Top 5 Best Kanban Tools in 2024

What are Kanban Tool and need for Using Kanban Tools in Project?

Let us know what is Kanban? And best Kanban tool in this article is the workflow management system first used at Toyota in Japan and found in 1940 by the Japanese Industrial Engineer named Taiichi Ohno at Toyota to improve the efficiency of the processes and the systems.

From 1940 when Kanban was innovated there is a tremendous advancement in the way the Kanban system is being used because of advancements in computers and digitization of the applications. Kanban is best used and done by tools than the physical cards and whiteboards. 

Best Kanban tools help in many ways they are as follows,

• Easy to visualize
• Easy to track the “To Do”, “WIP” and “Work Done” in the computers
• Making charts are easy and simple with powerful features
• Easy to set “WIP Limits” in the tool
• Making Cards with all the necessary details made easy
• An automated way of tracking progress, throughput, and cycle time
• Can measure the lead time so that unnecessary tasks can be reduced

The below diagram shows the computer-based Kanban tool

StarAgile institute conducts KMP1 certification training for learning the Kanban system.

Best Kanban Tools

#1 Kanban tool – Trello

Trello uses the cloud for online digital whiteboard to track progress and workflow management. It is easy to visualize who is doing what, projects or goals, its workflow, progress, and tasks in the whiteboard. The GUI interface of the whiteboard lists and cards enable users to automate the process of the workflow. Users can create as many boards as they want. Each board can have lists, topics, work stages, and other categories. The cards are simple to create and contain work details, due dates, file attachments, and checklists, and more. Users can create cards anywhere in the lists, sort the cards as they want and search for information, ass labels, and use filters in many ways.

The improved task management and project tasking make it easy to visualize and involve as many team members on the board. Once the users complete their tasks they can move the cards to the next available list for the next stage of work. The tool with work is visible to all and contains much information such as the amount of work done and who is doing what work etc. All the members can share comments for real-time communication. They can also share files and documents from the cloud or computers. The tool also contains notification system alerts and reminds users of the updates, due dates, and changes. Learn various tools of Kanban by undergoing Kanban training with StarAgile.

Trello syncs with all the devices such as cloud, desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile phones, etc. The teams can be present in different locations anywhere in the world and can collaborate and communicate with the tool. The repeatable tasks are automated that helps the team to save time and effort. The cards can be created using email. Emojis liven up the discussion. The enterprise and business class version of the tool offers many other features. It also comes with a free version along with the business and enterprise versions.

#2 Kanban tool - Kanbanize 

The features of the Kanbanize tool are as follows,

• Easy to create and visualize fully customizable boards. Gain a view of the project status and future work at a glance.
• You can customize multiple workflows on the same board. Also, you can build multi-layered boards for the entire team. Also, manage the cross-functional teams in the same board
• Kanban timelines can be visualized in real-time and update the plans with their execution.
• Use management and team workspaces to get visibility and support across multiple teams and projects. Also, get a smoother breakdown and delegation of the work successfully across the organization.
• Establish a traceable work relationship links and track cross-team dependencies and track work items progress.
• Trace the business rules such as "if this then what" analysis with automation policies to synchronize data on different boards.
• A variety of analysis with analytics and data-based predictions can be made on this tool
• Various other apps and restful API can be integrated with this tool
• You can also integrate this tool with the email to make helpdesk and support activities.
• Time tracking which is this Kanban tool's unique feature helps to calculate the total time as well as time taken for each task.

To learn more about the Kanban tools and Kanban system enroll for Kanban certification with StarAgile institute.

#3 Kanban tool – Smartsheet

Smartsheet can be used as another Kanban tool for workflow management which has features such as collaborative file sharing, visual timeline management, and discussions and automated workflow capabilities. Its spreadsheet-like feature is customizable and can be used for diverse projects, core business operations, and programs. Its interface is easier to work with just like any other spreadsheets.

Teams can collaborate, manage, track, and plan the projects with ease and in a few simple steps. It has Gantt Charts, file sharing capabilities, and work automation features that make the Smartsheet a big hit among the project managers. It makes the data-driven information and decision making very easy and speeds up the processes

Some of the key functions of the Smartsheets are automating, reporting, planning, and project tracking. It is used in various industries such as manufacturing, technology, education, retail, and software. It can provide targeted solutions for high-value work and mission-critical work. It is a cloud-based software that makes collaboration among the teams from anywhere and at any time. It reduces the burden of the project managers in automating many tasks in workflow management. Some of the other benefits are that it drives work to scale with real-time visibility on any projects.

StarAgile conducts Kanban training online for the Kanban certification for the professionals

#4 Kanban tool – Kanban Flow

Some of the important features of the Kanbanflow software are as follows,

• Kanbanflow software enables one to customize workflow management by customizable columns to make the preferred way of working.
• You can set the WIP limits which are most important to stabilize the workflow in WIP. This is necessary to prevent the inflation of the WIP process.
• You can create tasks and their sub-tasks and track the progress individually for all the tasks.
• Swimlanes can be set to distinguish the different workflow, business areas, and teams
• You can see various tasks assigned for any individual and filter based on the label, user, color, and due date
• You can customize the repeatable tasks and when these types of tasks are completed it will create the same tasks again.
• You can add relations between the tasks to see the dependencies and relation to any specific tasks.
• You can easily see the completed tasks by date by filtering the completed task by date.
• Just like other software you share documents and files across the team with the help of this tool
• The search feature makes it simple to search tasks among hundreds or thousands of other tasks.
• Collapse feature help to collapse the columns to visualize the board better
• Kanbanflow can be accessed using tablets, desktops, and mobile and you can do the work from anywhere.

Take the Kanban Management Professional certification course at StarAgile to learn and explore more.

#5 Kanban tool – Monday 

Monday workflow management features are as follows,

• This available in various colors for the cards and columns, so that you can track the tasks easily
• As a security feature, it contains two-factor authentication to access the tool
• It is very easy to find the tasks and projects in this tool
• Filtering features and Tags that are labels come in handy when tracking hundreds of work tasks.
• Board permissions can be set with additional security
• You can insert a new row to the below, and insert a column to the right with this tool for easier management
• Messages such as @everyone and @all guests can be mentioned in this tool for easier communication.
• The search feature has additional advantages
• New apps are available for desktops
• You can select the columns with help of a year picker in the date and timeline column.

Avail discounts and other benefits by taking the Kanban course at StarAgile.

Also Read: Kanban Workflow

Final recommendation - Do you want to know more about Kanban software?

You have seen in this article how the top 5 best kanban software help the projects to save time and efforts along with other features and benefits. If you want to explore more, then take up the Kanban training at StarAgile as there are many small details about Kanban software which you may oversee without the help of training.