As the workload has gotten more complex with the increasingly digitized workspace. It’s back-breaking to use a Kanban board manually to manage tasks. However, nowadays, it is possible to find several free Kanban board tools online, each tailored to a specific need.
So, beyond asking yourself if you should switch to Kanban boards, you have to find out which is the right app for you. In order to help you with that, we made a selection of the best free options available.
What do Kanban boards offer?
As a support assistant, Kanban software lets you visualize your tasks to comprehend them better, explain them to others, and have open communication to keep yourself and everybody around you informed.
Kanban as a primary indicator helps transform the business and diagnose what, where, and how something is done. This allows collaborators to suggest improvements to the workflow.
Kanban software: how does it work?
Good Kanban software shares the aspects that make physical Kanban boards work. And is also digital (no pen and paper hassle), shared in real time (across the globe, enabling remote work) and, many times, free. Here are a few of the aspects to consider and what to seek in a kanban software:
1. Workflow visualization
Understanding and envisioning work tasks deliver the impact of helping to have an overall dedicated team. Because Kanban focuses on making work evident and accessible, this element is perhaps the most important.
2. Free board templates
Having a library of plug-and-play Kanban board templates can save you lots of time if you don’t need to create all your boards from scratch. When researching for a free Kanban board app, examine the templates provided. It’s appealing to have access to a collection of layouts that match your workflows.
3. Free Kanban board customization
How simple is it to tailor the board to your requirements? Custom columns, layouts and elements, such as calendars and more, are available in several free software tools.
4. Recent activity tracking
Stay on top of all the tasks you and your team members are handling. Check changes, newly added files and keep up with the swim lanes.
5. Limit WIP
Another concept of Kanban is to keep work-in-progress to a level. These limits are usually set by a person or by a team or on a column on the Kanban board, representing a specific workflow step.
6. Flow control
Kanban is all about keeping things moving. Stop starting, start finishing is one of its most well-known sayings. Flow control emphasizes the organization’s commitment to finishing the job by:
- Tracking and analyzing a specific project for progress and delays.
- Monitoring all the completed and pending tasks.
7. Analytics
When your software collects data and generates analytics that monitor performance, blocks, and other indicators, you may enhance your predictions.
8. Handle many workgroups
You may desire capabilities that allow you to keep a comprehensive summary of numerous projects or teams at a spectrum or systemic level.
Picking the ideal free Kanban tool
Many individuals are interested in Kanban stall at this stage. Selecting the correct software package for your organization may be confusing and complex.
When picking a project management tool you need to keep your critical needs in mind, especially if you’re looking for free options. Make sure that the tool you pick has these two features:
Adaptability
Know your team’s limitations if you want software that they can understand and utilize. Make sure the tool is adaptable enough to suit your changing demands, such as an increase in the number of users, future process modifications, and the ability to handle new initiatives and ongoing activities.
Integrations
The amount and types of integrations are both significant. You should evaluate the various software, tools, and platforms your organization utilizes and select Kanban software compatible enough to work with the highest number.
Turn Gmail into your Team’s Workspace.
- 2.5x faster email responses.
- 20 hours less spent per month, per team member.
- 40% more deadlines achieved and happier teams.
9 free Kanban board apps to try
There are various free Kanban board tools available in the digital market to help you with your tasks. Here is our selection of the most notable ones for several environments:
1. Drag
If you use Gmail, Drag is probably the best tool available. There are so many tasks that begin and end as emails. Imagine just dragging these emails from your inbox into a board and using it as a card without switching between different tools and tabs.
That’s Drag. It adds shared inboxes and boards to your Gmail transforming it into your team’s workspace to help clients, organize projects, and close transactions.
Rating
G2 reviews: 4.5
Capterra reviews: 4.4
Pros: Saves you a lot of time copying + pasting and managing the information flow from email to other apps.
Cons: Requires you to use Google Workspace already.
Premium version: Subscription plans start at $8 per user/month. Offers a 14-day free trial with no credit card requirement.
2. Asana:
Asana is a task management solution with a visual interface that allows teams to collaborate on projects. It has a feature that allows you to make a modest Kanban board and monitor workflow on it. Teams may use columns to construct the Asana task board, but no other Kanban tools are accessible.
For those wishing to add a simple Kanban board to their project management initiatives, Asana is a good choice. It is not, however, a full-fledged Kanban system that can handle several teams or large projects.
Rating:
G2 reviews: 4.3
Capterra reviews: 4.4
Pros: Simple to understand and work with.
Cons: Some Kanban board features are not available.
Premium version: Subscription plans start at $10.99 per user/month.
3. Trello:
Trello is a well-known task management app that visualizes activities and tasks using a basic Kanban board. It was designed for those who require a simple free Kanban board for individual task management or communicating with a small group.
Both the free and the premium versions are rather limited, lacking several tracking and reporting features common in other software. However, it’s possible to install plugins to fill in the gaps.
Rating:
G2 reviews: 4.4
Capterra reviews: 4.5
Pros: An easy-to-operate, personal tool.
Cons: It doesn’t get updated as regularly as other tools.
Premium version: Subscription plans start at $5.00 per user per month.
4. Wrike:
Wrike is another Kanban-compatible business project management application if you’re looking for a professional project management system with some lean elements.
Rating:
G2 reviews: 4.2
Capterra reviews: 4.2
Pros: Large-scale workflow solutions with many features.
Cons: The Kanban board view is minimal and restricted, with no tools to measure velocity.
Premium version: Subscription plans start at $9.80 per user/month.
5. Project.co
With this project management tool, teams can view unlimited tasks across all workflows. Managers can assign roles and distribute tasks from a central dashboard that can be viewed in different forms, including Kanban boards.
Rating:
Pros: Task privacy, so you can control which users see every step of a project.
Cons: The robust features require a lengthier learning curve
Premium version: A premium subscription with even more resources costs $10/user/month
6. Kanboard
Kanboard is a web-based open-source Kanban app that can simplify most teams’ communication through a visual workflow. You can automate tasks and subtasks according to the project’s needs.
Rating:
Pros: Self-hosted and free app with a simple interface
Cons: there’s little customization and no added features
Premium version: it’s fully free
7. Stackby
Stackby is a data-friendly process manager that allows teams that rely on data to work in a streamlined manner. You can connect information from different platforms and centralize it on a dashboard your team can visualize. It includes Kanban boards to oversee each project’s development in real-time.
Rating:
G2 reviews: 4.7
Pros: Works great for multiple sectors, including operations and logistics, which rely on data for daily decisions
Cons: Requires a longer and more technical setup compared to other platforms
Premium version: for teams, the subscription starts at $9/user/month
8. Beesbusy
Beesbusy is a project planner and manager for teams that work on multiple projects at the same time. It includes tracking tools, so you can monitor timesheets and overall deadlines. The Kanban view allows managers to oversee their team’s workflow, add files and manage tasks.
Rating:
G2 reviews: 4.6
Pros: Smartphone app to maintain your workflow across devices
Cons: Doesn’t offer repeating tasks
Premium version: The Business plan starts at $11/user/month for 5 users, with discounted prices for bigger teams
9. Gladys
Gladys is a simple, but effective project manager with visual keys, such as the Kanban boards, graphs and color-coding tags. It’s a good choice for smaller teams since the free version supports up to 5 users and 2 simultaneous projects.
Rating:
G2 reviews: 4.4
Pros: Central dashboard for each project, with a quick view of current tasks, collaborators and resources used
Cons: No external integrations, so users have to upload data from other workspace tools manually
Premium version: teams over 5 users can benefit from unlimited projects and tasks for €12/user/month
If you want to take a look at a broader selection of project management software check our article on The 15 Best (and free) Project Management Software.
Why you should try Kanban Board with Shared Inbox
Tired of copying all those emails to a taskbar for yourself or forwarding them over to your team one by one? With Drag all your email-driven workflows can be automated into a Kanban board shared with your team.
We simplify the management of inboxes such as support@, sales@, or billing@ by adding collaborative features to Gmail. You will be able to assign tasks and emails as cards and track your team’s work without the constant switching to Project Management, CRM or Help Desk.
Drag offers the following exciting features:
Kanban boards and other views
Boards simplify workflows! They’re where ideas are discussed, and excellent cooperation takes place. Drag boards provide visibility of the work being done much like any other Kanban software, except it cuts a few steps whenever you deal with an email-driven task.
That being said, Kanban is not the only option to oversee your workflow. When a task is added to your team’s workspace, you can see it on a list, on a board and the more flexible workspace view: card previews.
With this approach, you can monitor the length and status of each step of a project while seeing the basic details of each task. Assign a task, add files, set up deadlines and tag it directly from your dashboard.
There’s also an activity log available to all free DragApp users. Every time you log in, you can see which users have contributed, the changes done to each card and the overall status of the project.
Collision detection
Even though collaboration is key for productive teams, another crucial part of teamwork is avoiding collisions. Say, for example, a customer emails you to learn more about a project. If two different sales agents reply to this message, it can be confusing.
Drag’s collision detector will let you know if someone is already working on a task. That way, you avoid confusion and free up time to work on tasks that are still unattended.
Taking Kanban further with DragApp
With Drag premium plans, you can share your email inboxes and boards with your broader team. First of all, while the free plan can only offer one shared workspace, the Starter subscription allows unlimited users and shared projects.
That is, you can create different digital workspaces for each team and department instead of one single space. The benefit is an organized workflow that can benefit from the Kanban board view and Activity log.
Software and integration
Forget bouncing between a group messaging app, Gmail, a task management app, and Google Drive. Instead, keep the conversion in the same app as the information. Connect with your team with just one click. Simply @mention team members and catch their attention right away.
This goes even further with Drag’s library of integrations. Besides all Google Workspace tools, you can connect Drag with Zapier and access all different kinds of tools.
For instance, sellers can set up ecommerce integrations and Drag will import sales information. With that data, you can plan the next launches, detect potential issues with logistics and even build a client portfolio for CRM initiatives.
Analytics
Drag’s premium plans allow for custom views and reports. Managers can filter their dashboards by user, tag, card and timeslot. With these reports, they can monitor and track any changes to relevant customer service metrics, such as average ticket resolution and response time.
In summary
The best thing about Drag’s free Kanban boards is the time you save by managing tasks in the same place you get requests, your Gmail. Teams such as customer service, sales and marketing, which rely on efficiency and data-driven reports, can benefit a lot from Drag’s tools.
You can set up the workflow, assign tasks, @mention users for help, add files and notes to cards and anything else that the team might need to complete tasks faster and better. The premium plan allows users and managers to go even further, tracking and solving potential bottlenecks before they stall your work.
The benefit is a streamlined workflow, which cuts down on the time needed before you reach back to customers, vendors and other team members. This overall productivity will help your company develop better growth strategies and products in the long run.
Turn Gmail into your Team’s Workspace.
- 2.5x faster email responses.
- 20 hours less spent per month, per team member.
- 40% more deadlines achieved and happier teams.
