Planka 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.
Planka
Realtime kanban board for workgroups
VS
Taskell
Archived
Command-line kanban board stored in Markdown
| Feature | Planka | Taskell |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Under-an-hour setup | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 94 · Excellent | 15 · At risk |
| Status | Actively maintained | Archived |
| Category | Project Management & Tasks | Project Management & Tasks |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | BSD-3-Clause |
| Language | JavaScript | Haskell |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 256 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | docker | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 12,576 | ★ 1,783 |
| First released | 2019 | 2018 |
| Replaces | Trello | Trello, Things |
What are Planka and Taskell?
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
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
Planka vs Taskell: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Taskell's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Planka is actively maintained. Planka is written in JavaScript, while Taskell is built with Haskell. Licensing differs — AGPL-3.0 for Planka versus BSD-3-Clause for Taskell. Taskell is the lighter option, starting around 64 MB of RAM against 256 MB for Planka. Planka has the considerably larger community, at 12,576 GitHub stars versus 1,783. Planka lists first-class Docker deployment; Taskell does not.
Why pick each one
Choose Planka if…
- Fast real-time updates
- Familiar interface
- Lightweight
Watch out for
- Fewer features than rivals
- Requires Postgres
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 Planka or Taskell 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 Taskell free and open-source?
Yes. Planka is licensed under AGPL-3.0 and Taskell under BSD-3-Clause. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Planka and Taskell with Docker?
Planka: yes. Taskell: check the project docs for container support.
Which is lighter on resources, Planka or Taskell?
Taskell has the smaller minimum footprint at 64 MB of RAM, compared to about 256 MB for Planka. Real-world usage depends on library size, user count, and enabled features.