Kaniban
For freelancers
A kanban board for freelance work.
Freelance work is several clients' priorities arriving on one desk. A board keeps them in one place. A timer on each card keeps the hours honest. And none of it is stored on someone else's server, which your clients would be glad to know.
One way to set it up
- Columns for the shape of the week. Inbox, This week, Doing, Waiting on client, Done is a common shape. The board comes with three; add one with
/ncl:Waiting on clientin the command deck. - A tag per client, so a glance at the board says whose work is where. Or a workspace per client, two on the free tier, five on Supporter, as many as you like on Plus: each gets its own columns and its own ticket prefix, so a card is
ACME-014and you can quote that code in an email or on an invoice. - A due date on anything with a deadline. Dated cards appear on the calendar on their own, and on the timeline as bars across the weeks.
- A limit on Doing. On Plus, a column can carry a limit, and the board marks it when it is over. That is usually the moment worth noticing.
Hours you can stand behind
Start the timer on the card when you start the work, and stop it when you stop. Each run is kept as a session on the card, listed with the others and totalled. The number on an invoice then has a record behind it, card by card, session by session. The time tracking page has the details, including the part where the timer keeps counting with the tab closed.
The summary view, on Supporter and above, adds it up: a heatmap of hours, the last thirty days, and per board or across all of them. Plus adds effort per card, so you can see which client's small jobs were not small.
The week at a glance
The calendar shows the month with every dated card on its day. Drag one to another day to reschedule it. The timeline, on Supporter and above, shows the same dates as bars, so two deadlines landing in the same week are visible a month out rather than the night before. The summary's due-date runway says how much room is left.
Your clients' work stays with you
Card titles and notes often say what a client is building before they have announced it. In Kaniban, none of that is uploaded. The board lives in your browser or in the desktop app, on your machine, and the local-first page lists the few things that do go over the network, none of them a card. When a project closes, export the board as a file for your records. On Plus, archive finished cards so they leave the board without leaving your history.
What it costs
The free tier runs this whole setup: board, calendar, tags, due dates, timers, two workspaces, export. Supporter, from $3 for 30 days, removes the ads and adds the timeline, the summary and five workspaces. Plus is $10 once and adds unlimited workspaces, archive, column limits, templates for the card you keep rewriting, and automatic backup to a folder you choose.
Questions
Can I invoice from Kaniban?
No. Kaniban records the hours; it does not bill them. The summary shows totals on screen and the export file holds every session as JSON, which is enough to fill an invoice from, but there is no invoice button.
Can I share a board with a client?
There is no client view and no sharing. You can export a copy and send the file, or send a screenshot. The board is yours alone, on purpose.
One board for everything, or one per client?
Start with one board and a tag per client; it keeps the whole week in one look. Move a client to its own workspace when their work has its own rhythm, its own columns, or enough cards to crowd the others out. The summary can still show all boards together.
Does it handle recurring work?
Not automatically. On any tier you can duplicate a card, which resets its steps and clears its timer. On Plus you can save a card as a template, with its steps and tags, and start the next one already filled in. Nothing recurs on its own; you make the next one when it is time.
There is nothing to sign up for.
Open it, name a board, and start. If you do not like it, close the tab. You have not given anyone anything.