Kanboard vs PLANKA

Kanboard

• Teams that want a kanban board on a server they control
• Organizations that sign in through LDAP, Active Directory or OAuth2
• People who prefer a deliberately small feature set

PLANKA

• Teams that must keep project data on their own servers
• Organizations that want a kanban tool hosted in Germany
• Home labs and clubs, which the free Community edition is aimed at

Kanboard

• There is no hosted version: you install and maintain it yourself, which needs PHP 8.1 or later, a web server and a database.
• The project is in maintenance mode; the main developer makes only small fixes, and releases depend on community contributions.
• There is no official mobile app. The web interface is responsive, but the docs say the board is not practical on small screens.
• Gantt charts, a calendar and Slack or GitHub connections come from separately installed plugins, which the project does not review.

PLANKA

• The Community edition is source-available under a Fair Use License and has no single sign-on, guest roles, templates or calendar view.
• Hosted Pro has a 5-user minimum. Prices are in euros, exclude VAT, and are offered to organizations rather than private individuals.
• Moving a Community installation to Pro is one-way: the vendor says the only route back is a backup made before the upgrade.
• The apps page lists only a community-built quick-add app. PLANKA runs in the browser, and full phone and tablet support is a Pro feature.

Kanboard

Kanban board with WIP limits

Tasks are dragged between columns that can be added, renamed or removed at any time. A column that goes over its task limit is highlighted.

Tasks and subtasks

Tasks are described in Markdown and carry comments, attachments, a category, a color, an assignee and a due date. Subtasks hold time or complexity estimates.

Search and filters

A query language finds tasks by assignee, description, category or due date, and custom filters can be applied to the board.

Automatic actions

Per-project rules react to events such as a task moving to a column, then close the task or change its assignee, color or category.

Time tracking

Tasks and subtasks record estimated and spent hours. A subtask timer logs the time between status changes and adds it to the task's total.

Project analytics

Each project has a cumulative flow diagram, a burndown chart based on story points, and reports on average lead and cycle time.

PLANKA

Projects, boards, lists and cards

Cards are dragged between lists and hold Markdown descriptions, checklists with assignable tasks, labels, custom fields, due dates, attachments and a stopwatch.

Real-time sync

Changes reach every connected user over WebSockets without a page refresh. Pro adds live presence and collaborative editing of card descriptions.

Board views

The Community edition has 3 board views and Pro has 6, adding calendar, timeline and map views plus views across every board of a project.

Worker and guest roles

Pro adds workers, who can edit only the cards they are assigned, and read-only guests who see what is shared with them. Each Pro user includes a quota of 5 guests.

Templates and recurring cards

Board templates, card templates and recurring cards are part of Pro. The comparison table marks automated workflows as coming soon.

REST API and webhooks

Both editions include a documented REST API, personal API keys, webhooks for more than 50 events, and notifications through more than 100 providers.

Kanboard

• Kanboard$0

  The complete application, installed on your own Linux, FreeBSD or Windows server with SQLite, MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL.

PLANKA

• Community€0

  Free self-hosted edition under a Fair Use License: boards, lists, cards, custom fields, a stopwatch, webhooks, a REST API and two-factor authentication.

• Pro Self-Hosted€7.20

  per user / month, billed yearly (€7.90 billed monthly)

  Minimum 1 user, 5 guests per user. Adds worker and guest roles, OIDC single sign-on, templates, calendar and map views, and support replies within 24 hours on business days.

• Pro Hosted€8.50

  per user / month, billed yearly (€9.40 billed monthly)

  Minimum 5 users. A dedicated instance hosted in Germany with 5 GB of pooled storage and 5 guests per user; 10 GB per user costs €1.60 more.

• EnterpriseCustom

  From 500 users hosted or 1,000 self-hosted. Custom licensing, SLA agreements, dedicated servers, custom development and an included installation service.

Kanboard

No public discounts listed.

PLANKA

• Annual discount

  Lower per-user price with yearly billing

  Self-hosted Pro is €7.20 per user / month billed yearly against €7.90 billed monthly, and hosted Pro is €8.50 against €9.40: about 9% to 10% less.

• Other savings

  Lower per-user price from 250 users

  The pricing calculator charges €5.80 per user / month billed yearly from 250 self-hosted users and €5.10 from 500. Hosted Pro drops to €7.60 from 250 users.