A kanban board where cards stay where you put them.
G Kanban is a spatial kanban board built on a graph-paper grid. Drop a card anywhere and it stays. Where you put it means something. Local-first and free to start, with no account needed.
What is a spatial kanban board?
A spatial kanban board lets you place cards at any position on a grid, instead of forcing every card into one stacked list under each column. In a traditional kanban board, cards auto-stack from the top and their order is the only signal. On a spatial board, the position itself carries meaning: which lane a card sits in, how far along it is, which cards sit beside it, and where you deliberately left a gap. G Kanban draws this as a graph-paper grid, so cards snap to the grid and hold their spot like sticky notes on a wall.
The Excel graph-paper idea, done right
If you have worked with a Japanese team, you have probably seen Excel方眼紙 (Excel houganshi, literally "Excel graph paper"). It is a whole way of working: you set every spreadsheet cell to a small square until the sheet becomes graph paper, then lay out plans, forms, and schedules by typing into exact cells. People reach for it because a grid gives you something an ordinary document cannot: total spatial control. Everything snaps into place, and where you put a thing means something.
The catch is that it is still a spreadsheet, so it fights you at every step. G Kanban keeps the good half of that idea and throws away the fight. You get a real grid where cards stay exactly where you drop them, built for planning instead of for accounting.
Features
Cards stay where you put them
Drop a card anywhere in a column and it holds that position. Group related work side by side, and leave gaps where the plan is still open.
Priority lanes
Lanes across the top of each column let you rank work by position, not just by the order you added it.
Flavors and labels
Color-coded flavor badges and text labels make a whole board scannable at a glance, so you see what matters without opening a single card.
Split view, two boards at once
Run two boards stacked, work above and life below, without losing either one.
Local-first and offline
Your boards live in your browser and keep working with no connection. No account needed to start.
Private by default, EU compliant
Nothing leaves your device until you choose to sign in, and optional cloud sync is hosted in the EU.
Sync across devices Pro
Sign in to back up your boards and pick up where you left off on any computer.
AI and MCP, if you want it Planned
An optional read-only MCP connection is coming soon so an AI assistant can see your board, with full control planned after. Off unless you turn it on.
How G Kanban compares
| G Kanban | Traditional kanban (Trello, etc.) | Notion boards | Excel方眼紙 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Card placement | Anywhere on a grid | Auto-stacked list | Auto-stacked list | Any cell |
| Position carries meaning | Yes | No | No | Yes |
| Priority lanes in a column | Yes | No | No | Manual |
| Two boards at once | Yes (split view) | One at a time | One at a time | Many sheets |
| Works offline | Yes | Limited | No | Yes |
| Account required to start | No | Yes | Yes | No |
| Built for planning, not accounting | Yes | Yes | Yes | No |
| Data location | Your browser or EU cloud | US cloud | US cloud | Your file |
Who it is for
- Personal planning. Keep a work board and a life board open at the same time in split view, and lay out loose plans visually before they firm up.
- Solo makers and developers. Position carries meaning, so a glance at the grid tells you what is in flight, what is blocked, and what is still open.
- Anyone who liked the grid but not the spreadsheet. If you have ever laid out a plan in Excel方眼紙, this is that control without the fight.
Privacy and your data
G Kanban is local-first, so by default your boards live in this browser and never leave your device. You can start, plan, and export without ever creating an account. If you choose to sign in for backup and sync, your data is stored on EU-based infrastructure, chosen deliberately for its strong data-protection laws. There are no third-party trackers or ad cookies. See the Security and Privacy pages for the full detail.
Frequently asked questions
What is G Kanban?
G Kanban is a free, local-first spatial kanban board where cards stay wherever you place them on a graph-paper grid, instead of auto-stacking into a list.
How is G Kanban different from Trello?
Trello stacks every card into one list per column. G Kanban lets you position cards anywhere on a grid, add priority lanes inside a column, and open two boards at once, and it works offline with no account.
Is G Kanban like Excel方眼紙?
It takes the best part of Excel graph paper, a grid where everything snaps into place and position means something, and rebuilds it as a real planning board without the spreadsheet getting in the way.
Can I use a kanban board without creating an account?
Yes. G Kanban runs entirely in your browser with no sign-up, and your boards are saved locally on your device.
Is G Kanban free?
Yes, the core board is free. An optional Pro plan adds cloud backup and sync across devices.
Where is my data stored?
By default your boards stay in your browser and never leave your device. If you turn on sync, data is stored on EU-based infrastructure.
Does G Kanban work offline?
Yes. Because it is local-first, the board works with no internet connection.
What does "cards stay where you put them" mean?
Instead of snapping cards to the top of a list, G Kanban keeps each card at the exact grid position where you drop it, so the layout itself becomes a planning tool.
Does G Kanban use AI?
No AI touches your board unless you turn it on. G Kanban works fully without any AI, so if you would rather keep AI out of your planning, you can, and nothing changes. AI features are being added as an optional layer you can enable or ignore.
Can I connect G Kanban to an AI assistant or MCP?
MCP (Model Context Protocol) support is coming soon. It starts with read-only access, so an AI assistant like Claude can see your board without changing anything, and full read-and-write control is planned shortly after. It is opt-in: you decide whether to connect an assistant at all.
