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Open-Source ClickUp Alternatives (2027): Self-Hosted Project Management With Boards, Gantt Charts and Time Tracking

Open-Source ClickUp Alternatives: Project Management With Boards, Gantt Charts and Time Tracking on Your Own Server

ClickUp is where many startups run their projects: tasks and subtasks, boards, Gantt charts, sprints and time tracking in one hosted app. It is also a subscription that grows with every person you add, and your project data lives on ClickUp's servers. If you want to own your project management, pay nothing per seat and keep client and investor plans on your own server, an open-source tool is the alternative. This guide is about project management itself: which open-source tools give you boards, Gantt charts, sprints and time tracking, what their licences allow, and whether they are still maintained. We checked every tool on its official site and GitHub in October 2026, and we list the old picks that are abandoned or not open source at the end. If you are mostly after ClickUp's AI, read our separate guide to open-source ClickUp AI alternatives. If your team mainly needs message boards, to-dos, files and chat in one calm place, our guide to open-source Basecamp alternatives is a better fit.
Quick answer: for the most complete open-source replacement with Gantt charts, boards, time tracking and meetings, use OpenProject; for a fast, modern tool with boards, Gantt and sprints (called cycles), use Plane; for Scrum and Kanban teams, use Taiga; for founders who are not project managers, use Leantime; for agencies that track time and clients, use Worklenz; and for a simple self-hosted task app with Kanban and Gantt views, use Vikunja.
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What ClickUp Offers for Project Management in 2027 and What It Costs

To know what you are replacing: ClickUp's homepage calls it one workspace built to think and work, with projects, sprints, time tracking, calendar, docs, whiteboards and automations in one app. On the ClickUp pricing page (default view, checked October 2026, US dollars billed yearly), Free Forever includes unlimited tasks, unlimited free members, Kanban boards, a calendar view, sprint management and time tracking, but only 60 MB of storage, and Gantt charts are a trial. Core showed $9 per user per month (marked down from a regular $12) with unlimited storage and unlimited Gantt charts. Business showed $17 (regular $25) and adds timesheets, workload view and resource management, Enterprise is custom-priced, and the AI-heavy Max plan costs $100 per user (regular $120).
So the features a growing team needs, Gantt charts, workload and timesheets, sit on the paid plans and are charged per user. Every tool below can be self-hosted for free: you pay for the server and your own time instead, and nobody counts your seats.

Open-Source ClickUp Alternatives Compared

ToolBest forLicenceProject viewsTime trackingHosted option (Oct 2026)
OpenProjectFull project management: Gantt, boards, meetings, budgetsGPL-3.0Gantt, agile boards, team plannerYes, with cost reportingCommunity free; Enterprise from €5.95/user/month
PlaneModern teams that ship in sprintsAGPL-3.0List, Board, Calendar, Gantt, SpreadsheetPro planFree cloud up to 12 users; Pro $6/seat/month yearly
TaigaScrum and Kanban teamsMPL-2.0Kanban, Scrum backlog, burndownNoCloud free for 1 private project; paid from €5/month
LeantimeFounders who are not project managersAGPL-3.0Kanban, table, list, milestonesTimesheetsCloud $8/user/month yearly
RedmineIssue tracking with Gantt and a wikiGPL-2.0Issues, Gantt, calendarYesSelf-host only (official)
VikunjaSimple tasks and small teamsAGPL-3.0List, Kanban, Gantt, tablePaid add-on (beta)Cloud from €4/month
WorklenzAgencies with clients and billable hoursAGPL-3.0Kanban, list, roadmapYes, timesheetsFree cloud up to 3 active projects
HulyProduct teams that also want chat and docsEPL-2.0Issue tracker, team plannerTime-blockingFree cloud with 10 GB storage
Kanboard, WeKanA light Kanban boardMITKanbanEstimates onlySelf-host
Sources: each project's official website, pricing page and GitHub repository, checked October 2026. Prices as shown in each pricing page's default view; self-hosting is free, but you pay for the server and your own time.

The Best Open-Source ClickUp Alternatives in 2027

1. OpenProject: the most complete open-source project management suite

OpenProject is classic, agile or hybrid project management software, licensed under the GNU GPL v3. It covers the structured side of ClickUp and more: work packages with phases and milestones, Gantt charts for project plans, agile boards for Scrum and Kanban, a team planner that shows who works on what each week, time tracking with cost reporting and budgets, meeting management and a wiki. The Community edition is free of charge with unlimited users and projects and installs on major Linux distributions or with Docker. On the OpenProject pricing page (default view, euros) the Enterprise plans start at €5.95 per user per month for Basic, then €10.95 for Professional and €15.95 for Premium; both the cloud and an on-premises Enterprise licence can be tried free for 14 days, and the Enterprise cloud is hosted in the EU or, if you wish, in Germany. Version 17.9.6 came out in October 2026.

2. Plane: a modern, fast project tool with boards, Gantt and cycles

Plane is the open-source tool that feels most like ClickUp's project side, and its code is AGPL-3.0. Work items can be shown as a list, board, calendar, Gantt chart or spreadsheet; cycles time-box your sprints with velocity tracking and burndown charts, modules break work into blocks, and project pages keep specs next to the work. You can run it in Plane's cloud, self-host it with Docker or Kubernetes, or install it in an air-gapped network. Plane offers migration from Jira, Linear, ClickUp, Asana and monday.com, and its native importers work on every edition, including the free Community edition. On the Plane pricing page the cloud Free plan covers up to 12 users with all five layouts, cycles and modules. Pro costs $6 per seat per month billed yearly and adds time tracking and work logs, a workspace wiki and dashboards; Business costs $13. Plane also sells AI features on its paid plans; you do not need them for project management. Version 1.4.3 came out in October 2026.

3. Taiga: Scrum and Kanban for agile teams

Taiga is a free and open-source project management tool for cross-functional agile teams; its backend code is under the Mozilla Public License 2.0. It is built around agile methods: a Kanban board with WIP limits, swimlanes, epics and sub-tasks, and a Scrum side with a backlog, sprint planning, estimation and burndown charts, plus issue tracking and dashboards. Gantt charts and time tracking are not on its feature list, so it suits teams that work in sprints rather than plan against fixed dates. You can self-host it for free, or use Taiga's cloud: according to its deployment and pricing page, the free plan allows one public and one private project with 10 MB of storage, and paid plans cost €5, €20 or €60 a month for the whole account, all with unlimited users. Version 6.10.2 came out in July 2026.

4. Leantime: project management for founders who are not project managers

Leantime calls itself project management for the non-project manager, built with ADHD and neurodivergence in mind, and its code is AGPL-3.0. Each project has to-dos in Kanban, table or list views with subtasks and dependencies, milestones on a timeline, ideas, docs, reports, timesheets and retrospectives. A personal dashboard collects your tasks from all projects, with time blocking, private notes and whiteboards. On the Leantime pricing page the cloud plan costs $8 per user per month billed yearly ($10 monthly) with a 14-day trial and includes AI features. The open-source Community Edition is free to self-host under AGPLv3, with advanced features available as plugins. Version 3.13.2 came out at the end of October 2026.
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5. Redmine: the veteran issue tracker with Gantt charts and a wiki

Redmine is a flexible project management web application that you host yourself, written in Ruby on Rails and released under the GNU General Public License v2. Its core features are multiple projects with role-based access, an issue tracking system, a Gantt chart and calendar, per-project wikis and forums, time tracking, custom fields and integration with Git and Subversion. It looks dated next to ClickUp, and Kanban boards come from third-party plugins, but it is stable and still released: versions 7.0.2 and 6.1.5 came out in September 2026. It is built and maintained by community volunteers, so there is no official paid cloud; plan to run it on your own server.

6. Vikunja: a simple task manager with list, Kanban and Gantt views

Vikunja is open-source task management under the AGPLv3: you can read every line of its code and self-host it for free. It starts as a personal to-do list and grows into shared team projects, with list, Kanban, Gantt and table views, reminders, repeating tasks, labels and saved filters, and it imports tasks from Todoist, Trello and Microsoft To-Do. On the Vikunja pricing page the hosted Vikunja Cloud costs €4 a month for one person or €5 per user per month for an organization, with a 14-day trial, and it is made and hosted in the EU. Time tracking, an admin panel and audit logs come in a paid Pro add-on for self-hosted instances, which was still in private beta in October 2026. Version 2.7.1 came out in October 2026.

7. Worklenz: projects, clients and billable time for agencies

Worklenz manages projects, clients and teams in one place: task management with Kanban boards, time tracking and timesheets, budgets, workload and resource planning, project roadmaps and a client portal where clients see progress without status emails. That makes it the best fit here for agencies, consultants and service startups that bill by the hour. Its source code is AGPL-3.0, and the self-hosted Community version is free. On the Worklenz pricing page the free cloud plan allows unlimited users and up to 3 active projects, with a 14-day trial of the paid plans. Version 3.3.1 came out in October 2026.

8. Huly: an issue tracker with planner, docs and chat

Huly is an open-source platform that wants to replace Linear, Jira, Slack and Notion at once, and its code is under the Eclipse Public License 2.0. For project work it offers an issue tracker with two-way GitHub sync, a team planner that shows everyone's tasks in one calendar and time-blocking for your day, next to documents, chat and video calls. On the Huly pricing page the free cloud plan has unlimited users and 10 GB of storage per workspace, and the next plan costs $19.99 a month. To self-host it, the self-hosting guide asks for at least 2 vCPUs and 8 GB of RAM. Its latest tagged release dates from July 2026, while the code was still being updated in October 2026.

9. Kanboard and WeKan: light Kanban boards you can host anywhere

If ClickUp was too much and you only need a board, Kanboard is a minimal Kanban tool under the MIT License: limits on work in progress, drag-and-drop tasks with subtasks and time estimates, a simple search language and automatic actions, translated into more than 30 languages. WeKan (MIT) is a Trello-like board with lists, cards, checklists, labels and board-level permissions. Both are maintained: Kanboard released 1.2.57 and WeKan 12.75 in October 2026. For more board tools, see our guide to open-source Trello AI alternatives.
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ClickUp Alternatives That Are Discontinued, Changed or Not Open Source

The 2025 version of this article listed four tools that no longer belong on an open-source ClickUp shortlist:
  • Focalboard: its GitHub README says the standalone repository is currently not maintained, its last release dates from January 2024, and focalboard.com did not load when we checked. Boards lives on as a plugin for Mattermost. Use Vikunja or Plane instead.
  • Tillywork: its official GitHub repository no longer exists and its website did not load when we checked, so we removed it.
  • NocoBase: a no-code platform for building your own apps, not a ready project management tool, and its licence adds extra terms to Apache-2.0. For database-style tools, see our open-source Airtable AI alternatives.
  • Freedcamp: a hosted project tool with a free plan, but not open-source software, so you cannot self-host it. See our free ClickUp alternatives for free hosted tools.

Which Open-Source ClickUp Alternative Should You Choose?

  • You plan projects against dates, budgets and milestones: OpenProject.
  • You want the closest feel to ClickUp, with boards, Gantt and sprints: Plane.
  • Your team runs Scrum or Kanban and does not need Gantt charts: Taiga.
  • You are a founder who finds project tools overwhelming: Leantime.
  • You need a stable issue tracker with a wiki and time tracking: Redmine.
  • You track billable hours and want a client portal: Worklenz.
  • You want a simple task app for yourself and a small team: Vikunja.
  • You want tasks, docs and chat in one open-source app: Huly.
  • You just need a board: Kanboard or WeKan.
Still comparing? See our lists of open-source monday.com AI alternatives, open-source Asana alternatives, open-source Wrike alternatives and free ClickUp AI alternatives. If you may stay with a hosted tool, read ClickUp vs monday.com and ClickUp vs Notion.

How Founders Use an Open-Source Project Management Tool

In an early-stage startup, project management is less about Gantt charts and more about one list of what matters this week. Start with one project tied to your current goal, such as launching a landing page or running 20 customer interviews, a board with three columns and a short weekly review. Add Gantt charts when you have dependencies and dates you promised to someone, and time tracking when you bill clients or need to know where the hours go. Self-hosting pays off when you handle client or investor data, or when your team grows and per-seat prices add up; until then, a free cloud plan of the same open-source tool is fine, and you can move to your own server later.
Most founders pair a task tool with a wiki: see open-source Notion alternatives and open-source Notion AI alternatives; for team chat, our open-source Slack alternatives; to connect your tools, the open-source Zapier alternatives; and for personal to-dos, the free Todoist alternatives. Our project management tools for startups list and the guide to project management for remote teams cover the basics. Before you plan a big build, validate your startup idea with real customers, and turn what you learn into articles with the F/MS AI SEO Tool so people find you in Google and AI assistants.

FAQ About Open-Source ClickUp Alternatives

What is the best open-source alternative to ClickUp?

For complete project management, OpenProject: Gantt charts, agile boards, a team planner, time tracking, meetings and a wiki, free with unlimited users in the Community edition. If you want a more modern interface with boards, Gantt and sprints, choose Plane.

Is there a free open-source ClickUp alternative?

Yes. OpenProject, Plane, Taiga, Leantime, Redmine, Vikunja, Worklenz, Huly, Kanboard and WeKan can all be self-hosted for free. You pay only for the server and the time to run it.

Which open-source ClickUp alternative has Gantt charts?

OpenProject, Plane, Redmine and Vikunja have Gantt charts. Leantime shows milestones on a timeline and Worklenz has a project roadmap view.

Which open-source project tool has time tracking?

OpenProject, Redmine, Leantime and Worklenz track time in their free versions. Plane includes time tracking on its paid Pro plan, and Vikunja offers it in a Pro add-on for self-hosted instances that was in private beta in October 2026.

How much does ClickUp cost in 2027?

When we checked in October 2026, ClickUp's Free Forever plan cost $0 with 60 MB of storage, Core showed $9 per user per month billed yearly, Business $17 and Max $100, while Enterprise is custom-priced.

Can I self-host a ClickUp alternative?

Yes. Every tool on this list can run on your own server. OpenProject installs on major Linux distributions or with Docker, Plane runs with Docker or Kubernetes, and Huly asks for at least 2 vCPUs and 8 GB of RAM.

Is Taiga still maintained?

Yes. Taiga released version 6.10.2 in July 2026 and still offers a free self-hosted version plus a cloud with a free plan for one private project.

Is Focalboard still a good ClickUp alternative?

No. Its GitHub README says the standalone repository is currently not maintained, and its last release dates from January 2024. Boards continues as a Mattermost plugin.

Do I need AI in my project management tool?

Not to manage projects. If you want AI that summarises, plans and runs agents, read our guide to open-source ClickUp AI alternatives, which compares the tools whose AI you can host or control yourself.

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About the Author

Violetta Bonenkamp, also known as MeanCEO, is an experienced startup founder with an impressive educational background including an MBA and four other higher education degrees. She has over 20 years of work experience across multiple countries, including 5 years as a solopreneur and serial entrepreneur. Throughout her startup experience she has applied for multiple startup grants at the EU level, in the Netherlands and Malta, and her startups received quite a few of those. She’s been living, studying and working in many countries around the globe and her extensive multicultural experience has influenced her immensely.
2026-10-31 19:47 Top Alternatives