Best Jira Alternatives

ClickUp is a versatile project management solution for any type of project and business. You can customize it to your specific needs, including workflow, view and through automations. It has built-in Agile project management features and thousands of project templates, making it a good alternative to Jira.

Product development teams that want an easy entry-level project management software might prefer ClickUp. Plus, it isn’t as boxed-in as Jira—it’s versatile enough to work for all teams of a company. With that said, you won’t find native roadmapping or bug tracking tools that are part of Jira, but you can create spaces with folders for versioning and customize your own method for tracking.

Learn more: Read our full ClickUp review.

Who should use it:

Product development teams that need a simpler system that’s also customizable would do well with ClickUp. It’s also a more affordable solution on all its paid plans than Jira.

ClickUp offers a free plan for unlimited users with features such as real-time chat, Kanban-style boards, sprint management and collaborative documents. Advanced reporting, Gantt charts, integrations and advanced permissions are only available on paid plans. ClickUp pricing starts at $7 per user per month (billed annually), which is more affordable than Jira.

With plenty of functionality offered at every plan level, monday.com is a good fit for almost any size business (and any size budget). What makes it stand out is its free plan with lots of unlimited options, which is suitable for a solopreneur or very small business that doesn’t have the budget yet for project management software.

The great thing about monday.com is that it’s flexible enough to work for almost any type of user, while Jira is more rigid and meant for tech-savvy developers. You can use monday.com in similar ways, though. You can customize your workflow on monday.com the way you want it. And it’s one of the best task management apps available. There are more than 200 templates available to get you started. Plus, there are collaborative documents, a whiteboard and more than 750 apps you can integrate.

Learn more: Read our full monday.com review.

Who should use it:

The monday.com free plan is best for a pair of people who want to collaborate and brainstorm, regardless of industry. You can use the hundreds of templates available to create workflows that work best for your small business.

The free plan from monday.com is meant for only two people and there’s no guest access, so this is best for tiny teams just starting out. In fact, in our analysis it ranked as one of the best free project management software. If you need more than two seats, the Basic plan costs $9 per seat per month (billed annually).

To get tools to compete with Jira, such as workflow automation, integrations and more views and dashboards, you should consider a higher tier. The Standard monday.com plan costs $12 per seat per month (billed annually) and the Pro plan costs $19 per seat per month (billed annually). All paid plans have a three-seat minimum. Learn more in our guide to monday.com’s plans and pricing.

In the battle of Asana vs. Jira, it may seem that the clear winner is Jira if you have specific needs as a product development team, but the answer isn’t that cut and dry. Asana can easily work for devs, but it’s more flexible than Jira, so it could be the best fit for multiple teams—not just dev teams. Specifically, its flexibility comes in the form of multiple project views.

It’s worth noting that Asana offers a wider range of integrations, which also makes it a better choice for a whole company and not just a single team. Jira offers helpful integrations, but they’re geared more toward design and development. Plus, Asana offers a more flexible style of Agile project management because you can create your own process that works for your team.

Learn more: Read our full Asana review.

Who should use it:

Asana is a great pick for small to midsize businesses that need an answer to Jira, but also need a versatile project management solution for other teams. Small businesses may even be able to get by on just the free plan, but with more views, forms and custom options on paid plans, it’s worth it to upgrade.

Both Asana and Jira offer free plans, but the free Asana plan is more robust for users, projects, view types and integrations. Technically, Jira’s paid plans are more affordable than Asana, but there’s less flexibility overall at all plan levels. Asana’s paid plans range from Basic (free) to individuals or those just getting started in project management, to $10.99 per user per month for Premium (billed annually), to $24.99 per user per month for Business (billed annually).

Zoho Projects is versatile project management software that can easily work as a Jira alternative because of its flexibility. Any type of team or business can make Zoho Projects work the way it’s needed. The integration with the Zoho ecosystem makes it an ideal pick for those who already use Zoho products. Additionally, there are many third-party integrations that add functionality to make Zoho Projects more viable for all teams.

On top of the easy integrations available, Zoho Projects offers features that rival Jira’s native Scrum environment. You can use a Gantt chart to see a big-picture view of tasks and dependencies, set up automated tasks and track milestones. There are also Kanban-style boards and custom fields, so you can create your own Agile project management solution.

Who should use it:

If your business relies on Zoho products or popular software, Zoho Projects may be the best bet to ensure you can integrate what you already use and not just development-specific software, like Jira offers.

Learn more: Read our full Zoho Projects review.

Zoho Projects’ free plan works well for up to three users, but you’re limited to two projects and no automation. Paid plans are relatively cheap, starting at a free version for up to three users, then going up to $5 per user per month (billed annually) for the Premium plan and $10 per user per month for the Enterprise version. The paid plans give you access to the best features though, including unlimited projects, subtasks, budgeting, Gantt charts, custom fields and a portfolio dashboard, which are needed to make it a good Jira alternative.

Smartsheet is similar to Airtable in that it looks and acts as a spreadsheet, so if you’re familiar with Microsoft Excel or Google Sheets, it should be somewhat intuitive. However, it isn’t an easy-to-master project management tool, such as Jira. Finding the right tools isn’t always apparent, but once you figure out how to use the different views, templates and workflow automations, Smartsheet is a powerful app that can work as a Jira alternative.

On its own, Smartsheet can work well for task management, but it becomes a more complex project management solution when you use its workflow automation system. You can easily automate notifications, assignments and requests for approval. There’s also a proofing feature for all plans, which is uncommon among other project management software. And its interface is clean and simple to read, whether you’re using the grid, card or Gantt views.

Learn more: Read our full Smartsheet review.

Who should use it:

Smartsheet’s automated workflows are ideal for project managers and teams that want an easy way to remove repetitive tasks from their day or week, so they can focus on the work at hand.

Smartsheet offers a free plan that’s good for one user, which makes it a bit more limiting than Jira’s free plan. To get more functionality and more users, you should upgrade to the Pro, Business or Enterprise plans. Smartsheet pricing starts at $9 per user per month (billed annually), which is comparable (slightly less expensive) to Jira, but more limiting for user count (one to 10 on the Pro plan). Plus, there’s a three-user minimum on the Business plan, which costs $19 per user per month.

Notion is a unique app and it makes our list of the best project management software because it’s great for free-form collaboration and excellent for content teams. In fact, it may be fairer to compare Notion to Confluence, but don’t count it out as a Jira alternative. Notion can be whatever you need it to be thanks to its multiple features and buildable platform.

Along with most PM software, Notion offers multiple project views and collaborative features, but where it really shines is in how you can collaborate across documents and projects. You can comment on projects or databases, solve problems together on a single document and share materials easily. The Kanban-style board and templates Notion offers make it easy to create and manage your own Agile environment with tasks, milestones and custom properties for statuses and due dates.

Learn more: Read our full Notion review.

Who should use it:

Notion is great for teams that prefer to create their own version of Agile project management without restrictions. It’s a free-form platform with building-block features, which makes it highly customizable and flexible for any type of team or project.

Notion offers a free plan that’s great for individuals, but for collaborative features, its paid plans are best. The Plus plan, Notion’s most popular version, costs $10 per user per month (billed annually) and includes more advanced admin features to connect small groups. For more advanced plans to connect several teams and tools, Notion offers a Premium version for $15 per user month (billed annually) as well as an Enterprise plan for which you can request a demo or trial and get pricing.

Airtable is known as an advanced spreadsheet style of project management software, which makes it an easy alternative to Jira. You can create roadmaps for product development, set up sprints and pull in the data you need from customers and teams. In fact, Airtable is an ideal choice for data management of any kind, whether you’re tracking bugs, issues or leads and deals.

All Airtable plans come with automation and extension features. The automated workflow builder is easy to use with no code required to set up the triggers and actions. The extensions are built-in integrations that extend the functionality of Airtable, such as pivot tables, flowcharts and time trackers.

Learn more: Read our full Airtable review.

Who should use it:

Airtable is a flexible database management solution that can be customized to work for any type of business or team. With easy-to-use spreadsheets and import functions, it’s ideal for managing data for bug and issue tracking, lead management or task management.

Airtable offers a forever free plan that’s good for up to five people, which is fewer than the 10 that Jira supports for free. However, you can create an unlimited number of bases on Airtable and you can invite an unlimited number of guests to comment and view your sheets. Airtable allows up to 50 automations per base, 25 actions per automation and no limits on where they can be used, unlike Jira, which limits you to one project.

The benefit to going with a paid plan from Airtable is that you get more automations, more extensions and customization of fields, forms and formats. There is a free plan for small groups just getting started in Airtable, but for paid plans, the entry-level Team plan costs $20 per user per month (billed annually) and the Business plan costs $45 per seat per month (billed annually). Enterprise plans are by custom quote only.

Although it would make most sense to use Teamwork.com in conjunction with Jira, it can serve as a Jira alternative, especially if you need to manage projects, tasks and issues for clients. Teamwork.com can be configured to work as well for product teams as it does for marketing teams. Use cards on a Kanban-style board for sprints and create forms for logging bugs and issues. You can also use Teamwork’s built-in time tracking tool for billable hours, Gantt charts for a wider view and client views.

Learn more: Read our full Teamwork.com review.

Who should use it:

Teamwork.com offers lots of options that are helpful for agencies that need client-based tools, many of which are available in the free plan. However, there are multiple features on the paid plans that make it an excellent Jira alternative, such as intake forms and project status reports.

Up to five users can use Teamwork.com for free, which is half that of Jira’s free plan, but Teamwork.com gives you time tracking, task templates, custom fields and automations. It’s a feature-packed free plan, especially for client-facing businesses that need to send invoices and offer a client view of work in progress. Paid plans start at $10.99 per user per month (billed annually) for the Deliver, but has a three-user minimum. Additional plans for more robust, complex project management include the Grow plan for $19.99 per user per month (five-user minimum) and the Scale plan for $54.99 per user per month (also with a five-user minimum).

Wrike is similar to most project management tools with its feature set, but when comparing it to Jira, it ends up being a more versatile solution for all the teams in your business. It’s especially useful for task management because so much attention is paid to how much you can do. If you’ve integrated certain software, you can use Wrike’s artificial intelligence-assisted task management to create a task from email or a document. There are subtasks and infinite nesting options, so you can keep all related tasks in one place.

Additionally, Wrike provides easy-to-use automation and workflow tools. You can customize each project to look and perform precisely how you want, which is far more flexible than Jira. The dynamic Gantt chart adjusts due dates and dependencies automatically as you shuffle around tasks, making it easier to see a bird’s-eye view of your project and your proposed schedule. And it’s worth noting that Wrike topped our list of the best Gantt chart software.

Learn more: Read our full Wrike review.

Who should use it:

Wrike is best for teams that want dynamic task management. You can turn a list into tasks on a project and use request forms to log bugs or issues. These advanced features make it a great Jira alternative, but it is more expensive.

Wrike provides a generous free plan with no limit to the number of users you can have. It does limit your storage space and views (table and Kanban only). Automations are limited to paid plans only. The entry-level plan costs $10 per user per month (billed annually) and the Business plan costs $25 per user per month (billed annually). You are required to have at least two users on the Team plan and five users on the Business plan, which makes Wrike quite a bit pricier than Jira.

Confluence is more of a workspace app or team collaboration tool than traditional project management software. So, rather than suggest it as a Jira alternative, it’s best used in conjunction with Jira or another project management app. Confluence offers document editing, wiki pages and macros that make it simpler to collaborate with colleagues across different departments.

The real-time editing of pages is the star of Confluence because you can build precisely what you need, whether it’s a wiki page, a project plan or sprint retrospectives with teammates or cross-department coworkers. You won’t find built-in Gantt charts, grid views or a Kanban-style board, but you can use the 100-plus templates to create roadmaps, product launch plans and error reports. Plus, the tools in the document builder are powerful enough to help you build a DIY task or bug tracking system with status updates, priorities and task management.

Learn more: Read our full Confluence review.

Who should use it:

So much of Confluence is about collaboration, which is why it’s best for teams that need to work across departments to plan, schedule and execute projects together while using separate software for managing those projects.

Confluence is free for 10 users and you get unlimited pages and spaces. For more users and more file storage, upgrade to a paid plan, which starts at $6.40 per user per month (estimated cost; billed annually), which is less expensive than Jira. The Premium plan costs $12.30 per user per month (estimate cost; billed annually) and includes analytics, 24/7 support and team calendars.