SHSelfHostIndex

Planka vs Taskcafe

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 TA Taskcafe Open-source project management with kanban boards
FeaturePlankaTaskcafe
Deploy effortUnder-an-hour setupUnder-an-hour setup
Health score94 · Excellent21 · At risk
CategoryProject Management & TasksProject Management & Tasks
LicenseAGPL-3.0MIT
LanguageJavaScriptTypeScript
Setup difficultyEasyMedium
Min. RAM256 MB256 MB
Deploymentdockerdocker, source
GitHub stars★ 12,576★ 5,214
First released20192020
ReplacesTrelloTrello, Asana

What are Planka and Taskcafe?

Planka

Planka is an open-source kanban board for workgroups with real-time updates, labels, and a clean Trello-like interface. It targets small teams wanting fast, simple boards. It is deployed via Docker.

  • Real-time collaborative boards
  • Cards, labels and due dates
  • Markdown descriptions
  • Clean Trello-like UI

Read the full Planka guide →

Taskcafe

Taskcafe is an open-source project management tool inspired by Trello and Asana. It offers kanban boards, task assignment, due dates, and a clean interface.

  • Kanban project boards
  • Task assignment and labels
  • Due dates and checklists
  • GraphQL API

Planka vs Taskcafe: key differences

Planka is written in JavaScript, while Taskcafe is built with TypeScript. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Planka versus MIT for Taskcafe. Planka has the considerably larger community, at 12,576 GitHub stars versus 5,214.

Why pick each one

Choose Planka if…

  • Fast real-time updates
  • Familiar interface
  • Lightweight

Watch out for

  • Fewer features than rivals
  • Requires Postgres
Planka details

Choose Taskcafe if…

  • Released under the MIT license
  • First-class Docker support for quick deployment
  • Mature project with 5.2k GitHub stars
  • Written in TypeScript
Taskcafe details

Frequently asked questions

Is Planka or Taskcafe better?

Planka is the stronger all-round pick: it has both the larger community and the simpler easy setup. Consider Taskcafe if its specific feature set fits your needs better.

Are Planka and Taskcafe free and open-source?

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

Can I run Planka and Taskcafe with Docker?

Planka: yes. Taskcafe: yes.

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