# Kanso FAQ: what it is, who it is for, price, teams | Kanso > Questions about Kanso. What Kanso is, who it is for, how it works for teams of every size, what it costs and how it compares, answered in plain words. Web page: https://kansohq.app/faq Updated: 5 October 2026 ## About Kanso ### What is Kanso? Kanso is a workspace for software teams: docs, boards, releases, a calendar, chat and an inbox in one place, so the plan, the work and the talk stay together. ### Who is Kanso for? Anyone building a software product, alone or with a team of any size. Pages, docs, boards and timelines also work for most other kinds of project. ### What can I do in Kanso? Write specs and docs, track tasks on boards, tables, timelines and calendars, plan a release on one page, plan your week on a calendar, talk in chat and keep up with mentions in an inbox. ### What does Kanso mean? Kanso (簡素) is the Japanese word for simplicity: nothing on the page that does not earn its place. ### What is Kanso’s website? kansohq.app is Kanso’s only website. Other products and companies share the name Kanso; if the address is not kansohq.app, it is not this Kanso. ### Is Kanso free? There is a Free plan and it does not expire. No card is needed to start. Pro is $10 a month, Team is $20 a member a month billed yearly, and Enterprise is quoted for an organization. ## Teams ### Can large teams use Kanso? Yes. The Team plan has unlimited members in one workspace, with roles and permissions, and release pages with a section for each team. Enterprise is quoted for an organization. Kanso is a young product, so it is wise to start with one team and one real release. ### Is Kanso only for small teams? No. It works for a solo builder, a small team, a mid-size team and a large group. Free and Pro are for your own projects, Team is for the people you ship with and Enterprise is for organizations. ### Can I use Kanso on my own? Yes. The Free plan is for your own projects, with unlimited projects and pages, docs, task boards and timelines. ### How many members can a workspace have? The Team plan has unlimited members in one workspace, priced per member. ### What roles does Kanso have? Owner, admin, member and guest. Owners run the workspace, admins manage people and settings, members edit pages, boards and chat, and guests can look but cannot edit. ### Can I share a page with someone who has no account? Yes. A read-only share link opens a page without an account. ### Can I control who sees a page? Yes. On Pro and above you can control who can see each page. ## Features ### What is a release page in Kanso? A release page gathers the work behind one ship date into sections, with an owner, a due date and a status on every line, and filters for what is blocked or overdue. Each line can link to the real task on a board. ### What views do Kanso boards have? The same cards open as a board, table, list, timeline, calendar or queue, and you can save views that are filtered, sorted and grouped. ### What are Must, Should and Could? They are the three priorities on a card, based on the MoSCoW method, so the order of work can be read at a glance. ### Does Kanso have acceptance criteria? Yes. Each card has a checklist of acceptance criteria and shows how many are met. ### Does Kanso have team chat? Yes. Channels and direct messages that link to tasks, pages and releases, with replies, reactions and mentions. A pasted task shows its current status. ### What is the Kanso inbox? One list for mentions, messages and work assigned to you, one line each, which you can sort into all, mentions, messages and assigned. ### Does Kanso have a calendar? Yes. Due dates land on the calendar by themselves, and your open tasks sit beside the week, in day, week or month view. ### Does Kanso have templates? Yes. Built-in templates cover a product spec, feature spec, bug report, sprint plan, technical design, decision record, meeting notes, launch checklist, retrospective, incident postmortem, test plan and release notes. Pro lets you save your own. ### Does Kanso have version history? Yes. Version history on every page is part of Pro and the plans above it. ### Can I back up my workspace? Yes. You can download and restore a full workspace backup, including projects, release pages, templates and share links. ### Does Kanso have sprints? No. Kanso has no sprint objects. Teams that plan in sprints use a page and a board for the period, and the sprint plan template helps. ### Does Kanso have AI features? No. Kanso does not have built-in AI today. ### Does Kanso integrate with GitHub? No. Kanso does not have a GitHub integration today. ## Pricing ### How much does Kanso cost? Free is $0 and does not expire. Pro is $10 a month billed yearly ($12 month to month). Team is $20 a member a month billed yearly ($24 month to month). Enterprise is quoted for an organization. ### What is in the Pro plan? Everything in Free, plus version history on every page, reusable page templates, release pages and control over who can see each page. ### What is in the Team plan? Everything in Pro, plus unlimited members in one workspace, chat, inbox and mentions, roles and permissions, and work assigned across every board. ### What does Enterprise include? Enterprise is quoted for your organization, on annual terms. The pricing page lists what it adds to Team. ### Do I need a credit card to start? No. Signing up creates the workspace straight away, and the Free plan never asks for one. ### Can I pay monthly instead of yearly? Yes. The prices above are the annual rate, which works out at ten months instead of twelve. Month to month, Pro is $12 and Team is $24 per member. ## Other tools ### What is a good Notion alternative for software teams? Kanso keeps docs and boards in one workspace like Notion, and adds a release page for every ship date and team chat built in. Notion has built-in AI, which Kanso does not. ### What is a good Jira alternative? Kanso suits teams that want specs, boards, release pages and chat in one workspace. Jira has sprints, built-in AI and a large integration marketplace, which Kanso does not. ### What is a good Trello alternative with docs? Kanso adds docs, release pages and team chat to boards, and its Free plan has unlimited projects and pages, where Trello’s Free plan allows up to 10 boards per Workspace. ### How is Kanso different from Linear? Both are made for software teams. Kanso also has team chat and a free plan with no limit on tasks. Linear has sprints (cycles), built-in AI and a GitHub integration. ### How is Kanso different from Asana? Both have boards, calendars and timelines. Asana has reporting dashboards, goals and built-in AI, which Kanso does not. ### How is Kanso different from ClickUp? Both have docs, kanban boards, a calendar and team chat. ClickUp also has sprints and built-in AI, and Kanso has a release page for every ship date. ### How is Kanso different from Basecamp? Both have boards, docs, a calendar and team chat. Basecamp charges flat prices with no per-user fees, while Kanso Team is priced per member and has release pages and a task database with table, list, timeline and calendar views. ### How is Kanso different from GitHub Projects? GitHub Projects plans issues and pull requests beside the code, with table, board and roadmap views. Kanso is a separate workspace with docs, release pages, chat and a calendar, and it does not link to code. [Kanso home, with plans and prices](https://kansohq.app/index.md)