Best Kanban Software: Top 10 for 2024

Kanban software offers businesses a means to streamline their work to ensure that projects are completed on time and on budget, but with so many options on the market, finding the best Kanban software for your needs can be hard.

So to help you find one that ticks all the boxes, this post will delve into the features, pricing, pros, and cons (and more) of 10 of the best Kanban board software solutions.

The Best Kanban Project Management Software: Our Top 10 List

Below we’ve listed the best Kanban software tools for 2024, and we’ve outlined why they’ve made it on our list:

1. Trello — Overall the best software tool for Kanban project management
2. Asana — The best Kanban board software for small businesses
3. ClickUp — A popular feature-rich Kanban project management software
4. Monday.com — An intuitive project management software Kanban tool for businesses of all sizes
5. Hive — Great PM Kanban software for marketing teams and collaboration
6. Awork — Best Kanban board software for creative teams
7. Teamwork — One of the best Kanban boards software for collaborating with clients
8. Zoho Projects — Affordable project and Kanban software development tool for small businesses
9. LiquidPlanner — Best software Kanban board solution for larger businesses
10. GanttPro — One of the best project management Kanban and Gantt chart tools for larger businesses

Best Kanban Boards Software: Reviewed

In the following sections, we’ll take a closer look at what these tools have to offer, the price tags that come with them, and more to give you insight into each one’s project management capabilities.

1. Trello — Overall the Best Software Tool for Kanban Project Management

Trello is one of the most popular free personal Kanban software tools on the market, but it also offers complete workflow efficiency for businesses of all sizes. It’s also amongst the best product roadmap software in the industry.

And it truly doesn’t get any easier than with Trello, simply:

1. Create a board
2. Add your lists (i.e. “In Progress”, “Approved”, “Completed”)
3. Add your cards (your projects/tasks)
4. Create checklists in cards, set due dates and reminders, and more
5. Assign tasks/projects to your team
6. Watch as each card makes its way to the end of your workflow!

Special Features:

• View projects with the board, timeline, table, calendar, dashboard, and map layouts
• Get a head start with customizable templates
• Use custom fields and view activity logs
• Set user permissions and attachment restrictions
• Track time spent on tasks with Harvest or Timesheet
• Integrate with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Gmail, and many others
• Collaborate on cards

You can also automate task checklists, member adding, and card movements, plus automate emails, Slack messages, and so much more!

Pricing:

Besides Trello’s free Kanban boards software, there are also 3 plans priced as follows on a per-user basis:

• Standard — $5/month — Unlimited boards, advanced checklists, custom fields
• Premium — $10/month — All project views, priority support, admin and security features
• Enterprise — Starts at $17.50/user/month for 25 users — Unlimited workspaces, permission setting

Monthly billing starts at just $6/user/month. Overall, for the value on offer, Trello is certainly hard to beat.

Pros:

• Affordable pricing and a free plan
• Incredibly simple to use and visually appealing
• Fantastic task and project tracking
• Powerful built-in automation

Cons:

• Tracking subtasks require expanding cards

2. Asana — The Best Kanban Board Software for Small Businesses

Asana offers small businesses a shared space to collaborate with built-in messaging, commenting, etc.

You can also streamline your projects with ease with custom workflows and track progress with Kanban boards, Gantt charts, list, or Calendar layouts — whatever works best for you and your team.

Special Features:

• Custom IF/THEN automation rules to automate tasks
• Create forms to manage work requests
• Choose from 50+ customizable project templates
• Get an overview of your team’s progress and workload
• Custom reporting and metric layouts
• Use one shared calendar for your entire team
• Create tasks, subtasks, and set due dates
• View task dependencies with Gantt charts
• Set permission and privacy controls
• Get real-time project updates and alerts
• Integrate with 200+ external apps including Zapier

Pricing:

Asana has a free plan, plus these 3 paid plans billed per user:

• Premium — $10.99/month — Gantt chart view, workflow builder, custom fields, unlimited free guests, forms
• Business — $24.99/month — Portfolio, goal, and workload tracker, custom rules builder, approvals, advanced integrations
• Enterprise — Contact the sales team if you need more power

For a monthly subscription, Asana starts at $13.49/user/month and there’s a generous 30-day free trial if you’d like to test the platform before committing.

Pros:

• Great project and task tracking
• Visual and incredibly easy to use
• The platform is packed with features
• Can manage dependencies with the timeline view

Cons:

• No native time tracking capability
• Slightly pricier than other options

3. ClickUp — A Popular Feature-Rich Kanban Project Management Software

ClickUp’s popularity is largely due to the flexibility it offers with Kanban board creation. With a focus on visual project management, improved transparency, collaboration, and efficiency, ClickUp certainly has what you need.

With this tool, you’ll have a complete overview of your entire workflow and you can group your boards by status, priority, assignee, and more, plus make changes to your boards (even bulk changes) with ease. Moreover, it’s also one of the best legal project management software.

Special Features:

• Advanced sorting and filtering
• Monitor work in progress limits
• View custom field data
• Over 50 task and process automations
• Create subtasks and checklists
• View projects with over 15 layouts
• Use one of the hundreds of project templates
• Monitor your project’s dependencies
• Collaborate with email, chat, comments, and whiteboards
• Time tracking, reporting, and estimates
• Create recurring checklists and reminders
• Set sprint points and permissions
• Integrate with 1,000+ external apps

Pricing:

Besides the free plan, ClickUp also has these 4 paid plans:

• Unlimited — $5/month — Unlimited storage, dashboards, custom fields, portfolio, and resource management
• Business — $12/month — Unlimited teams, advanced automation, time tracking, workload management
• Business Plus — $19/month — Custom roles and permissions, team sharing, priority support
• Enterprise — Contact the sales team for a quote

These are also billed on a per-user basis with monthly billing starting at $9/month. Lastly, ClickUp also has a 30-day money-back guarantee if you find that the platform isn’t for you.

Pros:

• Great for time and project tracking
• Highly flexible and customizable
• Incredibly intuitive interface

Cons:

• There’s a bit of a learning curve
• Only on the Business+ plans do you get automation

4. Monday.com — An Intuitive Project Management Software Kanban Tool for Businesses of All Sizes

Monday.com also offers businesses of any size the means to centralize all their project data for increased efficiency and collaboration — and you can intuitively manage multiple projects with ease with all the common layouts, including with Kanban boards. It’s also the best bug tracking software.

Easily add columns, assign tasks, and organize cards with the same drag-and-drop simplicity as is common with other Kanban software. Plus you can divide cards by group, view subitems at a glance, and more!

Special Features:

• Create automations for tasks, approvals, etc.
• Set up real-time custom notifications
• Use, create, and reuse project templates
• Manage project budget and dependencies
• Track, monitor, and handle risks
• Create Gantt charts for a timeline view
• Manage your team’s resources and workload
• Assign tasks, set deadlines, and view activity log history
• Time tracker, history logs, and billable reports
• View in-depth reporting and analytics
• Integrate with Slack, Microsoft Teams, Zapier, and many others

Pricing:

Monday.com has 4 paid plans, as well as a free plan, here’s what it’ll cost you:

• Basic — $9/month — 5GB storage, unlimited tasks and projects, communication tools
• Standard — $12/month — 20GB storage, different project views, automation and integrations, advanced filtering
• Pro — $20/month — 100GB storage, time tracking, resource allocation, dependencies, budget management
• Enterprise — Contact the sales team — 1,000GB storage, advanced reporting, permission setting, portfolio management

There’s a 14-day free trial and monthly subscriptions start at $12/user/month.

Pros:

• It’s highly customizable
• Fantastic task automation
• Minimal learning curve

Cons:

• Advanced automation is only on the Standard+ plans
• Requires more integration such as with popular accounting software

5. Hive — Great PM Kanban Software for Marketing Teams and Collaboration

Hives’ popularity stems from its built-in collaboration tools — such as email, messenger, real-time editing, meeting notes, and more, but it also allows project managers to get a complete overview of all of their projects with Gantt, and Kanban, table, calendar, and portfolio views.

Overall, Hive is loaded with project management tools great for an array of industries, but it’s certainly one of the best PM software for marketing teams, let’s take a closer look.

Special Features:

• Visualize multiple projects at a glance
• Custom fields, statuses, and cards
• Run complete agile processes
• Built-in task time tracking and team calendar
• Set recurring tasks and task priority
• Automatically schedule meetings cards
• Easy proofing and approval process
• Attach emails to cards
• Automation for repetitive tasks
• In-depth reporting and analytics
• Risk analysis and notifications
• Integrate with Slack, Google Drive, Salesforce, Zapier, and more

Pricing:

Besides Hive’s free plan, there are only 2 paid options which are also billed on a per-user basis:

• Teams — $12/month — Time tracking, in-app calendar, shareable forms
• Enterprise — Contact the sales team — Custom analytics and reporting

For monthly billing, you’re looking at $16/user/month, but there’s also a 14-day trial and a refund guarantee on offer for the paid plans. But, as unfortunate as it is, unless you opt for the Enterprise plan, features such as approvals, timesheets, and analytics come as an additional add-on.

Pros:

• User-friendly collaboration
• Kitted for visual project management
• Flexible and user-friendly platform

Cons:

• Lacks automations
• It’s a bit sluggish
• Only has 2 paid plans

6. Awork — Best Kanban Board Software for Creative teams

Awork is one of the best creative project management software solutions that also offers an intuitive Kanban board creator for an organized overview of all of your projects throughout the project lifecycle.

Creating to-do lists, recurring tasks, subtasks, and setting task reminders is a breeze, and the time tracking abilities make Awork a great option for both task and project tracking as a whole.

Special Features:

• Save time with project templates and scheduling
• Intuitive Gantt charts and Kanban board creation
• Set permissions and guest access
• In-app collaboration for messaging, tagging, etc.
• Time tracking and reporting analytics
• Add dependencies and milestones to your timelines
• Use over 400 IF/THEN automation rules
• Attach or link files to your tasks
• Integrate with 1,000+ external apps

Pricing:

Awork has no free plan and only 2 paid options which are billed on a per-user basis:

• Premium — $10.99/month — Up to 50 users
• Enterprise — $15.99/month — Up to 5,000 users

Monthly subscriptions start at $12.99 per user and the price depends on the number of users you need. Plus, Awork also offers a 14-day free trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee.

Pros:

• There are regular feature updates
• Great for managing projects and the time spent on them
• User-friendly interface
• Loads of automation capabilities

Cons:

• Limited customization in terms of custom fields
• Charts could be more appealing
• Higher battery consumption

7. Teamwork — One of the Best Kanban Boards Software for Collaborating with Clients

Teamwork is superb for collaborating with clients, freelancers, or contractors as it offers businesses unlimited free client users. Besides this, the Kanban boards and other project management  tools make Teamwork great for bulk management.

Whether you’re used to Scrum software or any other PM methodology, you’ll appreciate Teamwork’s customization and visual project capabilities. It’s also one of the best cloud project management software.

Special Features:

• Real-time collaboration tools
• Manage resources and budgets
• Monitor the time spent on tasks and projects
• Use task list and project templates
• Monitor your team’s workload
• Assign tasks, create subtasks, and use custom fields
• Gantt charts to manage project dependencies
• Assign tasks to multiple members
• Set user permissions
• Workflow automation for assigning, card movements, and more
• Create invoices based on logged time

Plus, Teamwork integrates with Slack, Xero, Zapier, and some of the best client management tools like HubSpot.

Pricing:

Teamwork has a free plan and the following 3 paid options:

• Deliver — $10/month — 100GB storage, billing and invoicing, integrate team chat, templates, custom branding
• Grow — $18/month — 250GB storage, make 50 project templates, more integrations
• Scale — Contact sales team — 500GB+ storage

There’s a 30-day free trial on the first 2 plans, and a demo on the Scale plan, with monthly subscriptions starting at $12.50/user/month.

Pros:

• Advanced tagging and filtering
• Great Kanban board automations
• Unlimited free client users
• Efficient project and risk management

Cons:

• There’s a slightly higher learning curve
• Chart capabilities are limited
• The interface can be sluggish

8. Zoho Projects — Affordable Project and Kanban Software Development Tool for Small Businesses

Zoho Projects is one of the best Kanban software development solutions, but it’s also popular for real estate project management and several other industries.

This is unsurprising considering that it provides businesses with an affordable means to manage their resources and plan and track projects. Plus, there are all the common task view options including Kanban boards and Gantt charts to track project progress, milestones, and dependencies.

Special Features:

• Create tasks, subtasks, recurring tasks, and task reminders
• Use custom fields, layouts, and functions
• Business and task workflow automations
• Manage risks and resources
• Time tracking, timesheets, and invoice creation
• Task, issue, budget, and timesheet reports
• Templates for tasks and projects

With Zoho, you can also integrate with their CRM software, Desk for customer support, Invoice, Docs, and more. And what you don’t find with other Zoho apps, you’ll likely find with their external integration support.

Pricing:

Besides the free plan, Zoho Projects has these 2 affordable plans, priced on a per-user basis:

• Premium — $4/month — Up to 50 users, 100GB storage, resource management, subtasks, reminders, timers, task automation
• Enterprise — $9/month — Unlimited user limit, 120GB storage, portfolio dashboard, custom roles and fields, task workflow rules

Monthly billing starts at just one dollar more at $5/month, plus there’s a free 10-day trial and a 30-day money-back guarantee on offer.

Pros:

• Intuitive, visual interface
• Affordable pricing plans
• Superb for project and time tracking
• Great small business PM software

Cons:

• Lackluster customer support
• Customization and reporting capabilities are limited

9. LiquidPlanner — Best Software Kanban Board Solution for Larger Businesses

LiquidPlanner’s focus on real-time risk analysis, predictions, and adaptation make it one of the best project management solutions for enterprise businesses.

It comes with all the tools project managers need to plan, predict, and execute with confidence when there is a lot at stake. Besides the Kanban board-style view, LiquidPlanner also gives you portfolio, project, and grid views to get a complete overview of multiple projects at a glance.

Special Features:

• Predictive scheduling
• Automatic resource leveling
• Time tracking, alerts, and insights
• Manage role and access rights
• Export timesheet data and create rate sheets
• Manage project dependencies
• Real-time risk alerts and insights
• Custom filtering, task statuses, and data fields

With LiquidPlanner, you can forecast when work will be done and adapt to any changes seamlessly to deliver predictively and consistently.

Pricing:

Besides the free version, LiquidPlanner also has these 3 paid plans billed on a per-user basis:

• Essentials — $15/month — 5,000 tasks, 50 projects, predictive scheduling, task management, project dashboards
• Professional — $25/month — 50,000 tasks, 500 projects, timesheet review and exports, rate sheets, custom fields, and dashboards
• Ultimate — $35/month — Unlimited tasks and projects, group workload views, unlimited workspaces

There are no monthly billing subscription options but there is a 14-day free trial on offer.

Pros:

• Great customization
• In-app time tracking and billing
• Intuitive for task and project management
• Great for forecasting

Cons:

• The database can be sluggish
• Cluttered interface
• The search function can be more intuitive

10. GanttPro — One of the Best Project Management Kanban and Gantt Chart Tools for Larger Businesses

As the name suggests, GanttPro was built for managing projects with powerful Gantt charts but it also offers Kanban boards, grid, and portfolio layouts to organize and view your project data.

The board view is intuitive and offers the same drag-and-drop functionality for easy management. Let’s take a closer look at some of the other noteworthy features on offer.

Special Features:

• Monitor project milestones and dependencies
• In-app calendar for your team
• Filter by task type, assignee, status, priority, and more
• Resource and workload management
• Time tracking and logging reports
• Create project templates for re-use
• Project budget management
• Integrate with Slack, Google Drive, and Jira
• Create custom columns and make bulk changes

Pricing:

As with LiquidPlanner, GanttPro doesn’t offer monthly billing options — however, there are plans for varying-sized businesses. Here are your options:

• Basic — $7.99/month — Core features, auto-scheduling
• Pro — $12.99/month — Custom fields and project templates, overdue tasks
• Business — $19.99/month — Time tracking, workload management, portfolios, and reports
• Enterprise — Contact the sales team — Priority support

As with all of the Kanban boards software, the above is billed on a per-user basis and there’s a 14-day free trial to test the platform.

Pros:

• One of the best Gantt chart software
• Offers automatic scheduling
• Great for importing and exporting data
• Superb project tracking capabilities

Cons:

• Very limited integrations
• Time tracking is only available on the Business plan and up
• The platform wasn’t designed with several managers in mind

Best Kanban Software: Table Comparison

To make comparing each of these tools even easier, we’ve created a master table that includes all the crucial data you need for comparing the tools at a glance:

What is Kanban Board Software or Kanban Tools?

You’ll commonly see the use of Kanban in software development teams but it’s also widely used by HR, sales, marketing, and IT teams amongst many others.

But put simply, Kanban board software lets managers and teams have a visual overview of the progress of projects regardless of the industry in question.

By having your projects laid out on a digital board with columns for the stages of the project and cards with all the crucial details related to the project, Kanban board software offers project transparency, collaboration, and a means to view all of your projects and their progress at a glance.

Why Use Online Kanban Boards Over Physical Boards?

Opting for a digital software Kanban board comes with loads of benefits compared to physical boards. Here are some of the many reasons why Kanban software tools reign supreme over the offline method:

Centralizing Data

One of the biggest benefits of using a digital Kanban for software development or any other industry is that you’re able to have a centralized location to keep all of your projects organized.

Unlike physical boards, you’ll be able to access tasks, files, due dates, and more related to any given project — in an instant!

Plus, you’ll be able to do this regardless of where you are, which takes us to our next benefit.

Remote Access and Updates

Unlike physical boards, Kanban software lets you get a real-time overview of the stages your tasks and projects are in, at a glance, wherever you or your team may be.

You and your entire team remain in sync on the state of the workflow, but you also get added security as you’ll learn in the next section.

Security

The security that comes with a software Kanban board is something you wouldn’t have with the physical counterpart.

With the best Kanban software tools, you can set permissions to allow private access to certain boards for particular members of your team.

Plus, many come with security features like logins and 2-Factor Authentication — and of course, you don’t have confidential data sprung up on your office walls.

Collaboration and Accountability

The popularity of Kanban in software development and the flexibility of the software for use in other industries is also due to their collaboration abilities.

Besides managers being able to track work being carried out across multiple teams, these systems foster collaboration and communication with built-in chat and resource sharing abilities.

Plus, being able to assign tasks to your team members, you and your team have an overview of who’s accountable for what.

Features

Another key benefit of using Kanban project management software is that you get loads of other tools to help you streamline your workflow. For example, the best Kanban software includes features like:

• Time tracking
• Automation capabilities for complete efficiency
• A visual means to view important data metrics
• Collaboration tools

And more!

Plus, if you’re already using client management software or the like, Kanban software tools offer varying support with different platforms to allow you to integrate with the tools your business already uses.

Overall, the best project management software Kanban solutions offer a more convenient, time-saving means for you and your teams to improve the flow of work — you get a real-time overview of who’s doing what, when, and whether the project is headed in the right direction or not.

What is the Best Free Kanban Software?

Hands down, the best Kanban software free of charge for both individuals and teams is Trello. You can onboard your entire team, plus:

• Create unlimited cards
• Have up to 10 boards per workspace
• Unlimited storage and Power-Ups
• 250 command runs per month
• Custom backgrounds and stickers
• Assignee and due dates
• Unlimited activity logs

Some of the other platforms also offer Kanban board software free, but you can’t go wrong with Trello’s free plan — whether you’re an individual, startup, or small business.

What’s the Difference Between Kanban and Scrum?

Kanban takes a visual approach to project management whereas the Scrum methodology structures the workflow in a way that ensures the completion of projects in a short timeframe known as ‘sprints’.

Both are commonly used by agile teams, and as Scrumban proves, Kanban can be worked into a scrum framework. Nevertheless, here are our top picks for the best Scrum software for sprint planning.

How to Choose the Best Kanban Tool?

Here are some of the key factors to keep in mind when choosing the best Kanban boards software for you or your business:

Ease of use

Although each of the above-reviewed Kanban software providers are leaders in the industry, some have higher learning curves than others.

You’ll want to have a look at the support provided, including from the support team, training videos and resources, and more.

Integrations

If your business already uses email marketing software or even something more specific, then you’ll want to ensure that your chosen Kanban software supports integration with your chosen platform.

Most if not all, also support Zapier integrations which offer loads of support for various platforms.

Pricing

Depending on your needs and budget, pricing can play a big part in determining which software is best suited for you and your business.

You’ll want to take into account the number of users you’ll need to onboard currently, and factor in growth for the long-term to determine how much your chosen platform will cost with added members.

Some features may also only be available on higher plans, so you’ll want to double-check to ensure that the capabilities you’re after are on offer with your chosen provider and plan.

Be sure to check out any free Kanban board software or trials, and factor in any refund policies or money-back guarantees.

Features

Many offer much of the same features, but these are some of the key features that stand out with the best Kanban software:

• Work in progress limits — This allows you to limit multi-tasking to improve the flow of work and completion rate of tasks
• Task dependencies — Know at a glance what tasks are dependent on the completion of others
• Automation — Limit the workload and allow you and your team members to focus on more important tasks
• Recurring tasks — Have automated recurring tasks set up to avoid repetitive manual work
• Time tracking — Get insight into the time it takes to complete projects and tasks and easily create billable rates

At the end of the day, the most important features will depend on your needs, so be sure to check whether the platform meets your requirements.

Conclusion: What is the Best Kanban Software for 2024?

Asana, ClickUp, and Monday.com have some really solid offerings, but our top pick for the best project management Kanban solution has to be Trello.

It’s incredibly easy to use and it allows you to establish a clear flow of work for your projects for just $5/user/month — it’s hard to beat.

You’ll see that you can’t go wrong with Trello, it’ll transform the way you and your teams work and deliver results.

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