Our verdict
Kan and Planka are both kanban tools for restaurants. On our independent rubric, Kan scores 3.8/5 versus 3.8/5 for Planka. Choose Kan if you're Teams replacing Trello with a self-hosted board they fully own or Small teams wanting a modern UI with minimal server admin; choose Planka if you're Teams wanting a modern, real-time self-hosted Trello alternative or Self-hosters who like a single-Docker-image deployment.
Side-by-side comparison
| Metric | Kan | Planka |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial score | 3.8/5 | 3.8/5 |
| G2 rating | — | — |
| Capterra rating | — | — |
| Starting price | Free (self-hosted, AGPL-3.0) | Free (self-hosted Community tier) |
| Free tier | ||
| Free trial | ||
| Integrations | 2 · Trello (board import), MCP clients (Claude Desktop, GitHub Copilot, Cursor)… | 4 · OIDC / SSO providers, 100+ notification providers (Apprise-style), Webhooks… |
| Best for | Teams replacing Trello with a self-hosted board they fully own, Small teams wanting a modern UI with minimal server admin, AI-forward teams that want an MCP server driving their kanban | Teams wanting a modern, real-time self-hosted Trello alternative, Self-hosters who like a single-Docker-image deployment, Organizations needing OIDC SSO on a Kanban board |
| Category | kanban | kanban |
| Founded | — | 2019 |
| HQ | — | Germany |
A teal check marks the stronger option on each measurable row. Ratings are sourced from G2/Capterra with attribution on each listing.
Kan
- Modern, fast UI closest to Trello among self-hosted boards
- Simple Docker Compose deployment with automatic migrations
- One-click Trello import eases migration
- MCP server enables AI-assistant workflows
- Young project with a small ecosystem
- Kanban-only — no Gantt, time tracking, or reporting
- Deeper third-party integrations still on the roadmap
Planka
- Modern UI with real-time multi-user sync
- Simple single-Docker-image self-hosting (PostgreSQL)
- OIDC single sign-on supported
- Widely used (12k+ stars, 8M+ Docker pulls); EU/GDPR-aligned vendor
- License is a custom "Fair Use License", not OSI-approved open source
- External collaboration, calendar, and recurring cards require paid Pro
- Kanban-focused; no Gantt or sprint tooling
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