Task management buyers are often choosing between tools that look similar on the surface: kanban boards, project tracking, notes, scheduling, feedback, or team collaboration.
This ranking uses open/source-visible tools only, sorted first by ToolVitals score and then by GitHub stars as a secondary popularity signal. That keeps the list focused on project health and recent shipping strength before using GitHub stars to break close comparisons, rather than treating popularity alone as a proxy for quality.
Rankings
| Rank | Tool | Openness | License | Health | Shipping | GitHub Stars | Score | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | QOwnNotes | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-2.0 | 87 | 95 | 5780 | 91 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 2 | Pad | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 78 | 93 | 58 | 88 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 3 | Shelf | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 78 | 84 | 2630 | 85 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 4 | 4ga Boards | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 74 | 84 | 613 | 84 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 5 | Eventyay | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 82 | 72 | 1629 | 81 | 🟢 Excellent |
| 6 | Devlane | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 68 | 78 | 77 | 77 | 🟢 Good |
| 7 | Fider | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 76 | 58 | 4348 | 75 | 🟢 Good |
| 8 | Galaxy Maps | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 44 | 7 | 1 | 43 | 🟡 Fair |
| 9 | Spacecowboy | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 43 | 11 | 2 | 42 | 🟡 Fair |
| 10 | Worklenz | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 35 | 4 | 3068 | 41 | 🟡 Fair |
| 11 | Werkyn | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 41 | 7 | 36 | 41 | 🟡 Fair |
| 12 | Kanba | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 38 | 7 | 626 | 40 | 🟡 Fair |
| 13 | CodiMD | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 38 | 0 | 10082 | 38 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 14 | LibreKB | OSI-approved OSS | GPL-3.0 | 36 | 0 | 59 | 38 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 15 | Watson | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 32 | 0 | 2526 | 34 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 16 | Ray | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 27 | 0 | 10 | 34 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 17 | MyCollab | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 31 | 0 | 1361 | 32 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 18 | Project Management | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 30 | 0 | 440 | 32 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 19 | Markwhen | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 31 | 0 | 4842 | 31 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 20 | Benotes | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 28 | 0 | 856 | 31 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 21 | openKB | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 28 | 0 | 667 | 31 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 22 | Fira | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 27 | 0 | 81 | 30 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 23 | Taskly | OSI-approved OSS | Apache-2.0 | 21 | 0 | 25 | 30 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 24 | Relief Connect | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 26 | 0 | 10 | 30 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 25 | ApplicantAtlas | OSI-approved OSS | AGPL-3.0 | 26 | 0 | 24 | 29 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
| 26 | EventSeats | OSI-approved OSS | MIT | 19 | 0 | 6 | 26 | 🔴 Needs Attention |
Top 3 Highlights
QOwnNotes ranks first with a ToolVitals score of 91, the highest in the dataset, backed by a 95 shipping score and 87 health score. It is listed as OSI-approved OSS under GPL-2.0, has 5,780 GitHub stars, and its plain-text Markdown notes plus todo-list focus make it one of the clearest task-management fits in the group.
Pad ranks second with a ToolVitals score of 88 and the second-highest shipping score in the list at 93. Its GitHub footprint is small at 58 stars, but the ranking approach prioritizes ToolVitals score before stars, and Pad is listed as OSI-approved OSS under Apache-2.0 with status 🟢 Excellent.
Shelf ranks third with a ToolVitals score of 85, combining a 78 health score with an 84 shipping score. It is listed as OSI-approved OSS under AGPL-3.0, has 2,630 GitHub stars, and stands out as a stronger fit for equipment scheduling and IT asset management than for generic personal task tracking.
Want to see the full health, shipping, openness, and evidence details for every tool in Task Management? Browse all Task Management Tools →