cloudparts

Plane

An open-source issue tracker and project planner in the style of Jira and Linear, with work items, sprint-like cycles, modules and wiki pages, that you can self-host or use as a cloud service.

What it is
Issue tracking
Used for
Sprints
Type
Open source
Made by
Plane Software, Inc.
License
AGPL-3.0 (Community Edition); Commercial Edition proprietary
Facts checked
24 October 2026
Website Source code

What it is

Plane organizes work as workspaces, projects and work items. Each work item has a state, an assignee, a priority, labels, sub-items and links to related items, and its state belongs to one of five fixed groups (Backlog, Unstarted, Started, Completed, Cancelled) so reports work even when teams name their own states. Cycles are time-boxed sprints with start and due dates; by default only one runs at a time, and unfinished items can be moved into the next cycle. Modules group work by feature or release instead of time, and one item can sit in several. Saved views filter across all of this, Pages hold notes and specs that can be turned into work items, and Intake collects requests from guests, a public form or email for triage before they reach the project.

The open-source Community Edition is AGPL-3.0 and has no user limit. Self-hosting uses Docker Compose or a Helm chart on Kubernetes and runs a Django API with Celery background workers, React front ends, PostgreSQL, Valkey, RabbitMQ and S3-compatible object storage; production installs can point at managed Postgres, Redis and S3. A REST API, authenticated with an API key or OAuth token, lets other tools create and update work items. The company sells Plane Cloud and a Commercial Edition that adds SSO with SAML, OIDC and LDAP, epics, initiatives, custom work item types, approval workflows, audit logs, GitHub, GitLab and Slack integrations and air-gapped installs. Cloud is free for up to 12 users; Pro is $6 per user a month billed yearly and Business $13.

Why teams pick it

  • Self-hostable under AGPL-3.0 with no user cap, for teams that must keep project data on their own servers
  • Cycles, modules, views and pages cover sprint planning, feature tracking and specs in one tool, close to what teams use Jira or Linear for
  • Five fixed state groups behind custom states keep progress charts and analytics consistent across projects
  • Fast-moving and widely used: more than 61,000 GitHub stars, and releases every few weeks since 2023

Watch out for

  • Many features larger organizations expect, including SSO, epics, custom work item types, approval workflows, audit logs and the GitHub and Slack integrations, are in the paid Commercial Edition
  • Self-hosting means running a dozen containers, including PostgreSQL, Valkey, RabbitMQ and object storage, and keeping them backed up and upgraded
  • AGPL-3.0: if you modify Plane and offer it to others over a network, you must publish your changes
  • By default only one cycle can be active per project, and burn-down charts and manual cycle control need the Pro plan

How it fits with other technologies

Create a work item through the REST API · bash

# Works against Plane Cloud (api.plane.so) or your own instance's /api/v1
curl -X POST "https://api.plane.so/api/v1/workspaces/acme/projects/$PROJECT_ID/work-items/" \
  -H "X-API-Key: $PLANE_API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "name": "Checkout fails for saved cards",
    "priority": "high",
    "state": "'"$TRIAGE_STATE_ID"'",
    "labels": ["'"$BUG_LABEL_ID"'"]
  }'
# Only "name" is required; the response (201) is the new work item.

See it in a real stack

No architecture uses Plane yet. Drop it into the playground and wire it up yourself.Open playground →
Where it came from2022–2026

Plane began as an internal tool at a product consulting startup run by Vamsi Kurama. He and his brother Vihar founded Plane in November 2022, the month the GitHub repository was created, with a plain complaint about the incumbents: tools like Jira asked for long setup and many configuration screens before a team could track its first issue. They built something quicker to start with and released it as open source, with the first tagged release in January 2023.

The project spread fast on GitHub while still in public alpha, and the founders noticed that “almost all of our most active and committed users are on self-managed instances.” In November 2023 Plane raised a $4 million seed round, funded solely by OSS Capital, a firm that backs commercial open-source companies. Its founder, Joseph Jacks, called the incumbents “inflexible, closed and extractive, legacy products.”

Plane followed an open-core model: the AGPL-licensed Community Edition stays free and self-hostable, while a Commercial Edition and Plane Cloud add governance, SSO and integrations for larger companies. After version 0.28, Plane 1.0 shipped in September 2025, and the 1.4 line followed in July 2026.

Why it’s built this way

Open source under AGPL-3.0
Many teams want issue data on their own servers. AGPL lets anyone self-host and modify Plane but requires changes to stay open, so a cloud competitor can’t take the code private.
Both cycles and modules
Some teams plan top-down by feature, others bottom-up in time-boxed sprints. Modules group work by scope and cycles by time, and an item can be in both.
Little setup before the first work item
The founders saw heavy onboarding and configuration as the main pain of existing tools, so a new project starts with working defaults.

Timeline

  1. 2022

    Vamsi and Vihar Kurama found Plane; GitHub repository created in November

  2. 2023

    First tagged release in January; $4M seed from OSS Capital in November

  3. 2025

    Plane 1.0 in September

  4. 2026

    Plane 1.4 in July; over 61,000 GitHub stars

Sources12 · facts checked 24 October 2026

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