Teamhood
Teamhood's recent feed is all comparison SEO, leaning hard into construction PM
Comparison · PM
Plane vs Leantime
A side-by-side editorial comparison of Plane and Leantime — release velocity, themes, recent moves, and the top alternatives to consider.
Shared themes:permissions
Plane vs Leantime: at a glance
What is Plane?
Plane hardens for enterprise while opening an MCP app surface
Plane is pushing on two fronts at once: enterprise readiness (a redesigned permissions system with custom roles and granular access control) and an expanding data and automation surface (PQL queries in dashboards, editing pages from Plane AI, and now publishing MCP applications from Plane itself). Epics have graduated to a first-class work item type.
What is Leantime?
Leantime hardens its new permission engine through a rapid-fire auth patch cycle.
Leantime just shipped 3.9.0, a ground-up permission engine that replaced ad-hoc role checks with centralized, fail-closed authorization across every domain, landing alongside a JSON-RPC API layer and mobile push tokens. The 3.9.1 through 3.9.4 point releases that followed are almost entirely auth stabilization: Bearer and personal-access-token authentication broke under the new Sanctum guard and took four patches to fully settle. The project is mid-transition from a legacy PHP codebase to a modern Laravel, Blade, and JSON-RPC stack.
Plane vs Leantime: editorial side-by-side
Plane
6.3PM
Plane hardens for enterprise while opening an MCP app surface
◆ Current state
Plane is pushing on two fronts at once: enterprise readiness (a redesigned permissions system with custom roles and granular access control) and an expanding data and automation surface (PQL queries in dashboards, editing pages from Plane AI, and now publishing MCP applications from Plane itself). Epics have graduated to a first-class work item type.
◆ Where it's heading
The open-source project-management tool is climbing upmarket toward enterprise buyers while wiring itself into the agent ecosystem. Direction points to deeper access controls and more programmable, queryable, AI- and MCP-driven surfaces layered over the core work-tracking model.
◆ Prediction
Expect continued enterprise access-control depth (audit, SSO/SCIM-adjacent controls) and more MCP- and AI-driven automation, plus richer dashboard querying built on PQL.
Leantime
6.3PM
Leantime hardens its new permission engine through a rapid-fire auth patch cycle.
◆ Current state
Leantime just shipped 3.9.0, a ground-up permission engine that replaced ad-hoc role checks with centralized, fail-closed authorization across every domain, landing alongside a JSON-RPC API layer and mobile push tokens. The 3.9.1 through 3.9.4 point releases that followed are almost entirely auth stabilization: Bearer and personal-access-token authentication broke under the new Sanctum guard and took four patches to fully settle. The project is mid-transition from a legacy PHP codebase to a modern Laravel, Blade, and JSON-RPC stack.
◆ Where it's heading
The direction is a comprehensive backend re-architecture, with the permission engine, JSON-RPC API, completed Blade template unification, and experimental Postgres support all converging on a cleaner, API-first core. The recent burst of Bearer-auth fixes shows the team paying down the regressions the permission-engine rollout introduced rather than adding new surface. Mobile is the next frontier: the 3.8.0 TestFlight API groundwork and 3.9.0 push tokens point to a native app nearing release.
◆ Prediction
Expect the auth-fix cadence to slow as the Bearer regressions settle, with attention shifting toward the mobile app's public launch and broader JSON-RPC endpoint coverage.
Alternatives to Plane and Leantime
Other PM products tracked by Sparkpulse, ranked by recent ship velocity. Each card links to a full editorial trajectory and lets you pivot into a head-to-head comparison with either Plane or Leantime.
Celoxis
Celoxis's feed is SEO comparison articles, not product releases
HoneyBook
HoneyBook's feed is blog and competitor-comparison content, not a product release log
Atlassian
Atlassian threads Rovo AI through the developer loop while its blog leans on case studies
Unito
Unito's tracked feed is its content-marketing blog, not a product changelog — no shipped moves to read.
Planview
Planview's feed is strategic-portfolio thought leadership, not release notes — product signal is absent.
See all Plane alternatives → · See all Leantime alternatives →
Recent activity from Plane and Leantime
Latest ship moves from both products, interleaved chronologically. ⚡ = editorial spark.
- 5d agoLeantimeCross-project 'My Work' loading fixed; mark-done action secured
- 5d agoLeantimeUnified session factory across web, API-key, and Bearer auth
- 6d agoLeantimeRoute-cache self-heal and Bearer/PAT token auth fix
- 7d agoLeantimeBearer API context restored; JSON-RPC contract tests + CI gate
- 7d agoLeantimeNative permission engine, JSON-RPC API, and mobile push ⚡
- 19d agoPlaneEpics become a work item type, publish MCP apps, and more | May 31, 2026 ⚡
- 22d agoLeantimeBlade migration completed; mobile API surface and task collaborators
- 1mo agoPlaneEmbed media in the editor, PQL in Dashboards, and more | May 15, 2026
- 1mo agoPlaneCustom roles, granular access control, and a redesigned permissions system | Apr 25, 2026 ⚡
- 1mo agoPlaneCustom roles, granular access control, and a redesigned permissions system | Apr 25, 2026
- 2mo agoPlaneGroup pages in Collections, view Initiatives as boards, and more | April 15, 2026
- 2mo agoPlaneGroup pages in Collections, view Initiatives as boards, and more
Frequently asked questions
What is the difference between Plane and Leantime?
Both compete on the same themes — permissions — within PM. Plane and Leantime are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 6.3 vs 6.3, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). See the at-a-glance table above for a side-by-side breakdown of velocity, recent sparks, and editorial themes.
Is Plane better than Leantime?
Sparkpulse doesn't pick a winner — we score release velocity, not feature parity. Plane and Leantime are shipping at a similar cadence (velocity 6.3 vs 6.3, both within Sparkpulse's "active" band). For your specific use case, the alternatives sections above list other PM products to evaluate alongside.
What are the best alternatives to Plane?
Top Plane alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Plane alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/plane for the full list with editorial commentary on each.
What are the best alternatives to Leantime?
Top Leantime alternatives in PM are ranked by recent ship velocity. Browse the "Leantime alternatives" section above for the current picks, or visit /alternatives/leantime for the full list with editorial commentary on each.