WeKan — Open Source Kanban Board for Teams

What it is

WeKan is a self-hosted open-source Kanban board that provides teams with full control over their task management workflow. It offers boards, lists, cards, swimlanes, checklists, due dates, labels, WIP (work-in-progress) limits, and member assignments. WeKan runs on your own infrastructure, keeping all project data under your control.

Teams that need a simple, visual task management tool without SaaS vendor lock-in benefit most. WeKan covers the core Kanban use case -- visualizing work, limiting work in progress, and tracking flow -- without the complexity of full project management suites.

How it saves time or tokens

WeKan provides a focused interface for Kanban workflows. There is no feature bloat -- no Gantt charts, no time tracking, no complex permission hierarchies that slow teams down. The self-hosted approach eliminates per-user pricing and keeps data on your servers. Docker deployment takes minutes. The REST API enables automation for creating cards, moving them between lists, and extracting board data for reporting.

How to use

1. Deploy WeKan with Docker:

docker run -d --name wekan-db mongo:6
docker run -d --name wekan \
  --link wekan-db:db \
  -e MONGO_URL=mongodb://db/wekan \
  -e ROOT_URL=http://localhost:8080 \
  -p 8080:8080 \
  wekanteam/wekan:latest

1. Open http://localhost:8080, register an admin account, and create your first board.

1. Add lists (To Do, In Progress, Done), create cards, and assign team members.

Example

# WeKan REST API: Create a card
curl -X POST http://localhost:8080/api/boards/BOARD_ID/lists/LIST_ID/cards \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer TOKEN' \
  -H 'Content-Type: application/json' \
  -d '{"title": "Fix login bug", "description": "Users report 500 error on /login", "authorId": "USER_ID"}'

# Move a card to a different list
curl -X PUT http://localhost:8080/api/boards/BOARD_ID/lists/LIST_ID/cards/CARD_ID \
  -H 'Authorization: Bearer TOKEN' \
  -d '{"listId": "NEW_LIST_ID"}'

Related on TokRepo

• Task Management Tools -- Task and project management tools
• Self-Hosted Solutions -- Self-hosted productivity tools

Common pitfalls

• WeKan requires MongoDB. Plan for database backups -- losing the MongoDB data means losing all boards and cards.
• WeKan is Kanban-focused. If your team needs Scrum features (sprints, velocity charts, burndown), consider a more full-featured tool like Huly or Focalboard.
• The web UI works well on desktop but the mobile experience is limited. Mobile users may find the card interactions cumbersome on small screens.