# Fizzy by 37signals

8 Hacker News commenters recommended Fizzy by 37signals and 4 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 2 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free Kanban tracker that its maker open-sourced, praised for design and a fair license. Common caveat: the license is source-available, not Open Source Definition compliant.

## Why people recommend it

- Source release praised as step forward (2 comments): "this still seems like a step in the right direction to be encouraged and fostered" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46221784)) "Fresh take on Kanban. Wonderful to see it open sourced, complete surprise." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46128684))
- Fair, reasonable license (2 comments): "Nice product and fair license. But do not call it open source." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46132638)) "I think this is perfectly reasonable" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46158039))
- Transparent, well-designed public codebase (2 comments): "Fizzy's public codebase has the entire life of the product development cycle out in the open." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46124346)) "This code base is sparkling in its design." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46215514))

## What people warn about

- Not truly open source license (3 comments): "Nice product and fair license. But do not call it open source." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46132638)) "Not under an Open Source Definition compliant license though." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46146088)) "The license doesn't comply with the Open Source Definition" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46131349))
- Restrictive terms, creators may sue (2 comments): "Copyleft licenses are as restrictive as the license DHH put out with Fizzy." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46341825)) "Fizzy's creators will also sue you in certain cases." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46214775))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Trello](https://hackerapproved.com/p/trello.md): 21 recommend
- [Kanban CLI](https://hackerapproved.com/p/kanban-cli.md): 9 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "Fizzy by 37signals", https://hackerapproved.com/p/fizzy/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).