1 Best Open-Source Alternatives to OpenProject in 2026
By Noahlast updated pricing verified
All 4 OpenProject alternatives
Compared: open-source alternatives to OpenProject
| Alternative | Best for | Standout | Biggest weakness | Learning curve | Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| OpenProjectreference | teams and organizations that want a fully open-source, self-hostable project management tool covering both Gantt-chart planning and agile boards, with an option to add paid support and cloud hosting | A genuinely free, fully-featured, self-hostable Community edition under GPLv3, with paid Enterprise tiers layering on support and EU/Germany-hosted cloud infrastructure rather than gating core functionality. | Enterprise pricing is published in euros with steep per-tier user minimums (25 users for Basic/Professional, 100 for Premium), which is awkward for small teams wanting paid support without buying dozens of seats, and self-hosting the Community edition requires Linux server administration skills. | Moderate | Free |
| GitLab | engineering teams that want source control, CI/CD, and security scanning in one application instead of assembling separate tools for each function | Security and compliance scanning (SAST, DAST, dependency and container scanning) is built into the Ultimate tier as a native part of the CI/CD pipeline, rather than a bolt-on third-party integration. | The jump from Premium to Ultimate is steep (roughly $29 to $99/user/month), pricing the deepest security features out of reach for many teams, and GitLab's dense, feature-heavy interface has a real learning curve compared to GitHub's simpler workflow. | Steep | Free tier · paid from $29/mo |
OpenProject
GitLab1.GitLab — best OpenProject alternative for engineering teams that want source control, CI/CD, and security scanning in one application instead of assembling separate tools for each function
GitLab is the best OpenProject alternative for engineering teams that want source control, CI/CD pipelines, and issue tracking bundled into one application rather than OpenProject's project-management-only feature set. GitLab's Free tier costs $0/user/month with unlimited private repositories and basic CI/CD, comparable to OpenProject's free Community edition, while GitLab holds a 4.6/5 rating from 1,224 Capterra reviews and a 5/5 rating from 13 Product Hunt reviews, both more review volume than OpenProject's single 5/5 Product Hunt rating. GitLab's Premium tier at $29/user/month adds advanced CI/CD controls, merge approval rules, and portfolio management, features OpenProject's own listing doesn't document since OpenProject is a project-tracking tool without native source control or pipelines. GitLab is open core like OpenProject, with its Community Edition MIT-licensed and free to self-host with no user limit, similar to OpenProject's GPLv3 Community edition. OpenProject remains the better choice for teams that specifically need Gantt-chart-based classic waterfall planning and cost reporting: GitLab's biggest weakness is that the jump from Premium to its Ultimate tier is steep, roughly $29 to $99/user/month, and its dense, feature-heavy interface has a real learning curve, while OpenProject's Community edition ships Gantt charts and a Team Planner as core, unpaywalled features.
Compared to OpenProject: Free tier with unlimited private repositories vs OpenProject's free Community edition, 4.6/5 rating from 1,224 Capterra reviews vs OpenProject's single 5/5 Product Hunt review, native CI/CD and source control bundled in at Premium ($29/user/month) that OpenProject's listing doesn't offer at any tier
Wins:Bundles source control, CI/CD pipelines, and security scanning natively, features OpenProject's project-tracking-only feature set doesn't offer · 4.6/5 rating from 1,224 Capterra reviews and 5/5 from 13 Product Hunt reviews, versus OpenProject's single 5/5 Product Hunt review · Free tier includes unlimited private repositories with no artificial user cap, matching OpenProject's uncapped free Community edition
Loses:No native Gantt-chart or classic waterfall planning view, unlike OpenProject's Community edition · Ultimate tier jumps to roughly $99/user/month from Premium's $29, a steeper premium than OpenProject's €10.95-to-€15.95 Professional-to-Premium jump · Dense, feature-heavy interface carries a steep learning curve, matching OpenProject's own moderate-to-steep configuration curve
Pros
- CI/CD, issue tracking, and code review are native to the platform rather than third-party add-ons.
- Community Edition is genuinely open source (MIT) and free to self-host with no artificial user cap.
- Ultimate tier includes built-in security scanning (SAST, DAST, dependency scanning) as part of the pipeline.
- Self-managed and SaaS deployment options give teams a real choice on data residency and control.
Cons
- Ultimate tier costs roughly $99/user/month, a steep jump from Premium's $29/user/month, pricing advanced security scanning out of reach for smaller teams.
- Interface density and the sheer number of features create a steeper learning curve than GitHub for new users.
- Self-managed instances can be resource-intensive to run and upgrade, especially at Ultimate-tier feature scope.
- Third-party integration marketplace is smaller than GitHub's, since GitLab favors native built-in features over an app ecosystem.
Pricing: Free tier · paid from $29/mo — $0/user/month (Free) matches OpenProject's free Community tier; GitLab's Premium at $29/user/month vs OpenProject's €10.95/user/month Professional tier (25-user minimum)