KanbanTab - Turn your New Tab into a fast & private Kanban board

Hi again 👋 This is my second launch of KanbanTab, 5 years later.

In 2020, I was stuck on a mountain in Malaysia during the Covid lockdown. My internet was incredibly unreliable, and I was frustrated waiting for heavy project management tools like Trello to load every time I opened a new tab to check my tasks. I wanted something that felt instant, worked offline, and didn’t require a 10-second loading screen.

While the original version worked well for desktop, I realized that for a productivity tool to be truly effective, it needed to be everywhere, without compromising on the user's privacy.

So, for this second launch, my approach evolved from "just a simple extension" to a "privacy-first ecosystem." The two biggest hurdles I wanted to solve were Mobile Sync and Data Security.

🔐 End-to-End Encryption: Most "syncing" apps have access to your data. I didn't want that. I implemented client-side AES-256 encryption, meaning your tasks are encrypted before they even hit my server. Even I can't read them.

⚡ Speed: To keep it lightweight and instant, I stayed away from heavy frameworks. It's built with Vanilla JS, IndexedDB, and WebWorkers. It loads exactly as fast as your browser can open a tab.

📱 Cross-Platform: I’ve finally brought it to mobile (Android so far) via Capacitor, so your local-first board stays in sync in real-time via WebSockets.

🚫 Zero Friction: I still believe in the "no-signup" experience. You can try the full app immediately without handing over an email address.


I’ve been using KanbanTab daily myself, and we currently have a steady user base of about 80 daily active users. My biggest challenge now is staying minimal while still being powerful. What is the one 'must-have' feature that would make you switch your daily workflow over to a New Tab board like KanbanTab?

I'll be here all day to answer questions about the tech stack, the encryption, or my time on that mountain in Malaysia! 🤠

Great, I'd suggest being able to set a nice background as I miss that when I open a new tab. I would also suggest a setting where you have at most 1 Kanban Tab, otherwise I get duplicate tabs of the same board each time.