Huly vs Plane vs Focalboard: Open Source Project Management in 2026

Q: What Makes It Stand Out?

Linear-like interface: If you're migrating from Linear, Plane's interface feels immediately familiar. Issues with priorities, labels, assignees, and status. Cycles for time-boxed sprints. Modules for feature groupings. Multiple views: Switch between list view, board view (Kanban), spreadsheet, calendar, and Gantt — all showing the same data. Workspace and project structure: Organize by workspace (organization) → projects → issues. Team members have workspace-level and project-level roles. Inbox:

Q: What Makes It Stand Out?

Unified platform: One application for: Project management: Issues, milestones, sprints, roadmaps Documents: Notion-like collaborative docs with rich text and inline databases Team chat: Slack-like messaging with channels and direct messages HR features: Vacation tracking, time-off requests, team calendar For small to medium teams, this consolidation reduces the tool stack significantly. Modern UX: Huly has one of the cleanest interfaces of any open source project management tool. Real-time colla

Q: What It Still Does Well?

Simple Kanban: Create boards, drag cards between columns, add properties. The core Kanban experience is solid and doesn't need active development to work. Multiple views: Board, table (spreadsheet-like), calendar, and gallery views for the same data. Embeds in Mattermost: If you're already running Mattermost for team chat, Focalboard integrates directly — one deployment, two tools. Standalone mode: Run Focalboard without Mattermost as its own application.

The Open Source Project Management Landscape

Linear costs $8/user/month ($96/user/year) and doesn't offer self-hosting. Jira charges $7.75-$15.25/user/month with enterprise pricing scaling further. Monday.com runs $9-24/user/month.

For engineering teams, the open source alternatives have caught up significantly. Plane (46K+ stars) mirrors Linear's interface and workflow. Huly (25K+ stars) adds Notion-style docs and Slack-like messaging to project management. Focalboard (22K+ stars) provides simple Kanban without the complexity — though its development has slowed.

TL;DR

Plane (46K+ stars): Best Linear/Jira replacement. Issues, sprints, cycles, modules. Modern interface, fastest-growing open source PM tool.
Huly (25K+ stars): Best all-in-one platform — project management + docs + team chat in one. Replaces Linear + Notion + Slack for technical teams.
Focalboard (22K+ stars): Best simple Kanban. Trello/Asana-like, minimal complexity. Note: development has slowed significantly.

Quick Comparison

Feature	Huly	Plane	Focalboard
GitHub Stars	25K+	46K+	22K+
Issues/Tasks	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sprint/Cycle tracking	Yes	Yes	No
Kanban	Yes	Yes	Yes
Calendar view	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gantt/Roadmap	Yes	Yes	No
Built-in docs/wiki	Yes (Notion-like)	Limited	No
Team chat	Yes (Slack-like)	No	No
HR/Vacation tracking	Yes	No	No
Self-hosting	Easy	Easy	Easy
License	EPL-2.0	AGPL-3.0	MIT

Plane — Best Linear Alternative

Plane is the most direct open source replacement for Linear. The interface is clean and modern, the workflow (issues → cycles/sprints → modules/epics) maps closely to Linear, and the development pace is fast.

What Makes It Stand Out

Linear-like interface: If you're migrating from Linear, Plane's interface feels immediately familiar. Issues with priorities, labels, assignees, and status. Cycles for time-boxed sprints. Modules for feature groupings.

Multiple views: Switch between list view, board view (Kanban), spreadsheet, calendar, and Gantt — all showing the same data.

Workspace and project structure: Organize by workspace (organization) → projects → issues. Team members have workspace-level and project-level roles.

Inbox: A triage inbox for incoming issues before they're assigned to projects — similar to Linear's triage feature.

Pages: Basic document creation (wiki-style) within projects. Less powerful than Notion but included for documentation.

Integrations: GitHub, GitLab, Slack, and Jira import.

Self-Hosting

git clone https://github.com/makeplane/plane
cd plane/deploy/selfhost
cp plane.bak.env .env
# Edit .env with your settings
./setup.sh start

Plane's self-hosted deployment uses Docker Compose with approximately 8 containers (web, API, worker, beat-worker, PostgreSQL, Redis, MinIO for file storage). The setup script handles most configuration.

Admin panel for user management, project settings, and instance configuration is included.

Plane Cloud: Also available as a managed cloud service with a free tier (up to 12 members, unlimited projects).

Best for: Engineering and product teams migrating from Linear or looking for a Linear-like experience with full data control.

Huly — Best All-In-One Team Platform

Huly positions itself as a complete team operating system — not just project management, but the collaboration hub that replaces multiple tools. Think of it as Linear + Notion + Slack in one self-hosted application.

What Makes It Stand Out

Unified platform: One application for:

Project management: Issues, milestones, sprints, roadmaps
Documents: Notion-like collaborative docs with rich text and inline databases
Team chat: Slack-like messaging with channels and direct messages
HR features: Vacation tracking, time-off requests, team calendar

For small to medium teams, this consolidation reduces the tool stack significantly.

Modern UX: Huly has one of the cleanest interfaces of any open source project management tool. Real-time collaboration is smooth.

Developers first: Version control integration, code review context, and developer workflow integration.

Performance: Built with Svelte, Huly is noticeably faster than most web-based PM tools.

Self-Hosting

git clone https://github.com/hcengineering/huly-selfhost
cd huly-selfhost
cp .env.template .env
# Configure settings
docker compose up -d

Huly's self-hosted deployment requires approximately 10+ Docker containers (frontend, backend, various services, MongoDB, Elasticsearch, MinIO). More complex than Plane but manageable.

Best for: Teams who want to consolidate project management + docs + team chat into one self-hosted platform, avoiding separate subscriptions for each.

Focalboard — Best Simple Kanban

Focalboard is a simple, Trello-like project management tool originally built by Mattermost. It provides Kanban boards, table views, calendar views, and basic properties (status, priority, dates) without the complexity of Plane or Huly.

Current Status: Development Concerns

An important caveat for 2026: Focalboard's active development has slowed significantly. Mattermost shifted focus, and the community edition is not receiving the same development investment it once did. The project is functional and stable, but new features are rare.

This matters for your decision:

Fine for: Solo developers, hobby projects, teams comfortable forking/maintaining their own deployment
Risky for: Teams who need continued feature development or security patches over years

What It Still Does Well

Simple Kanban: Create boards, drag cards between columns, add properties. The core Kanban experience is solid and doesn't need active development to work.

Multiple views: Board, table (spreadsheet-like), calendar, and gallery views for the same data.

Embeds in Mattermost: If you're already running Mattermost for team chat, Focalboard integrates directly — one deployment, two tools.

Standalone mode: Run Focalboard without Mattermost as its own application.

Self-Hosting

docker run -d \
  -p 8000:8000 \
  -v focalboard:/opt/focalboard/data \
  mattermost/focalboard

Single container. The simplest deployment of the three.

Best for: Solo developers, very small teams with simple needs, or teams already on Mattermost who want integrated Kanban without additional infrastructure.

Feature Deep-Dive: Issue Management

The core feature of any PM tool — issue creation, tracking, and management:

Plane

Issues with 20+ properties (priority, state, label, assignee, dates, estimate, cycle, module)
Sub-issues for breaking down complex tasks
Issue relationships (blocking, duplicate, related)
Bulk operations — update multiple issues simultaneously
Customizable workflow states per project

Huly

Issues with milestones, priorities, and custom properties
Member-tagged comments
Time tracking on issues
Sub-tasks
Sprint/iteration planning

Focalboard

Cards with custom properties
Status, priority, date fields
File attachments
Comments
No sub-issues or relationships

Migration from Commercial Tools

From Linear to Plane

Plane has a built-in Jira import. For Linear:

Export issues from Linear (CSV)
Use Plane's import feature or the community Linear→Plane migration scripts
Configure workflows to match Linear's structure

From Jira to Huly

Huly focuses on engineering workflows similar to Jira. Direct migration tools are limited — plan for a manual migration of active issues and reconfigure your workflow in Huly.

Cost Savings

Linear (10 Users, Annual)

$8/user/month × 10 × 12 = $960/year

Self-Hosted Alternative

Tool	Server	Annual
Plane (Hetzner CPX21)	$6.50/mo	$78
Huly (Hetzner CPX31 8GB)	$10/mo	$120
Focalboard (Hetzner CAX11)	$4/mo	$48

Savings vs Linear: $840-912/year for a 10-person team. For 50 users (Linear at $4,800/year), savings are dramatic.

Choose Your Tool

Use Plane if: You want the closest Linear experience, you need sprint/cycle management, and you want the most active development community.

Use Huly if: You want to consolidate PM + docs + team chat into one self-hosted tool, and you're okay with a larger deployment.

Use Focalboard if: You have simple Kanban needs, you're already on Mattermost, or you're a solo developer who wants the lightest-weight option.

Find Your Project Management Tool

Browse all project management alternatives on OSSAlt — compare Plane, Huly, Focalboard, OpenProject, and every other open source project management platform with deployment guides and feature comparisons.

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