Leantime

Leantime is an open-source project and work management system positioned for people who are not professional project managers, with design choices aimed at users with ADHD, autism and dyslexia. The product combines a personal layer and a team layer: a "My Work" dashboard with configurable widgets, time blocking against an imported iCal calendar, private notes, whiteboards for mind maps and wireframes, and an emoji-based task rating scale that feeds an AI prioritization model; and project workspaces containing to-dos (kanban, table, list and calendar views with subtasks and dependencies), milestones displayed on a gantt-style timeline, a program plan overview, idea boards, docs and wikis, blueprint boards, reports, timesheets and retrospectives.

Above the project level, the platform supports a long-term vision and strategy layer with focus areas and strategic goals that can be linked to project goals so progress rolls up in real time. Additional capabilities described by the company include sprint management, goal and metrics tracking, risk analysis, lean and business model canvases, SWOT analysis, screen and webcam recording, per-project permissions and multiple user roles, two-factor authentication, LDAP and OIDC integration, S3 or local file storage, and integrations with Slack, Mattermost and Discord. AI features branded L.E.O. cover task breakdown into subtasks, personalized project "story" descriptions in different narrative voices, task prioritization based on behavioral-science practices and user sentiment ratings, and collection of status updates and generation of status reports; these AI features are noted as unavailable in the open-source edition.

The software is a PHP application requiring PHP 8.2+ and MySQL 8.0+ or MariaDB 10.6+ with Apache or Nginx, and can be installed from a release package, from source, or via an officially maintained Docker image and docker-compose setup. It is also offered as a hosted cloud service. The interface is available in over 20 languages.

Founding story

Gloria Folaron, co-founder and CEO, moved from a career as a registered nurse into technology after earning an MBA in management and working in startups and product management. She is pursuing a PhD in industrial and organizational psychology studying neurodivergence at work, research she attributes to her own ADHD diagnosis that followed her child's autism and ADHD journey. Marcel Folaron is co-founder and CTO. The company was founded to help neurodiverse employees engage effectively with work systems.

Business model

Leantime distributes its core project management software as open source under a self-hosted model, with the company stating that all listed core features are included in the open-source version. Around that core it sells commercial offerings: a hosted cloud service with a free tier and paid plans, priority support, managed hosting where the customer hosts and Leantime maintains the system, on-premise installation plans, a plugin marketplace, and embedded platform licensing with white-labeling for partners who integrate Leantime into their own products. Certain AI capabilities are not available in the open-source version. The project also accepts community sponsorships.

Revenue sources described by the company include paid cloud hosting plans, priority support subscriptions, managed hosting, on-premise installation plans, paid plugins sold through its marketplace, merchandise, training and installation services, and embedded platform licensing. Community sponsorships supplement the open-source project.

Traction

The GitHub repository has approximately 11,700 stars, 1,100 forks and more than 8,200 commits, and the company publicizes counts of worldwide users, Docker pulls and tasks completed on its site. User testimonials come from self-hosting companies and agencies that switched from Asana, ClickUp and Trello. Institutional validation includes the NC TECH Top 10 Tech Startups to Watch recognition, an NC IDEA SEED grant and selection into the Techstars NYC winter 2023 cohort.

Latest developments

Following the January 2024 platform relaunch and marketplace launch, Leantime restructured plugin marketplace pricing in February 2025, citing more flexible pricing and reductions across the board. The company has continued publishing product and educational content through 2025 and into 2026, and its GitHub repository shows continued active development.