Vikunja on a VPS: Self-Hosted Task and Project Management with Kanban, Gantt, and Lists

By VPS.DO
October 25, 2026

Vikunja is an open-source task management application — a self-hosted alternative to Todoist, Asana, or Linear for personal and team task tracking. It provides tasks organized in projects, Kanban board view, Gantt chart, calendar view, labels, priorities, due dates, reminders, CalDAV sync (works with iOS Reminders and Android tasks), and a REST API. A single binary for easy self-hosting, or Docker for isolation.

Step 1: Single Binary Install

<code"># Download Vikunja binary (includes frontend + backend in one file)
mkdir -p /opt/vikunja && cd /opt/vikunja

wget https://dl.vikunja.io/vikunja/stable/vikunja-stable-linux-amd64 \
    -O vikunja
chmod +x vikunja

# Create configuration:
cat > config.yml << 'EOF'
database:
  type: "sqlite"
  path: "./vikunja.db"

service:
  jwtsecret: "CHANGE_THIS_RANDOM_SECRET_64_CHARS"
  publicurl: "https://tasks.yourdomain.com"
  enableregistration: false   # Invite-only
  enableemailreminders: true

mailer:
  enabled: true
  host: "smtp.mailgun.org"
  port: 587
  username: "[email protected]"
  password: "your_smtp_password"
  fromemail: "[email protected]"
  tls: true
EOF

# Start Vikunja
./vikunja &

<code">sudo nano /etc/systemd/system/vikunja.service

<code">[Unit]
Description=Vikunja Task Manager
After=network.target

[Service]
Type=simple
User=ubuntu
WorkingDirectory=/opt/vikunja
ExecStart=/opt/vikunja/vikunja
Restart=on-failure

[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target

<code">sudo systemctl enable vikunja && sudo systemctl start vikunja

Step 2: Docker Compose (Alternative)

<code">mkdir -p /opt/vikunja-docker && cd /opt/vikunja-docker
nano docker-compose.yml

<code">version: '3.8'

services:
  vikunja:
    image: vikunja/vikunja:latest
    container_name: vikunja
    restart: always
    ports:
      - "127.0.0.1:3456:3456"
    environment:
      VIKUNJA_SERVICE_PUBLICURL: https://tasks.yourdomain.com
      VIKUNJA_SERVICE_JWTSECRET: ${JWT_SECRET}
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_TYPE: postgres
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_HOST: vikunja-db
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_DATABASE: vikunja
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_USER: vikunja
      VIKUNJA_DATABASE_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
      VIKUNJA_MAILER_HOST: smtp.mailgun.org
      VIKUNJA_MAILER_PORT: 587
      VIKUNJA_MAILER_USERNAME: [email protected]
      VIKUNJA_MAILER_PASSWORD: ${SMTP_PASSWORD}
      VIKUNJA_MAILER_FROMEMAIL: [email protected]
    volumes:
      - vikunja_files:/app/vikunja/files
    depends_on:
      vikunja-db:
        condition: service_healthy

  vikunja-db:
    image: postgres:16-alpine
    restart: always
    environment:
      POSTGRES_DB: vikunja
      POSTGRES_USER: vikunja
      POSTGRES_PASSWORD: ${POSTGRES_PASSWORD}
    volumes:
      - vikunja_db:/var/lib/postgresql/data
    healthcheck:
      test: ["CMD-SHELL", "pg_isready -U vikunja"]
      interval: 10s
      timeout: 5s
      retries: 5

volumes:
  vikunja_files:
  vikunja_db:

Step 3: Nginx Reverse Proxy

<code">sudo nano /etc/nginx/sites-available/vikunja

<code">server {
    listen 443 ssl http2;
    server_name tasks.yourdomain.com;

    ssl_certificate /etc/letsencrypt/live/tasks.yourdomain.com/fullchain.pem;
    ssl_certificate_key /etc/letsencrypt/live/tasks.yourdomain.com/privkey.pem;

    location / {
        proxy_pass http://127.0.0.1:3456;
        proxy_set_header Host $host;
        proxy_set_header X-Real-IP $remote_addr;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-For $proxy_add_x_forwarded_for;
        proxy_set_header X-Forwarded-Proto $scheme;
    }
}

<code">sudo certbot --nginx -d tasks.yourdomain.com
sudo systemctl reload nginx

Step 4: CalDAV Sync

<code"># Vikunja supports CalDAV for syncing with:
# - iOS Reminders / macOS Reminders
# - Any CalDAV-compatible client (Thunderbird, GNOME Calendar)

# CalDAV endpoint: https://tasks.yourdomain.com/dav/

# iOS Setup:
# Settings → Calendar → Accounts → Add Account → Other
# Add CalDAV Account
# Server: tasks.yourdomain.com/dav/
# Username: your Vikunja email
# Password: your Vikunja password

# macOS Reminders:
# Reminders → Preferences → Accounts → + → CalDAV
# Same settings as above

Step 5: API Integration

<code"># Get API token: Settings → API Tokens → Create
API_TOKEN="your_vikunja_api_token"

# Create a task:
curl -X PUT https://tasks.yourdomain.com/api/v1/projects/1/tasks \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{
    "title": "Deploy new feature",
    "description": "Deploy v2.1.0 to production",
    "due_date": "2025-06-15T09:00:00Z",
    "priority": 4,
    "labels": [{"title": "urgent"}]
  }'

# List all tasks:
curl https://tasks.yourdomain.com/api/v1/tasks/all \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN"

# Complete a task:
curl -X POST https://tasks.yourdomain.com/api/v1/tasks/TASK_ID \
  -H "Authorization: Bearer $API_TOKEN" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"done": true}'

Getting Started

Vikunja’s single binary with SQLite uses under 100 MB RAM — it runs on the smallest Ubuntu VPS at VPS.DO. The CalDAV integration with iOS Reminders and macOS is particularly valuable: create tasks on the VPS, they appear in your native iOS/macOS apps. For individuals replacing Todoist ($4/month) or teams replacing Asana ($11/user/month), self-hosted Vikunja provides equivalent functionality at infrastructure cost.

Conclusion

Vikunja provides self-hosted task management with multiple views (list, Kanban, Gantt, calendar), CalDAV sync to native device apps, priorities, labels, due dates, and a REST API — in a single lightweight binary. For individuals and teams wanting private task management without per-seat fees, Vikunja is the most capable self-hosted option in its category.

Vikunja on a VPS: Self-Hosted Task and Project Management with Kanban, Gantt, and Lists