Jira vs Kanboard
Kanboard is a focused, self-hosted Kanban alternative for teams whose work can be represented as tasks moving through configurable board columns. It offers task details, WIP limits, filtering, and event-based automation, but the supplied evidence does not establish Jira-like cross-team plans, sprint and release management, multiple project views, AI agents, or service-management coverage. Choose Kanboard for a narrow
Decision guide
The practical reasons to choose either option, based on documented capabilities.
Choose Kanboard if
- Small teams using a straightforward Kanban board with configurable columns
- Self-hosting organizations that can operate and maintain a PHP application
- Teams needing WIP limits, drag-and-drop tasks, subtasks, due dates, comments, attachments, and custom filters
Stay with Jira if
- You need documented cross-team planning that connects projects, goals, teams, and timelines
- Your software-delivery process depends on dedicated sprint, bug, and release workflows
- You require multiple native project views rather than a Kanban-focused interface not documented here otherwise beyond board, calendar, and dashboard references in release notes/website? The source does mention calendars.
Deployment and operations
Kanboard is a self-hosted PHP project distributed under the MIT License, with official installation, upgrade, requirements, and Docker documentation. Operators are responsible for hosting and upgrades. The project is in maintenance mode: its author is not actively developing major features, although small fixes and community-contributed releases continue. Kubernetes deployment is not documented in the supplied material.
Feature fit
What Kanboard covers
- Task-based deliverable tracking
- Configurable workflow columns
- Assignees, categories, and due dates
- Subtasks, comments, and documents
- Event-based workflow automation
- Search and custom filtering
- Developer-tool integrations via plugins or webhooks
What’s different or missing
- No documented cross-team plans and goal tracking
- No documented sprint and release planning
- No documented Jira-scale flexible project views
- No documented AI project agents
- No documented service-request workflow
- No documented incident-management workflow
- No documented Jira import or compatibility path
Project snapshot
- GitHub stars
- 9,797
- Contributors
- 451
- Language
- PHP
- Last commit
- Aug 11, 2026
- Latest release
- Jul 24, 2026
Categories: Workflow Automation, Customer Relationship Management, Project Management, Task Management, Team Communication, Calendars & Scheduling, Digital Whiteboards, Document Collaboration, DevOps
Sources and editorial review7 linked sources
Public documentation supports this comparison. Automation assists collection and classification; editorial standards and corrections remain the responsibility of Kris.
Kanboard is project management software that focuses on the Kanban methodology.
readme · github.comOfficial documentation: installation instructions
readme · github.comUse Kanboard with Docker
readme · github.comKanban project management software
repository description · github.comKanboard is project management software that focuses on the Kanban methodology.
verdict · github.comDon't repeat yourself! Automate your workflow with automated actions. Stop doing again and again the same thing manually. Change automatically the assignee, colors, categories and almost anything based on events.
shared feature · kanboard.org**This application is in maintenance mode**. What does it mean?
deployment · github.com
