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Leantime
AGPL-3.0Leantime is a self-hosted project management alternative to Asana, combining lean strategy canvases, milestones, and ADHD-friendly task tracking.
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Overview
Gloria Folaron, a healthcare worker turned product manager living with ADHD, and Marcel Folaron, an engineering manager running a digital agency, built Leantime after finding mainstream project tools either overwhelmingly cluttered or detached from strategy. They organized the system around cognitive accessibility, embedding business model canvases and idea boards alongside task backlogs. Today, Leantime operates as an on-premises coordination hub where teams plan strategic initiatives without dispatching operational data to third-party clouds.
Why Leantime instead of Asana
Asana hosts project roadmaps, sprint backlogs, and client conversations on multi-tenant cloud servers, billing per user. For agencies handling proprietary client assets or ops leads managing internal infrastructure, storing unencrypted project data in an external cloud introduces regulatory risk and vendor lock-in. Leantime shifts that recordkeeping onto private servers. Because you control the database and file storage directly, sensitive deliverables and sprint retrospectives stay behind your firewall.
In exchange, Leantime trades Asana's broad automation library and native mobile apps for infrastructure autonomy. Leantime covers the core coordination tools small teams need: Kanban boards, Gantt timelines, milestones, and goal metrics. However, your team assumes responsibility for maintaining the PHP runtime, managing database backups, and applying Docker updates. For teams prioritizing data privacy and predictable costs, self-hosting an internal workspace provides control that multi-tenant clouds cannot match.
What it does well
- Strategic planning canvases: Integrated Lean Canvas and SWOT templates link to milestone roadmaps, helping agencies validate ideas before spending engineering time.
- Neurodiversity-centered task views: Reduced visual noise, focused task cards, and high-contrast layouts assist ADHD, dyslexia, and autistic team members.
- Native time tracking and timesheets: Built-in task timers and weekly timesheets let agencies log billable client hours without third-party tracking services.
- Flexible self-hosted storage: Docker setups support local storage or private S3 buckets, allowing ops leads to align file storage with internal retention rules.
- Role-based client access: Granular permissions let agencies share milestone roadmaps with external clients while keeping internal discussions private.
