Our verdict
Kanboard and Kan are both kanban tools for restaurants. On our independent rubric, Kanboard scores 4.0/5 versus 3.8/5 for Kan. Choose Kanboard if you're Teams that want a no-frills, fast Kanban board on a tiny server or Self-hosters who value MIT licensing and minimal dependencies; choose Kan if you're Teams replacing Trello with a self-hosted board they fully own or Small teams wanting a modern UI with minimal server admin.
Side-by-side comparison
| Metric | Kanboard | Kan |
|---|---|---|
| Editorial score | 4.0/5 | 3.8/5 |
| G2 rating | — | — |
| Capterra rating | — | — |
| Starting price | Free (self-hosted, MIT license) | Free (self-hosted, AGPL-3.0) |
| Free tier | ||
| Free trial | ||
| Integrations | 6 · LDAP / Active Directory, GitLab, Slack… | 2 · Trello (board import), MCP clients (Claude Desktop, GitHub Copilot, Cursor)… |
| Best for | Teams that want a no-frills, fast Kanban board on a tiny server, Self-hosters who value MIT licensing and minimal dependencies, Workflows that benefit from strict WIP limits and automation | Teams replacing Trello with a self-hosted board they fully own, Small teams wanting a modern UI with minimal server admin, AI-forward teams that want an MCP server driving their kanban |
| Category | kanban | kanban |
| Founded | 2014 | — |
| HQ | — | — |
A teal check marks the stronger option on each measurable row. Ratings are sourced from G2/Capterra with attribution on each listing.
Kanboard
- Extremely lightweight and easy to self-host (PHP + SQLite)
- Permissive MIT license with no paid tiers
- WIP limits and rule-based automation built in
- Plugin system and JSON-RPC API for extension
- No Gantt charts, backlogs, or sprint tooling
- Minimalist UI may feel too bare for some teams
- Release cadence is slow (v1.2.42, Nov 2024)
Kan
- Modern, fast UI closest to Trello among self-hosted boards
- Simple Docker Compose deployment with automatic migrations
- One-click Trello import eases migration
- MCP server enables AI-assistant workflows
- Young project with a small ecosystem
- Kanban-only — no Gantt, time tracking, or reporting
- Deeper third-party integrations still on the roadmap
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