Fizzy by 37signals
Ranked 3 of 3 kanban boards by recommenders
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.
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.
12 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 8
- criticize it
- 4
- approval share
- 67%
Recommended in 2 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: not recommended
- August 2026: not recommended
- September 2026: not recommended
- October 2026: not recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it doesn’t carry the badge
- 8 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, not met.
- 2 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 2 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, not met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Source release praised as step forward
“this still seems like a step in the right direction to be encouraged and fostered”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “'Source available' is not open source, and that's okay” “Fresh take on Kanban. Wonderful to see it open sourced, complete surprise.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Fizzy” Fair, reasonable license
“Nice product and fair license. But do not call it open source.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Fizzy” “I think this is perfectly reasonable”
Comment from 5 Dec 2025 in “Fizzy” Transparent, well-designed public codebase
“Fizzy's public codebase has the entire life of the product development cycle out in the open.”
Comment from 2 Dec 2025 in “Fizzy” “This code base is sparkling in its design.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “'Source available' is not open source, and that's okay”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Not truly open source license
“Nice product and fair license. But do not call it open source.”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Fizzy” “Not under an Open Source Definition compliant license though.”
Comment from 4 Dec 2025 in “37signals open-sources Kanban tracking tool Fizzy” “The license doesn't comply with the Open Source Definition”
Comment from 3 Dec 2025 in “Fizzy” Restrictive terms, creators may sue
“Copyleft licenses are as restrictive as the license DHH put out with Fizzy.”
Comment from 21 Dec 2025 in “MIRA – An open-source persistent AI entity with memory” “Fizzy's creators will also sue you in certain cases.”
Comment from 10 Dec 2025 in “'Source available' is not open source, and that's okay”
Other kanban boards people recommend
The two most recommended other kanban boards, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Trello | 21 | 19 | 53% | 11 | — | — |
| Kanban CLI | 9 | 1 | 90% | 3 | — | — |
| Fizzy by 37signalsThis page | 8 | 4 | 67% | 2 | — | — |
What people said
13 of the 14 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“It's also sort of nice how my phone gently vibrates when I press the drop-down elements”
“Copyleft licenses are as restrictive as the license DHH put out with Fizzy.”
“this still seems like a step in the right direction to be encouraged and fostered”
“This code base is sparkling in its design.”
“Fizzy's creators will also sue you in certain cases.”
“I'm actually curious if anyone has seen actual self-hosted Fizzy instances in the wild”
“I think this is perfectly reasonable”
“Not under an Open Source Definition compliant license though.”
“If it's for non-technical audience they are abusing the fact some people know "open source = good" and try to benefit from that unfairly.”
“Nice product and fair license. But do not call it open source.”
“The license doesn't comply with the Open Source Definition”
“Fresh take on Kanban. Wonderful to see it open sourced, complete surprise.”
“Fizzy's public codebase has the entire life of the product development cycle out in the open.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.