Open-source alternatives to Jira: 5 project and issue tracking tools compared
Every one of these puts the database on your own server, and what you take on is a stack you have to size, back up and upgrade, which is a different job from configuring a hosted tracker. makeplane/plane is the one most readers should look at first, because its work items, cycles and views map onto the way most software teams already work.
What Jira does, and why people look elsewhere
Jira is Atlassian's hosted issue tracker for software teams: backlogs, sprints, boards, roadmaps and workflows tied to a permission scheme.
- per-user pricing across the whole organisation
- the self-managed Server edition was discontinued, leaving Data Center or cloud only
- configuration complexity that makes moving projects out slow
The candidates at a glance
| Project | Licence | Maintenance | Language | GitHub stars | Install | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| makeplane/plane | AGPL-3.0Network copyleft: hosting a modified version means sharing source | Commits in the last six monthsLast push October 9, 2026 | TypeScript | 60,673 | See analysis | You want issue tracking with sprints and roadmap views on your own infrastructure. The README lists work items with a rich text editor and file uploads, cycles with burn-down charts, modules, saved and shareable filtered views, pages with AI capabilities, and real-time analytics. |
| opf/openproject | GPL-3.0Copyleft: distributing it means sharing source | Commits in the last dayLast push October 11, 2026 | Ruby | 16,383 | See analysis | You need the full project management surface, not just an issue tracker: project and portfolio management, Gantt scheduling, agile boards with Kanban, Scrum and SAFe, time tracking with cost reporting and budgeting, meeting agendas and minutes, and integrations with Nextcloud, XWiki, GitHub and GitLab. |
| go-vikunja/vikunja | AGPL-3.0Network copyleft: hosting a modified version means sharing source | Commits in the last six monthsLast push October 4, 2026 | Go | 5,605 | See analysis | You want a task manager you own, with a real API, that runs as one Go binary or one container against a database you choose. It is the smallest of the five and the one where the API is the main product rather than an afterthought. |
| hcengineering/platform | EPL-2.0Weak copyleft: changes to its own files stay open | Commits in the last six monthsLast push October 2, 2026 | TypeScript | 27,838 | Command documented | You want a TypeScript codebase you can extend rather than configure, because the platform ships Chat, Project Management, CRM, HRM and ATS applications on top of one shared framework, and teams are already building products on it. |
| Leantime/leantime | AGPL-3.0Network copyleft: hosting a modified version means sharing source | Commits in the last dayLast push October 11, 2026 | PHP | 11,808 | See analysis | You want a project management system built around goals rather than issue types, for a team where nobody has run a project before. The repository describes it as a goals-focused system designed with ADHD, autism and dyslexia in mind, written in PHP under AGPL-3.0. |
Each alternative in detail
makeplane/plane🔥🔥🔥 Open-source Jira, Linear, Monday, and ClickUp alternative. Plane is a modern project management platform to manage tasks, sprints, docs, and triage.
- Best for
- You want issue tracking with sprints and roadmap views on your own infrastructure. The README lists work items with a rich text editor and file uploads, cycles with burn-down charts, modules, saved and shareable filtered views, pages with AI capabilities, and real-time analytics.
- What you give up
- AGPL-3.0 is the constraint that shapes who can adopt it, and our analysis of Plane says to skip it if your legal review cannot accept network copyleft terms or if you need a negotiated support contract. There is also no documented rollback, so you need a tested database backup and restore path before you upgrade rather than after. Configuration is not trivial either: the storage and email settings live in apps/api/.env.
opf/openprojectOpenProject is the leading open source project management software for product, project and portfolio management. A powerful Jira alternative with agile planning, issue tracking, roadmaps, Gantt charts, time tracking, collaboration features, and more. Available on premises or in the cloud. ⭐ Star us on GitHub
- Best for
- You need the full project management surface, not just an issue tracker: project and portfolio management, Gantt scheduling, agile boards with Kanban, Scrum and SAFe, time tracking with cost reporting and budgeting, meeting agendas and minutes, and integrations with Nextcloud, XWiki, GitHub and GitLab.
- What you give up
- It is a Rails application with PostgreSQL and Memcached behind it, which is a heavier runtime to own than a single container. The feature you want may be an Enterprise add-on rather than Community, and our analysis of OpenProject tells you to check that before you commit. The install path also moved: the repository's own docker-compose.yml now redirects to the separate openproject-docker-compose project.
go-vikunja/vikunjaThe task manager you actually own.
- Best for
- You want a task manager you own, with a real API, that runs as one Go binary or one container against a database you choose. It is the smallest of the five and the one where the API is the main product rather than an afterthought.
- What you give up
- The README points people who need an admin panel, audit logs or time tracking to Vikunja Pro, so those are the three things most likely to send you back to a commercial tracker. The licence is also split: most of the repository is AGPL-3.0-or-later while the desktop directory is GPL-3.0-or-later, so a company that packages the desktop app has to read both. And AGPL-3.0-or-later reaches users of a network service, which is the case a tracker always is.
hcengineering/platformHuly — All-in-One Project Management Platform (alternative to Linear, Jira, Slack, Notion, Motion)
- Best for
- You want a TypeScript codebase you can extend rather than configure, because the platform ships Chat, Project Management, CRM, HRM and ATS applications on top of one shared framework, and teams are already building products on it.
- What you give up
- Hosted Huly has shut down, and the README states the hosted service was discontinued because its hosting is no longer funded, so this is a build-it-yourself proposition with no managed fallback. The build needs Node.js v20.11.0, Docker and Docker Compose, and dependencies come from GitHub Packages authenticated with a token carrying at least read:packages. Development versions are marked with an s prefix and are explicitly not recommended for production.
- First install step
- Full setup guide
docker --version docker compose version
Leantime/leantimeLeantime is a goals focused project management system for non-project managers. Building with ADHD, Autism, and dyslexia in mind.
- Best for
- You want a project management system built around goals rather than issue types, for a team where nobody has run a project before. The repository describes it as a goals-focused system designed with ADHD, autism and dyslexia in mind, written in PHP under AGPL-3.0.
- What you give up
- It carries no tagged GitHub releases, so there is no version to pin and no release notes to read before an upgrade, which means you are tracking a branch rather than a release. The licence is AGPL-3.0, so a company that modifies it and hosts the modified version owes the source to everyone who reaches it. And its stated audience is non-project managers, so a permission scheme or a configurable workflow model is not what it is built around.
From issue trackers to a framework you build on
Jira is Atlassian's hosted issue tracker for software teams: backlogs, sprints, boards, roadmaps and workflows tied to a permission scheme. People look elsewhere for three reasons. Per-user pricing across the whole organisation. The self-managed Server edition was discontinued, leaving Data Center or cloud only. And a configuration model so deep that moving projects out becomes slow in itself.
Those reasons produce tools with noticeably different centres of gravity.
makeplane/plane is the one that most closely reproduces the software team's mental model. The README lists work items with a rich text editor and file uploads, sub-properties and references to related issues, cycles with burn-down charts, modules, saved views built from filters, pages with AI capabilities, and real-time analytics. It is a TypeScript and Django application installed with Docker Compose or Kubernetes, and it is AGPL-3.0.
opf/openproject is the widest. It is a Rails application covering project and portfolio management, Gantt scheduling, agile boards with Kanban, Scrum and SAFe, product and release planning, time tracking with cost reporting and budgeting, bug tracking, wikis and forums, and meeting agendas and minutes. If Jira's breadth is what you valued, this is the candidate that keeps it.
go-vikunja/vikunja is the narrowest and the simplest. A Go and Vue task manager, one binary or one container, and the README's own pitch is that the task manager is one you actually own. Its API is treated as a first-class product, with OpenAPI docs published.
hcengineering/platform is a different category again. It is a TypeScript monorepo that ships Chat, Project Management, CRM, HRM and ATS applications on one shared framework, and the README describes teams building products on top of it. That is a framework decision, not a tracker decision.
Leantime/leantime sits apart from all four by premise: the repository describes a goals-focused project management system for non-project managers, designed with ADHD, autism and dyslexia in mind. It is a different starting question, from goals rather than from issue types.
Left out, and worth saying why: the issue trackers that are themselves products of a hosting company, and the DevOps-oriented trackers that treat a pull request as the unit of work. Both solve adjacent problems, and neither is what someone leaving Jira for data residency is looking for.
Why Asana, ClickUp and Linear are not on this list
Asana, ClickUp and Linear are the three names that appear next to Jira in most of these searches, and none of them is here, because all three are hosted services that keep your issues on someone else's servers.
There is no argument against them on quality grounds. Asana is a strong general work tracker, ClickUp packs a great deal into one product, and Linear is fast and opinionated in a way that developers like. If nobody on your team needs to run a database, each of them is a reasonable answer to the question, and this page is not making a case against them.
The reason none of them qualifies is the one in the brief. Per-user pricing across the whole organisation, the disappearance of the self-managed Server edition, and a configuration model that makes leaving slow are all reasons to move, and all three of those products keep the same conditions: your data lives with the vendor.
One more category worth naming is absent: the trackers built by the DevOps tool vendors, which are free because they come with the surrounding product and are not general purpose. They are a good fit if you already run that ecosystem and a poor fit if you are choosing an issue tracker on its own merits.
There is also a self-hosted middle here that this page does not cover: trackers you run yourself but which are sold with a support contract attached. Those exist and are worth a look when the operational burden is the objection rather than the data location.
Choosing by scenario: a solo developer, a small team, a regulated company, a team that wants to extend the code
The five differ in how much of a platform each one is, and that maps fairly cleanly onto who is going to run it.
A solo developer with one project should look at go-vikunja/vikunja. One binary or one container, a database you choose, and an API that makes it easy to script the parts a UI does not cover. It is the smallest commitment of the five.
A small software team with sprints is the case for makeplane/plane. Cycles, modules and saved views are the vocabulary most teams already use, and the Docker Compose path is the shortest of the three full trackers here. The AGPL-3.0 licence is the thing to settle early, because our analysis of Plane is direct that it shapes who can adopt it.
A company in a regulated industry, or one that simply cannot have its issue data outside the network, has the widest choice and the heaviest consequences. opf/openproject is the pick when the requirement is feature parity, because it is the only one of the five that covers Gantt scheduling, cost reporting and meeting management in the Community shape. It is also the heaviest to operate, being a Rails application with PostgreSQL and Memcached.
A team that wants to extend rather than adopt is the case for hcengineering/platform. Because it is a monorepo of applications on a shared framework, a team that will eventually want a CRM or an ATS on the same data model can start there. The cost is that you are adopting a build, not an application, and hosted Huly is gone.
What each one asks you to run, back up and upgrade
The install commands on this page are the shortest way to see the difference, and one of them is not an install at all.
makeplane/plane, opf/openproject and Leantime/leantime all start from Docker Compose. For Plane it is docker compose up -d, and the settings that decide whether the instance works, storage and email, live in apps/api/.env. For OpenProject it is copying .env.example to .env and then docker compose up -d, with the caveat from our analysis that the repository's own compose file now redirects to the separate openproject-docker-compose repository, which is where the current path lives.
go-vikunja/vikunja is a container pull and nothing else, which is the simplest shape here, and it also builds to a single binary if you would rather not run a container at all.
hcengineering/platform shows docker --version and docker compose version on this page, which are the README's verification checks rather than a deployment. That is the honest signal: the supported path is a separate huly-selfhost project, and the platform repository itself is a build that needs Node.js v20.11.0 plus authenticated access to GitHub Packages.
The upgrade question is where these differ most and where the documentation is thinnest. Our analysis of Plane notes that the README does not document rollback, which makes a tested restore the thing you need before the first upgrade. OpenProject's install path moved out from under the repository, so check where you are pointed before you script anything. Huly splits its tags deliberately, with v versions recommended for production and s versions marked as development builds not recommended for production, which is a good sign and still means you choose a tag. Leantime/leantime has no tagged releases at all, so there is no version to pin.
Licences: AGPL in three places, GPL in one, and one permissive outlier
Three of the five are AGPL, which makes this a licence-decision page more than a feature-decision page.
makeplane/plane, go-vikunja/vikunja and Leantime/leantime all carry AGPL-3.0, and Vikunja adds a detail worth reading: most of the repository is AGPL-3.0-or-later while the desktop directory is GPL-3.0-or-later. The obligation that matters for a tracker is the network one. If you run a modified instance and your team reaches it over a network, the source obligation applies to those users. Internal use without modification is the ordinary case and it is unremarkable, but a company that forks a tracker to add a field is now in a different conversation.
opf/openproject is GPL-3.0, which does not reach network use. That is a materially easier review, and it is part of why it is the candidate that shows up in organisations with a strict legal function.
hcengineering/platform is EPL-2.0, the outlier and the most permissive of the five. Weak copyleft, modification rights that survive distribution, and no network clause to reason about.
One point applies across all of them. A permissive licence tells you that running a modified tracker is allowed. It does not tell you who restores the database at the weekend, and for an issue tracker that has become the record of what your team agreed to do, that is the operational fact that matters more than the copyright.
Bottom line
Pick go-vikunja/vikunja for one developer who wants a task manager and an API on one container, makeplane/plane for a small software team that wants cycles and views, opf/openproject for an organisation that needs Gantt, cost reporting and meeting management in a self-hosted shape, hcengineering/platform for a team that intends to build on the code rather than configure it, and Leantime/leantime when the team has no project manager and needs goals rather than issue types. Before committing, settle the AGPL question for Plane, Vikunja and Leantime, confirm where OpenProject's current install path lives, and test a database restore before your first upgrade.