Kanban Tool vs Kanboard

Kanban Tool

• Teams that run kanban with WIP limits and flow metrics
• Organizations that must keep board data on their own servers
• Two-person teams whose work fits on the free plan's 2 boards

Kanboard

• Teams that want a kanban board on a server they control
• Organizations that sign in through LDAP, Active Directory or OAuth2
• People who prefer a deliberately small feature set

Kanban Tool

• The Free plan is limited to 2 boards and 2 users and has no file attachments.
• Time tracking, process automation and user groups are only on the Enterprise plan at $11 per user / month.
• The pricing page shows one per-user monthly price; annual billing exists, but its price is not listed.
• Kanban Tool On-Site is sold in 10-user annual license packs, with pricing only on request.

Kanboard

• There is no hosted version: you install and maintain it yourself, which needs PHP 8.1 or later, a web server and a database.
• The project is in maintenance mode; the main developer makes only small fixes, and releases depend on community contributions.
• There is no official mobile app. The web interface is responsive, but the docs say the board is not practical on small screens.
• Gantt charts, a calendar and Slack or GitHub connections come from separately installed plugins, which the project does not review.

Kanban Tool

Kanban boards with swimlanes

Work is shown as cards on boards with horizontal swimlanes, work-in-progress limits, collapsible columns and predefined, customizable board templates.

Real-time collaboration

Board changes appear across team devices as they happen, with comments, task assignments, email notifications and due date reminders.

Flow analytics

A cumulative flow diagram, cycle time reports and breakdown charts show where work is piling up. Board analytics are included on every plan.

Time tracking and automation

The Enterprise plan adds time tracking with time reports and process automation. Recurring and postponed tasks with reminders are also listed.

Power-Ups

More than 30 optional Power-Ups add an interactive calendar, task dependencies, card covers, checklists and developer tools for custom styles and scripts.

AI Assistant

The assistant builds a board from a description of the work and suggests checklist items and tasks, using an OpenAI integration.

Kanboard

Kanban board with WIP limits

Tasks are dragged between columns that can be added, renamed or removed at any time. A column that goes over its task limit is highlighted.

Tasks and subtasks

Tasks are described in Markdown and carry comments, attachments, a category, a color, an assignee and a due date. Subtasks hold time or complexity estimates.

Search and filters

A query language finds tasks by assignee, description, category or due date, and custom filters can be applied to the board.

Automatic actions

Per-project rules react to events such as a task moving to a column, then close the task or change its assignee, color or category.

Time tracking

Tasks and subtasks record estimated and spent hours. A subtask timer logs the time between status changes and adds it to the task's total.

Project analytics

Each project has a cumulative flow diagram, a burndown chart based on story points, and reports on average lead and cycle time.

Kanban Tool

• Free$0

  2 boards and 2 users, without file attachments.

• Team$6

  per user / month; annual billing also offered, price not listed

  Unlimited boards and file attachments, with real-time board updates and board analytics.

• Enterprise$11

  per user / month; annual billing also offered, price not listed

  Everything in Team, plus time tracking and reporting, user groups management and process automation.

• Kanban Tool On-SiteCustom

  The Enterprise product installed on your own server, sold in 10-user annual license packs with pricing on request.

Kanboard

• Kanboard$0

  The complete application, installed on your own Linux, FreeBSD or Windows server with SQLite, MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL.

Kanban Tool

• Nonprofit

  Nonprofit pricing on request

  Kanban Tool says it gives significant discounts to non-profit organizations. The amount is not published and is arranged by contacting the company.

• Education

  Educational pricing on request

  Educational organizations are offered discounted pricing on the same terms: no published rate, arranged by contacting the company.

• Other savings

  Reduced pricing above 50 users

  The support pages state that accounts with more than 50 users get reduced pricing, arranged with the sales team.

Kanboard

No public discounts listed.