For teams that use a kanban method of getting work done, finding the right kanban app can be a real challenge. Some, such as Trello, aim to create a simple user experience at the expense of richer features. Others, like the open-source Taiga, put so much emphasis on specific methodologies that the in-app lingo can be hard to understand. LeanKit is one of the best kanban apps because it's relatively easy to use, supports lean and agile methodologies, and has ample features. The price is on the high end, but it's still within reason. It's our Editors' Choice for online kanban apps, alongside Asana. Confused about kanban? Don't worry, we'll explain it below. . Pricing and Plans LeanKit offers three tiers of service: Select (which costs $228 per person per year), Advanced (which runs $384 per person per year), and Premium (for which there is custom pricing). All plans come with a 30-day free trial. There is no perpetual free plan option, however. The Select plan includes unlimited boards, board templates, cycle time reports, lean metrics and reports, the ability to set lane policies and work-in-progress (WIP) limits, and other basic features. You miss out on integrations, custom fields, advanced reporting, enhanced security, and a few other features at this tier. The Advanced plan, which is meant to support enterprises, contains everything in Select plus multiteam work distribution, advanced reporting, integrations, custom fields, reader licenses, enhanced security, and account services, which includes onboarding support. Premium accounts include everything in the Advanced plan, as well as support for single sign-on and a private cloud server. View All 7 Photos in Gallery Compared to other online kanban apps, LeanKit's prices are on the high end. Many others cost closer to $100 per person per year. Asana, for example, charges $119.88 per person per year. Note that Asana didn't start out as a kanban app, but rather came of age as a workflow management tool. It still is that, but it also now offers a board view. We appreciate its flexibility in both categories, which is what earns it an Editors' Choice. Volerro charges $7.99 per person per month for its Business Teams plan, which ends up being $95.88 per person per year. Zenkit charges $108 per person per year for Plus accounts and $348 per person per year for Business accounts. Among the least expensive options are KanbanFlow and Taiga. KanbanFlow Premium runs just $5 per person per month ($60 per person per year). Taiga has a wide range of account types at different prices, and they aren't based on a per-person rate but rather a group rate. For example, Taiga's lowest tier of service gives you the ability to manage five private projects with up to 25 team members in each project for a monthly flat rate of $19. What Is Kanban? What Is Lean Kanban? Note: If you're familiar with kanban, kanban boards, and lean development, skip this section. Kanban is a method for managing work. The simplest way to explain kanban is with an example. Imagine a board with vertical columns labeled To Do, Doing, and Done. Now picture a stack of sticky notes, each sticky note having one task written on it. All the notes are then stuck on the board in the To Do column. When a person is assigned a task and starts working on it, the associated sticky note moves to the Doing column. When the task is complete, the note goes to the Done column. There are infinite ways to riff on this concept, but that's the gist of it. The result is a highly visual system. When used collaboratively, everyone on the team can see the status of each task and who is responsible for it. While some will refer to kanban as a type of project management, that's a little misleading. You can use kanban for project management, but you can also use it to manage ongoing work, whereas project management software is designed specifically for managing projects. Projects have a start date, end date, and deliverable. So for example, an ongoing to-do list isn't a project, but you can manage it with kanban. With kanban boards, you can create a pool of work from which workers pull tasks. It's also generally seen as a useful tool for limiting how many tasks any one person can have assigned to her at a time. Some kanban apps allow you to enforce an actual limit, called a work-in-progress or WIP limit, while other apps leave it to you to informally create rules. The "lean" part of LeanKit has to do with an additional work methodology called agile or agile development. It's mostly used for software development. The idea is that a team builds incrementally instead of all at once and tests often. For example, instead of building an entire video game and having testers play it when it's finished, an agile or lean team will build a small piece of the game, test that one piece, and make changes based on what they've learned as they go. LeanKit's Interface and Features LeanKit's strength is its wealth of features. Its weakness is its design From the very start, it presents a utilitarian feel. It's not ugly, but it seems dated considering how far software design has come in recent years. A few tweaks in the color palette and typefaces would go a long way to giving LeanKit new life. In terms of usability, however, LeanKit is smooth. Buttons work as expected, as do drag-and-drop capabilities. LeanKit has improved its onboarding experience for new users. The website offers plenty of introductory videos and tutorials. The first time you launch the app you're greeted with a demo project. As you explore the app and read comments inside the cards, you learn how the system works. Give yourself 20 minutes to learn the ropes, and you'll be off to a fine start. Visual elements in the app do a good job of delivering information and allow you to customize your LeanKit experience. Lanes are collapsible, for example, allowing you a see exactly those you need and none of the ones you don't. Cards have color-coding options. A tiny completion bar at the bottom of certain cards fills in when related subtasks are marked done. All the expected features are included, too. Every card can have one or more assignees, a description, a start date and expected completion date, a priority rating, file attachments, and comments, which support @ messages. Use an @ symbol before a name to call that person's attention to a comment or task. Unfortunately, @ mention alerts occur via email, not in the app. The same can be said for other actions that should trigger an in-app alert, like being assigned a task or when a task that you follow changes status. Other work-management tools, such as Asana, provide a view of all comments directed at you, all tasks assigned to you, and other important information. A few other views that some users may want aren't available in LeanKit. For example, there isn't a calendar view right inside the app, although you can sync your LeanKit account to iCal, Google Calendar, or Outlook in just a few easy steps. Still, there should be a more accessible calendar view inside the app, too. As mentioned, LeanKit has ample features. WIP limits are supported, for example, but they are not strictly enforced. When a lane surpasses its WIP limit, the lane turns red, but you are not prohibited from adding more cards to it. If you do add more cards, you must enter a reason for overriding the limit, which is stored in the card's history tab. It's a unique implementation of the system. Not all kanban apps include WIP limits, although KanbanFlow and Taiga do. I also like that LeanKit supports swim-lane diagrams, giving you more ways to view and make sense of your work. Most kanban apps let you add subtasks to a card, but LeanKit implements this feature in a unique way. You can put subtasks onto their own mini kanban board and follow them through their own workflow. In the lean development tradition, LeanKit includes numerous analytic and reporting tools to show the distribution of work across a board, and useful metrics like how quickly tasks are being completed. The reports are at your fingertips, too, with quick-access buttons right on the screen. In other kanban apps and project management apps I've tested, it has taken me a while to figure out how to generate a report. That said, many other kanban apps have a dashboard, and LeanKit doesn't. Volerro's dashboard, for example, takes the form of the main landing page when you first open the app. You see all your projects listed with a few stats about each one alongside it. LeanKit only lists the boards, not the stats. Dashboards in other apps let you choose a few reports and graphs that will always appear, sort of like a summary of your default reports. Apps and Integration LeanKit primarily runs in a browser, but there are mobile apps for iOS and Android, too, allowing team members to stay connected to work no matter where they are. LeanKit can integrate with other apps and services. I already mentioned that you can sync dates from your LeanKit account into iCal, Google Calendar, or Outlook Calendar. Beyond that, you can work with the app's open API to make custom integrations, or you can rely on Zapier. Zapier is a third-party service that enables people to connect various online apps and services, even if they don't know how to write code. All On the Same Page LeanKit is among the best kanban apps available. Sure, it could use a design refresh, in-app alerts, a dashboard, and a few other improvements, but it's still better than most other kanban apps you'll find. Its feature set is strong and relevant to the kanban methodology. It's stable, smooth, fast, and it's easy to learn to use. For all those reasons, LeanKit is a PCMag Editors' Choice. LeanKit Bottom Line: Leankit is one of the best, easiest-to-use online kanban apps available, though it looks a little dated.

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