Kan Open-Source Kanban for Teams Boosts Agile Project Management Efficiency

Overview

If you’ve grown frustrated watching Trello become slower, pricier, and honestly, a bit bloated since Atlassian took over, Kan was built specifically for people like you.

Kan is an open-source kanban board app that gives your team clean, intuitive visual task management—no vendor lock-in, no unpredictable pricing.

You get unlimited boards, lists, and cards. Drag and drop cards, labels, filters, and real-time collaboration are all baked in.

The Trello import feature lets you migrate your existing boards, so you don’t have to start over.

Whether you’re running scrum sprints, tracking an activity log, or just trying to organize tasks across a growing team, Kan keeps things straightforward.

For teams that want full data ownership and data sovereignty, Kan lets you self-host using Docker Compose.

The tech stack’s modern and transparent: Next.js, tRPC, Drizzle ORM, Better Auth, Tailwind CSS, and React Email.

You can connect a PostgreSQL database. If you want rate limiting, just add Redis. OIDC authentication? That’s configurable too.

Local development is well-documented, so it’s approachable whether you’re evaluating it solo or deploying for a bigger group.

Kan stands out from alternatives like WeKan, Kanboard, Focalboard, and Taiga by focusing on a cleaner interface and an easy learning curve.

The community edition is free, which is a breath of fresh air for small teams watching their budgets.

Workspace members can collaborate in real-time. The tool supports comments and board templates to keep your workflow consistent.

AI-powered task management and workflow automation are on the roadmap, so Kan’s definitely not standing still.

Workspace Tiers Expanded: Multiple Workspaces Now Available

Multiple workspaces just went live on Tiers 2 and 3. This was one of the most-requested features from the community.

Tier 2 gives you two workspaces, and Tier 3 supports four, both at no extra cost.

Creating a new workspace is simple. Once you do, it automatically matches your current tier—no manual setup needed.

If demand grows for even more workspaces, the team is considering an additional tier to support it. Makes sense, right?

A Note From the Founder

Henry, based in London, United Kingdom, created Kan after he got frustrated with Trello after its acquisition. He just wanted a kanban tool that stayed simple, worked when he needed it, and didn’t mess around with the pricing every few months.

What began as a side project now has tens of thousands of people using it. Henry didn’t want to over-engineer another project management tool.

He aimed to make something that respects your time, your workflow, and your data privacy. That mindset still guides every product decision, even now.