Planka

Overview

Planka is a kanban board application built with a React frontend and Node.js backend, aiming for a close visual and interaction match to Trello’s board, list, and card model — closer in look and feel than Wekan’s older Meteor-based interface, which was built more for functional parity than pixel-level similarity. Planka’s licensing history matters and should be stated precisely: the project began under the permissive MIT license, moved to AGPL-3.0 in 2023, and then, starting with its 2.0 release candidates, switched again to a proprietary “PLANKA Community License” (a Fair Use-style license) maintained by PLANKA Software GmbH. This newer license is not OSI-approved and does not meet the standard definition of open source or free software — it permits free self-hosting for internal, personal, or non-commercial use, but explicitly prohibits reselling access, sharing accounts for business purposes, or operating Planka as a hosted service for third-party commercial gain without a separate commercial license.

In practice, Planka today is best described as source-available rather than open source: the Community edition’s code is publicly viewable and self-hostable at no cost via Docker, which is why it’s still commonly recommended as a free, self-managed Trello-style board, but organizations that want to resell hosted Planka instances, need custom branding, or want features like calendar/map views and recurring cards must purchase a Pro or Enterprise license. This is a meaningful trade-off compared to Wekan, which remains fully MIT-licensed with no paid tier gating any feature.

Key Features

• Trello-style boards — Lists, cards, labels, and due dates in a layout and interaction model closely mirroring Trello’s own UI
• Modern React interface — A newer, actively styled frontend compared to Wekan’s older Meteor-based UI
• Free self-hosted Community edition — Deployable via Docker at no cost for internal or personal use under the PLANKA Community License
• Background customization — Board backgrounds and card covers for visual organization
• Card details and checklists — Due dates, labels, attachments, and checklists per card
• User roles and permissions — Board-level membership and role management
• Paid Pro/Enterprise tiers — Custom branding, calendar and map views, recurring cards, and commercial hosting rights available as paid add-ons

Use Cases

• Small teams wanting a Trello look-alike — Self-hosting a visually close match to Trello’s interface without a subscription
• Internal, non-commercial kanban boards — Personal projects or internal company use covered by the free Community license
• Trello migrations on a budget — Teams that want Trello’s UX but not its per-seat SaaS pricing
• Organizations needing commercial hosting rights — Businesses that want to resell or host Planka for third parties, which requires a paid Pro/Enterprise license

Who It’s For

Planka suits individuals and internal teams who want a modern, Trello-like kanban board they can self-host for free, and who fall within the PLANKA Community License’s permitted personal/internal use — not businesses looking to host it commercially for others without a paid license. It’s worth choosing over Wekan specifically for its closer visual resemblance to Trello and newer codebase, but teams that need a fully open source, unrestricted license with no commercial-use caveats should lean toward Wekan instead, since Planka’s Community edition is source-available rather than OSI-approved open source.