Open-Source monday.com AI Alternatives: Self-Hosted Project Management With AI You Control
monday.com has turned its AI into a credit system: an AI assistant called Sidekick, AI agents, AI columns, a meeting notetaker and an AI workflow builder, all running in monday's cloud and paid per seat plus credits. If you would rather run your projects on your own server, keep client and investor data in-house and use your own or a local AI model, an open-source work management tool is the alternative. Few of them copy monday's AI one to one, so we checked what each one really offers in October 2026: licence, latest release, Gantt or timeline, dashboards and workload views, and whether its AI is built in, paid, or something you connect yourself. Tools that are abandoned or have no open-source edition are listed separately at the end.
Quick answer: for the closest open-source match to monday.com with AI agents, use Plane (AI on paid cloud plans or the self-hosted Commercial Edition); for classic and hybrid projects with Gantt charts and an MCP server for your own AI, use OpenProject; for founders who want AI status reports and prioritisation, use Leantime; for free AI that runs on your own computer, use AppFlowy with Local AI; and for monday-style tables with an AI column and a local model, use Baserow.
Boost Your SEO by Getting Featured in Our Blogs and get a backlink.
We publish content about startups, education, tech, funding, etc. that ranks well not only in Google but also in Perplexity, ChatGPT, Grok and other AI tools.
👉 Get featured now!
What monday.com AI Includes in 2027 and What It Costs
To know what you are replacing: on the monday.com pricing page (checked October 2026) the work management plans cost $9 (Basic), $12 (Standard) and $19 (Pro) per seat per month billed yearly, and paid plans start from 3 users. The Free plan covers up to 2 seats and 3 boards and has no AI. AI runs on credits: Basic includes 1,000 AI credits a month, Standard 2,000 and Pro 3,000, and you can buy more at any time. Basic gives you the AI agent workforce (limited), the Sidekick AI assistant and the Vibe app builder; Standard adds an AI meeting notetaker and AI columns that run repetitive work inside your boards; Pro adds an AI workflow builder that connects agents across teams. monday says a typical 3-person team uses about 800 to 1,200 credits a month. There is a 14-day free trial of Pro. Every tool below can be self-hosted for free; you pay for the server, the AI model and your own time instead.
Open-Source monday.com AI Alternatives Compared
Sources: each project's official website, pricing page, documentation and GitHub repository, checked 30 October 2026. Self-hosting is free, but you pay for the server, the AI model and your own time.
The Best Open-Source monday.com AI Alternatives in 2027
1. Plane: the closest open-source match, with Plane AI and agents
Plane calls itself project management and knowledge management for teams and agents, and its code is AGPL-3.0. It brings work items, docs and AI workflows into one workspace with Board, List, Spreadsheet and Gantt views and real-time dashboards for velocity, workload and blockers, which covers most of what teams use monday.com for. Plane AI drafts, analyses and plans work, answers questions with sources and asks for approval before it acts; built-in agents triage requests, assign owners, track blockers and post updates, and a native MCP server lets outside AI tools manage work in Plane. The catch is cost: on the Plane pricing page the Free plan has no AI credits and no dashboards, Pro costs $6 per seat per month billed yearly ($8 monthly) with 500 AI credits per seat, and Business costs $13 ($15 monthly) with 1,000 credits plus automations and workflows. AI credits are cloud only. If you self-host the Commercial Edition, Plane AI works with OpenAI, Anthropic or one custom OpenAI-compatible model such as Ollama, although Plane warns that a custom model needs at least 1 trillion parameters for every feature to work reliably. Version 1.4.3 came out in October 2026.
2. OpenProject: Gantt charts and portfolios, with an MCP server for your own AI
OpenProject is GPL-3.0 project management software for classic, agile and hybrid projects, with Gantt charts in the free Community edition, boards, time and cost tracking, and portfolio management as an Enterprise add-on. Instead of building its own assistant, OpenProject connects AI you choose: its MCP Server, released with OpenProject 17.2 on 11 March 2026, lets AI assistants create and update work packages, add comments and manage relations, but not delete work packages, and only with the connected user's permissions. It is an Enterprise add-on in the Professional plan and higher. Its AI page says you can connect commercial assistants, open-source clients or self-hosted language models, and lists AI text creation, semantic search and reporting support as planned, without dates. On the OpenProject pricing page Community is free and Enterprise Basic starts at €5.95 per user per month (Professional €10.95), with a minimum of 25 users. Version 17.9.6 came out in October 2026.
3. Leantime: AI status reports for founders who are not project managers
Leantime is an AGPL-3.0 project manager built with ADHD and neurodivergent users in mind. It covers much of monday.com's ground: kanban, Gantt, table, list and calendar views, project dashboards and status updates, goals and milestones, timesheets, wikis and a Lean or Business Model Canvas. Its AI, called L.E.O., collects status updates from the team, compiles status reports, helps you prioritise tasks and writes "Story Time" introductions to upcoming work, and there is an AI Coach. On the Leantime pricing page the cloud plan costs $8 per user per month billed yearly ($10 monthly) with 500 AI credits a month and a 14-day trial; there is no free cloud tier any more. The open-source Community Edition is free to self-host, and advanced features come as plugins from the Leantime marketplace. Version 3.13.0 came out in October 2026.
4. AppFlowy: task databases with free local AI
AppFlowy is an open-source (AGPL-3.0) AI workspace for docs, wikis and projects. It is closer to Notion than to monday.com, but its databases give you kanban boards for to-dos, which is enough for many small teams. The reason it is on this list is AppFlowy Local AI: since April 2025 it is free for everyone and runs open-source models such as Llama, DeepSeek R1, Gemma or Phi through Ollama on your own computer (macOS with an M1 chip or newer, Windows 10 or later, Linux). It covers AI chat and writing tools such as summarising, fixing grammar and continuing text, so nothing is sent to an AI provider. You can self-host AppFlowy or use its cloud, where Pro costs $12 per member per month billed yearly. Version 0.14.11 came out in October 2026.
Validate your startup idea with the unique borrowed authority approach: we publish articles about your product in our blog and you get traffic and testers for your MVP
- Prove Market Demand: See real organic traffic and waitlist conversions
- Unlock High-Potential Keywords: Receive a curated list of top-performing keywords directly from Google Search Console data.
- Estimate Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Gain financial foresight with an estimated CAC based on real keyword performance data.
🔗 Start validating your startup now
5. Baserow: monday-style tables with an AI column
Baserow is an open-source no-code database (MIT outside its premium and enterprise folders). monday.com boards are really tables with status, people and date columns, so Baserow is a natural fit if that is how you work. Its AI prompt field works like monday's AI columns: it generates text, summaries, classifications and insights in each row from prompts that reference other fields, and can regenerate when the data changes. On a self-hosted instance you choose the AI provider per workspace or for the whole instance: OpenAI, Anthropic, Ollama, OpenRouter or Mistral. Two limits: the free cloud plan only has grid, form and gallery views, and the AI prompt field needs Premium ($10 per user per month billed yearly) or higher. Version 2.4.1 came out in October 2026.
6. Huly: an all-in-one workspace, AI still to come
Huly describes itself as an open-source platform that replaces Linear, Jira, Slack and Notion in one app, and its source code is under the Eclipse Public License 2.0. It combines an issue tracker with two-way GitHub sync, a team planner that shows everyone's tasks on one calendar, collaborative docs, chat and video calls in a virtual office. For AI, its homepage only says that Huly AI is coming, so do not choose it for AI today. You can self-host it with Docker Compose or Kubernetes; the self-hosting guide warns that Huly is resource-heavy and needs at least 2 vCPUs and 8 GB of RAM. The code was still being updated at the end of October 2026.
7. Worklenz: time, workload and budgets for agencies, without AI
Worklenz presents itself as a free, open-source agency management platform (AGPL-3.0). It covers the monday.com features agencies pay for: task dependencies, phases and templates, one-click time tracking and timesheets with approvals, a resource scheduler, workload and capacity views, reporting dashboards, budget versus actual tracking, invoicing and a client portal. Its website mentions no AI features. There is a free forever cloud plan and a self-hosted version. Version 3.3.1 came out in October 2026.
8. Redmine: the veteran for many projects, no built-in AI
Redmine is a flexible project management web application released under the GNU General Public License v2. It supports multiple projects, Gantt charts, a calendar, issue tracking and time tracking, and it can be extended with plugins. It has no AI of its own, so treat it as a solid, free base that you extend with plugins. Version 7.0.2 was released on 30 September 2026.
9. Taiga and Vikunja: open-source boards without AI
Taiga (MPL-2.0) is built for agile teams with Scrum and Kanban, and Vikunja (AGPL-3.0) is a lighter to-do and project tool with list, Gantt, table and kanban views. Both are maintained (Taiga released 6.10.2 in July 2026, Vikunja 2.7.1 in October 2026), but neither official site mentions built-in AI. If what you really need is a board with AI, our guide to open-source Trello AI alternatives compares Kanboard, Wekan, Nextcloud Deck and others by their AI features.
Join ElonaHunt (like ProductHunt but for women) and explore the coolest women-focused startups out there!
Discover your next big inspiration and connect with like-minded female entrepreneurs!
👉 Join the Hunt Here
monday.com AI Alternatives That Are Discontinued or Changed
The 2025 version of this article listed tools that no longer belong on an open-source monday.com AI shortlist:
- Focalboard: its GitHub README says the standalone repository is not maintained, and focalboard.com did not load when we checked. Boards lives on as a plugin for Mattermost, a team chat tool. Use Plane or Vikunja instead.
- Plexo: the AI-powered project tool from Minsky has had no code change on GitHub since February 2024. Plane is the maintained choice for AI-assisted planning.
- ProjectLibre: the free desktop replacement for Microsoft Project is still open source (CPAL 1.0, version 1.9.8 from April 2025), but it has no AI. The AI Co-Pilot that builds schedules from a prompt belongs to the paid ProjectLibre Cloud, from $9.99 per user per month billed annually, which is not open source.
Which Open-Source monday.com AI Alternative Should You Choose?
- You want the closest replacement, AI agents included: Plane, on Pro or the self-hosted Commercial Edition.
- You run bigger projects with Gantt charts and want your own AI client: OpenProject with its MCP Server.
- You are a solo founder who hates status meetings: Leantime for AI status reports and prioritisation.
- You want free AI that never leaves your computer: AppFlowy with Local AI and Ollama.
- Your monday boards are really tables (leads, content, inventory): Baserow with an AI prompt field and Ollama or your own API key.
- You run an agency and bill by the hour: Worklenz, and add AI later.
- You want one app for tasks, docs, chat and calls: Huly, knowing its AI is not there yet.
Comparing other options too? See our lists of open-source monday.com alternatives without the AI angle, free monday.com AI alternatives and paid monday.com AI alternatives, plus open-source ClickUp AI alternatives, open-source Asana alternatives and open-source Wrike alternatives. Still choosing a hosted tool? Read ClickUp vs monday.com, Asana vs monday.com, Jira vs monday.com and Airtable vs monday.com.
How Founders Use Open-Source Project Management With AI
For an early-stage startup, the project tool is where the plan meets the week, and AI helps most with the boring parts: turning meeting notes into tasks, summarising long threads and writing the weekly update for your team or investors. Start with one workspace, a few projects tied to your goals and small tasks, and let the AI draft rather than decide. If customer or investor data sits in your tasks, a self-hosted tool with a local model keeps it on your own server. Our project management tools for startups list and our guide to project management for remote teams cover the basics. If you plan in docs more than in boards, read our guides to open-source Notion AI alternatives and open-source Airtable AI alternatives, and to connect your tools without monday's automations, look at the open-source Zapier alternatives.
See how other women founders combine these tools in our guide to AI tools for female founders' productivity and in the essential startup tool stack on mean.ceo. Before you build anything, 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 monday.com AI Alternatives
What is monday.com AI?
monday.com's AI is a set of tools paid with AI credits: the Sidekick AI assistant, an AI agent workforce, the Vibe app builder, an AI meeting notetaker, AI columns and an AI workflow builder. Which ones you get depends on the plan, from Basic upwards; the Free plan has no AI.
How much does monday.com cost in 2027?
When we checked in October 2026, monday.com work management cost $9 per seat per month billed yearly for Basic, $12 for Standard and $19 for Pro, with paid plans starting from 3 users. They include 1,000, 2,000 and 3,000 AI credits a month, and you can buy more.
What is the best open-source alternative to monday.com with AI?
Plane is the closest match: boards, lists, spreadsheets, Gantt, dashboards, Plane AI and built-in agents. Its AI needs a paid cloud plan or the self-hosted Commercial Edition; the free Community Edition has no AI.
Is there an open-source monday.com alternative with free AI?
Yes, if you run the model yourself. AppFlowy's Local AI has been free for everyone since April 2025 and runs through Ollama on your computer, and a self-hosted Baserow instance can use Ollama for its AI features, although the AI prompt field needs a Premium licence.
Can I use a local LLM with open-source project management?
Yes. AppFlowy and Baserow support Ollama, Plane's self-hosted Commercial Edition accepts one OpenAI-compatible model, and OpenProject's MCP Server lets you connect self-hosted language models through any MCP client.
Does OpenProject have AI?
OpenProject's AI is its MCP Server, released with version 17.2 on 11 March 2026. It lets AI assistants create and update work packages and comments, and it is an Enterprise add-on in the Professional plan and higher. AI writing help, semantic search and reporting are planned.
Is Focalboard still maintained?
The standalone Focalboard app is not: its GitHub README says the repository is not maintained. Boards continues as a plugin for Mattermost.
Is Leantime free?
The open-source Community Edition is free to self-host under AGPLv3. Leantime's cloud costs $8 per user per month billed yearly and includes the AI features and 500 AI credits a month; there is no free cloud tier.
Which open-source tool replaces monday.com for an agency?
Worklenz is built for agencies, with time tracking, timesheets, workload, budgets and a client portal, and it is AGPL-3.0. It has no AI, so pair it with an AI assistant you already use.
Where can I get a backlink by writing about my startup?
You can publish a guest post in one of the Fe/male Switch startup blogs, which rank in Google and in AI tools. Get a quality backlink.
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.
