PLANKA vs WeKan
We give PLANKA a 3.0 GPA and WeKan a 3.6, out of 4.0. WeKan grades higher on value for money, the free plan and features. They get the same grade on ease of use and platforms.
Price, platforms and features side by side. The table says where each price was read and when.
PLANKA
Self-hosted kanban boards with a free Community edition
WeKan
Open-source kanban boards with swimlanes, self-hosted or hosted
How we grade them
| 3.0GPAPLANKAVery good | 3.6GPAWeKanExcellent | |
|---|---|---|
| Value for money | BSelf-hosted Pro is €7.20 per user a month billed yearly, or €7.90 monthly. That's about the going rate for project tools, and you still run the server. Having PLANKA host it in Germany is €8.50, with a 5-user minimum. | AThe software is MIT licensed and free. If you'd rather not run a server, hosted WeKan with the Admin Panel and a custom domain is €50 per year, which is less than most rivals charge for one user. Paid support is separate and starts at €500 a year with 5 hours. |
| Free plan and trial | BThe Community edition is free to self-host, with boards, lists, cards, custom fields, a stopwatch and a REST API. But there's no free hosted plan, so it's only free if you can run a server. Pro has a 30-day trial with no credit card. | ATwo free routes. Install the MIT-licensed server yourself, where the first registered user gets the Admin Panel, or use the free hosted app, which gives Normal User access with no Admin Panel. Either way the boards themselves cost nothing. |
| Features | BCards hold checklists, labels, custom fields, due dates and a stopwatch, and changes sync live without a refresh. Solid kanban. But calendar, timeline and map views, templates and recurring cards are all Pro, and automated workflows are marked coming soon. | ACards in lists and swimlanes with work-in-progress limits, and boards you can flip to a table, calendar, Gantt chart or statistics view. Cards carry checklists, subtasks, custom fields and card-to-card dependencies. Rules pair a trigger with an action, and each board has nine roles. |
| Ease of use | BNo app rating on record, so a B at best. Hosted Pro means no server to run, though it starts at 5 users and isn't sold to private individuals. The free edition is a self-hosting job, and moving from Community to Pro is one-way unless you kept a backup. | BNo app rating on record, so a B at best. The maintainer will host it for you, free without the Admin Panel or €50 a year with it. Most people install it themselves from a Snap, a Docker image or a bundle, which is the bigger job: only the newest release is supported, and you're asked to keep daily backups. |
| Platforms and integrations | BIt runs in the browser, and both editions have a REST API and webhooks for more than 50 events. No phone apps, though: the apps page lists only a community-built quick-add app, and full phone and tablet support is a Pro feature. | BIt runs in the browser, with outgoing webhooks, a public API and imports from Trello, Jira, Kanboard, CSV and Excel. The Android and Windows store apps are full-screen web browsers with no native functions, and iOS users are pointed to a browser. |
| Best for | kanban boards on your own server | a free open-source kanban board with swimlanes |
The GPA is the average of the five grades: an A is 4 points, an F is none. The full reasons are on each tool's page: PLANKA and WeKan. How we grade
Where they differ
- PLANKA starts at €7.20 per user / month, billed yearly (self-hosted Pro). WeKan starts at €50 per year for hosted WeKan with the Admin Panel.
- Only WeKan lists Windows and Android apps.
- WeKan is open source, according to its own site.
- PLANKA also covers templates and time tracking.
- WeKan also covers Gantt & timelines and workflow automation.
At a glance
| PLANKA | WeKan | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing | Free plan | Free plan |
| Starts at | €7.20 per user / month, billed yearly (self-hosted Pro) | €50 per year for hosted WeKan with the Admin Panel |
| Free plan | Community edition: free to self-host under a Fair Use License, with boards, lists, cards, comments, attachments, real-time sync and 3 board views. There is no free hosted plan. | The MIT-licensed server is free to install on your own machine. A free hosted WeKan app at boards.wekan.team gives Normal User access with no Admin Panel. |
| Free trial | 30-day free trial of self-hosted Pro with 10 users and 50 guests, no credit card | None listed |
| Web | ||
| Windows | ||
| Android | ||
| Made by | PLANKA Software GmbH | WeKan (Lauri Ojansivu) |
| Price read from | planka.app | wekan.fi |
| Checked | Oct 9, 2026 | Oct 9, 2026 |
Who each one suits
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
WeKan
- Organizations that want a kanban board on their own server
- Teams moving from Trello, Jira or Kanboard with boards to import
- Small teams that want low-cost hosting on servers in the EU
Worth knowing
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.
WeKan
- The free hosted app gives Normal User access only; the Admin Panel needs the €50 per year SaaS or a self-hosted server.
- The Android and Windows store apps are full-screen web browsers with no native functions, and iOS users are pointed to a browser.
- Prices are listed in euros only, and paid services are sold business-to-business as final, non-refundable purchases.
- The install page says only the newest release is supported and asks self-hosters to keep at least daily backups.
Key features
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.
WeKan
- Boards, lists and swimlanes
- Cards sit in lists that run across swimlanes, with work-in-progress limits, collapsible lists and multi-selection for moving or recoloring many cards at once.
- Board views
- Besides the swimlane and list layouts, a board can be shown as a table, a calendar, a Gantt chart or a statistics view.
- Detailed cards
- Cards carry checklists, subtasks, custom fields, attachments, received, start, due and end dates, card-to-card dependencies and templates.
- Rules and webhooks
- Rules pair a trigger with an action, board buttons run a rule on demand, and outgoing webhooks can be set globally or per board.
- Import and export
- Boards can be imported from Trello, Jira, Kanboard, CSV, TSV and Excel files with imported members mapped to real accounts, and exported as JSON, Excel or CSV.
- Sign-in and roles
- Sign-in works with passwords, LDAP, CAS and OIDC or OAuth2. Each board has nine roles, from admin to read-only, and boards can be limited to an organization or team.
Plans
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.
WeKan
On-PremiseFree
The MIT-licensed server, installed from a Snap, a Docker image or a Windows, Mac and Linux bundle. The first registered user gets the Admin Panel.
WeKan Free AppFree
Hosted on WeKan Cloud in Finland with Normal User permission only and no Admin Panel.
Official SaaS with Admin Panel€50
per year
Hosted on WeKan Cloud in Finland with the Admin Panel, a custom domain and what the vendor calls unlimited everything.
Yearly Support€500
per year, includes 5 support hours
Prepaid private priority support. Also €1,000 for 10 hours or €2,000 for 20 hours a year, and multi-year plans up to €5,000 for 3 years with 50 hours.
Ways to pay less
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.
WeKan
No public discounts listed.
