Best Jira Alternatives in 2026
Eight issue trackers for software teams leaving Jira, compared on free tiers, sprint support and what 25 users pay in a year, with prices read on vendor pages in October 2026.
Linear is the best Jira alternative for most software teams in 2026: free for 250 issues, then $10 per user a month on Basic, billed yearly. YouTrack is the cheapest like-for-like swap at $1,350 a year for 25 users on annual billing, and GitHub Projects costs nothing extra if your code already lives on GitHub.
Shortcut and Plane give small teams a free tier with sprints. ClickUp, monday dev and Asana suit teams where engineers share the tool with non-engineers. Jira Standard now runs $9.70 per user a month on monthly billing after Atlassian's 13 October 2026 rise.
Key facts8 tools compared: Linear, YouTrack, GitHub Projects, Shortcut, Plane, ClickUp, monday dev…
- 8 tools compared: Linear, YouTrack, GitHub Projects, Shortcut, Plane, ClickUp, monday dev, Asana
- YouTrack (best for: Teams that want a full-featured Jira replacement at the lowest per-seat rate on this list): Free up to 10 users; from $4.50/user/mo billed annually for 11+ users, $5.40 on monthly billing at 11 users.
- GitHub Projects (best for: Engineering teams whose code already lives on GitHub and who want issues next to pull requests): Included on GitHub Free; Team $4/user/mo for the first 12 months; Enterprise from $21/user/mo.
- Shortcut (best for: Small software teams that want sprints, roadmaps and docs free, then a modest per-seat plan): Free up to 10 users; Team $8.50 and Business $12/user/mo billed yearly; higher monthly.
Jira is still the default issue tracker, so the question for a team weighing a switch is rarely what Jira lacks. It is what Jira costs and how much configuration it asks for. Atlassian raised Jira Cloud list prices on 13 October 2026, and Standard now costs $9.70 per user a month for the first 100 users on monthly billing, per its new pricing tables. For a 25-person team, that is the moment a cheaper or lighter tracker becomes worth a migration.
The eight tools below fix different Jira complaints. Some cost less per seat, some keep a free tier for longer, and some simply load faster and ask for less configuration. None of them match Jira's depth of workflow customization, so the right choice depends on which Jira feature your team never used.
Toolradar data: Jira is listed as an alternative to 48 other tools on its Toolradar profile, the most of the 23 bug tracking tools Toolradar ranks, as of October 2026. Toolradar is the software directory we run, and that reach is why a Jira price change sends so many teams looking.
Top Picks
Based on features, real-world fit, and value for money.
The developer favorite: issues, projects and cycles in a fast app, with AI triage and code features on Business.
Free for 250 issues; Basic $10/user/mo and Business $16/user/mo, billed yearly; Enterprise custom.
Product and engineering teams that want a fast, opinionated tracker and accept less workflow customization than Jira.
JetBrains' issue tracker, with every feature on the free plan and a price per user that falls as the team grows.
Free up to 10 users; from $4.50/user/mo billed annually for 11+ users, $5.40 on monthly billing at 11 users.
Teams that want a full-featured Jira replacement at the lowest per-seat rate on this list.
Issues and Projects built into GitHub, with tables, boards and roadmaps over issues and pull requests.
Included on GitHub Free; Team $4/user/mo for the first 12 months; Enterprise from $21/user/mo.
Engineering teams whose code already lives on GitHub and who want issues next to pull requests.
| Tool | Pricing | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Linear | Free for 250 issues; Basic $10/user/mo and Business $16/user/mo, billed yearly; Enterprise custom. | Product and engineering teams that want a fast, opinionated tracker and accept less workflow customization than Jira. |
| YouTrack | Free up to 10 users; from $4.50/user/mo billed annually for 11+ users, $5.40 on monthly billing at 11 users. | Teams that want a full-featured Jira replacement at the lowest per-seat rate on this list. |
| GitHub Projects | Included on GitHub Free; Team $4/user/mo for the first 12 months; Enterprise from $21/user/mo. | Engineering teams whose code already lives on GitHub and who want issues next to pull requests. |
| Shortcut | Free up to 10 users; Team $8.50 and Business $12/user/mo billed yearly; higher monthly. | Small software teams that want sprints, roadmaps and docs free, then a modest per-seat plan. |
| Plane | Free up to 12 users; Pro $6/seat/mo and Business $13/seat/mo billed annually; Enterprise Grid custom. | Startups that want Jira-style work items, cycles and pages with the most generous free headcount here. |
| ClickUp | Free Forever; Unlimited $7/user/mo and Business $12/user/mo, billed yearly; higher monthly. | Teams where engineering shares one workspace with marketing, ops or support. |
| monday dev | Basic $9, Standard $12, Pro $20 per seat/mo billed annually; seat bundles start at 3. | Product teams already on monday.com that want roadmaps and sprints in the same account. |
| Asana | Free for 2 users; Starter $10.99/user/mo billed annually ($13.49 monthly); Advanced $24.99. | Cross-functional teams that plan launches with engineering but do not run Scrum inside the tracker. |
Pricing read from each vendor's own pricing page, checked Oct 2026. 2 of 8 publish prices for some plans and quote the rest.
Linear
The developer favorite: issues, projects and cycles in a fast app, with AI triage and code features on Business.
- Pricing
- Free for 250 issues; Basic $10/user/mo and Business $16/user/mo, billed yearly; Enterprise custom.
Best for: Product and engineering teams that want a fast, opinionated tracker and accept less workflow customization than Jira.
Pros
- Free plan allows unlimited members and includes the agent platform and Linear Agent, so a whole team can try it.
- Basic removes the issue cap and adds 5 teams and admin roles for a per-seat rate close to Jira Standard.
- Business adds Triage Intelligence, Code Intelligence, Insights and private teams with guests.
Cons
- The free plan stops at 250 issues, which an active team can fill within weeks.
- SAML, SCIM and audit controls wait for Enterprise, which is a quote and annual billing only.
YouTrack
JetBrains' issue tracker, with every feature on the free plan and a price per user that falls as the team grows.
- Pricing
- Free up to 10 users; from $4.50/user/mo billed annually for 11+ users, $5.40 on monthly billing at 11 users.
Best for: Teams that want a full-featured Jira replacement at the lowest per-seat rate on this list.
Pros
- The free plan for up to 10 users carries all paid functionality except a custom logo, plus 30 GB of storage.
- Annual billing saves two months, and JetBrains' calculator prices a 25-user team below Jira's annual tier.
- Per-user price drops with team size, and annual subscribers can add up to 50% more users mid-term.
Cons
- Paid storage is 3 GB per user and cannot be bought separately, so file-heavy teams add users to get space.
- Monthly billing charges for the peak number of active accounts in the month, which can surprise a team with churn.
GitHub Projects
Issues and Projects built into GitHub, with tables, boards and roadmaps over issues and pull requests.
- Pricing
- Included on GitHub Free; Team $4/user/mo for the first 12 months; Enterprise from $21/user/mo.
Best for: Engineering teams whose code already lives on GitHub and who want issues next to pull requests.
Pros
- Issues and Projects come with the GitHub plan a team already pays for, so there is no second tracker bill.
- Projects shows issues and pull requests in tables, boards and roadmaps with custom fields.
- Team at $4 per user a month in year one is the lowest paid rate on this list.
Cons
- GitHub prints Team's rate for the first 12 months, so budget the second year separately.
- Non-engineers need GitHub accounts to work in it, which suits a code team more than a mixed one.
Shortcut
A developer tracker with stories, epics, iterations and a roadmap on the free plan.
- Pricing
- Free up to 10 users; Team $8.50 and Business $12/user/mo billed yearly; higher monthly.
Best for: Small software teams that want sprints, roadmaps and docs free, then a modest per-seat plan.
Pros
- Free covers Kanban, roadmap, reports, iterations, docs, and GitHub, Slack and Figma integrations for 10 users.
- Team adds up to 5 workflows, WIP limits and automations; on monthly billing it sits just above Jira Standard's rate.
- Business adds OKRs, advanced custom fields and multiple workspaces for sandboxing.
Cons
- The free plan allows 1 team and 1 workflow, so a second squad pushes you onto Team.
- SSO and SCIM sit on Enterprise, a custom quote.
Plane
A newer tracker with work items, cycles, modules, intake and pages, priced per seat.
- Pricing
- Free up to 12 users; Pro $6/seat/mo and Business $13/seat/mo billed annually; Enterprise Grid custom.
Best for: Startups that want Jira-style work items, cycles and pages with the most generous free headcount here.
Pros
- Free covers 12 users with work items, cycles and modules, five layouts, intake and estimates.
- Pro on annual billing undercuts the yearly entry tiers of Linear and Shortcut.
- Enterprise Grid includes a white-glove switch from other project management software.
Cons
- Approval workflows by work item type and audit trails wait for Enterprise Grid, a quote.
- Annual billing saves 25%, so the monthly rate on Pro and Business is higher than the headline.
ClickUp
An all-in-one work platform with sprint management on the free plan and docs, chat and goals around it.
- Pricing
- Free Forever; Unlimited $7/user/mo and Business $12/user/mo, billed yearly; higher monthly.
Best for: Teams where engineering shares one workspace with marketing, ops or support.
Pros
- Free Forever includes sprint management, Kanban boards and unlimited free plan members.
- Unlimited on yearly billing is the cheapest paid tier from the general work platforms here.
- Business adds sprint points and reporting, Google SSO and 5,000 automations a month.
Cons
- Free storage is 60 MB, so attachments push a team onto a paid plan quickly.
- Business jumps to $19 a seat on monthly billing, so the yearly term matters more here than on most tools.
monday dev
monday.com's development product, with sprint management and a GitHub sync from Standard upward.
- Pricing
- Basic $9, Standard $12, Pro $20 per seat/mo billed annually; seat bundles start at 3.
Best for: Product teams already on monday.com that want roadmaps and sprints in the same account.
Pros
- Unlimited free viewers let stakeholders read boards without paid seats.
- Standard adds sprint management with story points, a roadmap and a two-way GitHub sync.
- Basic includes capacity planning, a daily stand-up tool and AI sprint summaries.
Cons
- Sprint management is not on Basic, so a Scrum team's real floor is Standard.
- Standard caps automations and integrations at 250 actions a month each.
Asana
A work management platform with timelines, dashboards and unlimited automations from Starter.
- Pricing
- Free for 2 users; Starter $10.99/user/mo billed annually ($13.49 monthly); Advanced $24.99.
Best for: Cross-functional teams that plan launches with engineering but do not run Scrum inside the tracker.
Pros
- Starter removes seat limits and adds timeline and Gantt views, dashboards, forms and unlimited automations.
- Unlimited free guests let contractors and clients work in projects without a license.
- Starter includes AI Teammates requests and AI Studio credits.
Cons
- The free Personal plan stops at 2 users, so a team pays from day one.
- Starter costs more per user than Jira Standard on monthly billing, the priciest entry tier here.
What it is
A Jira alternative is an issue tracker that replaces Jira Software for planning and shipping work: backlogs, sprints or cycles, bug reports and a link to the code. The category splits into developer-first trackers (Linear, Shortcut, YouTrack, Plane), trackers inside the code host (GitHub Projects), and general work platforms with a development mode (ClickUp, monday dev, Asana).
Directory profiles for Linear, Shortcut, Plane, ClickUp and Asana sit on Toolradar for readers who want more detail. We ranked them for a software team moving off Jira, on four criteria read from each vendor's pricing page in October 2026: whether sprints or cycles are on the entry plan, how far the free tier goes, what 25 users pay in a year, and how close the tool sits to engineering work. This is a read of vendor pages, not a product trial.
Why it matters
The per-seat rise is only part of Jira's bill. Annual Jira Standard is sold in user tiers, so a 25-user team pays $2,450 a year on annual billing, while the same team on monthly billing pays $2,910 a year by our arithmetic. Every alternative below prints a price you can compare against those two numbers, and four of them undercut both for 25 users.
The second trap is the free tier. Jira Free stops at 10 users. YouTrack and Shortcut also stop at 10, Plane at 12, while Linear's free plan allows unlimited members but caps the workspace at 250 issues. A team that picks a tracker for its free tier should check which limit it hits first: headcount or issue count.
Key features to look for
Pricing
Methodology: every price was read on the vendor's own pricing page on October 19, 2026, in USD: Jira, Linear, YouTrack, GitHub, Shortcut, Plane, ClickUp, monday dev and Asana. Jira's post-rise rates come from Atlassian's pricing tables effective 13 October 2026.
What 25 users pay for a year, our arithmetic on those printed prices, entry paid plan on yearly billing unless noted: GitHub Team $1,200 (first-year rate), YouTrack $1,350 (JetBrains' own calculator), Plane Pro $1,800, ClickUp Unlimited $2,100, Jira Standard annual $2,450, Shortcut Team $2,550, Linear Basic $3,000 and Asana Starter $3,297. Jira Standard on monthly billing is $2,910. monday dev sells seats in bundles, so price the bundle that fits your team on its page.
The pattern: YouTrack, GitHub, Plane and ClickUp undercut Jira at 25 users, Shortcut sits close to it, and Linear and Asana cost more. Linear's premium buys speed and AI triage rather than savings, which is why it still tops the list.
| Plan | Price | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Linear Basic | $10/user/mo, billed yearly | Unlimited issues, 5 teams, unlimited uploads and admin roles. |
| Linear Business | $16/user/mo, billed yearly | Unlimited teams, private teams and guests, Triage and Code Intelligence, Insights. |
| YouTrack, 25 users, annual | $1,350/yr | All features of the free plan plus a custom logo, 3 GB of storage per user. |
| GitHub Team | $4/user/mo, first 12 months | Issues and Projects plus team collaboration features on top of GitHub Free. |
| Shortcut Team | $8.50/user/mo yearly, $10 monthly | Up to 5 teams and workflows, WIP limits, automations and all integrations. |
| Plane Pro | $6/seat/mo, billed annually | Team-level customization and a guest ratio of 1 to 5 on top of the free work items and cycles. |
| ClickUp Unlimited | $7/user/mo yearly | Unlimited storage, spaces, Gantt charts, integrations and custom fields. |
| monday dev Standard | $12/seat/mo, billed annually | Sprint management, roadmap, Gantt and a two-way GitHub sync. |
| Asana Starter | $10.99/user/mo yearly, $13.49 monthly | Timeline and Gantt, dashboards, forms, unlimited automations and free guests. |
| Jira Standard, monthly | $9.70/user/mo | Rate for users 1 to 100 after the 13 October 2026 rise; free plan covers 10 users. |
| Jira Standard, annual, 25 users | $2,450/yr | Annual Jira is sold in user tiers rather than per seat. |
The bottom line
Leave Jira for Linear if speed and a clean workflow matter more than saving money. Its Basic plan costs about what Jira Standard does, and Business adds AI triage and code features. Leave it for YouTrack if you want Jira's depth for less, since its free plan already holds every paid feature for 10 users.
Choose GitHub Projects if your team lives in pull requests, Shortcut or Plane if a small team wants sprints free for longer, and ClickUp, monday dev or Asana if engineers share the tracker with the rest of the company. Read Jira pricing for the full post-rise breakdown, Jira vs Linear for the head-to-head, and the project management software guide for non-engineering teams.
Cite this: Techpresso, "Best Jira Alternatives 2026", October 2026.
Frequently asked questions
What is the best alternative to Jira in 2026?
Linear is the best Jira alternative for most software teams: free for 250 issues with unlimited members, then a per-seat Basic plan billed yearly, as read on its pricing page in October 2026. YouTrack is the cheaper like-for-like swap, and GitHub Projects costs nothing extra for teams already on GitHub.
Is there a free alternative to Jira?
Yes. YouTrack and Shortcut are free for up to 10 users, Plane for up to 12, ClickUp has a Free Forever plan, and GitHub Projects comes with GitHub Free. Linear's free plan has no user cap but stops at 250 issues. Jira's own free plan also covers 10 users.
What is cheaper than Jira for 25 users?
On yearly billing, GitHub Team (first-year rate), YouTrack, Plane Pro and ClickUp Unlimited all cost less than Jira Standard's annual tier for 25 users, by our arithmetic on prices read October 19, 2026. YouTrack's own calculator shows $1,350 a year for that team. See project management pricing compared for the wider market.
How much did Jira's price go up in October 2026?
Atlassian raised Jira Cloud list prices on 13 October 2026. Standard went from $9.05 to $9.70 per user a month for the first 100 users on monthly billing, and the 25-user annual tier went from $2,250 to $2,450, per Atlassian's pricing tables.
Is Linear better than Jira?
Linear is faster and more opinionated, with cycles, triage and code features built in, while Jira offers customizable workflows, custom fields and forms on every plan. Linear Basic costs slightly more per seat than Jira Standard on comparable billing. Our Jira vs Linear comparison covers the trade-offs.
Which Jira alternative is best for non-developers?
ClickUp, monday dev and Asana suit teams where engineers share the tool with marketing, ops or design. ClickUp keeps sprints on its free plan, and Asana adds timelines and unlimited automations from Starter. See the ClickUp review and Asana review for depth.
Sources
Prices and plan details come from each vendor's own pricing page, re-checked by the Toolradar pricing tracker.
- ClickUp pricingchecked Sep 2026
- Asana pricingchecked Sep 2026
Some offers on this page may be paid placements or contain affiliate links.
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