Vikunja

Vikunja is an open-source, self-hostable task manager with Lists, Kanban, Gantt, Table, and now-stable filter views — positioned as the to-do app you actually own. We rate it 83/100 — the most complete free Todoist/ClickUp alternative for anyone willing to either self-host or pay 4€/month for the EU-hosted cloud.

What is Vikunja?

Vikunja is a project and task management application written in Go (backend) and Vue.js (frontend) and licensed under AGPLv3. The project was created by maintainer kolaente and first published on November 28, 2018; it crossed its big 1.0 stable release in January 2024 after years as a public beta. As of April 26, 2026, the canonical GitHub mirror at go-vikunja/vikunja has 4,057 stars and 420 forks, with a fresh push earlier the same day.

The pitch is unusually direct in a category dominated by SaaS: every feature you would normally have to pay for in Todoist or ClickUp — reminders, attachments, filters, multiple views, recurring tasks — is in the free, self-hosted version. The hosted Vikunja Cloud exists for people who don't want to run their own server, not as a paywall to feature-gate the open-source build. Vikunja is made and hosted in the EU, which has become a real selling point as North American SaaS pricing and data-residency rules drift apart.

Key Features of Vikunja

• Four task views, not just a skin: List, Kanban, Gantt, and Table all sort and group your tasks differently — switching views actually changes the data layout, not just the visual style.
• Saved filters with a real query language: Build complex filters across labels, assignees, due dates, priorities, and reminders, then save them as virtual projects you can pin to your sidebar.
• Recurring tasks, subtasks, relations, attachments, reminders: The full Todoist feature surface — including dependencies and bidirectional task relations — ships in the free self-hosted build with no premium tier locking anything.
• CalDAV sync: Plug Vikunja into Apple Reminders, Thunderbird, GNOME Calendar, or any CalDAV-aware app and treat your tasks as standard calendar items.
• Public REST API and webhooks: Every action in the UI is a documented API call, and webhooks fire on task events for Zapier-style automation against any HTTP endpoint.
• Built-in Todoist, Trello, Microsoft To Do and TickTick importers: One-shot migration tools mean leaving a paid app for Vikunja takes minutes, not a weekend of CSV wrangling.
• One-binary Go server with SQLite, MySQL, or Postgres: The backend is a single static Go binary; you can self-host the entire thing on a Raspberry Pi with SQLite, or scale out on Postgres and S3-compatible attachment storage.

What Users Say About Vikunja

Sentiment is genuinely positive but with one consistent thread of caveats. On r/selfhosted, multi-hundred-upvote threads about "goodbye Todoist, hello Vikunja" praise the unrestricted feature set and how lightweight the Go binary is — one widely-shared comment from rusz.dev reads, "Self-hosted Vikunja is free and always will be, and it doesn't paywall basic features like reminders, attachments, and filters behind a paid plan." XDA Developers' 2026 review called it "lighter and more powerful" than Todoist for personal use.

The recurring complaints are equally consistent and worth taking seriously. There is no native iOS or Android app — you get a Progressive Web App (PWA) instead, which means push notifications can be flaky on iOS and the home-screen experience is a step behind Todoist's polished native clients. The community is much smaller than Todoist's, so third-party integrations (compared to Todoist's marketplace and Zapier presence) are sparser. Threads on r/Todoist from people who tried Vikunja flag that the Cloud sign-up flow and onboarding are noticeably less polished than the open-source competition like Plane and AppFlowy.

Vikunja Pricing

Self-hosted Vikunja is free, forever, with no feature paywalls. Vikunja Cloud is the EU-hosted managed plan with a 14-day free trial. All Cloud plans include unlimited projects, tasks, reminders, share links, relations, and saved filters.

Plan	Price	Key Limits
Self-hosted	Free, AGPLv3	Everything — no feature gates. You bring the server, backups, and TLS.
Cloud — Personal	4€/month (40€/year, -20%)	Single user, 10 GB attachments, email + community support, 14-day free trial.
Cloud — Organization	5€/user/month (50€/user/year, -20%)	Unlimited teams, 50 GB attachments, priority email support, centralized team billing.
Vikunja Pro (add-on)	Custom (Family / Business / Enterprise)	Admin panel, audit logs, time tracking — works with both Cloud and self-hosted instances.

Critically, the free self-hosted build is not a feature-stripped trial. The Pro add-on adds operational features — admin panel, audit logs, time tracking — that matter for compliance and larger organizations, not core task-manager functionality.

Who Should Use Vikunja?

Best for: Self-hosters and homelab users who want a single Go binary they can run on a Raspberry Pi or NAS, EU-based teams who care about data residency, and individuals migrating off Todoist or ClickUp who don't want to lose features (Gantt, recurring tasks, filters) to a free tier. Also a strong fit for small agencies that need shared projects and Kanban without paying $10–15/seat for ClickUp or Asana.

Not ideal for: Mobile-first users who depend on slick native iOS/Android clients with reliable push notifications, teams that need a deep Slack/Linear/Jira integration ecosystem, or anyone who refuses to either run a server or trust a smaller EU vendor with their cloud data.

Pros and Cons

Pros:

• Truly unrestricted free self-hosted build — no "upgrade to unlock filters" pop-ups.
• Single static Go binary; runs on a Raspberry Pi with SQLite or scales out on Postgres.
• Four real task views (List, Kanban, Gantt, Table) with shared underlying data.
• CalDAV, REST API, and webhooks built in — easy to wire into existing tooling.
• Built-in importers for Todoist, Trello, Microsoft To Do, and TickTick.
• Made and hosted in the EU; AGPLv3-licensed code is fully auditable.

Cons:

• No native iOS or Android app — only a PWA, with iOS notification limitations.
• Smaller integration ecosystem than Todoist or ClickUp.
• Self-hosting adds real operational work: TLS, backups, attachment storage, updates.
• Cloud onboarding is functional but rougher than venture-funded competitors.

Alternatives to Vikunja

Vikunja sits in a crowded open-source field. Plane is more Jira-shaped and aimed at engineering teams with cycles and modules. AppFlowy blends docs and tasks more like Notion. Twenty, Anytype, and Karakeep approach adjacent problems (CRM, knowledge, bookmarks) with the same self-host-first philosophy. On the commercial side, Todoist remains the gold standard for slick mobile apps and TickTick has a deeper habit-tracking story — but both paywall views and filters that Vikunja gives away.

Verdict: Is Vikunja Worth It?

If you can run a small server (or you'll happily pay 4€/month to skip that), Vikunja is the most complete free task manager on the market in 2026. The 83/100 score reflects an honest tradeoff: the desktop and web experience matches Todoist's feature surface and beats it on views and pricing, but the missing native mobile apps and smaller integration ecosystem keep it from being a clean win for everyone. For self-hosters, EU teams, and anyone tired of feature-gated SaaS, Vikunja is the obvious answer.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Vikunja free?

Yes. Self-hosted Vikunja is free and AGPLv3-licensed with no feature paywalls. Vikunja Cloud, the EU-hosted managed version, starts at 4€/month for personal use with a 14-day free trial.

What platforms does Vikunja support?

Vikunja runs as a Go server backend on Linux, macOS, Windows, and Docker, paired with a Vue.js web frontend and a Progressive Web App that installs on iOS and Android. There is no native mobile app yet — the PWA is the official mobile experience.

How does Vikunja compare to Todoist?

Vikunja matches Todoist's task-management feature set (recurring tasks, reminders, filters, labels, attachments) in its free self-hosted build, plus adds Gantt, Table, and Kanban views Todoist charges for. Todoist still wins on native mobile apps, polish, and third-party integrations.

Is Vikunja open source?

Yes. Vikunja is licensed under AGPLv3 and developed in the open at github.com/go-vikunja/vikunja with 4,057 stars as of April 2026.

Does Vikunja support CalDAV?

Yes. Vikunja exposes a CalDAV endpoint, so you can sync tasks with Apple Reminders, Thunderbird, GNOME Calendar, or any other CalDAV client.

Does Vikunja have an API?

Yes. Vikunja ships a documented REST API plus webhooks, both used by the official frontend itself, so anything in the UI is also automatable from external tools.