Vikunja vs Leantime

Vikunja and Leantime both put a real, usable project-management tool behind Docker Compose and a free AGPL-3.0 license — but they draw the line between "free" and "paid" in very different places once you're actually using them. Vikunja is a Go/Vue.js task-and-project manager on PostgreSQL, aimed at anyone who wants list, table, kanban, and Gantt-style views without a lot of ceremony. Leantime is a PHP/JavaScript platform on MySQL, built for non-traditional project managers and neurodivergent teams, and it reaches further into sprints, milestones, and a project wiki. Both list the same 1 GB RAM floor and the same difficulty 2/5 setup, so the choice comes down to feature scope and how much of that scope survives the free tier.

What each one actually does

Vikunja is a to-do and task manager first: projects hold tasks, and you can look at them as a list, a table, a kanban board, or a Gantt-style timeline, with labels, filters, reminders, and recurring tasks layered on top. It's the shape of tool you'd reach for to organize personal or small-team work across several projects without needing a project-management vocabulary.

Leantime leans into full project-management: task/kanban boards, Gantt-style milestones, sprints, built-in time tracking, and a project wiki for documentation that lives next to the work. It's built explicitly for people who find traditional PM tools (and traditional PM jargon) unhelpful, which shows up in softer workflow language rather than a rigid methodology.

Setup: both difficulty 2/5

Neither app makes you work hard to get running. Vikunja ships as an official all-in-one Docker image (API and frontend together) paired with Postgres — one docker-compose.yml, one docker compose up -d, and you're registering your first account. Leantime's official image pairs with MySQL and needs a touch more compose configuration (a healthcheck so the app waits for the database), but it's the same one-command result. Both rate difficulty 2/5 and the same 1 GB RAM floor, so setup effort isn't a deciding factor here — what you get for free is.

What's actually free

This is where the two apps diverge. Vikunja's free, self-hosted AGPL-3.0 build ships the full task-management feature set, including SSO/LDAP login — a capability plenty of tools reserve for a paid tier. The only things held back are a paid, subscription-gated Vikunja Pro add-on (itself AGPL-3.0) covering an admin panel, audit logs, and time tracking; every pre-existing free feature stays free, and nothing is removed to make room for Pro.

Leantime's free AGPL-3.0 edition is generous in its own way — it includes white-labeling, client management, and LDAP/OIDC login for free, on top of the core task/kanban/milestone/sprint/time-tracking/wiki set. But the paid gate is wider: recurring tasks, custom fields, whiteboards, AI-assisted status updates, and program/portfolio-level strategy tools are all paid plugin-bundle or Pro-tier add-ons, not part of the free self-hosted build. Notably, recurring tasks — a feature Vikunja ships free — sit behind Leantime's paywall.

Which one fits your team

If you want a task manager that covers list/table/kanban/Gantt views, filtering, reminders, and recurring tasks, and would rather not think about a Pro tier at all unless you specifically need an admin panel or audit logs, Vikunja gives you more of its total feature set for free.

If you specifically want sprints, milestones, a project wiki, and built-in time tracking out of the box, and you're comfortable knowing that some of the more advanced capabilities (AI features, portfolio-level strategy tools, custom fields, recurring tasks) are behind a paid bundle, Leantime's free tier still gets you a working full-featured PM tool for day-to-day use — just not the whole feature list.

Pick Vikunja if…

• You want a lean task and project manager — list, table, kanban, and Gantt-style views — not a full PM suite.
• Recurring tasks matter to you and you don't want them behind a paywall.
• You need SSO/LDAP login and don't want to pay extra for it.

Pick Leantime if…

• You want sprints, milestones, time tracking, and a wiki built in from day one.
• White-labeling, client management, and LDAP/OIDC login covers your auth and branding needs for free.
• You're fine treating AI features, custom fields, whiteboards, recurring tasks, and portfolio-strategy tools as optional paid extras rather than must-haves.

The honest trade-off

Vikunja wins this comparison for most self-hosters because its free build holds back the least: an admin panel, audit logs, and time tracking are a narrow, mostly operational slice to paywall, and everything a typical user touches day to day — including recurring tasks — stays free. Leantime's free tier is still a complete, usable PM tool, but its paid gate reaches into features (recurring tasks, custom fields, AI assistance, portfolio strategy) that a growing team is more likely to eventually want. If your workflow genuinely needs sprints and a project wiki more than it needs those gated extras, Leantime's free edition is still a reasonable starting point — just go in knowing where the paywall sits.