Our verdict
Kanboard and Planka are both kanban tools for restaurants. On our independent rubric, Kanboard scores 4.0/5 versus 3.8/5 for Planka. Choose Kanboard if you're Teams that want a no-frills, fast Kanban board on a tiny server or Self-hosters who value MIT licensing and minimal dependencies; choose Planka if you're Teams wanting a modern, real-time self-hosted Trello alternative or Self-hosters who like a single-Docker-image deployment.
Side-by-side comparison
| Metric | Kanboard | Planka |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial score | 4.0/5 | 3.8/5 |
| G2 rating | — | — |
| Capterra rating | — | — |
| Starting price | Free (self-hosted, MIT license) | Free (self-hosted Community tier) |
| Free tier | ||
| Free trial | ||
| Integrations | 6 · LDAP / Active Directory, GitLab, Slack… | 4 · OIDC / SSO providers, 100+ notification providers (Apprise-style), Webhooks… |
| Best for | Teams that want a no-frills, fast Kanban board on a tiny server, Self-hosters who value MIT licensing and minimal dependencies, Workflows that benefit from strict WIP limits and automation | Teams wanting a modern, real-time self-hosted Trello alternative, Self-hosters who like a single-Docker-image deployment, Organizations needing OIDC SSO on a Kanban board |
| Category | kanban | kanban |
| Founded | 2014 | 2019 |
| HQ | — | Germany |
A teal check marks the stronger option on each measurable row. Ratings are sourced from G2/Capterra with attribution on each listing.
Kanboard
- Extremely lightweight and easy to self-host (PHP + SQLite)
- Permissive MIT license with no paid tiers
- WIP limits and rule-based automation built in
- Plugin system and JSON-RPC API for extension
- No Gantt charts, backlogs, or sprint tooling
- Minimalist UI may feel too bare for some teams
- Release cadence is slow (v1.2.42, Nov 2024)
Planka
- Modern UI with real-time multi-user sync
- Simple single-Docker-image self-hosting (PostgreSQL)
- OIDC single sign-on supported
- Widely used (12k+ stars, 8M+ Docker pulls); EU/GDPR-aligned vendor
- License is a custom "Fair Use License", not OSI-approved open source
- External collaboration, calendar, and recurring cards require paid Pro
- Kanban-focused; no Gantt or sprint tooling
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