OpenProject

OpenProject is a web-based open source project management platform designed for organizations that need robust planning, agile collaboration, and complete data sovereignty. It brings together Gantt-based project planning, Scrum and Kanban boards, hierarchical task tracking, time logging, and team wikis into a single unified workspace — replacing fragmented tool stacks without vendor lock-in.

Originally forked from Redmine and ChiliProject, OpenProject has evolved into a full-featured enterprise-ready alternative to Jira, MS Project, Monday.com, and Asana, trusted by governments, regulated industries, and international open source communities alike. Its self-hosting story is first-class: Docker, Linux packages, and a dedicated operations guide make production deployment straightforward, while a tiered Enterprise add-on system lets teams access advanced capabilities on demand.

The platform is built on a Rails 8 backend with a modular Angular frontend, backed by PostgreSQL and an explicit contract/service layer that enforces authorization at the model boundary. A HAL-based REST API powers deep integrations with GitHub, GitLab, Nextcloud, and OneDrive. OpenProject is licensed under GNU GPL v3 and maintained by OpenProject GmbH with a commercially-sponsored bug bounty programme, which means security vulnerabilities are actively disclosed and patched on a rapid release cadence — the project ships multiple minor releases per month.

What You Get

• Gantt Charts with Dependencies - Plan and schedule projects visually with drag-and-drop tasks, milestone markers, cross-project dependencies, and one-click PDF export for stakeholder reporting.
• Agile Boards (Scrum & Kanban) - Run sprints with backlog management, velocity tracking, and WIP limits, or manage continuous flow on Kanban boards with configurable swimlanes and filters.
• Work Package Hierarchy - Create fully hierarchical work items with custom fields, custom types, status workflows, priority levels, assignees, and estimated/logged hours — linked directly to code via GitHub and GitLab integrations.
• GitHub & GitLab Integration - Bi-directionally link work packages to pull requests, commits, and issues so that code activity automatically updates project status without leaving your IDE.
• Time Tracking & Budget Management - Log hours per work package, set budget envelopes, track actual vs. planned costs, and generate exportable cost reports with optional hourly rate enforcement.
• Meeting Agendas & Minutes - Structure recurring or one-off meetings with agenda builders, inline action item assignment, and automatic minute creation that converts discussion points into tracked work packages.
• Team Planner (Workload View) - Visualize team availability on a weekly or bi-weekly calendar, drag tasks across team members to rebalance workloads, and spot over-allocation before it becomes a problem.
• Project Wikis & Forums - Document knowledge with a full WYSIWYG wiki that supports attachments, versioning, and Markdown, complemented by threaded discussion forums for async team communication.
• Nextcloud & OneDrive/SharePoint File Integrations - Attach and browse cloud files directly from work packages without switching apps, with optional automatic project folder provisioning on Nextcloud.
• Role-Based Access Control & 2FA - Manage fine-grained permissions per project, enforce two-factor authentication, and optionally integrate LDAP/AD or OIDC/SAML SSO for enterprise identity management.

Common Use Cases

• Hybrid software development teams - Engineering leads use Gantt timelines to manage client delivery milestones while Scrum masters run parallel sprints on agile boards, with GitHub PRs auto-linked to their corresponding work packages for end-to-end traceability.
• Government and regulated-industry projects - Public sector agencies deploy OpenProject on-premises inside their own data centre to satisfy GDPR, NIS2, or sector-specific compliance requirements while retaining a familiar Jira-like interface.
• Cross-functional product launches - Product managers coordinate engineering, design, marketing, and sales on a shared Gantt timeline, using the Team Planner to allocate sprints and the budget module to track campaign spend against a fixed envelope.
• Open source project governance - FOSS maintainers use OpenProject’s transparent roadmaps, public forums, and issue tracker to organize community contributions, run release planning sessions, and publish a versioned changelog without leaving their project’s domain.
• BIM and construction project management - Architecture and engineering teams use the BIM Edition to overlay project tasks on IFC 3D building models and import BCF issue files directly from CAD tools, linking physical site issues to work packages for coordinated resolution.

Under The Hood

Architecture OpenProject follows a modular monolith pattern where a Rails 8 backend hosts domain logic in a clearly stratified layer stack: controllers delegate to service objects, service objects validate through contract classes built on Disposable::Twin, and models enforce access via policy objects and role-based permission checks embedded in ActiveRecord scopes. The frontend is a separate Angular application that communicates exclusively through a HAL+JSON REST API, with a complementary Stimulus and Turbo layer handling progressive enhancement for server-rendered views. Modules — gantt, boards, storages, github_integration, bim, team_planner, and more — live as self-contained Gems under the modules/ directory, each with their own routes, models, and Angular feature slices, allowing the platform to ship add-ons independently without forking core Rails code.

Tech Stack The backend runs Ruby on Rails 8 with ActiveRecord on PostgreSQL, using Doorkeeper for OAuth 2.0, Warden for authentication, and a custom HAL resource layer for API serialization. Background processing uses a dedicated worker process powered by the Rake-based job queue, with Memcached for fragment caching in production. The Angular 17+ frontend is compiled with the Angular CLI and uses ViewComponent-style Primer Design System components alongside TypeScript-typed HAL resource models for consistent state representation. Production packaging targets Debian/Ubuntu via PKGR-style .deb packages, and the canonical deployment method is Docker Compose with separate web, worker, and backup processes. For BIM workflows, the frontend bundles @xeokit/xeokit-gltf-to-xkt for in-browser IFC and glTF 3D model rendering.

Code Quality OpenProject maintains extensive RSpec test coverage across unit, request, and Capybara feature tests, with over 460 model spec files and comprehensive feature suites for all major workflows. The codebase enforces # frozen_string_literal: true uniformly, relies on Rubocop for linting, and uses Lefthook for pre-commit checks that run both Ruby and TypeScript linters. Authorization logic is consistently isolated through the contract layer rather than scattered across controllers, and permission checks are composed rather than duplicated. ESLint and TypeScript’s strict mode govern the Angular layer. The active bug bounty programme on YesWeHack, co-sponsored by the European Commission, ensures that security issues are publicly disclosed with CVE assignments and patched rapidly — the project shipped multiple CVE-fixing releases in the first quarter of 2026 alone.

What Makes It Unique OpenProject’s most distinctive technical decision is its tiered enterprise add-on model delivered entirely within a GPL v3 codebase — the EnterpriseToken mechanism gates approximately 84 feature call sites across core and modules, allowing a single open source installation to unlock paid capabilities through a signed token rather than a separate codebase fork. This creates a genuinely auditable and self-hostable system where paying customers get more features without the opacity of a proprietary branch. Combined with first-class BIM support (IFC model viewer, BCF import/export) and a HAL-based API that treats every resource as a hypermedia document — enabling truly generic clients — OpenProject occupies a rare niche as a full-featured project management platform that is simultaneously open source, enterprise-ready, and construction-industry capable.

Self-Hosting

OpenProject is licensed under the GNU General Public License version 3, which means the complete source code is freely available, and anyone may run, study, modify, and redistribute it. GPL v3 is a copyleft licence: if you distribute modified versions of OpenProject, you must release those modifications under the same licence. For most self-hosters — organizations running it internally for their own teams — this has no practical implication, because internal use does not constitute distribution. You can add custom modules, change the UI, and integrate internal tools without any obligation to publish your changes.

Running OpenProject yourself is a substantive operational commitment. The application requires PostgreSQL, a Rails web process, a dedicated background worker, Memcached for caching, and optionally a reverse proxy (Apache or Nginx). The project provides Debian/Ubuntu packages via PKGR and a Docker Compose setup as the canonical paths for production deployment, both of which handle the dependency graph reasonably well. You are responsible for database backups, SSL termination, SMTP relay configuration, periodic upgrades (the project ships roughly monthly minor releases), and scaling the web and worker processes as team size grows. The installation documentation is thorough, but expect to spend meaningful time on initial setup and ongoing maintenance, particularly if you need LDAP sync, SSO, or file storage integrations with Nextcloud or SharePoint.

The hosted Enterprise cloud tier and the on-premises Enterprise licence both unlock a structured set of add-ons that are absent from the Community Edition: baseline comparisons, Gantt PDF export, Team Planner, custom actions, date alerts, SSO via OIDC/SAML, OneDrive/SharePoint integration, work package sharing, internal comments, portfolio management, LDAP group sync, SCIM API, Nextcloud SSO, and antivirus scanning — roughly 30 gated features in total, distributed across four paid tiers (Basic, Professional, Premium, Corporate). Customers on plans established before May 2025 retain their existing feature set on renewal. The Community Edition is genuinely useful for small teams but noticeably less capable for enterprise governance scenarios; if SSO, advanced reporting, or external file storage integrations are requirements, a paid tier becomes necessary even for self-hosted deployments.