Best Kanban Tools

A good Kanban tool helps a project manager take complete control of the work management with enhanced visualization of work and team collaboration and adapt to the changing requirements effectively.

This guide will provide you with an in-depth understanding of Kanban tools and assist you in selecting the best one for your business.

What are Kanban Tools?

A Kanban tool is a workflow visualization software that uses a Kanban board to manage work. It focuses on visualizing the entire project on a Kanban board to increase project transparency and enhance collaboration between team members.

A Kanban Board consists of columns, lists, and cards. ‘Columns’ represent the various stages of a workflow. Under each column, there is a ‘list’ that represents the number of tasks in a particular stage of a workflow. And each task in a list is represented as a ‘card.’ Each card represents one task.

A basic workflow to complete a task in the Kanban board includes three stages: “To Do,” “In Progress,” and “Complete.” However, a workflow can be more complex.

The maximum number of tasks in a list under each column is defined by the ‘work-in-progress (WIP) limits.’ For example, a column with a WIP limit of 5 cannot have more than five tasks.

The Kanban board is designed based on the principles of Kanban methodology. It uses a pull system to manage work in order to maximize efficiency and reduce waste.

Tasks are pulled from the project backlog based on priority and matched to the team capacity using WIP limits. Tasks in the workflow move from the leftmost corner of ‘project backlog’ to the right till ‘completion’ through various stages such as ‘to-do,’ ‘in progress,’ and ‘hold.’

A Kanban project management tool is optimized to implement agile project management frameworks like Kanban and Scrum for work management.

Who Uses Kanban Tool?

Kanban tool can be used in any work setting across industries for both IT and non-IT applications due to its simplicity and adaptability. It can easily fit any workflow as soon as you have one and help optimize it to the maximum efficiency. Have a look at the common uses of Kanban board tools.

1. Software Development Teams

   A Kanban system is primarily used by IT teams for agile software development. It provides the required flexibility and agility to the software development team to have more control with regard to tasks and timing.

2. Project Manager

   Project managers across industries use the Kanban program for effective work planning and management. One can plan work as per the team’s capacity and organize, monitor, manage, & analyze tasks and workflows using the Kanban board.

3. Agile Teams

   Agile teams across industries use Kanban to improve work efficiency and adaptability. Kanban is based on the principle of continuous improvement. Thus, tasks can be reprioritized, reassigned, or updated until the team reaches maximum work efficiency.

Benefits of the Best Kanban Software

The best Kanban software provides you with the right tools to maximize output and minimize waste with effective project planning, work management, team collaboration, and project reporting & analysis.

1. Efficient Task Management

   A Kanban board provides a visual representation of all the tasks of a project at a centralized place. This bird’s eye view of tasks helps you clearly see the progress of each task, identify bottlenecks by knowing the number of tasks in each stage, and re-prioritize tasks to avoid delays. Apart from that, Kanban provides advanced analytics and reporting for data-driven decision-making that helps in efficient task management.

2. Improved Collaboration

   Kanban method focuses on making a team work as a system with maximum efficiency rather than individuals working in silos. Every team member can see the progress of tasks and collaborate accordingly for improved teamwork and reducing the cycle time of a task.

3. Reduces Employee Overworking

   A Kanban board tool helps you in effective work planning as per your team’s capacity using WIP limits. You can decide the maximum number of tasks for a team member or team in a phase based on their capacity. If somehow a team member gets overworked or underworked, you can make changes to the WIP limit for an individual or stage.

4. Increases Transparency and Accountability

   All the work in the project scope and details of the roles and responsibilities of each team member are visible on Kanban boards. This creates a centralized and transparent source of information for everyone in the organization. It helps increase accountability as each team member can clearly see how their work impacts the overall progress.

5. Makes Tasks and Projects Flexible

   Kanban workflow has a high level of agility in tasks and workflows to meet changing requirements. For example, you have spotted a bottleneck in the later stage of a workflow. You can either limit the work in progress earlier in the flow, or you can re-distribute the resources to meet the new requirements to eliminate bottlenecks.

6. Increased Levels of Security

   The best Kanban board software adheres to industry security standards to provide a secure platform for work management. Remote teams can collaborate on tasks from anywhere to work together effectively.

Common Features of Kanban Tools

There are some core features that make a Kanban tool capable and useful for practicing the principle of the Kanban project management methodology. You should look for the following Kanban features when buying Kanban project management software:

1. Kanban Boards

   Without Kanban boards, there is no Kanban project management software. The software should have an intuitive Kanban board to allow you to visualize your workflow and all the tasks at a glance in one centralized place. The most popular feature of a Kanban board is the ability to drag and drop a card from one stage to another. It saves a lot of time and makes it easy to change the stage of a task.

2. Customizable Workflows

   Each organization has its own workflow. A good Kanban platform provides you the freedom to create a customized workflow tailored to the specific needs of your business processes. You should be able to add as many stages as you want in your workflow to better streamline business processes for maximum efficiency and highest quality.

   The ability to add custom fields such as descriptions, attachments, due dates, and priorities to Kanban cards is one of the most cherished features of a dedicated Kanban tool as it allows you to customize the information you want to visualize at a glance.

3. Collaboration Tools

   As one of the core principles of Kanban project management is continuous improvement and team collaboration, a Kanban board software should provide you with the ability to connect with team members from the Kanban board. You should be able to add comments and tag team members on cards, attach files to the cards to collaborate, and share card links for effective collaboration.

   Integration with a chat-based app or in-built chat is a must-have feature for effortless communication.

4. Work-in-Progress Limits

   WIP limit is the basis of agile work management in Kanban. It helps you in effective resource and work planning, identifying bottlenecks, and re-strategizing work. You should be able to set a custom WIP limit for each column.

5. Cumulative Flow Diagrams (CFDs)

   Cumulative flow diagrams are one of the most important work management features of Kanban that help you analyze workflow stability, anticipate bottlenecks, and make changes accordingly. A Kanban tool should provide you with CFD analytics to help you reduce your average cycle time, manage your WIP limit, and increase your team’s throughput.

6. Lead and Cycle Time Diagrams

   Lead and cycle time diagrams provide you with in-depth visual analysis to help track the time it takes for work items to move through different stages of a workflow. The Kanban tool should provide you with powerful lead and cycle time diagrams so that you can make continuous improvements and optimize workflow to improve work efficiency.

How to Choose the Right Kanban Board Software?

Choosing the right Kanban board software is very important because it directly influences how easily and efficiently your team can use it for work. A wide range of Kanban board software options are available in the SAAS market. Here are a few important tips that can help you choose the best Kanban tool -

1. Identify Your Requirements

   The first step is to know what you need help with. Clearly define what matters most to you and the purpose you want to solve using the software. For example, it can be the ease of use of the software, highly advanced Kanban board, document sharing, advanced reporting, security, or the ability to support large numbers of projects and users at one time seamlessly.

2. Understand Your Workflow

   Every Kanban software provides you with a Kanban board. The differentiating point is the specific features that solve your business needs. For example, if you have a fixed workflow that repeats, it is advised to look for Kanban board software with advanced workflow automation capabilities. On the other hand, if you have an agile workflow and you need to quickly respond to changing requirements, choose Kanban software with advanced customization capabilities.

3. Consider Usability

   Kanban software should be easy to use and have a minimal learning curve. Because if it is not easy to use, your team will be less likely to use it. Run a free trial to get the real feel of the user interface of the software, how easy it is to use, and find out whether or not your team will be able to use it efficiently with minimal frustration.

4. Integrations

   It is very important to find a Kanban project management software that supports a decent range of integration with most daily-use apps. Because it extends the power of your software and makes it easy for your team to work without switching between apps. Look for integration capabilities with time tracking, budgeting, CRM, and other daily-use tools.

Top 5 Kanban Tools Comparison

Name	Free Trial	Demo	Pricing
Kanbanize	14 Days	Yes	$179/month (15 users)
Jira Software	7 Days	Yes	$7.75/user/month
Trello	14 Days	Yes	$5/user/month
ProofHub	14 Days	Yes	$45/month (unlimited users)
ClickUp	14 Days	Yes	$7/member/month

Here is the in-depth comparison of the top 5 best Kanban project management tools based on the research on various factors, including ease of use, features, user interface, pricing, & security, and first-hand experience of real users. Compare the Kanban tools based on their features, pros & cons, and pricing.

1. Kanbanize

Kanbanize is a powerful Kanban-based project management software that helps you visualize all projects, initiatives, and entire portfolios in a single place. It helps you track project progress and automatically forecasts progress with in-depth project reports. Detailed analytics helps you make data-driven decisions to make improvements in the workflow.

Apart from that, you can use the business rules to automate your repetitive business processes for higher work efficiency.

Pricing   

• Kanbanize plan starts from $179/month for 15 users.

2. Jira Software

Jira is the most popular agile project management tool used by agile teams for software development. It helps you manage your work with powerful, agile boards. You can create customizable workflows that fit any style of work.

Jira offers advanced reporting capabilities for critical insights within the context of your work for success. Apart from that, you get ready-made templates (Scrum, Kanban, and DevOps) and workflow automation to give you a head start.

Pricing

• Free- $0 per user
• Standard- $7.75 per user
• Premium- $15.25
• Enterprise- Custom Pricing

3. Trello

Trello is one of the most intuitive Kanban-based visual project management tools that helps you bring all your tasks, teammates, and tools together. It allows you to create workflow, visualize progress, and create reports to manage work from a single place.

Trello seamlessly integrates with a vast number of SAAS tools to provide you with all the project management features you need. You can use the built-in templates to create workflows for almost every business function.

Pricing 

• Free: $0 for the whole team with limited features
• Standard: $5 per user/month - billed annually
• Premium: $10 per user/month - billed annually
• Enterprise: $17.50 per user/month - billed annually

4. ProofHub

ProofHub is a feature-rich Kanban software solution that brings all your projects and teamwork into one place. You can create, delegate, track, and manage tasks from a centralized Kanban board.

ProofHub allows you to create a custom workflow to fulfill your project needs and streamline your workflow. You can manage the access of each team member for better control. With ProofHub’s built-in chat and centralized file sharing, team members can effortlessly collaborate in real-time and work together efficiently.

Pricing

• Essential: $45/month for unlimited users (when billed annually)
• Ultimate Control: $89/month for unlimited users and unlimited projects  (when billed annually)
• Get a 14-day free trial

5. ClickUp

ClickUp is another popular Kanban work management software that provides a plethora of features under one roof. It is a complete work management solution that helps you visualize and plan projects, track progress, and collaborate with the team in real-time.

You can create detailed project reports and use a customizable dashboard for project analysis in order to make informed decisions. You can set goals and attach them to your workflow to achieve your project objectives.

Pricing

• Free: For personal use
• Unlimited: $7 per member per month
• Business: $12 per member per month
• Enterprise: Custom pricing

Latest Trends in Kanban Project Management Software

The global Kanban software market is expected to reach USD 647.8 million by 2027 at a CAGR of 18.4% from 2022 to 2027, as per the report by Business Research Insights. The report has analyzed a few trends that fuel the growth of Kanban software in the market.

1. Agile and DevOps Integration

   The increasing adoption of the DevOps framework by software development teams has resulted in increasing demand for the Kanban software. This is because the Kanban board is designed and optimized to implement agile frameworks. It can easily integrate agile frameworks such as Scrum, Kanban, and DevOps into the workflow.

2. Hybrid Work Adaptation

   The widespread adoption of work-from-home results in need for software where project managers can easily track the progress of each team member in real time and collaborate with team members. This results in increasing demand for the Kanban tool that can offer a transparent platform for enhanced visualization of tasks and workflow to track work progress in real-time and effective collaboration with remote teams.

3. AI-Driven Insights

   Just within a year, AI has revolutionized the way we work. Increasing implementation of AI in the data analytics domain makes it easy for project managers to create AI-driven data insights using Kanban dashboards. The use of AI in Kanban software is trending. Companies are looking for Kanban software powered with AI capabilities.

4. Scaling Kanban

   Kanban has been traditionally used by software development teams for IT applications, but now it has been widely accepted in non-IT applications due to its agility. This led to the increasing use of Kanban across industries such as marketing, HR, and support services. Organizations are exploring various frameworks that can be effectively implemented using a Kanban tool organization-wide.

Conclusion

The Kanban tool helps make an organization's workflow adaptive to changing requirements with enhanced visualization of all the tasks in real time and efficient collaboration among team members.

With a powerful Kanban tool in place, you can plan projects better, identify bottlenecks early on, take active measures to manage risks, boost cross-collaboration within teams, and analyze the performance better with in-depth reports.

Choosing the best Kanban tool for your organization helps you work more efficiently, reduce waste, maximize operational efficiency, and boost effective team collaboration.