Taskell has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 512 MB for Leantime. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.