Short answer: Vikunja is a lighter, focused to-do app with more task views and real importers. Jinear is heavier to run, but it also includes a shared calendar, notes and file storage. Both work for one person or a household as well as for a team. I build Jinear, so read with that in mind.
The short version
Both are open source under AGPL-3.0, both self-host with Docker, and both have a paid hosted option. They are closer to each other than to anything else on this site's comparison list.
Vikunja is a to-do app first. It has list, kanban, Gantt and table views, labels, filters, task relations, and importers from Todoist, Trello and Microsoft To Do. It also has a CalDAV endpoint for tasks, which its own docs call experimental.
Jinear is built for shared work, in a small team or at home: tasks with assignees and collaborators, a calendar with two-way Google Calendar sync, notebooks, and file storage with access control.
| Jinear | Vikunja | |
|---|---|---|
| License | AGPL-3.0 | AGPL-3.0 |
| Self-hosting | Docker Compose (several services) | Docker or a single native binary |
| Hosted plans | Free up to 3 people; Team $24.90/mo flat | Personal 4 EUR/mo, Family 10 EUR/mo, Organization 5 EUR per user/mo |
| Views | List, status board (kanban), calendar | List, kanban, Gantt, table |
| Calendar | Full calendar: month, week, two-day, Google sync both ways, iCal feed | Gantt view; tasks over CalDAV (experimental) |
| Notes and docs | Notebooks with nested rich-text notes | None |
| File storage | Folders with access control | Attachments on tasks |
| Import | None | Todoist, Trello, Microsoft To Do and more |
| Teams and roles | Workspaces, teams, owner/admin/member | Teams and project sharing, link shares |
| AI | MCP server for Claude and ChatGPT | Not built in |
| Mobile | Installable web app (PWA) | Web app; mobile apps are community projects |
Where Vikunja is better
- Lighter to run. Vikunja can run as a single binary with SQLite. Jinear's stack has several services (PostgreSQL, Redis, MinIO storage, backend, frontend, gateway), so it needs more memory and more care.
- More task views. Gantt and table views. Jinear has no Gantt view.
- Importers. Moving from Todoist or Trello is a few clicks in Vikunja. Jinear has no importer.
- Hosted price for a family. Vikunja's hosted Family plan is 10 EUR a month. Jinear's hosted free plan covers up to 3 people, and a larger household pays the $24.90 Team price.
- CalDAV. You can sync tasks with CalDAV clients, though the feature is marked experimental.
Where Jinear is better
- A real calendar. Month, week and two-day views, drag to reschedule, filters by assignee and status, and two-way Google Calendar sync.
- Notes and files. Jinear has notebooks for documentation and file storage with folders and permissions. Vikunja does not try to do either.
- Team features. Assignees plus collaborators, workflow statuses you define per team, and roles at the workspace level.
- AI assistants. An MCP server lets Claude or ChatGPT work with your tasks, notes and calendar.
- A household calendar. For one person or a family, the shared calendar puts appointments, reminders and tasks in one place, next to Google Calendar.
- Make it your own. Jinear has 64 themes, a choice of fonts and six mouse cursors, among them a duck and a mitten. Choices are saved per device, so each person in a family can give the app their own look.
Which one should you pick?
Pick Vikunja if you want a light, focused to-do app, you want a Gantt view, or you are moving from Todoist or Trello and want an importer.
Pick Jinear if you want tasks, a shared calendar, notes and files in one tool, for yourself, a household or a small team. If you self-host it, you need a server with some memory to spare.