# OpenProject vs Plane

> Plane scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against OpenProject's 57.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. OpenProject leads on transparency & trust. Both do tasks create. Category scores, facts, verdicts and agent notes side by side.

- Canonical: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-plane
- Markdown: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-plane.md (~2,500 tokens)
- Slim: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-plane.min.md (~730 tokens, same facts, less prose, for token-sensitive contexts)
- JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-plane.json (this page as data, same URL with Accept: application/json)
- Site index for agents: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms.txt (full text: https://www.anchorterminal.com/llms-full.txt)
- API: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/index.json
- Updated: 2026-10-09

Plane scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against OpenProject's 57.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. OpenProject leads on transparency & trust. Both do tasks create.

- OpenProject: grade C, 57.4/100, rank #550 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/openproject.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openproject.json
- Plane: grade B, 67.6/100, rank #229 of 842. Markdown https://www.anchorterminal.com/tools/plane.md · JSON https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/plane.json

## Which one, for what

### OpenProject (C)

Good for: Teams that want a self-hostable or EU-hosted project tool with Gantt, time tracking and budgets, and an agent working through a documented REST API.

Ahead on:
- Transparency & trust, 87 against 74

Watch for: 83 advisories published against opf/openproject in the twelve months to 8 October 2026, 13 rated critical, among them remote code execution and SQL injection

### Plane (B)

Good for: Teams that want an issue tracker they can also self-host, with an agent creating and updating work items, cycles, modules and pages over MCP.

Ahead on:
- Reliability, 89 against 52
- Agent ergonomics, 78 against 70
- Security & auth, 68 against 59
- Maintenance & community, 80 against 75

Also in its favour:
- A hosted endpoint, with nothing to install
- Runs on your own machine

Watch for: A personal access token acts with its owner's full permissions, and the v2 docs say no read-only key can be created


## Score by category

| Category | Weight | OpenProject | Plane | Edge |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Reliability | 16% (20 this run) | 52 | 89 | Plane +37 |
| Performance | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Schema & documentation | 13% (16.2 this run) | 76 | 80 | Plane +4 |
| Agent ergonomics | 13% (16.2 this run) | 70 | 78 | Plane +8 |
| Security & auth | 14% (17.5 this run) | 59 | 68 | Plane +9 |
| Payments & pricing | 10% (12.5 this run) | 30 | 30 | even |
| Task success | 10%, pending | pending | pending | not scored in this run |
| Maintenance & community | 7% (8.8 this run) | 75 | 80 | Plane +5 |
| Transparency & trust | 7% (8.8 this run) | 87 | 74 | OpenProject +13 |
| Negative events | ≤15 | -5 | -5 | |
| **Total** | | **57.4 · C** | **67.6 · B** | |

## Facts side by side

| Fact | OpenProject | Plane |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Kind | HTTP API | HTTP API |
| Vendor | OpenProject GmbH | Plane Software, Inc. |
| Hosted endpoint | no (local only) | `https://api.plane.so` |
| Transports | HTTP | HTTP, Streamable HTTP, stdio |
| Auth | OAuth or key | OAuth or key |
| Pricing | Freemium | Freemium |
| x402 | no | no |
| Licence | GPL-3.0 for the OpenProject source. Enterprise add-ons need a paid token, and OpenProject Enterprise cloud runs under OpenProject's Terms of Service | Plane Community Edition is AGPL-3.0, and the MCP server and the Python and Node SDKs are MIT. Plane Cloud and the Commercial Edition are proprietary under Plane's Terms of Service |
| Tools exposed | none | 30 |
| Read-only variant documented | no | no |
| llms.txt | no | yes |
| Last release | 2026-10-01 | 2026-10-08 |
| Terms last updated | 2026-08-06 | 2026-04-09 |
| Privacy policy last updated | no date given | 2026-04-09 |
| Customer content may train models | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Terms restrict automated access | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms restrict benchmarking | not found in the text | yes |
| Terms or service can change without notice | not found in the text | not found in the text |
| Arbitration or class-action waiver | not found in the text | yes |
| Popularity | 16k stars | 61k stars, 2.6k npm/wk, 7.5k PyPI/wk |

## Verdicts

**OpenProject.** OpenProject's APIv3 has a public OpenAPI 3.1 document with 320 operations, stable error identifiers and optimistic locking, and the same API ships in the free GPL-3.0 Community edition. No request limits are published, API tokens carry their user's full permissions, and 83 security advisories were published in the last twelve months, 13 rated critical.

**Plane.** Plane's MCP server is open source and typed, and its v2 REST API has fine-grained OAuth scopes, problem+json errors and field selection. Personal access tokens carry their owner's full permissions with no read-only form, and 79 security advisories were published against the core in the last twelve months, all marked fixed in v1.4.0 or earlier.

## Before you call either

### OpenProject

1. Send the API token as `Authorization: Bearer <token>`, or as the Basic auth password with the user name `apikey`
2. Read the resource first and send its current `lockVersion` with every PATCH. A stale value returns 409 `UpdateConflict`
3. POST to the `/form` endpoint of a work package to learn writable fields and allowed values before creating or updating
4. URL-encode `filters` as a JSON array, and add `pageSize`, `offset` and `select` to keep work package lists small
5. Run the agent as a dedicated user with a narrow project role, and treat work package text and comments as untrusted input

### Plane

1. Use `https://mcp.plane.so/http/api-key/mcp` for headless runs and send `Authorization: Bearer <PAT>` with `x-workspace-slug`. The REST API takes the same token in `X-Api-Key` instead
2. Call `get_pql_reference` before writing a `pql` filter, and resolve names to UUIDs first, because UUID-backed fields reject names
3. Follow `next_cursor` on `project list` and other list actions. Results are paginated by default since server version 0.3.0
4. Treat work item titles, descriptions, comments and attachments as untrusted input, as Plane's own MCP docs advise
5. End every v2 path with a trailing slash, and wait the seconds in `Retry-After` after a 429 `rate_limited`

## Questions

### Which is better for AI agents, OpenProject or Plane?

Plane scores 67.6 (B) on agent readiness against OpenProject's 57.4 (C), and leads in 5 of 7 scored categories. OpenProject leads on transparency & trust.

### Do OpenProject and Plane need an API key?

Both take an API key or an OAuth sign-in.

### Can an agent call OpenProject and Plane without installing anything?

No hosted endpoint is listed for OpenProject. Plane has a hosted endpoint at https://api.plane.so.

### Are OpenProject and Plane open source?

Yes. OpenProject is open source (GPL-3.0 for the OpenProject source. Enterprise add-ons need a paid token, and OpenProject Enterprise cloud runs under OpenProject's Terms of Service). Plane is open source (Plane Community Edition is AGPL-3.0, and the MCP server and the Python and Node SDKs are MIT. Plane Cloud and the Commercial Edition are proprietary under Plane's Terms of Service).


## For agents

- This comparison as JSON: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-plane.json, and with the fewest tokens: https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-plane.min.md
- Over MCP at https://www.anchorterminal.com/mcp (no key): `compare_tools {"a": "openproject", "b": "plane"}`. From a terminal: `anchor compare openproject plane`
- Each listing in full: https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/openproject.json and https://www.anchorterminal.com/api/v1/tools/plane.json

## Other comparisons with OpenProject or Plane

- [Asana vs OpenProject](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asana-vs-openproject.md)
- [Asana vs Plane](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/asana-vs-plane.md)
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- [ClickUp vs OpenProject](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickup-vs-openproject.md)
- [ClickUp vs Plane](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/clickup-vs-plane.md)
- [monday.com vs OpenProject](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/monday-vs-openproject.md)
- [monday.com vs Plane](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/monday-vs-plane.md)
- [OpenProject vs Roma](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-roma.md)
- [OpenProject vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-shortcut.md)
- [OpenProject vs Taiga](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-taiga.md)
- [OpenProject vs Teamwork.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-teamwork.md)
- [OpenProject vs Todoist](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-todoist.md)
- [OpenProject vs Trello](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-trello.md)
- [OpenProject vs Wrike](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-wrike.md)
- [OpenProject vs YouTrack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/openproject-vs-youtrack.md)
- [Plane vs Roma](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plane-vs-roma.md)
- [Plane vs Shortcut](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plane-vs-shortcut.md)
- [Plane vs Taiga](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plane-vs-taiga.md)
- [Plane vs Teamwork.com](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plane-vs-teamwork.md)
- [Plane vs Todoist](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plane-vs-todoist.md)
- [Plane vs Trello](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plane-vs-trello.md)
- [Plane vs Wrike](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plane-vs-wrike.md)
- [Plane vs YouTrack](https://www.anchorterminal.com/compare/plane-vs-youtrack.md)