Planka

Planka is one of the most popular open-source kanban board applications with over 12,000 GitHub stars, offering teams a self-hosted alternative to Trello that keeps all project data under their control. Built with modern web technologies and designed for real-time collaboration, Planka provides an intuitive drag-and-drop interface for organizing tasks across customizable boards and lists. Unlike commercial project management tools that charge per user or restrict features behind paid tiers, Planka offers unlimited users, boards, and projects at no cost.

Common Use Cases

Software development teams use Planka to manage sprints, track bugs, and coordinate feature development across multiple repositories and releases. Marketing teams organize campaigns, content calendars, and launch checklists with boards that mirror their workflow stages from ideation through publication. Operations teams track onboarding tasks, equipment procurement, and facility requests using shared boards with department-specific lists. Freelancers and small agencies manage client projects with separate boards per client, attaching deliverables directly to task cards and using comments for client feedback. Educational teams coordinate course development, research projects, and administrative tasks with real-time visibility into progress.

Key Features

• Real-time collaborative kanban boards with WebSocket-powered live updates
• Drag-and-drop card management between lists and boards
• File and image attachments on task cards
• Task comments with real-time notifications for team discussion
• Colored labels for categorizing and filtering tasks
• Due dates and checklists for tracking deadlines and subtasks
• Member assignments to distribute work across the team
• Multi-project support with separate boards and member permissions
• OIDC single sign-on integration for enterprise authentication
• Card cover images and background customization for visual organization
• Activity history tracking all changes to boards, lists, and cards
• REST API and Swagger documentation for automation and integrations

Why deploy Planka on Hostinger VPS

Deploying Planka on a Hostinger VPS gives your team a private, always-available project management platform without per-user pricing or feature restrictions. All task data, file attachments, and team communications stay on your own infrastructure, making Planka ideal for teams handling sensitive projects or operating under data residency requirements. With PostgreSQL for reliable data storage and Traefik for automatic HTTPS, your Planka instance is production-ready from the first deployment. The lightweight Node.js application runs efficiently on VPS resources, supporting teams of any size with responsive real-time collaboration.