Looking for a Jira Alternative?
We’ve done the work for you and put together a list of 14 of the best Jira alternatives for project management and task tracking.
Each solution has its own strengths, so you can find the one that fits your project and budget needs. Our list includes cloud-based solutions, open source solutions, self-hosted solutions, classic workflow tools, and more. Read on to discover the perfect fit for your team!
Read on to find the best Jira alternative for your team.
This Article Contains:
What is Jira?
Atlassian’s Jira is certainly a valuable tool. This agile project management software empowers your group to communicate through basic channels with ease.
Read our full review of Jira here.
Jira software:
- Integrates with external systems
- Provides an overview of team activity
- Lets you establish permission settings
- Lets you complete scrum projects
- Allows you to customize important workflows
- Incident investigation for release management
- Provides bug tracking features
- You can even add innumerable custom fields.
There’s no doubt Jira is quite a flexible project management tool.
If your tech team and project management group are like most others, they’ll find considerable value in managing projects with this program. Your group might have even tapped into Jira’s most complex features that empower your managers to establish a highly customized system that works per their unique aims.
However, looking for Jira alternatives is prudent for a number of reasons.
Why Look for a Jira Alternative?
1. Hard to learn and not meant for all
Take a moment to consider the massive onboarding effort required to learn this nuanced project management software.
The learning curve is steep, to say the least.
If those who have used the Jira software are honest, they’ll admit the software is clunky. They’ll also testify that using this program on a daily basis is somewhat frustrating.
And to top it off, it’s not meant for all.
Jira was built with only software development teams in mind.
As a result, there will be a significant disconnect when others use a different program and expect compatibility with a project management team that relies on Jira. Additionally, Jira is quite pricey, and you’ll see why so many are looking for alternatives to the software.
2. Outdated interface
The program has plenty of inefficiencies and often proves overly complex.
Project management teams that have tried the customization options find the process to be cumbersome. Those looking for a way to enhance productivity will find Jira’s user experience design unnecessarily complex.
It takes considerable time and effort to figure out how to use this interface efficiently.
3. No multiple assignees
Furthermore, when tasks require more than one person, Jira’s weaknesses really stand out.
The software does not permit multiple assignees.
In practice, people become watchers on the task, chipping in their comments and working on issues. However, this is messy and inefficient because you end up with two lists: the official Jira assigned person and then the actual team working on the issues.
4. Migrating to another app isn’t easy
If you want to move on from Jira to another free project management software, things might just turn a bit complicated.
You see, “complicated” is Jira’s middle name.
Why?
Just try to explore their knowledge base pages to find an exporting solution. It’ll only show importing solutions, no exporting.
Or it’ll send you to the Atlassian Jira Marketplace, where you get apps for Atlassian products. There too, you’ll find plugins that help migrate from other apps to Jira, not the other way around. 😨
And to make things worse, they’re now forcing you to migrate to cloud since they’re saying bye-bye to their server products!
5. Pricing isn’t flexible
Jira’s pricing is a real deal-breaker.
- It’s expensive when compared to several easier, much better project management software, which implies it can become even more costly as your team grows
- The free plan has many drawbacks like no capacity planning, automation limited to one project, and basic dependency management
And even when you upgrade from the free plan to the standard plan ($7/user per month), there’s hardly any difference. You’ll have the same site limit of one, automations limited to a single project, and basic features remain the same.
14 Best Jira Alternatives in 2023
Here are the top 14 best Jira alternatives:
1. ClickUp
ClickUp is one of the world’s highest-rated productivity tools, loved by all kinds of businesses worldwide.
Give it a try, and you won’t have to deal with the Jira/Atlassian Marketplace.
ClickUp provides the majority of the features and integrations Jira offers, yet there is absolutely no cost at all.
There are countless additional reasons to make the transition from Jira to ClickUp.
We provide a free version with features like Assigned Comments, to-do lists, task checklists, super-rich text editing, a Multitask Toolbar, Simple/Custom Statuses, Sprints, Goals, and more.
Not to mention the top-rated customer support!
Additionally, take advantage of ClickUp’s ClickApps to enable the features you need for your workspace with a single click!
It doesn’t get any more efficient than that.
ClickApps lets you fully customize your group’s experience in each individual Space. Use this powerful feature to enable Priorities, tags, Custom Fields, and sync your Spaces with your workflow.
Those assigned with the Admin title are empowered to enable/disable ClickApps from two sections of the platform.
Basically, if your project management team has grown tired of Jira’s usability, design, or the need to use more than a single platform for your project management needs, give ClickUp a try.
And importing from Jira to ClickUp is super easy.
Take a look at one of our customer’s experiences of switching from Jira to ClickUp to get an idea of why ClickUp is the best Jira alternative.
ClickUp key features
- Assigned Comments: create and assign comments to yourself or others
- Multiple Assignees: work together on a single task
- Custom Statuses: customize your workflow with statuses to fit each project
- Integrations: seamlessly manage and collaborate on Git workflows, sync time tracking with Harvest, and send tasks to and from Slack
- Recurring Tasks: automatically cause important tasks to repeat at specified intervals
- Sorting and Filtering: drill down to view tasks arranged by assignee, status, priority, etc.
- Multitask Toolbar: easily select multiple tasks or groups of tasks and make as many changes as you want with a single click
- Rich Text Editing: with ClickUp’s intuitively beautiful rich formatting interface, there’s no need to limit a task to only basic text
- Views: List view and Board view are standard views within ClickUp. But it doesn’t stop there. You also get Box view, Gantt Chart view, Calendar view, and even Docs, Table, and Embed view. With ClickUp, get the perfect view for developers, managers, and everything in between
- Templates: retain the structure of your favorites projects, Spaces, Lists, and Checklists for later use
- Priorities: set priority levels, and organize tasks based on their urgency
- Drag and Drop: drag and drop tasks no matter where they’re in ClickUp (Board, List, or Box view)
- Due Dates: specify both time and day, and get notified when tasks are past due
- Notepad: the ideal space to store notes unrelated to specific tasks or projects. Add checklists, rich editing, weblinks, etc.
- Goals: set Sprints for your software development team each week and connect your Lists and tasks
- Email in ClickUp: send and receive emails right from ClickUp
ClickUp pricing
- Free Forever Plan (best for personal use)
- Unlimited Plan (best for small teams ($5/member per month)
- Business Plan (best for mid-sized teams ($12/member per month)
- Business Plus Plan (best for multiple teams ($19/member per month)
ClickUp customer ratings
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (3200+ reviews)
- G2: 4.7/5 (5,000+ reviews)
Unlike Jira, ClickUp makes migration super easy. But most importantly, it’s a simple tool for both engineers and non-engineers. Compare Jira and ClickUp to find out why!
2. Binfire
Binfire is a comprehensive project management tool that your engineering and software team can use.
It provides task management features, a kanban board, an interactive Gantt chart, etc. It also includes the full set of collaboration features needed to manage small and large projects.
Binfire creates a virtual office where team members can work remotely and collaborate with each other effectively. It has been used for project collaboration for large remote teams on three continents.
Most of the engineering team working on Binfire’s projects are located in multiple locations. For this reason, remote work and team collaboration are embedded in Binfire’s genes.
Binfire key features
- Workspace management
- Personal dashboard
- Workspace calendar
- Interactive whiteboard
- Project template
- Project status report
- Interactive Gantt chart
- Activity stream
- Burndown chart
Binfire pricing
Binfire has no free plans, and the paid plans start from $6.50/ user per month.
Binfire customer ratings
- Capterra: 4.8/5 (20+ reviews)
- G2: 4.1/5 (10+ reviews)
3. Basecamp
Basecamp is quite effective at steering those with different roles toward a common goal.
This will work if your team has been shoehorned into Jira, even though you’re not a developer or handling bug tracking and issue tracking.
If you’re looking for software that helps your group finish a project together, this may be the software for you. It provides a pay-as-you-go pricing model without any sort of contract.
There’s an annual package for those who desire the system’s full range of features.
The cost is not based on the number of users, so you can involve as many people as necessary.
Jump right in, and you’ll find that Basecamp allows delegation of tasks in an efficient manner and monitoring of progress with ease.
It doesn’t matter if your team is located in different time zones.
Basecamp allows for remote project management that dramatically improves your project management team’s work agility and productivity.
Looking for Basecamp alternatives? Check out these top 10 Basecamp alternatives!
Basecamp key features
- Messaging platform
- Universal search
- One hub for documents and file sharing
- Simple task management (great for to-do lists)
- Automatic check-in questions for standups
- A portal for clients and customers to view tasks and communicate
- Group chat & direct messages
- Task reporting
Basecamp pricing
Basecamp has a free personal plan, and the paid plan costs $99/month for unlimited users.
Basecamp customer ratings
- Capterra: 4.3/5 (9,000+ reviews)
- G2: 4.1/5 (4,600+ reviews)
Thinking of choosing Basecamp?
Why not first take a look at how Basecamp compares to ClickUp?
4. Pivotal Tracker
If you’re looking specifically for agile project management tools, then consider Pivotal Tracker. Your team will get a shared look at priorities to help everyone decide which task to tackle next.
Pivotal Tracker is one of the main Jira competitors, and presents backlog lists, features, and hotfixes to help your team pick and choose what to work on next. You’ll also see how fast your agile software development team is working, with a team velocity calculated by story points completed in each iteration.
Pivotal Tracker even helps you plan your iterations with its guided tracker tool that lets you break off manageable amounts of work.
Pivotal Tracker key features
- Story points
- Estimate and prioritize work together
- Automated consistency tracker
- Workspaces for managing multiple projects
- Dashboard reporting for time and trends
Pivotal Tracker pricing
Pivotal Tracker is free for up to five users. The paid plans for more users start at a $10 monthly flat rate.
Pivotal Tracker customer rating
- Capterra: 4.3/5 (110+ reviews)
- G2: 4.1/5 (90+ reviews)
Check out these Pivotal Tracker alternatives!
Before you move forward with this tool, check out our Pivotal Tracker and ClickUp comparison to see how much more ClickUp can offer you!
5. Asana
Asana has emerged as quite the popular project management tool for good reason.
One of the many Jira-similar tools, it facilitates communication and collaboration across the entire project management team.
Asana features include multiple workspaces, the ability to add assignees and attachments to tasks, task tracking, real-time collaboration, and the ability to comment on tasks.
Users can even see their co-workers’ tasks and priorities to boot. This is the type of transparency every organization and an agile project needs.
You can even track progress of projects and tasks from an array of devices and browsers.
There’s no need to rely on third-party apps or email for corporate communications when you have Asana running.
Let your team take advantage of Asana, and you’ll find it streamlines workflows, facilitates task management, and improves diverse aspects of project management. Asana even provides a savvy tech team that can be contacted through numerous methods.
Want a closer look at how Asana stacks up against Jira?
Asana key features:
- Multiple workspaces
- High-level activity feed
- Attachments for easy reference
- Calendar view
- Real-time chat and collaboration for every task
- Project permissions
- Custom fields
- Board view for agile project management
Asana pricing
Asana offers a free plan. Their paid plans start from $10.99/user per month.
Asana customer ratings
- Capterra: 4.4/5 (10,000+ reviews)
- G2: 4.3/5 (8,200+ reviews)
Bonus: Monday Vs. Jira
6. Shortcut
Shortcut (formerly Clubhouse) has emerged as a very popular Jira alternative because of its simple, intuitive interface while still speaking Jira’s language, if that makes sense.
In other words, you’ll get the smart functionality of Jira without its cluttered and outdated user interface.
Everything starts with a story, where you can add tickets, bugs, or a chore to form your story.
It also has lots of easily digestible charts for burndowns, estimates, and more.
Shortcut key features
- User-friendly interface
- Stories for collaboration and documentation
- Reporting dashboards
- Progress reports
- Extensive API that also lets you create open source projects
- Integrations for Github, Bitbucket, Slack and more
- New knowledge base feature in beta
Shortcut pricing
Clubhouse offers a free plan. Their paid plans start at $8.50/user per month.
Shortcut customer ratings
- Capterra: 4.6/5 (300+ reviews)
- G2: 4.3/5 (130+ reviews)
7. Trello
If you need a simpler board view than Jira but like the cards and status updates, then maybe you can try Trello.
Interestingly enough, Trello is also owned by Atlassian, the same company that owns Jira.
But it’s not quite Jira Lite.
You won’t get complex things like story points or issue tracking, but you can set up different boards for backlogs, your sprint, or the next iteration.
Switching to Trello from Jira may be good for a smaller software development team that wants to manage multiple projects at a fair price.
What’s nice about Trello are their power-ups that let you add burndown charts or a Gantt chart.
You can add the features you need without paying for them at the beginning. It grows as you grow.
All of this in an intuitive interface that won’t kill your spirit!
The major problem with Trello?
It locks you into that board view without considering how lists or a time view may be better for some users. Also, cards can get quite crowded if you have any comments, making something like ClickUp a better choice for that.
Don’t believe us? Learn about top Trello alternatives and see why you should choose ClickUp over Trello.
Trello key features
- Tags, labels, and categories
- Drag and drop cards
- Progress charts
- Set reminders
- Kanban board view
- Assign tasks
- Lots of integrations
Trello pricing
Trello pricing ranges from free to $10/user per month.
Trello customer ratings
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (90,000+ reviews)
- G2: 4.4/5 (11,500+ reviews)
Compare Trello and ClickUp & Trello and Asana!
8. ProofHub
If you’re looking for a Jira alternative that gives you added flexibility in managing your teams and projects, ProofHub is a good option.
It lets you stay in ultimate control of your teams, tasks, projects, and communications by providing you with a central source of truth. You get the flexibility in task management with simple to-do lists, agile workflows, and kanban boards.
There are also Gantt charts to help in project planning. The in-built chat app works great to bring all your office communications in one place. It also has an online proofing tool that simplifies the review and feedback sharing process.
You get a dedicated space for real-time discussions and custom reports to better project and resource management.
ProofHub also integrates with third-party apps like Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, and Box to give you a central place to access all your data.
One of the best things about this agile project management software is its easy-to-use interface that makes onboarding smooth. There’s no learning curve, and you can get used to it in no time.
ProofHub key features
- To-do lists
- Custom workflows and kanban boards
- Gantt charts
- File management
- Time tracking
- Online discussions for teams and clients
- Advanced search for quick finds
- Announcements to recognize good work
ProofHub pricing
Simple, no per-user pricing. The Ultimate Control plan with unlimited users and projects available at $89/month (billed annually).
ProofHub customer ratings
- Capterra: 4.4/5 (40+ reviews)
- G2: 4.5/5 (35+ reviews)
9. Kanbanize
Kanbanize is another popular agile project management tool. It lets teams visualize key initiatives and break them down into work items by combining easy-to-use kanban boards.
It provides Work In Progress limits, filters, role-based access, and custom fields, so you and your teams can effortlessly visualize work the way you want.
Use their kanban boards to create different custom workflows or the timeline workflow feature to switch it up.
It also lets you track time to see hours spent on tasks or projects along with analytics to monitor performance.
Kanbanize key features
- Custom workflow analytics to measure performance
- Timeline planner to create roadmaps
- Create and manage multiple workflows
- Visualize performance and progress with cumulative flow diagrams, cycle time heatmaps, etc.
- Set no-code automations
- Card links to create work relationships
Kanbanize pricing
Kanbanize has a standard plan that costs $149/month.
Kanbanize customer ratings
- Capterra: 4.8/5 (90+ reviews)
- G2: 4/5 (10+ reviews)
10. Notion
Notion is a free Jira alternative. This project management and collaboration tool let you take notes, create documents, manage projects, create tasks, employ the kanban method, etc., all from one place.
If you want to go a step further, it can be a good CRM tool too.
At first glance, it’s pretty simple and easy to use. Yet, some users have found it a bit intimidating solely because of the numerous ways you can use it.
Is Notion what you need? Check out some Notion alternatives and compare Notion to OneNote to find out!
Notion key features
- Multiple database views including list, boards, table, calendar, etc
- Admin features to manage permissions
- Public view to make your notion document publicly accessible
- Real-time collaboration on pages and database
- Tons of templates for HR, design, project management, etc.
Notion pricing
Notion’s personal plan is free. The paid plans range from $4/month to $8/user per month.
Notion customer ratings
- Capterra: 4.7/5 (300+ reviews)
- G2: 4.5/5 (180+ reviews)
See how ClickUp does in comparison to Notion.
11. Wrike
Wrike is a Jira-like project management tool for mid-sized and enterprise-level teams that helps simplify planning, gain visibility, and streamline workflow.
It’s cloud-based collaboration software suitable for any team using the waterfall, agile, or any other project management model.
From Gantt charts to delivering robust reports to monitor team progress, Wrike lets you fully customize your workflow and empower your team members to be more productive.
Wrike key features
- Customizable dashboards
- Workload charts for resource management
- Support Time tracking
- Has team collaboration and budgeting features
- Organized dashboards in a single view with drag and drop functionality
- Easily builds various reports using in-built templates
Wrike pricing
Wrike offers a free plan, and the paid plans start at $9.80/user per month.
Wrike customer ratings
- Capterra: 4.2/5 (1,660+ reviews)
- G2: 4.2/5 (1,400+ reviews)
However, before you go ahead and sign up for this tool, compare Wrike with ClickUp to see how much more ClickUp can offer!
12. Bitrix24
Bitrix24 is a social enterprise platform that combines project management, CRM, and communication into one place.
Whether you run a small team or a large one, Bitrix24 makes task management easy and collaboration smooth.
At the same time, you can track performance with detailed task management metrics.
It’s pretty flexible as well, so different departments can use Bitrix24, such as sales and marketing, management, HR, legal, customer service, etc.
Want to know more about Bitrix24? Check out our comprehensive Bitrix24 review.
Bitrix24 key features
- Offers intranet, chat, video conferencing, calendars, workspaces, tasks, and internal communication features
- Manage system with attendance management, work reports, workflow automation
- Advanced document management system
- Supports work time tracking
- Offers numerous responsive templates
Bitrix24 pricing
Bitrix24 has paid plans starting from $24/ month for two users. They also offer a free plan.
Bitrix24 customer ratings
- Capterra: 4/5 (450+ reviews)
- G2: 4.1/5 (350+ reviews)
13. Linear
Linear is an issue tracking tool made for software development teams. Linear is easy to use and helps teams plan their projects to make better decisions and execute faster.
Linear has automatic workflows that work with Git integrations to create a high-performance routine. Linear is best for smaller teams who’s projects don’t require extensive tracking.
Linear key features
- Automated workflows
- Git integrations
- Custom views
- Advanced filters
- Powerful search capabilities
Linear pricing
Linear offers a free plan, and their paid plans start at $8.00/user per month.
Linear customer ratings
- Product Hunt: 4.5/5 (50+ reviews)
14. Backlog
Backlog is a project management tool that focuses on prioritizing and tracking work. Backlog has a user friendly interface that development teams use improve team collaboration.
Backlog key features
- Git hosting & private Git repository
- Gantt charts
- Wikis
- Custom fields
- Bug tracking
Backlog pricing
Backlog plans start at $29.17/ month for up to 30 users and go up to $145.83/ month for unlimited users.
Backlog customer ratings
- Capterra: 4.5/5 (70+ reviews)
- G2: 4.5/5 (150+ reviews)
ClickUp: The Best Jira Alternative for Your Team
Jira is one of the most complicated project management tools around, rivaling only Microsoft Project (or Microsoft Planner) in its complexity.
Try ClickUp today and take control of your tasks!
Our intuitive interface makes it easy to manage projects and teams of any size. Plus, our advanced features let you customize workflows, automate processes, and track performance like never before. So get started!
If you want to choose one of the best Jira alternatives available, try ClickUp for free today!
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Comments for this post are currently closed.
I switched from JIRA to clickup and am in love with the multitask toolbar! Makes my job a lot easier...
We're so happy you're loving the platform, Karen! Please reach out to help@clickup if any questions come to mind, we're always happy to help :)
ClickUp is just easy to use and full of features. I love the agile release cycles, knowing the products roadmap, your customer support, its not overly complex like JIRA but still is pretty powerful
Coming from a long time JIRA user - ClickUp is (refreshingly) simple yet still effective. Well done ClickUp team
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