Introducing KanbanWP 1.0: A Kanban Board for WordPress

KanbanWP 1.0.0 is out. It is the first public release of a free kanban board for WordPress. The plugin works as a WordPress project management plugin, with boards, tasks, collaboration, integrations and AI access in one release. This post lists what is in the release, based on the changelog in the plugin’s readme and the plugin code.

Requirements and license

KanbanWP 1.0.0 needs WordPress 5.8 or later and PHP 7.4 or later, and it is tested up to WordPress 6.8. It is licensed under the GPLv2 or later. There is no license key, paid tier or add-on to buy.

After you activate the plugin, a KanbanWP menu appears in the WordPress admin, and you create boards under KanbanWP, then Boards.

What the 1.0 kanban board for WordPress includes

Boards and tasks

• Unlimited boards with drag-and-drop tasks between stages, and work-in-progress (WIP) limits that flag a full stage.
• Tasks with priorities, due dates, assignees, labels, checklists, attachments and custom fields.
• Subtasks, task dependencies and recurring tasks.
• Swimlanes and saved views, so you can look at the same board in different ways.
• Kanban, List, Table, Calendar, Timeline and My Tasks views.
• Board templates: Editorial, Client, Sales, Bugs and Blank.
• Folders and favorites for organizing boards, plus archive and duplicate.

The tasks documentation and board templates pages cover each feature.

People and collaboration

• Board roles: admin, member, viewer and client.
• Comments with @mentions, plus internal-only tasks and comments that clients never see.
• In-app notifications, daily or weekly email digests, and Slack and Discord webhooks.
• An activity feed on every board.
• A client portal: a [kanbanwp_board] shortcode or block shows a board on a page, and clients see only what you share.
• Optional read-only public links for boards, turned on in Settings.

See permissions and roles and the client portal for setup.

Reports, import and export

• Reports for each board, with totals by stage and priority, overdue tasks, workload per member and cumulative flow. Average cycle time counts only tasks with a completion date, which in version 1.0.0 only imported tasks have.
• CSV export of reports.
• JSON export of a full board.
• Importers for Trello JSON exports, CSV files and KanbanWP JSON exports.

WordPress integrations

• Cards that link to WordPress posts and pages, which suits editorial workflows.
• A WooCommerce integration that creates a task for each new order and each newly published product.
• A kanbanwp_form_submission action that form plugins can call to create tasks.

AI and automation

• AI assistance on your own API key from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google Gemini or an OpenAI-compatible service.
• A monthly token cap per user, a setting for which WordPress roles may use AI, and a log of every AI request.
• Outgoing webhooks for task, comment and board events.
• A REST API and WP-CLI commands for boards, tasks, import, export and AI usage.
• An MCP server with seven tools, so AI agents can list boards, read a board and its tasks, create, update and move tasks, and add comments.

In 1.0.0, the AI features are reached through the REST API. The board itself has no AI buttons yet. Read bring your own AI key and AI agents and MCP for WordPress boards for more.

What is not in KanbanWP 1.0

These features are not part of the 1.0.0 release:

• Time tracking and time estimates.
• Automatic archiving of old tasks.
• License keys, subscriptions or paid add-ons.
• A native mobile app. The board works in a mobile browser.

KanbanWP 1.0.0 also makes no promise of live multi-user updates. If two people have the same board open, do not expect one person’s changes to appear on the other screen in real time.

How to evaluate it in an afternoon

To test the release on your own work:

1. Install the plugin on a staging site or a quiet production site.
2. Create a board from the template whose stages are closest to your work.
3. Add ten real tasks, including one with a checklist and one with a due date.
4. Add one colleague as a member and one person as a viewer or client, and check what each one sees.
5. Set a default WIP limit in Settings and use the board for a week.

A new plugin, not an upgrade

Version 1.0.0 is the first version of a new plugin under new ownership. It is not an update to the older “Kanban for WordPress” plugin and shares none of its code. If you have data in that older plugin, the importing from the previous plugin page explains your options. Trello users can bring boards across with the Trello importer.

Install KanbanWP

The installation guide takes you through setup, and the changelog lists every release. To report a bug or a missing feature, use the contact page.

If you are comparing tools, see KanbanWP vs Trello. For AI on boards, read AI project management.