Key Points of Comparison
To help you understand how powerful Kanban Zone is and why it’s a better Trello alternative for your organization, we offer you the opportunity to compare the two platforms from three key management angles: visualization features, collaboration features, and performance metrics
Visualization Features |  |  |
| Kanban Columns |  |  |
| Kanban Swimlanes |  |  |
| Customizable Kanban Cards |  |  |
| Project List View |  |  |
| Project Summary View |  |  |
| Process Policies |  |  |
| Individual User Dashboard |  |  |
| Project/Portfolio Links |  |  |
| Project/Portfolio Dependencies |  |  |
| Industry Templates |  |  |
Collaboration Features |  |  |
| Work in Progress Limits |  |  |
| Mirror Tickets |  |  |
| File Attachment |  |  |
| Ticket Checklists |  |  |
| Access Controls/Permissions |  |  |
| Alerts/Notifications |  |  |
| Ticket Comments |  |  |
Process Metrics |  |  |
| Abandoned Effort |  |  |
| Work Allocation |  |  |
| Arrival Rate |  |  |
| Created VS Done |  |  |
| Cumulative Flow Diagram |  |  |
| Cycle Time |  |  |
| Flow Efficiency |  |  |
Pricing |  |  |
| Monthly Plans | $5 – $15 | $5 – $17.50 |
Trello alternative in 3 out of the 3 key points of comparison.
Kanban Zone is a better Trello alternative for any organization wanting to achieve all the benefits of visual management. It is an especially great choice for those applying Lean or Agile management to their work. Here are 4 reasons why you should make the switch.
4 Reasons for Switching from Trello to Kanban Zone
1. Fully Customizable Boards
Setting up a simple board with columns is easy in both Trello and Kanban Zone, but when it comes to customizing a board to create the ideal flow of work for your teams, Kanban Zone is a better Trello alternative. It is equipped with a far more powerful board editor capable of visualizing even the most complex workflows and value streams. Kanban Zone also provides an extensive list of board templates to help you create the perfect process visualization without starting from scratch. So when it comes to customizing your boards while comparing between Trello vs. Kanban Zone, you can gain more flexibility with the latter.
In the video above, you can see how Kanban Zone can create any board you can imagine. As the administrator of a paid plan user, you can also leverage our Kanban coaches to help you set up a single board or multiple connected boards to create your Portfolio Kanban solution.
2. WIP Limits
Work-in-progress (WIP) limits are an integral part of the Kanban method and one of the best tools for improving productivity. With their help, you can focus on finishing work that has already been started before initiating a new one. Regarding strictly implementing WIP limits, Kanban Zone is a better Trello alternative.
The latter doesn’t have a WIP limits functionality, which deprives you of the ability to take advantage of this powerful technique. Although it’s optional in Kanban Zone to assign a WIP limit in the columns, we highly recommend it when creating a Kanban board because WIP limits facilitate a better flow of cards on the board. The result is increased efficiency because the board helps the users respect the WIP limits and prevents too many cards simultaneously.
To learn more about WIP limits and, more precisely, the importance of not multi-tasking, read the article – Why Multitasking Doesn’t Work – And How Kanban Can Help.
3. Explicit Agreements
This Kanban concept is very helpful to include on a board if you want to improve how your team works continuously. For each column that holds cards in Kanban Zone, you can describe what it means to enter/exit a column. These are called explicit agreements. And although optional in Kanban Zone, they are built into our board editor to ensure it’s part of the board. Some of our board templates include explicit agreements so that you can inherit this great habit when building new boards. Unfortunately, Trello doesn’t offer this functionality.
4. Powerful Metrics
Kanban started in manufacturing to improve many aspects, including time to market and quality. How can you improve something if you don’t measure it? In Kanban, metrics like Throughput and Cycle Time provide great insight into your process. As you make changes to your process or members join and leave your team, you should have a way to track the impact of these changes. These metrics are included in Kanban Zone, and various reports are available to see and analyze this data. Regarding the availability of the metrics between Trello vs. Kanban Zone, Trello can’t produce these metrics because anyone can change the board, and there are no rules in these columns to capture this data. In Kanban Zone, we promote the role of a board administrator who we help to master Kanban so that they build the most effective boards and can track these metrics to keep improving their boards.
These are only a few of the reasons why we built Kanban Zone, and we sincerely believe that Kanban Zone is a better solution for improving the way you achieve your goals. Although Kanban Zone can create simple boards also to behave as to-do lists or cool boards to see cards, we also offer the ability to build complex boards and all the mechanisms to learn from the cards that flow on these boards.
Don’t Take Our Word for It
Try Kanban Zone for yourself by signing up for your Free Trial. Kanban Zone is not only ideal for helping you improve your productivity, but it also saves you money, which makes it a fantastic Trello alternative.
To learn more about the advantages of using a Kanban board instead of just a to-do list board, read Doing, Being and Flowing in Kanban (5P/3M).
We are fanatical about improving how to work and achieving goals faster with higher quality. By its name, Kanban Zone will always remain true to Kanban and continue to provide innovative ways to help people collaborate and grow as a team.
