Looking for open-source alternatives to Asana that offer more control, flexibility, and transparency? This page showcases powerful project and task management tools built by vibrant communities, designed to help teams collaborate effectively while maintaining full ownership of their data and workflows—ideal for organizations that value customization, self-hosting, and freedom from vendor lock-in.
Plane
Plane is an evolving, open-source project management tool crafted to simplify how teams track issues, run sprint cycles, and manage product roadmaps. Its goal is to eliminate the chaos of complex tools and let teams focus on getting work done efficiently.
Built around community feedback, Plane welcomes user input through Discord and GitHub, ensuring its development stays aligned with real user needs. The platform offers robust issue management, allowing you to handle individual tasks or complex workflows using a rich text editor that supports file uploads, sub-properties, and references.
Sprint planning is streamlined with flexible sprint cycles, burn-down charts, automated transfers, and real-time reporting tools that help teams stay aligned and on track. To make large projects manageable, Plane introduces modules that break work into smaller units with clear ownership and visual tracking across multiple layout options.
The Pages feature enhances real-time collaboration by allowing teams to capture, organize, and convert notes into tasks. Pages also include AI-powered tools for formatting and organizing content, ensuring clarity and structure across all documentation.
With real-time analytics, Plane offers deep insights into trends, blockers, and progress, giving teams a clear view of what's happening and where attention is needed. An upcoming Drive feature will further support collaboration by allowing document and media sharing directly within the platform.
Plane is more than a project manager—it’s also a knowledge hub. It centralizes information and task tracking into a single system, allowing teams to collaborate and scale efficiently. Its high level of customization supports various workflows, letting teams adapt the tool to fit their structure and processes.
Plane provides time tracking, dependencies, bulk operations, automation, and custom views to optimize productivity. Keyboard shortcuts and real-time collaboration make everyday use faster and more interactive.
Whether you're using cloud-hosted or self-hosted deployment, Plane ensures consistency with 99.9% feature parity. It’s compatible with AWS, Docker, and Kubernetes, offering scalability and control. Integration with tools like Jira and GitHub also makes importing existing workflows seamless.
Plane empowers teams to manage their projects and knowledge their way. With a clean, flexible interface and a powerful backend, it adapts to your needs—whether for simple task tracking or complex project execution. Join the Plane community and help shape the next generation of project management.
Focalboard
Focalboard is a self-hosted, open source project management tool designed specifically for technical teams who value flexibility, control, and freedom from vendor lock-in. As a rising alternative to Trello, Notion, and Asana, Focalboard provides a centralized space to plan, track, and manage work across any organization.
With a clean and intuitive interface, Focalboard enables teams to organize tasks, milestones, and goals in a way that fits their workflow. Users can switch seamlessly between Kanban boards, tables, galleries, and calendar views, offering complete freedom to visualize and manage work. Powerful filters and saved views help maintain focus on what matters most.
Collaboration is built into the platform, with features like in-card comments, team mentions, and customizable board permissions to ensure that discussions and tasks stay tightly aligned. Whether coordinating a small project or managing cross-departmental initiatives, Focalboard supports efficient teamwork without unnecessary overhead.
Getting started is quick with a range of pre-built templates, including content calendars, roadmaps, and more. Teams can also create their own custom boards from scratch, ensuring workflows are fully tailored to their specific needs.
What sets Focalboard apart is its 100% open source foundation. Teams have the option to inspect, host, and modify the code themselves, making it ideal for developers and organizations that require transparency and customizability. Rich documentation and an active community—particularly through the Mattermost forums—offer support and foster continuous improvement.
Whether you're a startup, a remote team, or a large enterprise with strict compliance requirements, Focalboard delivers powerful project management without compromising control or productivity. Stay productive. Stay open. Stay in control.
OpenProject
OpenProject is a powerful and flexible project management solution that supports classic, agile, and hybrid methodologies while prioritizing data security and transparency. It empowers teams to collaborate effectively without compromising control over their information.
With OpenProject, organizations can maintain full control of their data by deploying the software on-premises. This self-hosted approach ensures that sensitive project information is stored securely within your infrastructure, free from external influence. The platform also meets the highest security standards, offering features like HTTPS encryption, strong password policies, two-factor authentication, and configurable session settings to protect your data at every level.
Being open source under the GNU GPL v3 license, OpenProject promotes transparency and community-driven development. Users gain full access to the source code, enabling them to study, modify, and improve the software to meet their specific needs. This openness also facilitates rapid identification and resolution of vulnerabilities, reinforcing trust in the platform.
For those who prefer not to host their own instance, OpenProject provides an Enterprise Cloud option with data centers located in the EU or Germany, ensuring compliance with strict data protection regulations and offering peace of mind for enterprise clients.
Beyond security, OpenProject enhances productivity with tools that support a wide range of project management styles. Agile boards streamline collaboration through intuitive Scrum and Kanban workflows, while visual planning tools allow teams to manage workloads and schedules with clarity. These features help teams stay aligned, meet deadlines, and adapt to evolving project demands.
By leveraging OpenProject, you're joining a vibrant global community dedicated to open-source values and collaborative innovation. Whether you’re managing traditional timelines, running agile sprints, or combining both in a hybrid setup, OpenProject gives you the freedom, security, and flexibility to lead projects confidently.
LeanTime
Leantime is an open source project management system designed not just for trained project managers, but for everyday people juggling multiple responsibilities—especially those who are neurodivergent. Created with the needs of individuals with ADHD, dyslexia, and autism in mind, Leantime merges behavioral science, strategic planning, and task execution into a platform that not only gets work done but helps keep users motivated along the way.
At its surface, Leantime is simple and intuitive, offering a dashboard experience that rivals Trello in ease of use. But beneath that simplicity lies a robust feature set comparable to enterprise tools like Jira, ClickUp, and Asana. The personal work dashboard acts as a central hub, helping users time-block, take notes, and even let AI intelligently prioritize tasks to maintain clarity and focus.
Designed to reduce cognitive overload, Leantime incorporates features that cater to how the brain works best. Its layout minimizes distractions and encourages small, achievable wins to trigger dopamine-driven motivation. AI assists by breaking down complex tasks, writing personalized updates, and even narrating progress in fun ways—like a motivational speaker or a pirate.
Leantime’s goals-first approach shifts the focus from endless task lists to purpose-driven execution. Goals form the foundation of every project, turning daily to-dos into meaningful steps toward progress. This structure helps users tie their work to a larger sense of purpose, making it easier to stay engaged and driven.
Each project becomes a structured space for collaboration and clarity. Tools like Kanban, Table, and List views cater to diverse working styles, while subtasks, dependencies, milestones, and high-level Program Plans make it easier to manage complex workflows without losing direction.
Leantime also centralizes documentation, allowing users to embed or create content directly within projects. Whether managing research, tracking validation efforts, or brainstorming the next big idea, everything remains connected and accessible. Idea management is seamlessly integrated, encouraging creativity and progress side by side.
Time tracking is built in and accessible from multiple locations, helping users log hours and understand productivity through visual reporting. This makes it easy to align time spent with goals and project milestones.
Whether you're neurodivergent, overwhelmed by traditional tools, or simply seeking a more thoughtful way to manage projects, Leantime offers a refreshing, motivational, and purpose-driven approach. It redefines what productivity can look like and invites you to be part of a growing community reshaping how we manage work.