You can no longer start a new self-hosted Jira: Atlassian ended Jira Server in 2024, stopped selling Data Center to new customers on March 30, 2026, and will make Data Center read-only on March 28, 2029. If you need Jira self-hosted on your own servers in the long run, you need an open-source alternative. The best options are Plane for software teams that want a modern, Jira-like issue tracker, OpenProject for classic project management with Gantt charts and budgets, and Taiga, Leantime or Huly for agile, non-technical or all-in-one teams.
The end of self-hosted Jira: key dates
Atlassian has been moving customers to its cloud for years. The self-managed timeline as of October 2026:
| Date | What happens |
|---|---|
| February 15, 2024 | Jira Server end of support |
| March 30, 2026 | New customers can no longer buy Data Center subscriptions or Marketplace Data Center apps |
| March 30, 2028 | Last day existing customers can buy new Data Center subscriptions, apps or expansions |
| March 28, 2029 | Data Center end of life; subscriptions expire and products become read-only |
Until 2029 Atlassian continues technical support and critical security fixes. After that, the only Atlassian option is Jira Cloud, which runs on Atlassian's infrastructure. For teams with data residency rules, air-gapped networks or a policy of owning their tools, that is the trigger to look elsewhere.
The alternatives at a glance
| Licence | Best for | Jira-style features | Self-hosting weight | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Plane | AGPL-3.0 | Software teams | Issues, cycles (sprints), modules, epics, roadmaps, Jira importer | Moderate (Docker) |
| OpenProject | GPL-3.0 | Classic and hybrid PM | Work packages, Gantt, agile boards, time and cost tracking | Moderate (packages or Docker) |
| Taiga | MPL-2.0 | Scrum and Kanban teams | Backlogs, sprints, user stories, Kanban | Moderate (Docker) |
| Leantime | AGPL-3.0 | Non-project-managers, small teams | Tasks, milestones, timesheets, strategy tools | Light (PHP, MySQL) |
| Huly | EPL-2.0 | All-in-one workspace | Issues, docs, chat, video calls | Heavy (8 GB RAM minimum) |
Plane: the closest Jira replacement
Plane is the most popular open-source issue tracker on GitHub, with about 60,400 stars. It covers the Jira concepts software teams rely on: issues with custom states and properties, cycles for sprints, modules for grouping work, epics, multiple layouts (list, board, spreadsheet, calendar, Gantt) and wiki-style pages. Its interface is closer to Linear than to Jira, which most teams consider an upgrade.
Plane's Community Edition is AGPL-3.0. Its commercial self-hosted edition adds a Free plan for up to 12 users, Pro at $6 per user per month and Business at $13 per user per month, both billed annually as of October 2026. Its built-in Jira importer is available on every plan, which makes it the easiest migration on this list.
OpenProject: for organisations that need real project management
OpenProject is the most mature tool here and recorded more than 16,000 commits in the past year, the most of any project on this list. Work packages cover tasks, bugs, features and milestones; the Community edition includes Gantt charts, agile boards, time tracking, wikis, meetings and file storage integrations. It suits PMOs, public sector and engineering organisations that need plans, baselines and budgets rather than just a backlog.
The Community edition is GPL-3.0 and free. Enterprise on-premises plans add extra features and vendor support, starting at €5.95 per user per month for Basic with a 25-user minimum, as of October 2026. OpenProject publishes packages for Debian, Ubuntu and RHEL-family systems as well as Docker images.
Taiga: focused agile, slower development
Taiga is a clean Scrum and Kanban tool with backlogs, sprints, user stories, epics and burndown charts, under MPL-2.0. Teams that use Jira mainly for agile boards find it intuitive. The caveat is momentum: its backend repository recorded only 83 commits in the past year, so expect maintenance rather than new features.
Leantime: project management for people who are not project managers
Leantime targets small teams and non-specialists, with tasks, milestones, timesheets, idea boards and lean strategy tools, and a design that explicitly considers users with ADHD, autism and dyslexia. The self-hosted edition is AGPL-3.0 and free; extras such as whiteboards and custom fields are paid plugins. It runs on PHP and MySQL, so it fits on a small VPS.
Huly: the all-in-one option, with a heavy footprint
Huly combines issue tracking with documents, team chat and video calls, positioning itself against Jira, Linear, Slack and Notion at once. It is EPL-2.0 and actively developed. Self-hosting is the heaviest on this list: its documentation asks for at least 2 vCPUs and 8 GB of RAM, recommends 4 vCPUs and 16 GB, and deploys CockroachDB, Elasticsearch, Redpanda and MinIO. The project itself notes that the bundled CockroachDB and Redpanda configurations may not be production-ready, so plan for proper operations work.
OpenProject
Manage your projects, tasks and goals. Collaborate via work packages and link them to your pull requests on Github.
Leantime
Lean project management system for small teams and startups helping to manage projects from ideation through delivery.
Huly
All-in-one project management platform (alternative to Linear, Jira, Slack, Notion, Motion).
Other options
If your code already lives in GitLab, its built-in issues, boards, milestones and epics may be enough; see our GitLab deploy guide. ZenTao is another AGPL-licensed Scrum tool with a strong following in Asia. For lightweight kanban, browse the task management category.
Planning the migration
Treat the move as a project of its own. Start by auditing what your Jira instance actually does: custom fields, workflows, automation rules and Marketplace apps often carry more business logic than people remember. Decide which of those you need on day one and which can be simplified. Run the new tool alongside Jira for one team for a sprint or two, then migrate the remaining projects in batches. Keep a read-only Jira export for audit history, and put the new tool behind single sign-on and regular database backups from the start.
How to choose
- Software team replacing Jira Software: Plane.
- Organisation that needs Gantt, budgets and time tracking: OpenProject.
- Pure Scrum or Kanban, small team: Taiga or Leantime.
- You also want to replace Slack and Confluence: Huly, if you have the hardware.
Whatever you pick, export your Jira data while your Data Center instance is still writable, and migrate one project first. Browse every open-source Jira alternative, the full project management category, and open-source Confluence alternatives for your documentation.
