Free Open Source Project Management Software

What "Free" Actually Means in Open Source

The word "free" in open source software carries two distinct meanings. Free as in freedom means the source code is available for anyone to inspect, modify, and distribute under a recognized open source license. Free as in cost means there is no charge to use the software. Most open source project management tools are free in both senses, but the details matter because some vendors use open source branding while restricting key features behind paid tiers.

The open-core model is the most common business approach. The vendor releases a community edition with the core functionality under an open source license and sells an enterprise edition with additional features like SSO integration, advanced analytics, or priority support. The critical question for teams evaluating free options is whether the community edition includes enough functionality to run their projects effectively, or whether essential features are locked behind the paywall.

Every tool in this guide ships a community or self-hosted edition that is genuinely useful for professional project management. None of them impose user limits, project caps, or storage restrictions in their free tier. The only costs are the infrastructure to run the software (a server or VPS) and the time to maintain the deployment.

OpenProject Community Edition

OpenProject's Community Edition is released under the GNU GPL v3 and includes the full project management suite: work package tracking with customizable types and statuses, interactive Gantt charts with dependency management, Scrum and Kanban boards, time tracking with cost reporting, roadmap planning, and per-project wikis. There are no user limits, no project restrictions, and no storage caps. The community edition is the same codebase used in the enterprise and cloud editions, with certain features (LDAP/SAML authentication, two-factor authentication, custom branding, and premium support) reserved for the paid tiers.

For most small to mid-size teams, the community edition is fully sufficient. The features reserved for the enterprise edition primarily address the needs of large organizations with complex identity management requirements. If your team uses email-based authentication and does not need SSO integration with an existing identity provider, the community edition covers everything you need.

The total cost of running OpenProject depends on your infrastructure choice. A VPS with 4 to 8 GB RAM costs between $20 and $50 per month from providers like Hetzner, DigitalOcean, or Linode. For organizations with existing on-premises servers, the incremental cost of adding an OpenProject instance is effectively zero.

Plane Community Edition

Plane's Community Edition is licensed under AGPL v3 and ships the entire platform without feature restrictions. Issues, cycles, modules, the built-in wiki, board views, timeline views, and analytics are all available in the self-hosted edition. There are no limits on users, projects, or storage. This is unusual in the open-core landscape, where vendors typically gate popular features like analytics or timeline views behind their paid offerings.

Plane's commercial editions (Cloud and Enterprise) add managed hosting, priority support, and AI-powered features that are still under active development. For teams that self-host, the community edition provides the same application without these cloud-specific services. The Docker Compose deployment includes all the components needed for production use, and the documentation is comprehensive and well-maintained.

Plane's rapid development pace means that new features land in the community edition frequently. The project ships updates with meaningful additions, and the community can access these features as soon as they are merged into the main branch. This makes Plane one of the most actively improving free project management tools available.

Taiga

Taiga is fully open source under the Mozilla Public License 2.0 with no separate enterprise edition. Every feature is available in the same codebase: Scrum backlogs with story points and velocity tracking, sprint planning and taskboards, burndown charts, Kanban boards with WIP limits, issue tracking, and a project wiki. There is no paid tier that unlocks additional functionality. The project is sustained through community contributions and optional hosted services.

This approach makes Taiga one of the purest "free" options. There is no tension between the free and paid editions because there is only one edition. Teams get the complete platform at no software cost. The trade-off is that Taiga has a narrower feature set than OpenProject or Plane, focused specifically on agile project management without traditional project planning tools like Gantt charts or resource scheduling.

Leantime

Leantime takes a distinctive position in the free project management space. Its open source edition, licensed under AGPL v3, includes Kanban boards, task lists, calendar views, timesheets with timer-based tracking, a project wiki, Lean Canvas for business model planning, SWOT analysis tools, idea management, and goal tracking. None of these features are restricted or time-limited. The commercial offering provides managed hosting and support, but the self-hosted edition is complete.

What makes Leantime particularly valuable as a free tool is its strategic planning capabilities. Most free project management tools focus on task execution, leaving business strategy to separate (often expensive) tools. Leantime bridges this gap by connecting daily tasks to larger business objectives through its goal and idea management features. For startups and small businesses that cannot afford separate tools for strategy and execution, this combination is compelling.

Deployment requires only a LAMP stack (Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP) or Docker, which makes Leantime accessible to organizations with basic web hosting experience. Shared hosting plans that cost as little as $5 per month can run Leantime, making it the most affordable deployment option among all the tools in this guide.

Kanboard and WeKan

For teams that need only a Kanban board without the overhead of a full project management suite, Kanboard and WeKan are free, focused, and lightweight. Kanboard runs on PHP with SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL, requiring as little as 512 MB RAM. It includes subtasks, automated actions, time tracking, and integrations with Slack, GitLab, and LDAP. WeKan runs on Meteor with MongoDB and offers a richer interface with swimlanes, checklists, card templates, and board-level access controls. Both are licensed under open source terms (MIT for WeKan, MIT for Kanboard) with no commercial edition that gates additional features.

These tools are ideal for teams that have tried full project management platforms and found them overly complex for their actual workflow. A marketing team tracking campaign tasks, an operations team managing incoming requests, or a small development team organizing their backlog may find that a Kanban board is all they need. The simplicity of these tools also means lower maintenance overhead and faster onboarding for new team members.

Hidden Costs to Consider

While the software itself is free, self-hosting introduces costs that teams should budget for. Server infrastructure is the most obvious, ranging from $5 per month for a small VPS to $100 or more for a server with enough resources for a large team. Administration time is the less visible cost: someone on your team needs to handle deployments, updates, backups, and troubleshooting. For teams without dedicated operations staff, this can represent several hours per month.

Email delivery for notifications typically requires an SMTP service. Free tiers from providers like Mailgun, SendGrid, or Amazon SES cover the volume that most project management tools generate, but if your team is large enough, you may need a paid email delivery plan. SSL certificates from Let's Encrypt are free and automated, so HTTPS does not add any cost.

The most important hidden cost is the risk of not maintaining your deployment. A project management tool that goes unpatched, unmonitored, and unbacked-up is a liability. If you are not prepared to invest the ongoing effort to keep the system healthy, a vendor's cloud-hosted edition may be more cost-effective in the long run, even with per-user fees.