The six best open-source project management tools in 2026 are Plane, OpenProject, Orangescrum, Leantime, Taiga and Redmine. All six run on your own server under a recognized open-source license, and all six install with Docker. They differ most in three things: whether they track time and budgets, whether the paid tier charges per user, and how actively the code is maintained.
We checked the license, the public repository and the pricing page of every tool on this list on 9 September 2026, and we name the source of every number at the foot of this article. Orangescrum is our own product. We say so wherever it appears and we score it on the same six criteria as the others.
What counts as open source project management software
Open source project management software is a tool for planning and tracking work whose full source code is published under a license that lets anyone read, run and modify it. In practice, three tests matter:
- You can read the code. The whole application is in a public repository, not a cut-down demo.
- You can run it without a key. No license file, no activation call to the vendor.
- You can change it. The license permits modification, subject to its own conditions.
