Taskell vs Taskwarrior
A side-by-side comparison of two self-hosted project management & tasks options — licensing, setup difficulty, resource needs, and what each one replaces.
| Feature | Taskell | Taskwarrior |
|---|---|---|
| Deploy effort | Read-the-docs project | Read-the-docs project |
| Health score | 15 · At risk | 90 · Excellent |
| Status | Archived | Actively maintained |
| Category | Project Management & Tasks | Project Management & Tasks |
| License | BSD-3-Clause | MIT |
| Language | Haskell | C++ |
| Setup difficulty | Easy | Easy |
| Min. RAM | 64 MB | 64 MB |
| Deployment | binary, source | binary, source |
| GitHub stars | ★ 1,783 | ★ 6,084 |
| First released | 2018 | 2008 |
| Replaces | Trello, Things | Todoist, Things |
What are Taskell and Taskwarrior?
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
Taskwarrior
Taskwarrior is a flexible command-line task management tool. It manages a personal to-do list with priorities, projects, tags, dependencies, and powerful filtering.
- Powerful CLI task filtering
- Projects, tags, and dependencies
- Sync via Taskchampion server
- Scriptable and extensible
Taskell vs Taskwarrior: key differences
The biggest difference is maintenance: Taskell's repository is archived and no longer developed, while Taskwarrior is actively maintained. Taskell is written in Haskell, while Taskwarrior is built with C++. Licensing differs — BSD-3-Clause for Taskell versus MIT for Taskwarrior. Taskwarrior is the more established project (first released 2008), while Taskell arrived in 2018. Taskwarrior has the considerably larger community, at 6,084 GitHub stars versus 1,783.
Why pick each one
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
Choose Taskwarrior if…
- Released under the MIT license
- Easy to set up — beginner-friendly
- Mature project with 6.1k GitHub stars
- Written in C++
Frequently asked questions
Is Taskell or Taskwarrior better?
Neither is universally better. Taskwarrior has the larger community; both share a easy setup difficulty, so the decision comes down to features and licensing.
Are Taskell and Taskwarrior free and open-source?
Yes. Taskell is licensed under BSD-3-Clause and Taskwarrior under MIT. Both can be self-hosted at no software cost.
Can I run Taskell and Taskwarrior with Docker?
Taskell: check the project docs for container support. Taskwarrior: check the project docs for container support.