20 Best Kanban Software of 2023

Many favor Kanban for its visual structure and focus on the process/flow. Once you have decided to go with Kanban, you will eventually consider using some proper Kanban software. Since there is more than one option available, we have collected a comprehensive comparison table and listing of the most popular Kanban board software options out there in the market.

This guide compares both paid and free software options. If you would like to check only free ones or if you are in need of simpler choices, check out our best free Kanban software or Kanban board tools listing.

Kanban Software options listed in this table are compared on their Kanban board features and collaboration/productivity essentials.

The Best Kanban Software List

1. Teamhood

Capterra score: 4.9/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Best Kanban software in 2023

Why is Teamhood the best Kanban Board software out there?

1. Fast to learn and use
2. Offers flexible Swimlanes and even sub-swimlanes
3. WIP Limits
4. Flow metrics
5. Classes of service
6. Statuses and sub-statuses
7. Commitment points
8. Actionable metrics
9. Powerful but easy dependencies management
10. Professional Gantt chart for those in a need
11. Workload management
12. Resource planning

Teamhood is a flexible and powerful Kanban board software that will help optimize your team processes. Ideal for knowledge work performers, such as R&D, software development, intensive client operations, digital marketing, engineering, or similar.

Not everyone needs to be familiar with the Kanban method. Teamhood, unlike other tools, is flexible and accommodates users by allowing them to adapt the tool to their preferred workflow instead of requiring them to adjust their work to fit the tool. This is one of the main advantages people mention in public reviews about Teamhood Kanban board software.

Teamhood Kanban boards are built to visualize complexity. It delivers a design that fits more actionable information on one display than any other tool in the market. For example – compare it to Monday, Asana, or Microsoft Project. And this is very important for managers of complex projects and high-performing teams.

Teamhood Kanban boards can be built with custom columns, column groups, rows, and secondary workflows, allowing you to track subtasks’ progress. Secondary workflows can be added to as many progress columns as needed, giving you full control over the look of the Kanban board, and making it easy to create a clear overview of everything happening in the project. This structure in Teamhood is called Advanced Kanban Board.

Teamhood offers a feature rich setup for both task and project management, such as work item dependencies, Timeline, resource management and time tracking are available to make planning and tracking work easier. All these features are seemlessly integrated into the Kanban board, a true all-in-one solution. 

Teamhood scales well for larger teams or projects, it’s interface is well optimized and software seems to easily handle thousands of work items at a single glance. Different organizations can split work into multiple boards and manage their processes separately, while management can see reports for the whole project and track several projects in a dedicated Portfolio view. 

Pros: 

• Fully featured Kanban software
• Great UX and fast to learn
• Generous free version with no user limitation
• Quality support

Cons: 

• Lack of direct Salesforce integration, only via Zapier
• No iOS app

Website: https://teamhood.com

Price: Free for unlimited users.

2. Trello

Capterra score: 4.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Trello is a web-based, project management and collaboration tool that organizes your projects into boards. It’s based on a productivity methodology known as Kanban, which was developed by Toyota in the 1940s to improve manufacturing efficiency. In Trello, each board represents a project, and within each board, there are lists that often represent different stages of a project. For example, lists might be labeled as “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Done.”

Trello is something like simple Kanban software for personal task tracking, it is good for visualizing a small process or a small team, due to it’s structure limitations. Professional project management features are limited. Trello will not work for medium sized or larger businesses, who seek to improve/optimize their processes. While some teams opt for installing plugins to substitute the missing features, this does not make Trello the best solution for an organization. However, it is a nice choice if you are looking for something for personal use.

Pros: 

• Easy to use
• Fast setup
• Has a free option

Cons: 

• Lacks professional project management features
• Not suitable for teams larger than 3 people if intensive, or 5 people if more relaxed work.

Website: https://trello.com/

Price: $17.50 user/month for the paid enterprise package.

Compare Trello vs Monday vs Teamhood.

3. Eylean Board Kanban software

Capterra score: 4.8/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Eylean Board is a powerful on-premise Kanban software. A rare option for companies still look looking for data security and ownership. Eylean is mainly a flexible feature rich Kanban board. It can offer a very performant desktop app version for Windows platform. It has all the necessary features such as Swimlanes, WIP limits, Row limits, Sub-statusses, lead and cycle time, CFD chart, even burndown. Eylean also has a native time tracker as well as Azure DevOps integration.

Pros: 

• Desktop app
• Free for personal use
• Many reports
• Azure Devops Integration

Cons: 

• Available only on Windows platform
• No classic project management features

Website: https://eylean.com/

Price: €9 user/month.

4. Kanbanize

Capterra score: 4.8/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

In case you need something like enterprise Kanban board software, give Kanbanize a try. Kanbanize provides larger organizations with a featureset to control both high level and lower level Kanban streams. Kanbanize has great Flow metrics and reports. It’s graphical interface is quite outdated though and it has somewhat inferior UX compared to other more modern apps.

Most recent addition to Kanbanize feature set was OKR management in Kanban. So if you are in a need for kanban OKR management software also give Kanbanize a try. Unfortunately it does not offer a free version.

Pros: 

• High level and lower level Kanban streams
• Good reporting
• Flow metrics

Cons: 

• Outdated interface
• Inferior UX
• No free option

Website: https://kanbanize.com/

Price: €13 user/month.

Price: $24.80 user/month for a business plan.

5. Jira 

Capterra score: 4.4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Jira is the well known IT system for IT organizations. It is feature rich and has many etensibility options. Kanban is also part of Jira supported methods even though it is mainly encapsulated inside Scrum/General Agile fundamentals inside Jira. So this can be treated as downside. Jira offers WIP limits and swimlanes as a decent Kanban software. Though flow metrics are missing and can be added only by installing plugins. This is not ideal if you want a well built and functioning Kanban system.

Jira as a choice for Kanban is probably only for those who already have it. Even in that case it is a suboptimal choice due to complexity and gaps.

Pros: 

• Powerful solution for IT companies
• Main Kanban features available

Cons: 

• Overly complicated for teams outside the IT sector
• More difficult to scale in non-IT companies
• No native flow metrics
• Not easy to do Kanban as in alternatives

Website: https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira

Price: $14 user/month for the Premium plan.

Compare Jira vs Trello.

6. KanbanTool 

Capterra score: 4.8/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

KanbanTool is the simple Kanban visualization software which focues mainly on the Kanban board feature set. It has necessary features such as rows and columns. You can set WIP limits and color code tasks. This app allows you to create board easily and make them look as close as possible to the physical ones due to flexible structure.

On the other hand this software option is not well polished in collaboration and project management functinalities so should not be considered for serious commercial use. Apart from visualization side. KanbanTool will help your team gain visibility on who is working on what and how much things have progressed to date.

Pros: 

• Simple and easy-to-use tool for basic task visualization
• Offers Agile metrics to evaluate progress

Cons: 

• Will not fit to track mid to large projects
• Lacks modern project management features
• Collaboration and overall UX is outdated/inconvenient

Website: https://kanbantool.com/

Price: €9 user/month for the Enterprise plan.

7. Planview Leankit 

Capterra score: 4.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Leankit by Planview is one more older generation Kanban board software options. It aimns to tackle the needs of lean software development teams. Leankit has many Kanban features and can be treated as a true Kanban system. WIP limits, colored cards, swimlanes and sub-columns are ready to help your team structure work board the way they need. Leankit offers velocity metrics to support most of Agile practitioners.

Regarding Kanban flow metrics, Leankit is on the weak side and should not be chosen due to limited options of what reports you can use. Another relevant downside is that you cannot display subtasks right on Kanban cards and it makes work item relation management tedious.

Project management features are not present but fundamental collaboration feature set is there. Last, worthy mention is that setting up can be time consuming and complicated.

Pros: 

• Created for lean software development, portfolio management layer
• True Kanban System

Cons: 

• Difficult to set up
• Cam be hard to use for non-IT teams,
• Lack of PM features

Website: https://www.planview.com/

Price: Not public.

8. Smartsheet 

Capterra score: 4.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Smartsheet is a digital work management tool which is like online spreadsheet. But it also has different data views among which you will find a Kanban software option. Smartsheet allows users to define only one dimensional Kanban boards with Kanban cards and checklists on Kanban cards. If you have larger amounts of data, this could be a good option since the tools looks to be well optimized.

Feature wise, it is quite limited as a Kanban system and should be treated only as a Kanban board software not a full solution. No flow metrics or similar reports.

So it feels that Kanban is just a second class citized in Smartsheet and main value is not there.

Pros: 

• Ability to analyze large amounts of data
• PM features

Cons: 

• Limited Kanban functionality
• No Kanban metrics
• Can take time to setup

Website: https://www.smartsheet.com/

Price: $7 per user/month for the pro plan.

Compare Smartsheet vs Monday.

9. Microsoft Planner 

Capterra score: 4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Microsoft Planner is another simple Kanban board software contender given it’s popularity due to being native part of Teams product. It has a limited columns only structure and Kanban cards. Nice on card checklists make it easy for subtask management. But other than that it is a rather limiting Kanban option and cannot be treated as a proper Kanban software. We recommend using MS planner for quick task list creation or small scope initiatives. The biggest feature gap is in metrics category, there are no dedicated reports for Kanban practitioners.

The main advatage of this product is the packaging inside of Office365 suite and teams. So it is always one click away.

Pros: 

• Available in Office 365 suite
• Very easy to use
• Subtask management

Cons: 

• Not suitable for professional teamwork or larger projects
• No Kanban system features
• No metrics or reporting for Kanban practitioners

Website: https://www.microsoft.com/

Price: $20 user/month for the business premium plan.

10. Redmine 

Capterra score: 4.1/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Redmine offers traditional and Agile approaches as a coherent combination. It is one of the older tools on the market, hence the already outdated UX and user interface. Nonetheless, it is quite capable in terms of Agile practices support. Kanban board has fundamental features such as columns, WIP limits, subtask management, color coding. It also offers professional project management features so can be considered as a hybrid solution.

Contratry to many other tools on this Kanban software list, Redmine offers only title and description on the card itself, thus limiting visualization flexiblity. We think that tool was built for Enterprises in mind and is more geared towards larger scope management.

Pros: 

• Suited for larger enterprises
• Offers a multitude of project management features
• Good Agile support

Cons: 

• Kanban is somewhat inferior compared to other methods
• Complicated to use and understand on the team level
• Outdated user interface and UX

Website: https://www.easyredmine.com/

Price: €19 user/month.

11. Miro 

Capterra score: 4.7/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Miro is an online whiteboard product with an extremely flexible structure/visualization of abstract shapes and text. You have full freedom to draw your process. It also has a more native Kanban board component with cards and columns. You can place colored tags and color code cards themselves. Other than that, it is pretty limited to just a board visualization option, so if you are considering a fully-featured Kanban system, this is not an option for you or your team.

We recommend using Miro for workshops or meetings to capture project details and brainstorm on the work scope. The Kanban method is not required in such cases, and the Kanban board is sufficient. Another advantage of the Miro board is the freedom to design even the most complex work processes.

Pros: 

• Easy real-time collaboration
• No predefined forms or restrictions, very flexible structure
• Native Kanban component

Cons: 

• Not suitable for formal Kanban method
• No metrics
• No Kanban system features
• Not convenient for day-to-day teamwork

Website: https://miro.com/

Price: $16 user/month for businesses.

12. Jetbrains Youtrack 

Capterra score: 4.4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

YouTrack by Jetbrains is an issue-tracking software that supports Kanban as a view. It has columns, swimlanes, WIP limits, and card color coding. The interface is easy to use and can be flexible to extend with more data. Overall a well-suited Kanban software option, even though the product itself is geared mainly towards IT teams and issue tracking. It has a nice set of Agile reports alongside work analytics. CFD chart is also part of the reporting module.

Teams should choose this product if they plan to track issues and concentrate all their project or product-specific workflows around issue tracking. It is not a Kanban-first tool, but still does a great job at Kanban method support.

Pros: 

• Modifiable task board
• Supports many Kanban features
• Good reports and analytics

Cons: 

• Limited application to IT only
• Issue-first approach
• Inferior flow metrics

Website: https://www.jetbrains.com/youtrack/

Price: €4.40 user/month for the business plan.

13. Ayoa 

Capterra score: 4.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Ayoa is presented mainly as a mind-mapping software that has Kanban board as one of the views. Seems to be a very simple option. Though we think its user interface is not professional and may be suited for personal use only. The Kanban board itself is close to MS planner but even more limited due to missing sub-task management. No proper Kanban method support or analytics.

Should be used more as a mind-mapping tool and switched to Kanban only in case you cannot move your data elsewhere. So this is not a strong Kanban software option if compared to other systems.

Pros: 

• Visual mind mapping
• Simple Kanban board for easy planning

Cons: 

• User interface is sketchy
• Not a fully-featured Kanban solution
• More suitable for work breakdown than progress tracking

Website: https://www.ayoa.com/

Price: €15 user/month.

14. iObeya

Capterra score: N/A

iObeya is the virtual team room software that supports many work process templates, among which you can find the Kanban board. Its structure is not strict so you can have much freedom. Columns, rows, and color-coded cards are available among other virtual whiteboard features. iObeya focuses on medium to large enterprises that are looking to create virtual Obeya rooms for their teams.

The main disadvantage of iObeya as a software Kanban board is that it requires significant investment during setup. It is not a simple off-the-shelf plug-and-play solution. So smaller companies or teams should consider something less demanding.

Reporting and analytics are also not the strong part of this software, so additional integration or plugins will be required.

Pros: 

• Flexible whiteboard-style solution
• Good simple visualization

Cons: 

• Hard to setup
• Weak metrics and reports
• No free option

Website: https://www.iobeya.com/

Price: No free option, enterprise-level pricing only

15. Swift Kanban 

Capterra score: 4.4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Swift Kanban is a Kanban software aimed at small to medium teams. If compared to the previous entry this system is focused on the Kanban method and supports many essential features such as statuses, WIP limits, color-coded cards, and flexible configuration. This software option also includes Kanban metrics and reports such as lead or cycle time.

Task breakdown and overall support for larger organizations are not a strong part of Swift Kanban, so should be considered more of a team-level system. The interface is outdated, yet the Kanban board is pretty good.

Pros: 

• Fully featured Kanban board
• Kanban reporting and analytics

Cons: 

• Not easily scalable for larger teams and organizations
• Outdated interface

Website: https://www.digite.com/swiftkanban/

Price: $7 user/month.

16. Kanbanflow 

Capterra score: 4.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

KanbanFlow combines the Kanban system and time tracking into one coherent solution. It has columns, swimlanes, WIP limits, and color-coded cards. To sum up, all necessary fundamental Kanban method features. Kanbanflow offers a native time tracker for those who run service-type projects or client work. You can also use time tracking to implement personal time management techniques like Pomodoro.

Simple and easy Kanban board software option for small to medium teams. Good interface and visualization. Good reporting and metrics.

Pros: 

• Easy visualization
• Easy to start
• Native time tracking

Cons: 

• Limited to smaller teams
• Not all flow metrics are supported
• No professional project management features

Website: https://kanbanflow.com/

Price: $5 user/month.

17. Taskworld 

Capterra score: 4.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Taskworld offers task management focused on the Kanban board and method. It has a good checklist, subtask management, and images as Kanban card covers. Taskworld offers some essential Kanban features, such as columns and card coloring, but nothing more. Seems to be easy on the visual side. Could be hard to scale for larger groups of people or projects. No Kanban metrics or reports are supported.

If you need a small team task management solution – this is a good option with fairly good reviews. If you need a professional Kanban system, it is not that well-suited and should not be considered.,

Pros: 

• A simple task management tool, especially as an alternative to Microsoft Planner
• Good subtask management on cards

Cons: 

• Limited Kanban features
• Suitable mostly for smaller teams.
• No free option, and quite expensive compared to other software options

Website: https://taskworld.com/

Price: $22 user/month for a business plan.

18. Taiga

Capterra score: 4.4/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Taiga is one of the open-source software options with a main focus on Agile project management. They also emphasize the importance of good user experience for daily use. This software is built mainly around the Scrum method but also has a Kanban board as part of the Scrum process. Essential Kanban board features, except for swimlanes and WIP limits, are present. It is more suited for Scrum than Kanban, hence should be also considered more by the Scrum teams than Kanban practitioners.

Pros: 

• Scrum focus
• Simple Kanban board
• Good UX

Cons: 

• Suited for smaller teams
• No professional project management features
• Not a Kanban system
• No Kanban metrics

Website: https://www.taiga.io/

Price: free or 5 $ user/month

19. Monday.com

Capterra score: 4.6/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Monday.com is well known for its automation and list views. We have included it in this comparison because it also has something close to a Kanban board. Software is well-adopted in various industries due to its spreadsheet-like behavior and productivity features. Even though it has a Kanban view, it is far from a true system and even the Kanban board itself. So it is quite a poor contender among other true Kanban tools. Mainly because most Kanban features are lacking, and only column-style lists with flexible cards are available.

Configuring the tool is also a bit time-consuming due to many options, even though it is quite flexible. No metrics or structuring for Kanban workflows means you can use it just for short glimpses or small initiatives. So as a Kanban software, it is quite inferior, and we recommend considering appropriate options from the top of the list.

Pros: 

• Flexibility
• Automation
• Configuration options

Cons: 

• Very basic Kanban view
• No metrics or reports
• No Kanban system features

Website: https://monday.com/

Price: €16 user/month for Pro plan.

20. Asana

Capterra score: 4.5/5 ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Asana is a well know software from the older generation. It has a simple and clean Kanban view for team tasks. As Monday it is rather limited and not a true Kanban system, missing most features. Only column-style lists and flexible task cards are present.

Fresh starter teams or small organizations can adopt it to visualize their workflow. No metrics and no Kanban structure elements mean it will become limited very fast. Even though, Asana has a stronger feature set towards professional project management and can be considered a fair advantage compared to other famous tools such as Monday.com or MS Planner.

Pros: 

• Visual and easy to understand
• Good PM features

Cons: 

• Columns only Kanban board with no other Kanban features
• No metrics or reports for the Kanban method
• Quite expensive

Website: https://asana.com/

Price: €24.99 user/month for businesses.

Best Software for Kanban

Make teamwork visual for Free

Get Started

Best Kanban Software Summary 

All listed Kanban board software options are capable in different areas and can be used by different-sized teams. Refer to our detailed comparison table to pick the best-suited one. Remember that some of these apps are not true Kanban systems and should be used with some future-proofness in mind.

Coming over to Teamhood?

Quickly import projects from other tools and continue working!

Start now!

Teamhood

• The most modern and customizable Kanban System
• Nested columns, Swimlanes, WIP Limits, Commitment points, Classes of service
• Best in-market UX/interface. Well-suited for complexity management (highest amount of information on one screen)
• Wide adaptivity 
• Flexible and rich work item details
• Optimized for daily collaboration and productivity
• Kanban Flow Metrics, customizable dashboards
• Time tracking 
• Custom Kanban templates, including OKR template

It is free and has unlimited users in the free tier, making it the absolute champion among other tools.

Vidas Vasiliauskas

Website

2019 - Present Co-founder and CEO @ Teamhood.
2015-2019 Head of software engineering department at Danske Bank.
2017-2018 Partner Associate Professor at Vilnius University. Lecturer of Software Architecture course
2011 - 2015 Managed numerous smaller IT teams at Prewise.
Co-founder of RaveIT, Eylean, No Brakes Games

Certified Agile product owner and practitioner. Managed large scale enterprise projects as well as launch of small startup products.
MSc of Software Engineering at Vilnius University.

Hobbies: Racing, MTB cycling, Windsurfing