Self-Hosted Alternatives to Jira
Why Replace Jira?
Jira’s pricing shifted to a per-user model that gets expensive fast. The Standard plan costs $8.15/user/month (billed annually), Premium is $16/user/month. A 25-person team on Standard pays $2,445/year. On Premium, $4,800/year.
But cost isn’t the main complaint. Jira is slow. Pages take seconds to load. The UI has accumulated over 20 years of feature bloat — finding the setting you need requires clicking through nested menus. And Atlassian moved everything to cloud-only in 2024, eliminating the self-managed Server option.
Self-hosted alternatives are faster (they’re lighter), simpler (modern UIs built in the last 3-5 years), and free. You lose Jira’s deep ecosystem (Confluence, Bitbucket, Tempo), but for most teams the core need is just: boards, issues, sprints, and maybe a timeline view.
Best Alternatives
Plane — Closest to Jira’s Feature Set
Plane is the strongest Jira replacement for software teams. It has issues, sprints, Kanban boards, a roadmap view, cycles (time-boxed iterations), and modules (grouping related issues across projects). The UI is modern and genuinely fast — a direct contrast to Jira’s performance.
Plane also includes Pages (a lightweight wiki for documentation), which partially replaces the Jira + Confluence combo. The Docker setup uses PostgreSQL and Redis, with a web frontend, API server, worker, and beat scheduler.
Best for: Software development teams coming directly from Jira who need sprints, epics, and a roadmap view.
[Full setup guide: Self-Host Plane]
Vikunja — Best Lightweight Alternative
Vikunja is a lighter-weight task management tool with Kanban boards, Gantt charts, CalDAV sync, and a clean interface. It runs as a single Go binary with SQLite or PostgreSQL, making it the simplest to deploy and maintain.
Vikunja doesn’t try to be Jira — it focuses on task management with just enough project features. If your team’s Jira usage is mostly Kanban boards and task lists, Vikunja covers that with 10% of the complexity.
Best for: Small teams who primarily use Kanban boards and task lists, and want minimal overhead.
[Full setup guide: Self-Host Vikunja]
Taiga — Best for Agile/Scrum Teams
Taiga is designed specifically for agile development. It has a dedicated Scrum mode with user stories, sprints, velocity tracking, and burndown charts. The Kanban mode is solid too. The UI is opinionated — it guides teams through the agile process rather than offering infinite customization.
Taiga is heavier to deploy than Vikunja (Python/Django backend, PostgreSQL, Redis, RabbitMQ), but the agile features are deeper than any other self-hosted option.
Best for: Teams that follow Scrum methodology and want built-in velocity tracking and burndown charts.
OpenProject — Best for Enterprise Project Management
OpenProject goes beyond software development into general project management. It includes Gantt charts, work packages, time tracking, budgeting, team planning, and a meetings module. It’s the most feature-complete self-hosted project management tool — but also the most complex.
Best for: Organizations managing multiple projects across departments, not just software development.
Feature Comparison
| Feature | Jira | Plane | Vikunja | Taiga | OpenProject |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Kanban boards | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| Sprints | Yes | Yes (cycles) | No | Yes | No |
| Roadmap/timeline | Yes | Yes | Gantt chart | No | Gantt chart |
| Burndown charts | Yes | No | No | Yes | No |
| Time tracking | Paid add-on | No | No | No | Built-in |
| Wiki/pages | Confluence (paid) | Built-in | No | Built-in wiki | Built-in wiki |
| CalDAV sync | No | No | Yes | No | No |
| Single binary | No | No | Yes (Go) | No | No |
| Mobile app | Yes | No (responsive web) | No (responsive web) | No | No |
| API | REST + GraphQL | REST | REST | REST | REST |
| Database | Proprietary | PostgreSQL | SQLite/PostgreSQL | PostgreSQL | PostgreSQL |
Migration from Jira
Exporting Data
- Go to Project Settings → System → External System Import (some tools support Jira import)
- Export issues via Filters → Bulk Change → Export (CSV)
- Use the Jira REST API for full programmatic export:
GET /rest/api/2/search - Attachments need separate API calls to download
What Transfers
- Issue titles, descriptions, status, priority, assignees
- Comments and basic metadata
- Sprint/iteration boundaries (manually recreate)
What Doesn’t Transfer
- Custom fields — recreate in the new tool or simplify
- Workflows — Jira’s workflow engine is unique; most alternatives use simpler status-based workflows
- Automation rules — JQL-based automations don’t translate
- Tempo timesheets, Confluence links, and other Atlassian ecosystem integrations
- Jira Service Management configurations
Migration Tips
- Don’t try to replicate Jira exactly. Most teams use 20% of Jira’s features. Identify which features you actually need and pick the tool that covers those.
- Export active projects only. Leave archived projects in Jira (export a read-only dump for reference).
- Simplify workflows during migration. Jira’s custom workflows are often over-engineered. Start with a simple To Do → In Progress → Done workflow and add complexity only when needed.
- Accept some manual work. No import tool preserves everything. Budget time for manual cleanup.
Cost Comparison
| Jira Standard | Jira Premium | Self-Hosted (Plane) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Per user/month | $8.15 | $16.00 | $0 |
| 10 users, annual | $978 | $1,920 | $0 |
| 25 users, annual | $2,445 | $4,800 | $0 |
| 100 users, annual | $8,150 | $16,000 | $0 |
| Storage | 250 GB | Unlimited | Your infrastructure |
| VPS cost | N/A | N/A | $10-40/month |
| 3-year total (25 users) | $7,335 | $14,400 | $360-1,440 (VPS) |
What You Give Up
- Jira ecosystem — Confluence, Bitbucket, Opsgenie, Statuspage integration. This is Jira’s real moat. If your team lives in the Atlassian ecosystem, switching is harder.
- Advanced automation — Jira’s automation engine (if/then rules with JQL conditions) is powerful. Self-hosted alternatives have basic automation or none.
- Marketplace apps — 1,000+ Jira marketplace apps for time tracking, reporting, and integrations. Self-hosted tools have fewer extensions.
- Mobile apps — Jira has polished iOS/Android apps. Most self-hosted alternatives use responsive web UIs.
- Service management — Jira Service Management (JSM) for IT/customer support requests. No direct self-hosted equivalent in project management tools.
- Enterprise compliance — SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR certifications come with Atlassian Cloud. Self-hosted = you manage compliance.
The self-hosted alternatives genuinely work for most software teams. You lose the ecosystem, but you gain speed (faster UIs), simplicity (no feature bloat), and cost savings.
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