OpenProject

What Is OpenProject?

Project managers live in a divided world. Traditional project management tools give you Gantt charts, dependency tracking, and waterfall planning. Agile tools give you Scrum boards, sprints, and backlogs. Most commercial platforms force you to choose one camp or cobble together both through plugins and workarounds. Jira handles agile well but requires third-party add-ons for proper Gantt charts. Monday.com offers timeline views but lacks rigorous dependency management. Microsoft Project excels at scheduling but has no native agile methodology support.

OpenProject bridges this divide. Founded in Berlin in 2012, this German open-source project management platform provides Gantt charts with dependency tracking and critical path analysis alongside Scrum and Kanban boards in a single, unified tool. You can plan a project with traditional waterfall methodology, manage development sprints with agile boards, and track time and costs across both — all without leaving the platform or purchasing add-ons.

OpenProject GmbH is headquartered in Berlin, with the Community edition released under the GPL v3 licence. The self-hosted version is free with unlimited users, making it one of the most comprehensive free project management tools available. Cloud hosting runs on German servers, and the platform is used by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior, Siemens, and various EU institutions — organisations that chose OpenProject for its combination of capability, sovereignty, and open-source transparency.

The interface is more traditional and heavier than modern tools like Linear or Notion. The learning curve is steeper. The integration ecosystem is narrower than Jira's marketplace. But for teams that need hybrid project management methodology support with self-hosted data sovereignty, OpenProject offers a combination that no commercial alternative matches.

Key Features

Gantt Charts and Scheduling

OpenProject's Gantt chart implementation is one of its strongest features. Work packages (tasks, milestones, phases) are displayed on an interactive timeline with drag-and-drop scheduling, dependency arrows, and critical path visualisation. You can define finish-to-start, start-to-start, finish-to-finish, and start-to-finish dependencies — the full set of dependency types that serious project scheduling requires. Baseline comparisons (available on paid plans) allow you to track how the current schedule has drifted from the original plan, which is essential for project governance and stakeholder reporting. For organisations migrating from Microsoft Project, OpenProject can import .mpp files.

Agile Boards

Scrum and Kanban boards provide agile methodology support within the same platform. Backlogs can be prioritised, sprints planned, and stories managed with story points and velocity tracking. Kanban boards offer configurable columns with WIP (work in progress) limits. The boards are functional and cover the core agile workflow, though they lack the visual polish and workflow automation of dedicated agile tools like Jira or Linear. For teams that primarily do agile development and nothing else, Jira remains more refined. For teams that need agile alongside waterfall planning, OpenProject's hybrid approach is more practical.

Time and Cost Tracking

Built-in time tracking allows team members to log hours against work packages, with reporting that aggregates time by project, user, activity, and date range. Cost tracking extends this to budgeting: you can define hourly rates per user, track actual costs against budgets, and generate cost reports for project financial management. This eliminates the need for a separate time-tracking tool (Toggl, Harvest, Kimai) for teams that want time data integrated directly into their project management workflow.

Team Planner and Resource Management

The team planner (available on Professional and Premium plans) provides a visual interface for assigning work packages to team members across a timeline, showing workload distribution and identifying over-allocation. This is a resource management capability that many project management tools either lack or charge premium prices for. For project managers responsible for allocating shared resources across multiple projects, the team planner provides visibility that prevents burnout and scheduling conflicts.

BIM Module

A distinctive niche feature: OpenProject includes a Building Information Modelling (BIM) module for construction and architecture projects. This integrates IFC model viewing directly into the project management interface, linking 3D building models to work packages and project timelines. For construction project management, this is a genuinely unique capability in an open-source platform.

Wiki, Documents, and Meetings

OpenProject includes built-in wiki pages for project documentation, document management for file storage and sharing, and meeting management with structured agendas and minutes. These features are not as sophisticated as dedicated tools (Confluence for wikis, Nextcloud for documents) but their integration within the project management context is convenient for teams that want a single platform.

Pricing

The Community edition is free, open-source (GPL v3), and supports unlimited users. It includes work packages, Gantt charts, agile boards, time tracking, wiki, documents, and meetings. This is a genuinely comprehensive free offering — most commercial competitors restrict their free tiers to five or ten users.

Basic Cloud at approximately EUR 6 per user per month provides managed hosting on German servers, email support, and automatic updates.

Professional Cloud at approximately EUR 10 per user per month adds team planner, baseline comparisons, custom actions, automations, and multi-project dashboards. This is where OpenProject's capabilities significantly exceed what the free tier offers.

Premium at approximately EUR 14 per user per month includes enterprise SSO/SAML, dedicated support engineer, custom onboarding, and SLA guarantees. Available for both cloud and self-hosted deployments.

For a 20-person team, the Professional Cloud plan costs approximately EUR 2,400 per year. The equivalent Jira Premium subscription would be comparable in price but would require paid add-ons for Gantt chart functionality that OpenProject includes natively.

EU Compliance & Privacy

OpenProject GmbH is a German company, and the cloud edition hosts data on servers in Germany. The self-hosted Community edition keeps all data on your own infrastructure with no telemetry in the default configuration.

The platform's adoption by the German Federal Ministry of the Interior and various EU institutions provides strong implicit validation of its compliance credentials. These organisations undergo rigorous security and data protection evaluation before deploying any software.

OpenProject's open-source codebase under GPL v3 allows full security auditing — a requirement for many government and regulated-industry deployments. The combination of German corporate jurisdiction, German data hosting, open-source transparency, and government-verified deployment creates one of the strongest compliance profiles in the project management category.

Who It's Best For

Teams needing hybrid project management — organisations that use both waterfall (Gantt charts, dependencies, milestones) and agile (Scrum boards, sprints, backlogs) methodologies within or across projects.

European public sector organisations that require self-hosted, open-source project management with EU data sovereignty and government-grade compliance.

Project managers migrating from Microsoft Project who want modern web-based access, collaboration features, and agile boards without losing scheduling depth.

Cost-conscious teams that need comprehensive project management for unlimited users without the per-user cost escalation of commercial SaaS alternatives.

The Verdict

OpenProject is the project management platform for teams that have been forced to choose between Gantt charts and Kanban boards. Its hybrid methodology support, self-hosted deployment model, and government-validated compliance credentials make it uniquely suited to European organisations that need both planning rigour and agile flexibility. The interface is heavier than modern alternatives, the learning curve is real, and the Community edition lacks some of the platform's best features. But no other open-source tool matches its breadth, and no commercial tool matches its data sovereignty. The 7.7 overall score reflects strong feature depth (8.5), excellent value (8.5), and top-tier EU compliance (9.5), tempered by a UI that prioritises functionality over elegance.

Frequently Asked Questions

How does OpenProject compare to Jira?

Both handle work items, boards, backlogs, and time tracking. OpenProject adds native Gantt chart support with full dependency management and critical path — capabilities Jira handles only through paid add-ons. OpenProject is open-source and self-hostable; Jira Cloud has moved away from self-hosting (Data Center remains but at high cost). Jira has a far larger integration marketplace and more refined agile features. OpenProject is stronger for mixed-methodology teams; Jira is stronger for pure agile development.

Can OpenProject import from Microsoft Project?

Yes. OpenProject can import .mpp files from Microsoft Project, preserving tasks, dependencies, dates, and milestones. Complex scheduling features like resource levelling may require manual adjustment after import.

Is the Community edition usable for real projects?

Yes. The Community edition includes work packages, Gantt charts, agile boards, time tracking, wiki, and documents with unlimited users. The main gaps are team planner, baseline comparisons, custom actions, and enterprise SSO — features available on paid plans. Many organisations run production projects successfully on the Community edition.

What deployment options does OpenProject offer?

OpenProject can be deployed via Docker containers, DEB/RPM packages for Linux, or Helm charts for Kubernetes. The Docker deployment is the most straightforward for teams with container infrastructure. Cloud hosting is also available with managed infrastructure on German servers.

Does OpenProject support portfolio management?

OpenProject supports multi-project management with cross-project reporting, shared work packages, and aggregated dashboards on the Professional plan and above. For portfolio-level visibility across multiple projects, these features provide the cross-project oversight that programme and portfolio managers need.