Planka self-hosted Kanban board: real-time boards, Docker deployment, Community vs Pro pricing, features and alternatives like Trello and Wekan compared.
Planka is a Kanban-style project and task management tool designed to be self-hosted, giving teams a Trello-like board experience while keeping full ownership of their data. The project has been developed publicly on GitHub since 2019 by PLANKA Software GmbH, based in Kempten, Germany, and has grown to more than 11,000 GitHub stars.
The Community Edition is source-available and free to run on your own infrastructure, typically via Docker. In 2025 the company launched a Pro Edition for teams that need greater scalability, additional professional features, and premium support, offered either self-hosted or as a managed cloud service.
Planka supports unlimited boards, lists and cards with real-time updates, so changes made by one team member appear instantly for everyone else viewing the same board, similar to the live-collaboration feel of hosted tools like Trello.
Because it is self-hosted, teams get full control over where their data lives, which matters for organizations with data residency, privacy or compliance requirements. The interface has also been translated into more than 35 languages through community contributions.
The Community Edition is completely free to self-host under Planka's fair-code 'Fair Use License,' which allows personal, internal, non-profit and educational use but restricts reselling Planka as a hosted service to third parties without a commercial license.
The newer Pro Edition adds scalability and support features and is available self-hosted or fully managed; PLANKA also offers a paid installation and configuration service, starting at roughly EUR 469 plus VAT, for teams that want assistance deploying it on their own server or cloud environment.
Yes, the Community Edition is free to self-host, though a paid Pro Edition with added scalability and support is also available.
Planka's source code is publicly available on GitHub, but it is distributed under a fair-code 'Fair Use License' rather than a traditional OSI-approved open-source license.
Planka is typically deployed via Docker on your own server or cloud provider; PLANKA also offers a paid installation service if you want it set up for you.
Planka is developed by PLANKA Software GmbH, based in Kempten, Germany.
Trello is the closest hosted alternative, while Wekan is a fully open-source, self-hosted alternative in the same category.
No, the Fair Use License prohibits operating Planka as a hosted service for third parties without a commercial Pro license.
Yes, its interface has been translated into more than 35 languages through community contributions.