leantime
Leantime is a goals focused project management system for non-project managers. Building with ADHD, Autism, and dyslexia in mind.
Top Related Projects
The Open Source kanban (built with Meteor). Keep variable/table/field names camelCase. For translations, only add Pull Request changes to wekan/i18n/en.i18n.json , other translations are done at https://app.transifex.com/wekan/wekan only.
Kanban project management software
Effective June 1, 2021: Phabricator is no longer actively maintained.
Quick Overview
Leantime is an open-source project management tool designed to help teams and individuals manage their projects more efficiently. It provides a comprehensive set of features, including task management, time tracking, project planning, and collaboration tools, all within a user-friendly web-based interface.
Pros
- Comprehensive Project Management: Leantime offers a wide range of features, including task management, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, and time tracking, making it a versatile tool for managing projects of various sizes and complexities.
- Customizable and Flexible: The platform allows users to customize workflows, dashboards, and other aspects to fit their specific needs, making it adaptable to different project management methodologies and team preferences.
- Collaboration and Communication: Leantime facilitates team collaboration through features like comments, file sharing, and real-time updates, enabling effective communication and coordination among project stakeholders.
- Open-Source and Free: As an open-source project, Leantime is available for free, allowing teams and individuals to use and contribute to the project without any licensing fees or restrictions.
Cons
- Learning Curve: The extensive feature set of Leantime may present a steeper learning curve for users who are new to project management tools, requiring some time to familiarize themselves with the platform's capabilities.
- Limited Mobile Support: While Leantime is web-based, the user interface may not be optimized for mobile devices, potentially making it less convenient for users who need to access the platform on the go.
- Potential Performance Issues: As the project grows in complexity and user base, there may be concerns about the platform's performance, especially for larger teams or projects with a significant amount of data.
- Ongoing Maintenance: As an open-source project, Leantime relies on a community of contributors to maintain and improve the platform, which may result in inconsistent updates or potential delays in addressing issues.
Code Examples
Not applicable, as Leantime is a web-based project management tool and not a code library.
Getting Started
To get started with Leantime, follow these steps:
-
Install Leantime: Leantime can be installed either by downloading the latest release from the GitHub repository or by using the provided Docker image. The installation process varies depending on your preferred method and the environment you're using.
-
Set up the Database: Leantime requires a database to store project data. You can use a MySQL, PostgreSQL, or SQLite database, depending on your preferences and requirements.
-
Configure the Application: After installing Leantime, you'll need to configure the application by setting up the database connection, email settings, and other necessary parameters. This can be done by modifying the
config.php
file or using the web-based setup wizard. -
Create an Account: Once the application is configured, you can create an account and log in to the Leantime dashboard. The platform provides a user-friendly interface to manage your projects, tasks, and team collaboration.
-
Explore the Features: Leantime offers a wide range of features, including task management, Kanban boards, Gantt charts, time tracking, and reporting. Familiarize yourself with the platform's capabilities and customize it to fit your project management needs.
-
Invite Team Members: Leantime supports team collaboration, so you can invite your team members to join the platform and work together on projects.
-
Utilize the Documentation: The Leantime project provides comprehensive documentation, including installation guides, user manuals, and tutorials, to help you get started and make the most of the platform.
Competitor Comparisons
The Open Source kanban (built with Meteor). Keep variable/table/field names camelCase. For translations, only add Pull Request changes to wekan/i18n/en.i18n.json , other translations are done at https://app.transifex.com/wekan/wekan only.
Pros of Wekan
- More mature project with a larger community and longer development history
- Offers a wider range of features and integrations out-of-the-box
- Provides a more Trello-like user interface, which may be familiar to many users
Cons of Wekan
- Can be more complex to set up and maintain, especially for smaller teams
- May have a steeper learning curve due to its extensive feature set
- Less focus on lean project management methodologies compared to Leantime
Code Comparison
Wekan (JavaScript):
Template.boardList.helpers({
boards() {
return Boards.find({
archived: false,
'members.userId': Meteor.userId(),
}, {
sort: ['title'],
});
},
});
Leantime (PHP):
public function getAllBoards($projectId)
{
return $this->dbcall->select('zp_canvas_items', array(
'id',
'title',
'author',
'created'
), array('projectId' => $projectId, 'box' => 'board'));
}
Both projects use different programming languages and frameworks, making direct code comparison challenging. However, these snippets demonstrate how each project handles board-related functionality in their respective codebases.
Kanban project management software
Pros of Kanboard
- Lightweight and minimalist design, focusing on simplicity and ease of use
- Extensive plugin system for customization and extending functionality
- Self-hosted solution with no external dependencies, enhancing privacy and control
Cons of Kanboard
- Less feature-rich compared to Leantime, which offers more comprehensive project management tools
- User interface may feel dated or less polished than Leantime's modern design
- Limited built-in reporting and analytics capabilities
Code Comparison
Kanboard (PHP):
public function getProjectById($project_id)
{
return $this->db->table(self::TABLE)
->eq('id', $project_id)
->findOne();
}
Leantime (PHP):
public function getProject($id)
{
$sql = "SELECT
zp.*,
company.name AS companyName
FROM zp_projects AS zp
LEFT JOIN zp_company AS company ON zp.company_id = company.id
WHERE zp.id = :id";
$stmn = $this->db->database->prepare($sql);
$stmn->bindValue(':id', $id, PDO::PARAM_INT);
$stmn->execute();
$values = $stmn->fetch();
$stmn->closeCursor();
return $values;
}
The code comparison shows that Kanboard uses a more concise database query approach, while Leantime employs a more detailed SQL query with joins for retrieving project information.
Effective June 1, 2021: Phabricator is no longer actively maintained.
Pros of Phabricator
- More comprehensive and feature-rich project management suite
- Highly customizable with a wide range of tools and integrations
- Robust code review and repository management capabilities
Cons of Phabricator
- Steeper learning curve due to its complexity
- Requires more resources to set up and maintain
- Development has slowed down in recent years
Code Comparison
Phabricator (PHP):
final class PhabricatorDaemonManagementWorkflow
extends PhabricatorDaemonManagementWorkflow {
protected function executeWorkflow() {
$console = PhutilConsole::getConsole();
$daemons = $this->loadAllDaemons();
Leantime (PHP):
class projectService {
private $projectRepository;
private $ticketRepository;
private $ticketService;
Phabricator offers a more complex and structured codebase, reflecting its broader feature set. Leantime's code appears simpler and more focused on specific project management tasks.
Phabricator provides a comprehensive suite of tools for software development and project management, while Leantime focuses on lean project management with a simpler approach. Phabricator may be better suited for larger teams or more complex projects, whereas Leantime could be ideal for smaller teams or those preferring a more streamlined experience.
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Leantime®
â If you find Leantime useful, please star us on GitHub! â
Leantime is an open source project management system for non-project managers.
We combine strategy, planning and execution while making it easy for everyone on the team to use.
Built with ADHD, dyslexia and autism in mind. ð§
ðª As simple as Trello but as feature-rich as Jira
ð A perfect alternative to ClickUp, Monday, or Asana
ð https://leantime.io
ð Features*
Task Management | Project Planning | Information/Knowledge Management | Administration |
---|---|---|---|
Task management via kanban boards, gantt, table, list and calendar views | Project Dashboards, reports & status updates | Wikis / Docs | Easy installation |
Unlimited subtasks and dependencies | Goal & metrics tracking | Idea Boards | Multiple user roles and per project permissions |
Milestone management | Lean & Business Model Canvas | Retrospectives | Two factor authentication |
Sprint Management | SWOT Analysis canvas | File Storage via S3 or local filesystem | LDAP, OIDC integration |
Timetracking & timesheets | Risk Analysis | Screen & webcam recording | Extendable via plugins and API |
... and more | Comments/discussions on everything | Integrates with Slack, Mattermost, Discord | |
... and more | Available in over 20 languages | ||
*yes, all of these features are included in the OSS version | |||
ð¸ Screenshots
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âSystem Requirements
- PHP 8.2+
- MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.6+
- Apache or Nginx (IIS works with some modifications)
- PHP Extensions:
- BC Math (bcmath)
- Ctype
- cURL
- DOM
- Exif
- Fileinfo
- Filter
- GD
- Hash
- LDAP
- Multibyte String (mbstring)
- MySQL
- OPcache
- OpenSSL
- PCNTL
- PCRE
- PDO
- Phar
- Session
- Tokenizer
- Zip
- SimpleXML
Ctype PHP Extension cURL PHP Extension DOM PHP Extension Fileinfo PHP Extension Filter PHP Extension Hash PHP Extension Mbstring PHP Extension OpenSSL PHP Extension PCRE PHP Extension PDO PHP Extension Session PHP Extension Tokenizer PHP Extension XML PHP Extension
ï¸â¡ï¸ Installation (Production)
There are two main ways to install LeanTime for production. The first of which is to install all needed pieces of the system locally. The second is to use the officially supported Docker image.
Local Production Installation
- Download latest release package (file is called: Leantime-vx.x.x.zip) from the release page
- Create an empty MySQL database
- Upload the entire directory to your server
- Point your domain root to the
public/
directory - Rename
config/.env.sample
toconfig/.env
- Fill in your database credentials (username, password, host, dbname) in
config/.env
- Navigate to
<yourdomain.com>/install
- Follow instructions to install database and set up first user account
IIS Installation Notes
Whilst the steps above are applicable to Internet Information Services (IIS), there is an additional configuration change that may be required in IIS to ensure full functionality - you need to allow the PATCH method:
- Open IIS
- Expand the server and sites on the left and select the LeanTime site
- Double click on
Handler Mappings
- Double click on the PHP handler mapping that is used by the site
- Click
Request Restrictionsâ¦
- Click the
Verbs
tab - In the
One of the following verbs
text box, addPATCH
- for example:GET,HEAD,POST,PATCH
- Click
OK
- In the
Executable (optional)
text box, put a double quote character (â
) at the start and at the end of the path to thephp-cgi.exe
file (this isn't needed if the path doesn't have a space in it) - Click
OK
- A popup will appear asking if you want to create a FastCGI application - click
Yes
Note: You may need to repeat this when you upgrade PHP.
Production Installation via Docker
We maintain an official Docker image on dockerhub. To run the image enter your MySQL credentials and execute. You can pass in all the configuration variables from .env
docker run -d --restart unless-stopped -p 8080:8080 --network leantime-net \
-e LEAN_DB_HOST=mysql_leantime \
-e LEAN_DB_USER=admin \
-e LEAN_DB_PASSWORD=321.qwerty \
-e LEAN_DB_DATABASE=leantime \
-e LEAN_EMAIL_RETURN=changeme@local.local \
--name leantime leantime/leantime:latest
Unless you have a database defined somewhere else you should use our docker-compose file.
Once started you can go to <yourdomain.com>/install
and run the installation script.
Important: If you are planning to use plugins you need to mount the plugin folder plugins:/var/www/html/app/Plugins
and ensure the www-data user has access to it. Otherwise installation may fail or plugins will be removed after a restart
Docker Installation Notes
If you intend to place Leantime behind a reverse proxy (nginx, etc.) to handle custom domain name resolution and SSL offloading, you will need to set the following environment variable in docker
-e LEAN_APP_URL=https://yourdomain.com \
- Update yourdomain.com to your custom domain name.
ð¤ Installation (Development)
There are two ways to install a development setup of LeanTime. The first (but most technical) is to install all pieces of the system locally. The second (and preferred method) is to use a docker containerized development environment.
Local Development Installation
- Clone repository to your local server
- Create MySQL database
- Run webpack builder via
make build-dev
- Point your local domain to the
public/
directory - Rename
config/.env.sample
toconfig/.env
- Fill in your database credentials (username, password, host, dbname) in
config/.env
- Navigate to
<localdomain>/install
- Follow instructions to install database and user account
Development Installation via Docker
For development, we use a dockerized development environment. You will need to have docker
, docker compose
, make
, composer
, git
and npm
installed.
- Notes for Windows Environments:
- Run all commands within the git bash terminal in order to utilize unix specific commands
- If installing php from a zip file, make sure to configure php.ini
It does not exist initially, so copy C:\php\php.ini-development to C:\php\php.ini. You will also need to edit php.ini in a text editor and enable all needed extensions for the build process. You can find these by running the make commands and looking for any extensions that error out as missing. You can enable them by searching php.ini for the extension that will look like:
;extension=gd
and removing the semicolon.
In order to build the development docker image, in the root of this repository, run a primer with
make clean build
afterwards, run
make run-dev
this will start the development server on port 8090.
The dev environment provides a MySQL server, mail server, s3 server, and should be good to go for your needs out of the box. The configuration of the development environment is found in .dev/.env
, and is already seeded with the appropriate values. You should probably not be modifying this unless you plan to work on a feature for a specific integration. the applications you get are as follows
- http://localhost:8090 : leantime
- http://localhost:8081 : maildev - to check emails sent
- http://localhost:8082 : phpMyAdmin(authentication
leantime:leantime
) to check the DB schema and data - http://localhost:8083 : s3ninja - to check s3 uploads. You need to enable this in the
.dev/.env
file by enabling s3
Additionally, Xdebug is enabled, but you will have to modify your
IDE key in the .dev/xdebug.ini
file(or alternatively, on your IDE). You also need to have port 9003 temporarily open on your firewall so you can utilize it effectively. This is because connections from docker to the host will count as external inbound connections
Run Tests
Static Analysis make phpstan
Code Style make test-code-style
(to fix code style automatically use make fix-code-style
)
Unit Tests make unit-test
Acceptance Tests make acceptance-test
(requires docker)
You can test individual acceptance test groups directly using:
For api:
docker compose --file .dev/docker-compose.yaml --file .dev/docker-compose.tests.yaml exec leantime-dev php vendor/bin/codecept run -g api --steps
For timesheets:
docker compose --file .dev/docker-compose.yaml --file .dev/docker-compose.tests.yaml exec leantime-dev php vendor/bin/codecept run -g timesheet --steps
ð Update
Manual
- Make sure to take a backup of your database and files
- Replace all files in your directory with the updated version
- If there were any database changes, the system will redirect you to
<yourdomain.com>/update
CLI
- Run
php bin/leantime system:update
Docker
- Before updating, make sure your mysql container was started using a mounted volume, otherwise your content will be deleted
- Delete/Stop existing container
- Pull the latest docker image and rebuild using your compose file
Common Issues
Please refer to our documentation about common issues found when installing or updating Leantime
ð Extend Leantime
You can extend Leantime by
- building your own plugin: Plugin Docs
- using our json-rpc API: API Docs
- or by purchasing a plugin from our marketplace
ð Let us install it for you.
Hassle free installation service in your environments. We can do full installations, updates, configurations or plugin installations. See our Marketplace for details.
âï¸ Not interested in hosting yourself? Let us do it for you
We offer managed hosting plans as well as a SaaS product so you can get all the benefits of Leantime without the hassle.
Head to leantime.io for more information.
ð¤ Need technical support?
We can help you set up Leantime in your environment and customize it to your needs. Our support plans are outlined on our website.
Please note: We currently only support the official Leantime docker compose and standard installations. We only offer support for the most recent version.
We do not offer support for Cloudron, Elestio, Turnkey, or other external distribution platforms sharing unofficial versions of Leantime.
ð«´ Contributing
We're excited you are interested in contributing to Leantime. We want to make sure you have a great experience contributing to Leantime and that the new features you build will make it into core.
𪲠Bugs
Find an issue on Github (or create a new one) add your name to it or comment that you will be working on it. Once fixed, create a Pull Request.
New Features in Core
If you have an idea about new features please reach out to us on Discord. This is where we coordinate feature development and discuss whether core is the right place to add your new features (Plugins is the alternative).
ð Translations
Language files and translations are stored in app/Language/*
. Once updates please create a Pull Request.
ð¥ Community Support
- Documentation https://docs.leantime.io
- Community Chat Discord
- File a bug report https://github.com/Leantime/leantime/issues/new
- Translations https://crowdin.com/project/leantime
âï¸ LICENSE Exceptions
Leantime is licensed under AGPLv3.
This file forms part of the Leantime Software for which the following exception is added: Plugins within the /app/Plugins
directory which may contain plugins licensed under other licenses including our enterprise license.

Top Related Projects
The Open Source kanban (built with Meteor). Keep variable/table/field names camelCase. For translations, only add Pull Request changes to wekan/i18n/en.i18n.json , other translations are done at https://app.transifex.com/wekan/wekan only.
Kanban project management software
Effective June 1, 2021: Phabricator is no longer actively maintained.
Convert
designs to code with AI
Introducing Visual Copilot: A new AI model to turn Figma designs to high quality code using your components.
Try Visual Copilot