Planka vs Kanban Lite
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?
Planka
Realtime kanban board for workgroups
VS
Kanban Lite
Minimal self-hosted kanban board in a single binary
| Feature | Planka | Kanban Lite |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Project Management & Tasks | Project Management & Tasks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MIT |
| Language | JavaScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 128 MB |
| Deployment | docker | bare-metal, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 12,330 | ★ 1,401 |
| First released | 2019 | 2015 |
| Replaces | Trello | Trello, Kanboard |
Why pick each one
Choose Kanban Lite if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Active community (1.4k GitHub stars)
- Written in TypeScript
Frequently asked questions
Is Planka or Kanban Lite better?
Neither is universally better. Planka has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Planka and Kanban Lite free and open-source?
Yes. Planka is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Kanban Lite under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Planka and Kanban Lite with Docker?
Planka: yes. Kanban Lite: check the project docs for container support.