Self-Host Leantime: Strategic Project Management 2026

TL;DR

Leantime (AGPL 3.0, ~4K GitHub stars, PHP) is a strategic project management tool designed for non-project-managers. It combines task management (Kanban, Gantt, timelines) with strategic planning (OKRs, goals, milestones) and time tracking — all in one tool. Asana Business costs $24.99/user/month; Monday.com Pro costs $16/user/month. Leantime gives you unlimited users and projects on your own server, free.

Key Takeaways

• Leantime: AGPL 3.0, ~4K stars, PHP — project management with strategic planning
• Task views: Kanban, list, Gantt, calendar, and timeline views
• OKRs and goals: Connect daily tasks to strategic objectives
• Time tracking: Built-in timesheets with per-task time logging
• Milestones: Track project phases and deadlines
• Non-PM friendly: Designed for teams that aren't professional project managers

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Leantime vs Asana vs Monday vs Plane

Feature	Leantime	Asana	Monday.com	Plane
Price	Free (self-host)	$10-24/user/mo	$9-16/user/mo	Free (self-host)
OKRs/Goals	Yes	Yes (Business)	No	No
Gantt charts	Yes	Yes (Premium)	Yes	No
Time tracking	Built-in	Yes (Business)	Yes	No
Timesheets	Yes	No	Yes	No
Kanban	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Calendar	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Self-hosted	Yes	No	No	Yes
Target user	Strategy + execution	Task management	Workflows	Dev teams

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Part 1: Docker Setup

# docker-compose.yml
services:
  leantime:
    image: leantime/leantime:latest
    container_name: leantime
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8080:80"
    environment:
      LEAN_DB_HOST: db
      LEAN_DB_USER: leantime
      LEAN_DB_PASSWORD: "${DB_PASSWORD}"
      LEAN_DB_DATABASE: leantime
      LEAN_SITENAME: "Your Team"
      LEAN_LANGUAGE: en-US
      LEAN_DEFAULT_TIMEZONE: America/Los_Angeles
      LEAN_SESSION_PASSWORD: "${SESSION_SECRET}"   # openssl rand -hex 32
      LEAN_SESSION_EXPIRATION: 28800   # 8 hours

      # Email:
      LEAN_EMAIL_RETURN: noreply@yourdomain.com
      LEAN_EMAIL_USE_SMTP: "true"
      LEAN_EMAIL_SMTP_HOSTS: mail.yourdomain.com
      LEAN_EMAIL_SMTP_PORT: 587
      LEAN_EMAIL_SMTP_USERNAME: noreply@yourdomain.com
      LEAN_EMAIL_SMTP_PASSWORD: "${MAIL_PASSWORD}"
      LEAN_EMAIL_SMTP_AUTO_TLS: "true"

    depends_on:
      - db

  db:
    image: mysql:8.0
    restart: unless-stopped
    volumes:
      - leantime_db:/var/lib/mysql
    environment:
      MYSQL_ROOT_PASSWORD: "${DB_ROOT_PASSWORD}"
      MYSQL_DATABASE: leantime
      MYSQL_USER: leantime
      MYSQL_PASSWORD: "${DB_PASSWORD}"

volumes:
  leantime_db:

echo "DB_PASSWORD=$(openssl rand -base64 24)" >> .env
echo "DB_ROOT_PASSWORD=$(openssl rand -base64 24)" >> .env
echo "SESSION_SECRET=$(openssl rand -hex 32)" >> .env

docker compose up -d

Visit http://your-server:8080 → complete installation wizard → create admin account.

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Part 2: HTTPS with Caddy

pm.yourdomain.com {
    reverse_proxy localhost:8080
}

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Part 3: Projects and Tasks

Create a project

1. + New Project
2. Name: Product Launch Q2
3. Type: Standard / Scrum / Kanban
4. Start date and end date
5. Add team members

Task views

Switch between views with a single click:

View	Best for
Kanban	Visual workflow — drag cards between columns
List	Dense table view — sort and filter
Gantt	Timeline visualization — dependencies and durations
Calendar	Date-based planning — deadlines and events
Timeline	High-level milestone tracking

Create tasks

1. + New To-Do
2. Title, description (Markdown supported)
3. Assign to team member
4. Due date and effort estimate
5. Priority: Low / Medium / High / Urgent
6. Milestone: link to a project phase
7. Tags: for cross-project categorization

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Part 4: OKRs and Strategic Planning

Goals

Connect daily work to strategic objectives:

1. Strategy → Goals
2. Create a goal: Increase user retention by 20%
3. Metric: Monthly active users returning after 30 days
4. Target: 80% (current: 67%)
5. Link tasks: attach specific to-dos that contribute to this goal

Milestones

Break projects into phases:

Phase 1: Research & Design    [Jan 15 - Feb 28]
Phase 2: Development          [Mar 1 - Apr 30]
Phase 3: Testing & QA         [May 1 - May 31]
Phase 4: Launch               [Jun 1 - Jun 15]

Idea boards

Capture and prioritize ideas before they become projects:

1. Strategy → Ideas
2. Add ideas with rough effort and impact scores
3. Prioritization matrix: High impact + Low effort = Do first

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Part 5: Time Tracking

Log time

1. Open a task → Time Tracking
2. Start timer (live tracking) or Add time manually
3. Enter hours, description of work done
4. Time entries are associated with the task and project

Timesheets

Reports → Timesheets:

• View by: day, week, month
• Filter by: project, team member, date range
• Export: CSV for invoicing or payroll

Time reports

Project: Product Launch Q2
  Total hours: 340h
  By member:
    Alice:  120h (35%)
    Bob:     95h (28%)
    Carol:  125h (37%)
  By milestone:
    Research:     80h
    Development: 180h
    Testing:      60h
    Launch:       20h

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Part 6: Team Collaboration

Comments and discussions

Each task has a comment thread:

• @mentions: Tag team members
• Reactions: Quick emoji reactions
• File attachments: Share screenshots, documents

Notifications

Users receive notifications for:

• Task assignments
• Comment mentions
• Due date reminders
• Milestone updates

Dashboard

Each user gets a personal dashboard showing:

• My tasks: Assigned to me, due soon
• Calendar: Today's schedule
• Recent activity: Team updates
• Time tracked today: Time log summary

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Part 7: Integrations

Calendar sync (CalDAV)

Settings → Integrations → Calendar:
  CalDAV URL: https://pm.yourdomain.com/caldav/

Sync deadlines and milestones to your calendar app.

API

BASE="https://pm.yourdomain.com"
API_KEY="your-api-key"

# Get projects:
curl "$BASE/api/jsonrpc/" \
  -H "x-api-key: $API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "jsonrpc": "2.0",
    "method": "leantime.rpc.Projects.getAll",
    "id": 1
  }'

Webhooks

Settings → Webhooks → + Add:
  URL: https://yourapp.com/webhook
  Events: task.created, task.completed, task.updated

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Part 8: Multi-Team Setup

Roles

Role	Access
Owner	Full admin, billing, all projects
Manager	Create projects, manage team members
Editor	Create and edit tasks in assigned projects
Commenter	View and comment, no editing
Viewer	Read-only access

Client access

Invite external clients with limited access:

1. Team → Invite → Client role
2. Client sees: project progress, milestones, approved files
3. Client cannot see: internal discussions, time logs, budget

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Maintenance

# Update:
docker compose pull
docker compose up -d

# Backup:
docker exec leantime-db-1 mysqldump -u leantime -p"$DB_PASSWORD" leantime \
  | gzip > leantime-db-$(date +%Y%m%d).sql.gz

# Logs:
docker compose logs -f leantime

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See all open source project management tools at OSSAlt.com/categories/project-management.