Last checked October 15, 2026
Best Free Alternatives to Jira (2026)
Jira is issues, workflows, boards, and sprints. Cloud is free for very small teams and then becomes a per-user subscription. The pain is usually administration and price together.
What Jira costs
Jira Cloud publishes Standard, Premium, and Enterprise quotes that change with user count. This check does not lock a per-user dollar figure.
Use Atlassian's pricing calculator for a current number. A free cloud tier for small teams is long-standing; the exact user cap was not re-read from Atlassian in this pass and is not stated as a fact.
Ranked by Drop-in score
How we rank#1 is the highest-scoring alternative that is not sponsored. A featured listing, when one is sold, is labeled and sits after #1.
- 91#1Open source
OpenProject
A GPL project suite with issues, Gantt, and time tracking.
Last checked October 15, 2026 · GPL-3.0 (Community)
WebSelf-host - 75#2Open source
Plane
A modern AGPL issue tracker with cycles and modules.
Last checked October 15, 2026 · AGPL-3.0
WebSelf-host - 75#3Open source
Redmine
A classic GPL issue tracker with strong repository integration.
Last checked October 15, 2026 · GPL-2.0
WebSelf-host - 72#4Open sourceReview notes94% of checklist checked
Taiga
A self-hosted scrum and kanban tool.
Last checked October 15, 2026 · AGPL-3.0
WebSelf-host
Feature by feature
Full is the whole job. Partial is a real version with a gap. Missing means it does not do this. Not checked counts as zero in the score.
| Feature | OpenProject#1 · 91 | Plane#2 · 75 | Redmine#3 · 75 | Taiga#4 · 72 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Issues and commentsWeight 10 | Full | Full | Full | Full |
| Kanban and scrum boardsWeight 8 | Full | Full | PartialKanban is a plugin, not the core UI. | Full |
| SprintsWeight 7 | Full | FullCalled cycles. | Partial | Full |
| Epics and hierarchyWeight 7 | Full | PartialModules and epics exist and are less deep than Jira's issue hierarchy. | Partial | Partial |
| RoadmapsWeight 5 | Full | Partial | Full | Partial |
| Custom workflowsWeight 6 | Partial | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Time trackingWeight 4 | Full | Partial | Full | Not checked |
| Agile reportsWeight 5 | Full | Partial | Partial | Partial |
| Self-hostingWeight 7 | Full | Full | Full | Full |
| Git hosting integrationWeight 6 | Partial | Partial | Full | Partial |
Real cost
OpenProject
- Free tier
- Community edition is free to self-host. OpenProject also sells a cloud.
- Hosted plan
- No hosted price recorded.
- Self-hosting
- Hard. Docker or packaged install. It is a large Rails app and wants memory, backups, and a person who will upgrade it. Approximate server cost: $20–40/mo. Unverified estimate.
Plane
- Free tier
- Community Edition is free to self-host with no user limit. Cloud has a free tier.
- Hosted plan
- Commercial cloud starts at $6 per seat/month.
- Self-hosting
- Moderate. Docker Compose or Kubernetes. More containers than a single binary, documented for a team install. Approximate server cost: $15–30/mo. Unverified estimate.
Redmine
- Free tier
- Free to self-host.
- Hosted plan
- No hosted price recorded.
- Self-hosting
- Moderate. Ruby, a database, and a web server. Stable, and it looks like software from the era it started. Approximate server cost: $6–15/mo. Unverified estimate.
Taiga
- Free tier
- Self-hosting is free. Taiga's hosted service has been free for public projects; private hosted projects are paid. Confirm the current hosted terms. Unverified.
- Hosted plan
- No hosted price recorded.
- Self-hosting
- Hard. Several services (backend, frontend, events). Docker Compose is documented and not lightweight.
Top pair
Migrate from Jira to OpenProject
Export issues to CSV or use an importer your OpenProject version documents, then rebuild workflows and dashboards. Marketplace apps do not come with you.
Read the migration guide