FeatureBoard vs the field
Boards that run coding agents are now a category: Cline Kanban, 8090's Software Factory, the community-maintained Vibe Kanban, and Nimbalyst's visual workspace. FeatureBoard's answer is a markdown file on your disk, 321 MCP tools, and a business model that doesn't depend on hosting your data. Here's how they line up.
FeatureBoard
Backlog, sprints, CRM, evals: 321 MCP tools over plain markdown you own. Free for personal & public work; commercial use is $9.99/seat/mo (or $99.99/yr), and that revenue is what keeps it shipping.
Cline Kanban
Parallel agent execution over git worktrees. Built for running sessions; sprints, ADRs and drift audits are outside its scope.
8090 Software Factory
Hosted SDLC control plane with compliance audit trails for regulated industries. Heavy, cloud-native, priced for large organizations.
Vibe Kanban
Proved the category, then Bloop shut down (April 2026) when the mostly-free user base wouldn't fund it. Lives on as volunteer-maintained open source, now fully local.
Nimbalyst
Open-source visual workspace for Claude Code, Codex & OpenCode: session kanban, visual markdown/mockup editors, inline diffs. An execution workspace — team collaboration is coming, pricing still unannounced.
Feature by feature
| Dimension | FeatureBoard | Cline Kanban | 8090 | Vibe Kanban | Nimbalyst |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Board data | Plain markdown files you own — diffable, git-friendly, portable. | Git worktrees + app-managed local state per card. | Cloud-native workspace with markdown export. | Local SQLite-backed board (cloud sync removed after the shutdown). | Local desktop app; docs/tasks editable as markdown, MIT-licensed. |
| Local-first | Entirely local; anonymous opt-out usage counts (tool names only, never board content) plus a few disclosed, explicit outbound calls. | Local worktrees & terminals. | Hosted SaaS control plane. | Fully local, community-maintained. | Local app, BYO AI access (subscription, API key, or local models). |
| Runs inside Claude/Cowork | Yes — the board renders as a Cowork artifact from get_board. |
No — separate browser app. | No — hosted web platform. | No — separate app. | No — separate desktop app (with mobile companion). |
| Tool surface | 321 MCP tools: board, sprints, CRM, media, site, evals, licensing. | Execution-focused UI. | Requirements → work orders pipeline. | Orchestration UI. | Editors + session manager + MCP server support. |
| Token budgeting & model tiering | cap:/model: labels, estimate_work, plan_budget, daily_plan auto-tiering. |
Per-session usage bars; manual backend choice. | Usage-based billing, not planning. | Not documented. | Per-session agent choice; no backlog-wide budgeting documented. |
| Eval / drift harness | drift_* tools score Done tickets against the shipped code, with confidence intervals. |
Diff review per card. | Compliance audit trails. | Not documented. | Inline diff review before accepting changes. |
| Business model | Free personal/public · 24h commercial trial · $9.99/seat/mo · $99.99/seat/yr self-serve. Commercially backed, no hosted dependency. | Free research preview. | $200/user/mo + usage; enterprise from $1M/yr. | Free — company behind it shut down 4/2026. | Free/MIT individuals; Teams plan pricing TBA. |
Why FeatureBoard
Two of the five names in this table are free because nobody is funding them: Vibe Kanban's company is gone and Nimbalyst hasn't priced its Teams plan yet. FeatureBoard is free for personal and public work and $9.99/seat/mo ($99.99/seat/yr) for commercial use. That revenue is what keeps it shipping, and because the board is markdown on your disk, you keep everything even if you stop paying.
Buy FeatureBoard — $9.99/seat/moSources: FeatureBoard claims come from docs/TOOLS.md, docs/compliance/PRIVACY.md
and COMMERCIAL-LICENSE.md; competitor claims from their public sites as of July 2026; full
write-up in docs/COMPARISON.md.