Project Management

6 Excellent Kanban Cards Templates That Will Raise Your Project Management Game

Jan 10, 2018

Is your project team full of visual learners? The 6 apps on this list have Kanban cards templates to help you view your work in real time.

AvatarImg
Lauren MaffeoAssociate Principal Analyst

How do you prefer to solve problems? Does your way with words lead you to compose emails to your colleagues? Perhaps numbers jog your mind instead, and spreadsheets are thus your thing. But if you're like 65 percent of the population, you learn the best when you're visually engaged. That's a key reason why Kanban cards templates play such a crucial role on project teams.

What is Kanban?

Kanban is an Agile project management method. It was born on the floor of Toyota's factory in 1953 as a way to help team members visualize their work. Within modern project management, Kanban is a framework to help project teams leave tasks at different stages until each one's needed, rather than just shipping complete projects.

Think of Kanban as the Scrum method's more laid-back sister: It doesn't necessarily have assigned roles or set sprint times. Instead, each project team member focuses on their tasks at hand. Then, those tasks are displayed in a visual manner to show each team member how their work fits into the big picture.

On the spectrum of project management software, tools that have Kanban cards templates are a natural choice. Exact features will vary by tool and pricing plan. That said, look for the following features within apps that you consider.

  • Kanban boards with swim lanesto visualize aspects of each project;

  • Analytics to help project leads view team workflows and remove bottlenecks;

  • Drag-and-drop options to easily move cards around boards as needed;

  • Time tracking to let project team members see how resources are being used;

  • Mobile apps for iOS and Android so team members can work from anywhere.

To get your search started, each app on the list below has a Kanban cards template that's worth a look. To earn a spot on this list, each app had to earn an average rating of four stars or higher from GetApp reviewers.

Kanbanchi

Kanbanchi is a project management app that integrates with G Suite. Once you sign into your corporate G Suite account, you can deploy Kanbanchi across your project team from the G Suite Marketplace.

The "Timing" tab contains a time tracker that lets you see how much time team members spend on certain tasks. If your project team works with Gantt charts, Kanbanchi provides them so you can plan projects and monitor progress. And GetApp users note that Kanbanchi is beloved for boosting team transparency.

Pricing: Kanbanchi's standard plan costs $7:95 per user per month, but is free for personal and educational use. Those interested in an Enterprise plan can request a demo here.

Kanban Tool

Kanban Tool gets love from GetApp users who (among other use cases) want to use Agile on remote project teams. The app's design, time tracking, and customer service also earn high praise.

You can invite users to build project teams; create time reports by project, task, or user; use breakdown charts to view project status; and use horizontal swim lanes to track several projects on one board. Despite the ability to track several projects, you can also limit work in progress to prevent overload.

Pricing: Three plans ranging from free to $9 per user per month.

LeanKit

LeanKit helps Kanban users visualize each workflow step and process. Each work item has its own card, whether you drag it into a swim lane or put it in the backlog. GetApp users say that LeanKit makes this easy due to how customizable it is.

LeanKit's strategic and reporting features set it apart from competitors. The tool's tiered board approach lets users view initiatives and work details. You can also use task board to view subtasks, and each card has its own audit trail to let you see its history. And LeanKit's ability to track metric like flow and quality lets you assess processes to learn what's not working.

Pricing: Three plans ranging from $19 per user per month to custom.

Projectplace

Projectplace has more than one million users working on over 200,700 projects at the time of writing. If that's not a strong enough endorsement, GetApp readers love its integrations with popular apps and its ease of use.

The documents feature within Projectplace lets users upload attachments from Box, Dropbox, and Google Drive. Native apps for Android and iOS let users access these boards from their smartphones and tablets. Projectplace also goes out of its way to encourage conversations. Project team members have their dialogues stored alongside work.

Pricing: $29.00 per user per month when billed annually.

Targetprocess

Targetprocess lets you view details no matter where you are on the project hierarchy. The tool's project roadmaps let track activities over time. You can also use its boards and lists to plan and track progress. Along with its flexibility, GetApp users rave about its ease of use and constant improvements.

The custom reports in Targetprocess will keep stakeholders happy. Whether they want to see closed request trends or effort vs. cycle time, you can customize any view within the tool. And its flexibility means that you can customize card types and content, swimlanes, default sorting, and more across various boards.

Pricing: Three plans ranging from free to custom pricing for enterprises.

Zenkit

Zenkit gets high marks from GetApp readers for building Kanban boards that blend customizability with an easy interface. As one example, you can customize notifications to avoid information overload. Among other features, you can also turn any project into a to-do list, save frequent filters to create custom views, and group your Kanban board by any label in lists and rows.

Task assignments, @mentions, file sharing, and an integration with Zapier are additional ways to keep in touch with your team. Native apps for iOS and Android devices allow colleagues to work from wherever they are. Even if you're adrift from the Internet, you can work offline within Zenkit.

Pricing: Four plans ranging from free to custom pricing for enterprises.

Want to see more apps with Kanban cards templates?

Visit GetApp's visual project management software directory

avatar
About the author

Lauren Maffeo

Associate Principal Analyst