The Vibe Kanban alternative with a company behind it.

Vibe Kanban defined the kanban-board-for-coding-agents category before Bloop AI shut it down in April 2026. AIDEN carries the same idea forward, each agent task is a card on a board, and adds the things Vibe Kanban never got to: an enforced spec gate, team mode, and a business model that keeps the lights on.

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Quick answer

Vibe Kanban, built by Bloop AI, was the category-defining kanban board for coding agents: launched in June 2025, its Show HN was one of the biggest threads in the niche, and thousands of engineers ran it daily. On April 10, 2026, Bloop announced it was shutting down, in their words, the vast majority were free users and they "couldn't find a business model that we could get excited about." The code lives on as community-maintained open source (Apache 2.0, ~26k GitHub stars), but the cloud services are gone and there's no company behind it. AIDEN is the closest maintained equivalent: a desktop kanban board where each agent task is a card, running your own Claude Code and Codex CLIs on parallel git worktrees, with an enforced spec approval gate, one-click PRs, and, unlike Vibe Kanban, paid tiers that mean it doesn't depend on goodwill to keep existing.

Vibe Kanban status: Shutdown announced by Bloop AI on April 10, 2026; now community-maintained open source (Apache 2.0)
Cloud services: Switched off 30 days after the announcement; local workspaces still work; subscriptions refunded
Stated reason: Mostly free users, no business model Bloop could get excited about
AIDEN in one line: Maintained desktop kanban board that runs your Claude Code and Codex agents on parallel git worktrees, behind a spec approval gate
Platforms: macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon and Intel); Windows/Linux waitlist
AIDEN pricing: Free for 1 project, Solo $19/mo, $169 lifetime, Team $10/seat/mo (min 3)

Stick with Vibe Kanban when

You want fully open-source tooling, the community fork stays Apache 2.0 and free forever.
Local-only solo use is all you need, local workspaces keep working; only the cloud features died.
Your budget is zero and a paid tier is a non-starter.
You're comfortable maintaining your own tooling and living with community-paced fixes.

Switch to AIDEN when

You want the same board-of-agent-cards workflow, but from an actively developed product with a roadmap and support.
You were burned by the shutdown and want a tool whose business model (Free, Solo, Lifetime, Team tiers) is the reason it won't repeat Vibe Kanban's ending.
You want an enforced spec approval gate before any agent writes code, Vibe Kanban never had one.
You lost Vibe Kanban's cloud team features and want shared boards and review queues back.
You want extras Vibe Kanban didn't ship: an embedded browser, terminal, and VS Code panel, plus voice control.

Vibe Kanban vs AIDEN, side by side

Across 11 features · AIDEN 8 · Vibe Kanban 2

Feature	Vibe Kanban	AIDEN
Actively maintained by a company	Community-only since Apr 2026	Yes
Business model	None, the stated reason it shut down	Yes, free tier + paid plans
Kanban board for coding agents	Yes	Yes
Enforced spec approval gate	No	Yes
Git worktree per story	Yes, worktree-based	Yes
Mix Claude Code + Codex agents	Yes, multiple agents supported	Yes, on one board
Team mode / shared boards	Shut down with cloud services	Yes
Local-first, BYOK	Yes	Yes
One-click pull requests	Basic	Yes
Voice control	No	Yes
Pricing	Free, open source	Free, Solo $19/mo or $169 lifetime, Team $10/seat/mo (min 3)

Switching from Vibe Kanban?

Download AIDEN free and bring your existing Claude Code or Codex setup. Runs on macOS in minutes, no credit card required.

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A switcher's take

If you ran Vibe Kanban daily, the shutdown post stung, it was a genuinely good tool, and Bloop was honest about why it ended: everyone used it, almost nobody paid. I evaluated the community fork first; it works, locally, but there's no roadmap, no team features, and every fix arrives at community pace. AIDEN is the same core idea, a board where each agent task is a card on its own worktree, with the two things I actually wanted next: an enforced spec gate before agents code, and a company charging money so I'm not betting my workflow on goodwill twice.

Vibe Kanban vs AIDEN, FAQ

What happened to Vibe Kanban?

Bloop AI announced the shutdown on April 10, 2026 (vibekanban.com/blog/shutdown). Their stated reason: thousands of engineers used it daily, but the vast majority were free users and they "couldn't find a business model that we could get excited about." Remote/cloud services, kanban issues, comments, projects, orgs, were switched off 30 days after the announcement, subscriptions were refunded, and the product handed off to the community as Apache 2.0 open source.

Is Vibe Kanban still usable?

Yes, with limits. The code is community-maintained open source (Apache 2.0, github.com/BloopAI/vibe-kanban, ~26k stars), and local workspaces keep working. What's gone: the cloud services (issues, comments, projects, orgs), any roadmap commitments, and company-backed support, fixes now arrive at whatever pace the community sets.

What's the best Vibe Kanban alternative?

It honestly depends on what you valued. Nimbalyst is a free, MIT-licensed, cross-platform successor of Crystal. Conductor is a free Mac app ($22M raised, Apple-Silicon-only). Claude Squad is an open-source tmux TUI. Sculptor is open source with Docker-isolated agents. AIDEN's case: it's the same kanban-of-agent-cards idea as an actively developed commercial product, with an enforced spec gate, mixed Claude Code + Codex agents, team mode, and one-click PRs, on macOS 12+ (Apple Silicon and Intel).

Does AIDEN import Vibe Kanban boards?

There's no direct importer today. Migration is manual, but in practice quick: stories are short (a title and a spec prompt), so recreating an active board in AIDEN typically takes minutes, and finished cards usually don't need to move, their record lives in your git history and PRs either way.

Is AIDEN open source like Vibe Kanban?

No. AIDEN is a commercial desktop app with a free tier, which is a deliberate answer to how Vibe Kanban ended. The code that matters, your code, stays local: AIDEN runs your own Claude Code and Codex CLIs, keys stay in ~/.claude and ~/.codex, and your source never leaves your machine.

How does AIDEN's pricing compare to Vibe Kanban?

Vibe Kanban was free, and free is why it's gone. AIDEN is Free for 1 project, Solo $19/mo, a one-time $169 lifetime, or Team at $10/seat/mo (min 3). Model usage flows through the Anthropic/OpenAI plans you already have, AIDEN doesn't resell inference, it charges for a workspace that can afford to keep existing.

Keep reading

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Stop chatting. Start shipping.

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