Kanban Lite 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?
Kanban Lite
Minimal self-hosted kanban board in a single binary
VS
Taskcafe
Open-source project management with kanban boards
| Feature | Kanban Lite | Taskcafe |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Project Management & Tasks | Project Management & Tasks |
| License | MIT | MIT |
| Language | TypeScript | TypeScript |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Medium |
| Min. RAM | 128 MB | 256 MB |
| Deployment | bare-metal, source | docker, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,401 | ★ 5,208 |
| First released | 2015 | 2020 |
| Replaces | Trello, Kanboard | Trello, Asana |
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
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
Frequently asked questions
Is Kanban Lite or Taskcafe better?
Neither is universally better. Taskcafe has the larger community, while Kanban Lite is simpler to set up (easy difficulty). Choose based on the comparison table above and your own setup.
Are Kanban Lite and Taskcafe free and open-source?
Yes. Kanban Lite is licensed under MIT and Taskcafe under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Kanban Lite and Taskcafe with Docker?
Kanban Lite: check the project docs for container support. Taskcafe: yes.