Workboard vs Azure DevOps Boards
The open-source alternative to Azure DevOps Boards
Azure Boards is free for five people and then priced per user, and it only makes sense if the rest of your stack is Microsoft. Workboard is a standalone tracker you can host anywhere.
Short answer: is Workboard a good Azure DevOps Boards alternative?
Workboard is an open-source, MIT-licensed alternative to Azure DevOps Boards. Azure DevOps is free for the first 5 users and then $6 per user a month, tied to a Microsoft Entra tenant and the wider Azure DevOps suite. Workboard is a standalone tracker with no tenant requirement, free to self-host for any number of people.
- License
- MIT, versus a proprietary Microsoft licence
- Hosting
- Self-host anywhere, or EU-hosted cloud
- Single sign-on
- Any OIDC provider, free on every Workboard build
- Pricing
- $0 self-hosted, cloud from $4 / month
Azure DevOps Boards details checked on 19 August 2026. Azure DevOps pricing, Workboard pricing.
Why teams choose Workboard
No tenant, no org sprawl
Workboard needs a server and a database. There is no organisation, no project collection, and no directory to reconcile before someone can be assigned a task.
Understandable in a morning
Azure Boards inherits work-item types, area paths, and iteration paths from TFS. Workboard has projects, workflow columns, labels, and priorities.
Portable by default
MIT licence, public API, JSON export per project. Nothing about Workboard assumes you will stay on one cloud provider.
When Azure DevOps Boards is the better choice
If your organisation is already on Microsoft Entra, and you use Azure Repos, Pipelines, and Test Plans, keeping work items in the same place is the sensible choice. Workboard has no CI, no repos, and no test management, and it will not pretend otherwise.
Workboard vs Azure DevOps Boards, answered
What does Azure DevOps cost?
The first 5 users are free on the Basic plan, which includes Boards, Repos, Pipelines, and Artifacts. Additional users are $6 a month each, and Basic plus Test Plans is considerably more.
Can Azure Boards be self-hosted?
Only through Azure DevOps Server, the on-premise edition, which is licensed separately and is a substantial install. Workboard self-hosts with Docker and PostgreSQL under the MIT license at no cost.
Is there an open-source alternative to Azure Boards?
Workboard, Redmine, OpenProject, and Plane all cover work tracking without a Microsoft tenant. Workboard is the lightest to run and includes SSO through any OIDC provider, including Entra ID.
Can Workboard connect to my Git repositories?
Workboard integrates with GitHub and Gitea, and has outgoing webhooks and a documented public API for anything else, including Azure Repos.