Mural vs OpenProject: Complete Comparison (2026)
An in-depth comparison of Mural and OpenProject to help you choose the right tool for your business.
Last updated: November 2026
Mural
7/10
Mural is a visual collaboration whiteboard for teams that run workshops, brainstorms, agile planning and retrospectives, with facilitation tools and enterprise security controls.
OpenProject
6.7/10
Open source project management software for classic, agile and hybrid teams, available self-hosted for free or as an EU-hosted paid cloud.
Feature-by-Feature Comparison
| Feature | | |
|---|---|---|
| Scores | ||
| Overall Rating | 7/10 | 6.7/10 |
| Cost | 6/10 | 8/10 |
| Ease of Use | 8/10 | 5/10 |
| Analytics | 4/10 | 6/10 |
| Customization | 6/10 | 8/10 |
| Scalability | 8/10 | 7/10 |
| Support | 7/10 | 6/10 |
| Integration | 8/10 | 5/10 |
| Security | 9/10 | 9/10 |
| Pricing | ||
| Free plan | Yes | Yes |
| Cheapest paid plan | $12/user/mo Team+ | €6/user/mo Basic |
| Estimated cost for 10 users | Free Free | Free Community |
| Features | ||
| Gantt charts | ||
| Task management | ||
| Time tracking | ||
| App integrations | ||
| Collaboration tools | ||
| File sharing | ||
| Kanban boards | ||
| Client collaboration | Not listed | |
| Dashboards | Not listed | |
| Docs | Not listed | |
| Knowledge base | Not listed | |
| Reporting | Not listed | |
| Task lists | Not listed | |
| Timeline view | Not listed | |
| Whiteboards | Not listed | |
Mural vs OpenProject cost by team size
| Team size | Mural | OpenProject |
|---|---|---|
| 1 user | FreeFree | FreeCommunity |
| 5 users | FreeFree | FreeCommunity |
| 10 users | FreeFree | FreeCommunity |
| 25 users | FreeFree | FreeCommunity |
| 50 users | FreeFree | FreeCommunity |
The plan that fits each team size, billed monthly, before add-ons and usage charges. Each cost opens that tool's pricing calculator for the team size.
Which One Should You Choose?
Why choose Mural
- Higher Ease of Use score (8/10 vs 5/10)
- Higher Integration score (8/10 vs 5/10)
- Better fit for consultancies (8/10 vs 6/10)
- Better fit for startups (6/10 vs 4/10)
Why choose OpenProject
- Higher Cost score (8/10 vs 6/10)
- Higher Analytics score (6/10 vs 4/10)
- Includes Gantt charts, which Mural lacks
- Includes Task management, which Mural lacks
- Includes Time tracking, which Mural lacks
Pros & Cons
Mural
Pros
- Facilitation features and LUMA frameworks make it strong for running structured workshops.
- Free visitors can view or edit individual murals, so external participants do not need a paid seat.
- Enterprise security includes SOC 2 Type 2, ISO 27001, SCIM, audit logs, data residency and BYOK.
- Broad integrations with Teams, Zoom, Jira, Azure DevOps, Asana and Confluence.
- Reviewers on G2 and Capterra rate it highly for ease of use, with about 4.5 to 4.6 stars.
Cons
- It is not a project or task manager, so there are no Gantt charts, no time tracking and no task assignment.
- Reviewers complain that menus and functions move around often between releases.
- The Free plan caps editable murals at three.
- The Business plan is annual-only, and SSO is not available on cheaper tiers.
- Large boards with many collaborators can feel cluttered.
OpenProject
Pros
- The free self-hosted Community edition is GPLv3 open source and shares one codebase with the paid editions.
- It hosts cloud data in the EU, encrypts it with AES-256 at rest, and offers a signable GDPR data processing agreement.
- It supports classic Gantt planning and agile boards and backlogs in the same tool.
- Time and cost tracking with budget reports is built in.
- Long contract terms carry large discounts, for example fifteen months free on a five-year term.
Cons
- Paid plans require at least 25 users, and Premium requires 100.
- Several Reddit users report that self-hosted installation is hard, and some find the tool too elaborate for simple needs.
- Slack, Toggl and Mattermost connections are unsupported community plugins.
- Reviewers say the interface is less polished than tools like Asana, and that resource and workload management is weak.
- Many features, including SSO and portfolio management, require paid Enterprise tiers.
Not sold on either?
Frequently Asked Questions
Mural scores higher on our Project Management criteria: 7/10 against 6.7/10 for OpenProject. The largest gap is in Ease of Use: 8/10 for Mural and 5/10 for OpenProject.
Yes, both Mural and OpenProject have a free plan.
Mural is the better fit for consultancies: we rate it 8/10 for them, against 6/10 for OpenProject.
OpenProject has Gantt charts, Task management and Time tracking, which Mural lacks.
