12 Jira Alternatives and their Pros and Cons

Project management is essential in software development. Without it, developers working at different paces, without task assignments, activity tracking, or progress reporting, would result in chaos.

Project management automation has saved many projects from being abandoned or plagued with issues like untracked bugs. Tools like Jira, and its alternatives, play a crucial role in this process.

Jira is a top agile project management tool used by companies like Airbnb, eBay, and Spotify. Its features, such as kanban templates, content management systems, and scrum boards, make it effective for project management.

However, Jira's pricing might be too high for small teams. Fortunately, there are affordable Jira alternatives that can make your project management process seamless.

Agile Project Management: Scrum and Kanban

Agile project management tools are frequently used for software development projects. They help team members work using the iterative approach, fixing as they go along. Scrum and Kanban are two strategies used in an agile project management system. The Scrum strategy uses sprints — set working intervals — to complete a newer project version, which the team can ship at the end. On the other hand, the Kanban Strategy focuses on using a kanban board to visualize the work progress and maximize efficiency. Each strategy has perks and is always available in Jira alternatives for project management.

Top Open-Source Jira Alternatives for Your Business

There are hundreds of Open Source project management tools with distinguishable features. This article will examine the top 12 open-source alternatives that provide features similar to Jira's at a sustainable pricing range. You’ll see the pros and cons of each tool to decide which works best for your business or team. So, let’s get into it.

GitLab

First, we have GitLab, the DevOps platform with task management features. It’s an open-source code repository that gives all its users the features and resources needed to collaborate and build software, following all the tasks to finish the project strictly, right from the planning stage to the monitoring and security stage.

Some of the features of GitLab include:

• Issues tabs and tracking
• Task assignment
• Labels
• Milestones
• Design management to upload design sheets
• Code testing
• Coverage, and many others

The pricing of GitLab includes the freemium plan (which allows you access to its tools while you upgrade to unlock more services). Its premium plan is priced at $228 annually, and the Ultimate plan is priced at $1188 annually. It all depends on the size of your team and the features you’d like to unlock.

Pros of GitLab include:

• Unlimited public and private repositories on the free plan
• Bug and issue tracking
• Project timeline tracking
• Allows collaboration

Cons of GitLab include:

• Slower interface
• No pipeline tracking analytics

Taiga.io

Taiga.io is a project management tool that works as an all-rounder for agile teams with different functions. The environment provided by this open-source software offers a digital interface that lets deliverables be defined in terms of priority. This makes it easier to pick up and finish high-priority tasks as soon as possible. Taiga.io also uses Kanan and scrum strategies, depending on your team’s choice.

Some of the features of Taiga.io include the following:

• An activity dashboard and tracking to manage timelines
• Custom tags
• Templates and fields
• Release planning
• Road mapping
• Sprint planning
• Bug and issue tracking

It has a freemium plan, but it’s limited to a team of 15 and five projects. Its Premium plan costs $7/month for each user, with unlimited projects.

Pros of Taiga.io include:

• Clear Interface and ease of use
• Great pricing
• Web-based
• Easy sprint planning

Cons of Taiga.io include:

• Unclear terms, which may seem a little uncomfortable for non-tech project manager
• Post-installation setup is long
• Lack of integration with third-party apps, except if you use webhook

Trello

Trello is one of the market's most popular project management tools because it's straightforward. It allows users to work with a board that enables flexibility, prioritization, and organization. It’s like sticking a card onto a board (while attaching essential detail to each card. That’s actually how it works). This makes it easy to manage your team and supervise workflow.

Features of Trello include:

• Integrations with Drive, Dropbox, Slack, GitHub, Evernote, and other third-party apps
• Support across different platforms, including web and mobile
• In-built file upload, drag, and drop button
• Commenting features

Trello has a freemium model which lets you create ten boards, 10MB per attachment (powerups), and an unlimited storage unit. Its standard price is $5 for each user in a small team and $10 in the premium stage monthly. The Business Class and Enterprise cost $17.50 per user/month and $20.83 per user/month, respectively. The extra features include unlimited power-ups and integrations.

Pros of Trello include:

• Easy-to-use interface with drag and drop feature
• Good visual overview
• Use of the Kanban system
• Mobile-friendliness

Cons of Trello include:

• File upload limit of 10MB
• No iteration reviews
• You can only work on small projects with the freemium plan

Odoo Software

Odoo Software is another Jira alternative many people confidently endorse. It works as a suite of management software tools and covers a company's needs. It provides users with an interface that makes project and task assignment and tracking easier. Your software development, HR, or marketing teams can also use Odoo Software to automate sales orders, marketing report results, and technical set-up of “things to do.”

The features of Odoo Software include:

• Time tracking for all tasks
• Graphs to analyze task progress
• Task archiving

Odoo software has a freemium plan for unlimited users without the feature of extra installations. For the premium plan, the project management app is $8 per month for each user, although it may vary depending on your country.

Pros of Odoo Software include:

• Multiple products and app options
• Increased productivity across teams
• Easy document management

Cons of Odoo Software include:

• Lack of customer support
• Hard to set up

Restyaboard

Restyaboard is a visual project management software that uses cards and electronic sticky notes to measure task organization and management. This open-source management tool allows users to maximize Kanban boards for all project management planning, tracking, and task collaboration. Users get to manage to-do lists and track all their tasks with the Restyaboard cards.

Restyaboard features include:

• Offline sync
• Multiple layout views
• Nested comments
• User permissions flexibility
• Visual/graphics cards

The pricing of Restyaboard consists of a free plan which allows 1-10 users with an open-source license. The Pro version costs 7 Euros per month for 5-1500 users and Pro Power-ups. The enterprise plan costing 197 Euros per month, allows for unlimited users and a commercial license.

Pros of Restyaboard include:

• Quick data migration and transmission
• Easy board imports
• Ease of use

Cons of Restyaboard include:

• Restricted services on the free plan
• Lack of issue and bug tracking

OpenProject

OpenProject is one of the Jira alternatives that provides an open-source feature with solid security and flexibility. OpenProject has similar features to Jira and has also improved certain aspects of Jira’s premium features. For example, it allows the use of Gantt charts to pan projects.

Features of OpenProject include:

• Time and cost tracking with staff and project costs
• Ability to create new issues with the work package list
• Collaboration across teams

There is a free for all version. The price of the self-managed version starts at $405/year. The OpenProject-managed version is $275 per user.

Pros of OpenProject include:

• Project cost tracking
• Use of visual Gantt charts
• Document management

Cons of OpenProject include:

• Slow customer support
• Underdeveloped external API

Kanboard

Kanboard is a free, open-source project management software that focuses on the visual aspect of agile project management, which is the Kanban strategy. Used to aid task visualization, the software allows for board sharing and collaboration with an interface of project overviews.

Features of the software include:

• Multiple authentication backends
• Task grouping categories
• Ability to maximize existing project templates

There is only a free version of Kanboard.

Pros of Kanboard include:

• All features are available in the free plan
• Automated task assignment actions
• Board configuration to manage man tasks
• Flexible collaboration and board sharing

Cons of Kanboard include:

• The overview can get messy
• The free version requires several plug-ins to maximize its use

Redmine

Redmine is another open-source project management with the provision of advanced tools and features depending on the users' choices. It allows users to track issues and time on every project carried out. It also provides integration with different version control systems and creates a chance for self-registration.

Redmine features include:

• Using Gantt charts and calendars for different databases
• Defining permissions on a project
• Custom fields for time and issue entries

The best part for you is that it’s an open-source tool that’s entirely free with no upgrade options, just like Kanboard.

Pros of Redmine include:

• Easy user self-registration
• Calendar to highlight project deadlines
• Multiple project management options

Cons of Redmine include:

• Multiple projects required distinct naming
• It’s not great for managing large-scale projects

Confluence

Confluence is a collaboration tool created by Atlassian for teams across different niches. Project management goes beyond the software development niche and Confluence provides this option for teams to share, store and work on different projects as their teams require. There is a free version that allows 1-10 users and allows for 2GB of space. The Standard and Premium package cost $5 and $10 per user/ month respectively.

The features of the software that make collaboration a lot easier include:

• App integrations
• Version Histor
• Templates
• Macro plugins
• Customization

Pros of Confluence include:

• Unlimited spaces and pages for collaboration
• Large file storage
• Organization of page structure
• Page analytics

Cons of Confluence include:

• More expensive than the average software
• Limited mobile version functionality

BugZilla

BugZilla is your best bet if you have project management on lock and need better software to help with bug tracking and resolution. Created solely to track bugs, Bugzilla lets you find and resolve issues. It also provides a database of custom fields, workflows, and project customizations.

Pros of BugZilla include:

• BugZilla is entirely free
• Excellent bug tracking and a search feature
• Project installations and custom fields

Cons of BugZilla include:

• Weak project management
• Lack of communication space

Slack

Slack is a famous official collaboration tool that makes project management easy for all parties. It provides automation, collaboration, planning, tracking, and integration features and operates a freemium model. Slack has a free plan for ten integrations and access to 90 days of message history. The Pro version is $7.25/month for smaller teams with access to the entire message history and integrations.

Pros of Slack include:

• Ability to integrate multiple software
• Automation and scheduling feature
• Channel creation for different projects
• Available on multiple platforms

Cons of Slack include:

• Minimum file and chats storage on the free model
• Multiple notifications daily if you don’t control it

Asana

Asana is a highly customizable web-based software and Jira alternative. It allows users to manage their tasks without email, and its free plan allows 15 users (max) to access a basic dashboard. The Premium plan, priced at $9.99 per user/month, gives admin control, advanced search, and no user limit.

Pros of Asana include:

• Cuts down emails and messages
• Simple user interface
• Easy customization
• Significantly focused on collaboration

Cons of Asana include:

• No time tracking features
• Task assignments are limited

Jira is a fantastic project management tool loved by different companies worldwide, but smaller companies need better-priced yet effective Jira alternatives. You can choose either of the above alternatives to manage your projects. You can also hire a software development agency for your web or app development projects within 72 hours.

FAQs

Q1. Does Microsoft have a Jira Alternative?

Yes, there is a Microsoft Jira alternative called Microsoft Project Management Software. Also known as MS Project, team members worldwide use it to collaborate and plan projects virtually. MS Project also allows for complete integration with the Microsoft 365 Office suite.

Q2. Is Trello or Jira Better?

Erm… No, but it depends on the complexity of your needs. Jira offers scrum, kanban, and sprint boards across the different agile project management strategies. Trello, on the other hand, offers only kanban boards. So, if you are interested in exploring all agile project management strategies, Jira is a better fit. If you’re okay with visual tracking for your projects, Trello works perfectly.

Q3. Is Trello owned by Jira?

No. Jira doesn’t own Trello; the Australian software company Atlassian does. Trello and Jira are siblings; both are owned by Atlassian.