Kanboard
Kanboard is a free and open source Kanban project management software that focuses on simplicity and the Kanban methodology. Written in PHP and designed to be self-hosted, it provides a visual task board where you can organise work by columns, swimlanes, and priorities without the complexity of heavyweight project management suites. It is GTD-compliant and can run on a minimal server with SQLite, MySQL, or PostgreSQL, making it a popular choice for individuals and small teams that want full control over their data.
Key Features
- Visual Kanban boards — Drag-and-drop task cards across columns with configurable board layouts, swimlanes, and task colours.
- Task management — Subtasks, attachments, comments, time tracking, and recurring tasks keep work organised in one place.
- GTD workflow support — Actions such as “move to next column” and due-date handling fit Getting Things Done-style productivity methods.
- Multiple projects — Unlimited projects with per-project board settings, user roles, and permissions.
- Plugin ecosystem — Extend functionality with plugins for authentication (LDAP, GitHub, Google), integrations, and reporting.
- REST API and automation — Automate task creation, webhooks, and external integrations via the built-in API.
- Lightweight and self-hosted — Runs on a basic Linux server with PHP and SQLite, with a Docker image available.
- i18n support — Translated into 30+ languages with a responsive, keyboard-friendly interface.
Why Use Kanboard?
Kanboard is ideal if you want a focused, no-frills Kanban tool you can host yourself without vendor lock-in. Its minimal resource footprint means it runs comfortably on small hardware, while the plugin system and API let you tailor it to your workflow. It is a great middle ground between a simple to-do list and a heavyweight project management platform.
Use Cases
- Personal task boards for GTD-style productivity
- Small team project tracking with swimlanes for parallel workstreams
- Self-hosted kanban on a Raspberry Pi or low-end VPS
- Automated workflow pipelines via the REST API and webhooks
Platform
Web-based · Linux · macOS · Windows · Docker
Licence
MIT License