Best Open-Source ClickUp Alternatives 2026
ClickUp charges $7/user/month on Unlimited and $12/user/month on Business — and the unlimited branding hides a long list of feature caps. For a 20-person team on Business, that's $2,880/year before you hit enterprise conversations about SSO, advanced permissions, or higher API limits.
The open source alternatives in 2026 have closed most of the gap. Task management, multiple views, sprints, docs, time tracking, and integrations are all well-covered across several self-hostable tools. You pay for your server, not per seat.
TL;DR
Plane is the best direct ClickUp replacement for engineering teams — modern UI, fast iteration, and a feature set that covers 90% of what teams actually use in ClickUp. OpenProject wins for formal project management with Gantt charts, time tracking, and budget management. AppFlowy is the best choice if you want tasks plus collaborative docs in a single self-hosted workspace. Leantime stands out for goal-oriented teams connecting strategy to execution. Taiga is the right pick for Scrum-focused teams that want clean sprint management.
Quick Comparison
| Plane | Taiga | OpenProject | AppFlowy | Leantime | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| GitHub Stars | 46K+ | 16K+ | 10K+ | 57K+ | 4K+ |
| License | AGPL-3.0 | MPL-2.0 | GPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Docker Support | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Kanban | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Gantt/Timeline | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Sprints/Cycles | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | Partial | Partial |
| Built-in Docs | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Time Tracking | ✓ (paid) | ✓ | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self-Host Difficulty | Medium | Medium | Medium | Easy | Easy |
| Active Development | Very Active | Active | Active | Very Active | Active |
Plane: The Modern ClickUp Replacement
Plane has become the default recommendation for teams moving off ClickUp or Linear. With 46,000+ GitHub stars and several releases per month, it's the fastest-moving open source PM tool right now.
The feature set maps well to what most ClickUp teams actually use: issues with sub-issues, multiple views (kanban board, list, table, timeline/Gantt, spreadsheet), cycles (sprints), modules (epics), and pages (docs). Git integration with GitHub and GitLab means PRs can be linked to issues automatically.
Self-hosting: Plane ships a docker-compose setup that runs in under 10 minutes. The Community Edition is fully featured with no user limits. The Pro and Business cloud tiers add analytics, advanced roles, and priority support, but the community build is solid for most teams.
Where Plane wins vs ClickUp: Plane's interface is dramatically cleaner. ClickUp's UI shows everything at once — dashboards, whiteboards, goals, docs, time tracking, chat, inbox — and it can be overwhelming. Plane surfaces only what's relevant to the current workflow. Engineers who hate ClickUp's complexity often like Plane immediately.
Where Plane falls short: No built-in time tracking in the free tier. No native whiteboard or chat (though Plane Pages covers docs). If you rely heavily on ClickUp's time estimates and tracking features, you'll need to integrate a separate time-tracking tool or upgrade to Plane Pro.
Plane's self-hosting guide covers the full Docker deployment with Nginx reverse proxy and SSL.
Taiga: Built for Scrum and Kanban Purists
Taiga is the open source option with the clearest Scrum opinionation. Sprint planning, backlog grooming, velocity charts, burndown charts, and user stories as first-class objects make it the most natural fit for teams running formal Scrum.
Taiga has been around since 2014 and has earned its 16,000+ GitHub stars through stability and maturity. Unlike some newer tools, Taiga has production deployments with thousands of users and years of real-world bug-fixing behind it.
Self-hosting: Taiga requires running multiple Docker containers (backend, frontend, async worker, events server). It's more involved than Plane's single-stack compose file but well-documented. A working instance typically needs 2 vCPUs and 2GB RAM minimum.
Feature highlights: Taiga supports epics, user stories, tasks, issues, and sprints. It has Kanban boards with swimlanes, wiki pages per project, and a basic analytics view. The Taiga Cloud option means you can start free online and migrate to self-hosted later if needed.
Where Taiga fits best: Teams doing formal Scrum who want velocity tracking and sprint ceremonies baked into their tool. Development agencies running multiple parallel projects. Teams who want a stable, mature tool over a fast-moving one.
Where Taiga falls short: The UI feels older than Plane or AppFlowy — it's functional but less polished. No built-in docs beyond simple wiki pages. Timeline/Gantt views are more basic than OpenProject's.
OpenProject: Enterprise PM with Gantt and Time Tracking
OpenProject is the most complete enterprise project management tool on this list. It's the right choice when you need features that ClickUp only offers at Business or Enterprise tier: multi-project Gantt charts with dependencies, time tracking with budget management, work packages with custom fields, and LDAP/SAML for SSO.
With 10,000+ GitHub stars and a company backing open development, OpenProject has a serious enterprise track record. It's used by government agencies, universities, and large organizations that need audit trails and formal project governance.
Self-hosting: OpenProject ships as an official Docker image and as a packaged installer for Debian/Ubuntu. The Community Edition is free and includes most features. The Enterprise Edition (paid, cloud or self-hosted) adds additional premium features but the community version covers Gantt, time tracking, budgets, and custom fields.
Feature highlights: Gantt charts with lag/lead dependencies, time entries linked to budget, percent-complete tracking on work packages, three-level project hierarchy (projects → phases → work packages), meeting management, wiki with structured documentation, and webhooks.
Where OpenProject wins vs ClickUp: ClickUp's Gantt charts are functional but lack the dependency depth that OpenProject has. OpenProject's time tracking integrates with budgets so project managers can track actual vs. planned costs — something ClickUp Business doesn't offer. For formal project governance and reporting, OpenProject is the more serious tool.
Where OpenProject falls short: The interface is dense and takes time to learn. Spinning up OpenProject requires more server resources (at least 4GB RAM recommended). Active development is slower than Plane or AppFlowy. No built-in docs beyond wiki pages.
For detailed Plane vs OpenProject tradeoffs, see Plane vs OpenProject 2026.
AppFlowy: Tasks + Docs in One Workspace
AppFlowy is the open source alternative to Notion with a growing project management layer. With 57,000+ GitHub stars — the most on this list — it's the fastest-growing productivity workspace tool in open source.
AppFlowy's model is documents first, tasks second. You get a rich block editor for structured docs and wikis, databases (kanban, grid, calendar, gallery views), and a growing set of AI features built on local/configurable models. If your team lives in Notion-style docs and also wants task management, AppFlowy consolidates that into one self-hosted workspace.
Self-hosting: AppFlowy offers a self-hosted cloud edition (AppFlowy Cloud) via Docker Compose. It's relatively straightforward to set up and handles real-time collaboration. The desktop app also works with a local or self-hosted backend.
Feature highlights: Rich block editor with tables, code, embeds, databases as linked views, Kanban and Grid database views, calendar view, and AI assistant (bring your own API key). Recent releases added filter/sort improvements and cross-database relations.
Where AppFlowy wins vs ClickUp: If your team uses ClickUp's Docs heavily alongside tasks, AppFlowy's document-task integration feels more cohesive. ClickUp Docs exist alongside the task system; AppFlowy makes docs and databases truly first-class at the same level.
Where AppFlowy falls short: Sprint management (cycles, velocity, burndown) isn't built in — AppFlowy is more of a flexible database/doc workspace than a dedicated PM tool. Gantt charts are in the roadmap but not fully shipped at the level of Plane or OpenProject. If you need deep sprint ceremonies, Plane or Taiga is better.
Leantime: Strategy-First Project Management
Leantime is the unique entry on this list. Instead of starting with tasks, Leantime starts with strategy: lean canvases, OKRs, ideation boards, research boards, and roadmaps are first-class objects. Tasks connect up to strategic goals rather than existing independently.
With 4,000+ GitHub stars, Leantime is smaller than the others but has a devoted following among product managers and founders who found that other tools let teams work busily without connecting to strategic outcomes.
Self-hosting: Leantime runs well on Docker with a Compose file that includes the app and MySQL. It requires less memory than OpenProject (2GB RAM sufficient). Installation is among the simplest on this list.
Feature highlights: Lean canvas builder, OKR tracking, idea boards, research boards, retrospectives, milestone management, timesheet tracking, and a task list that connects to each strategic element. Recent releases added team-level OKR hierarchies.
Where Leantime wins vs ClickUp: ClickUp has Goals but they feel bolted on. In Leantime, everything flows from strategy. If you find your team using ClickUp task lists without any connection to quarterly objectives, Leantime re-establishes that link by design.
Where Leantime falls short: Smaller community and slower feature velocity than Plane or AppFlowy. Kanban and sprint views are more limited than dedicated PM tools. If your team is primarily engineering-focused and needs excellent developer workflows (PR linking, branches, deployments), Plane is more mature in those areas.
Feature Depth: ClickUp vs the Alternatives
ClickUp's value proposition is "one app to replace them all" — it includes docs, whiteboards, chat, goal tracking, time tracking, and a workflow automation builder. The open source alternatives collectively cover this surface area but no single tool matches all of it:
| Feature | ClickUp Business | Plane | OpenProject | AppFlowy | Taiga | Leantime |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tasks + sub-tasks | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Multiple views | ✓ (7+) | ✓ (6) | ✓ (4) | ✓ (4) | ✓ (3) | ✓ (3) |
| Gantt w/ dependencies | ✓ | Basic | ✓ | Roadmap | Basic | Basic |
| Built-in docs | ✓ | ✓ | Wiki only | ✓ | Wiki only | ✓ |
| Time tracking | ✓ | Pro only | ✓ | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Automations | ✓ | Partial | Partial | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Whiteboards | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Chat | ✓ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ |
| Goal/OKR tracking | ✓ | Goals | ✗ | ✗ | ✗ | ✓ |
| Self-host | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
The whiteboards and chat features in ClickUp are used by a subset of teams. Before migrating, audit which ClickUp features your team actually opens daily — most teams use 20% of ClickUp's surface area.
Self-Hosting Cost Comparison
Running any of these tools on a VPS or dedicated server typically costs $10-40/month depending on team size and provider:
- Small team (5-10 users): 2 vCPU / 2GB RAM — $6-12/month on Hetzner, $24-48/month on AWS
- Medium team (10-50 users): 4 vCPU / 4GB RAM — $12-24/month on Hetzner, $48-96/month on AWS
- Large team (50-200 users): 8 vCPU / 16GB RAM — $40-80/month on Hetzner
Compare to ClickUp Business at $12/user/month: a 20-person team pays $2,880/year. A Hetzner VPS running Plane for that same team costs $96-240/year — a 12-20x reduction.
When to Use Which
Choose Plane if: You're an engineering team that wants Linear-style issue tracking with self-hosting. You need PR/commit linking, sprints (cycles), and multiple views in a clean interface. You want the most actively developed option with the largest community.
Choose Taiga if: You run formal Scrum with sprint ceremonies — planning, retrospectives, burndown charts, velocity tracking. You want a mature, stable tool over a fast-moving one.
Choose OpenProject if: You need enterprise-grade project management — Gantt with dependencies, time tracking connected to budgets, multi-project hierarchies, and SSO via LDAP/SAML. You're a project manager, not just an engineer.
Choose AppFlowy if: Your team works primarily in documents and wants tasks embedded in the same workspace. You're migrating from Notion and want to consolidate notes, wikis, and project tracking into one self-hosted tool.
Choose Leantime if: You're a founder, product manager, or strategy-focused team that wants tasks to connect to goals and OKRs. You find most PM tools encourage busy-work without strategic alignment.
For a direct comparison of the two most popular options, see Plane vs OpenProject 2026 and the full Best Open-Source Jira Alternatives 2026 roundup for more PM tool coverage.