# OpenProject

7 Hacker News commenters recommended OpenProject and 2 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 7 of 13 months.

**Verdict:** Free open-source project management tool people self-host as a Jira and Confluence alternative; critics find it heavy and only passable.

## Why people recommend it

- Self-hosted and outside US jurisdiction (2 comments): "in addition to being outside US jurisdiction their services are available both on-prem/self-hosted and cloud-based" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47564606)) "I self-host OpenProject - free and a little better than Jira." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47766125))
- Alternative to Jira and Confluence (2 comments): "Together with OpenProject, we've built a setup that covers most Confluence + Jira use cases" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45876514)) "I self-host OpenProject - free and a little better than Jira." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47766125))
- Seen as reputable and entrepreneurial (2 comments): "it seems like a reputable alternative, which is always welcome" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48444226)) "not looking as entrepreneurial as OpenProject, at first Glance" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47149158))

## What people warn about

- Heavy and slower than Jira (2 comments): "compared to the slowness of Jira, OpenProject and tbh Trello is also slower" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47314600)) "the heavy enterprise tools like Jira or OpenProject" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47148484))
- Only passable, not a standout (1 comments): "there's the passable https://www.openproject.org/" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49939838))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [Basecamp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/basecamp.md): 8 recommend
- [ClickUp](https://hackerapproved.com/p/clickup.md): 7 recommend
- [Asana](https://hackerapproved.com/p/asana.md): 6 recommend
- [Pivotal Tracker](https://hackerapproved.com/p/pivotal-tracker.md): 5 recommend
- [Plane](https://hackerapproved.com/p/plane.md): 5 recommend

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "OpenProject", https://hackerapproved.com/p/openproject/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).