Plane got to top spot in project management on GitHub in less than a year

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

An open source project-management tool called Plane has rapidly amassed tens of thousands of GitHub stars, prompting debate over how meaningful those stars are and whether they may be gamed. Commenters are split between enthusiasm for a slick, Linear-like UI and skepticism about copied design, default telemetry, complex self‑hosting, and the project’s commercial incentives. Broader concerns emerge around the trend of “open source” products with paid hosting, reliance on Discord for support, and whether tools like this genuinely improve workflows compared to simpler alternatives such as GitHub Issues, Trello, or Redmine.

Personal Task Management & Use Cases

  • Some want to use Plane (and similar tools) for personal life/projects, even chores and household work, seeing value in Kanban boards, backlogs, and notes.
  • Others find that dystopian or overkill, preferring simple lists, Todoist, Trello, GitHub README journaling, or built-in reminder apps.
  • There’s debate over whether a full issue tracker benefits solo users versus simple lists.

UI, Copying, and Ethics

  • Many note Plane’s UI and terminology are very close to Linear’s, down to sidebars and concepts like “Cycles.”
  • Some see this as acceptable reuse of successful design patterns and standard Tailwind UI aesthetics; better to copy a good interface than reinvent.
  • Others view it as crossing from “inspired by” into cloning, especially when monetized, and say it reflects poorly on the project’s ethics.

GitHub Stars, Growth & Telemetry

  • The blog’s emphasis on GitHub stars and “growth hacking” triggers skepticism; some suspect gamification or even paid stars, though others argue 20k stars mostly just signals popularity.
  • Stars are seen as weak but useful social proof and discovery, yet easily gamed.
  • Telemetry enabled by default and a strong engagement focus make some question how genuinely “by engineers, for engineers” and open-source–driven the project is.
  • There’s concern that chasing engagement will bloat the product like Jira.

Open Source, Self-Hosting, and Complexity

  • Self-hosting docs were initially 404 or confusing; setup involves multiple env files, nginx in a container, and several services.
  • Some report it works in minutes if you follow the Docker Compose docs; others find it too fiddly and see friction as aligned with the paid cloud business model.
  • Broader debate: whether many “open source” SaaS tools are effectively “soft scams” or open-core, making self-hosting harder than necessary.

Community Support: Discord vs Forums

  • Many dislike Discord as a support “forum”: poor web indexing, noisy history, search friction, and “join another server” fatigue.
  • Others defend Discord as ubiquitous, free, and easier/cheaper than Slack; but most agree it’s bad as a long-term, searchable knowledge base compared to traditional forums or wikis.

Comparisons, Stack, and Code Quality

  • People compare Plane to Jira, Trello, GitHub Issues, Gitea, Redmine, OpenProject, and Kanboard; preferences vary by need and complexity.
  • Plane’s Django + Next.js codebase is praised as instructive by some, criticized by others for lack of tests, weak patterns, and Django antipatterns.