Atlassian killed Jira Server on February 15, 2024. Data Center reaches end-of-life on March 28, 2029. If your team relied on running Jira on your own infrastructure, both options are either dead or dying. And the alternative Atlassian wants you to pick, Jira Cloud, comes with aggressive price increases, a Maximum Quantity Billing policy that charges peak user counts with no mid-cycle refunds, and the fundamental loss of control over where your data lives.

The result: hundreds of thousands of teams are now evaluating what comes next. For many, especially those in regulated industries, defense, healthcare, and government, "next" has to be self-hosted. Not because self-hosting is trendy, but because compliance demands it.

This guide covers every credible project management tool you can deploy on your own servers today. We evaluated each on feature depth, deployment complexity, licensing, community health, and how well it actually replaces Jira for real engineering and cross-functional teams. Where a tool falls short as a Jira alternative, we say so directly.

Why self-hosting matters more than ever

The shift toward self-hosted tooling is not ideological. It is regulatory and financial.

The self-hosting market reached $15.6 billion in 2024 and is projected to hit $85.2 billion by 2034, growing at 18.5% CAGR. Three forces are driving this.

Data sovereignty is now law, not preference

GDPR enforcement has generated over 5.65 billion euros in cumulative fines. Fifty-four percent of European IT decision-makers now prioritize data sovereignty in purchasing decisions. The US CLOUD Act means data stored on American cloud infrastructure may be accessible to US law enforcement regardless of the user's nationality, creating a direct conflict with EU data residency requirements. For multinational teams, this is not a theoretical risk. It is an active legal exposure that SaaS project management tools cannot resolve.

Compliance frameworks mandate infrastructure control

ITAR regulations prohibit external data movement for defense-related technical data, making air-gapped deployments the only legal option for classified environments. HIPAA-regulated organizations, operating in a sector that absorbs 32% of all data breaches, increasingly require full control over ePHI (electronic Protected Health Information) storage and access. FedRAMP authorization timelines stretch years, and most open-source tools will never pursue it, which means the only path to compliance for many government-adjacent teams is self-hosting behind their own security perimeter.

Jira's pricing has become untenable

Jira Standard runs $7.91 to $9.05 per user per month. Premium hits $14.54 to $18.30. The median organization pays $85,618 per year across verified transactions, and true total cost of ownership reaches two to three times the base price once Marketplace apps, Confluence, and Atlassian Guard are added. Enterprise renewals have reportedly jumped 119 to 153 percent according to Atlassian Community posts.

Atlassian's Maximum Quantity Billing (MQB) policy, rolled out between July and October 2025, charges the peak user count during each billing cycle with no refunds for mid-cycle removals. For organizations with seasonal contractors or fluctuating team sizes, this means paying for users who no longer exist on the platform. Atlassian's FY2025 revenue crossed $5.22 billion with 20% year-over-year growth, and customers spending over $1 million annually grew 48% YoY. The pricing power comes directly at customers' expense.

For a 500-person engineering organization, the annual Jira bill can easily exceed $250,000 before factoring in the ecosystem of paid plugins that make Jira functional for real workflows. Self-hosting eliminates per-seat SaaS fees, puts compliance in your hands, and removes the vendor's ability to change pricing or force migrations on their timeline.

Beyond pricing: the developer experience problem

Cost is not the only driver. Developer frustration with Jira runs deep. The tool's complexity demands hours of onboarding. Performance is widely criticized as sluggish. Workflow configuration has, for many teams, become what one engineering leader described as "almost a full-time job." One company that migrated away from Jira reported that two-thirds of their engineers said the switch "changed our culture more than any leadership initiative." The tools in this guide are not just cheaper alternatives. Several of them are genuinely better to use.

1. Plane

• Website: plane.so
• GitHub: makeplane/plane
• Stars: ~45,000
• License: AGPL v3.0 (Community Edition)
• Stack: Django + Next.js + PostgreSQL

Plane is a full-featured project management platform built to replace Jira across cloud, self-hosted, and air-gapped environments. Over 50,000 teams run it on their own infrastructure today, with 100,000+ Docker deploys and 44,000+ Kubernetes deploys. It claims full parity with Jira Standard and 80% parity with Jira Professional, and unlike most tools on this list, it ships AI, documentation, intake, and time tracking as native capabilities rather than plugin afterthoughts.

Core project management

Work items support rich-text descriptions, file uploads, sub-properties, relations (blocking, blocked by, duplicate, relates to), comments with @mentions, and five switchable layouts: List, Board (Kanban), Calendar, Gantt, and Spreadsheet. Custom workflow states span backlog, unstarted, started, completed, and cancelled groups. Multiple assignees, custom labels, and priorities from urgent to none are built in. Work item types with custom properties enable type-specific workflows, so bugs, features, and tasks can carry different metadata without manual workarounds.

Sprints, modules, and planning

Cycles deliver time-boxed sprints with burndown charts, recurring cycles that auto-create upcoming sprints, and automatic transfer of incomplete work items to the next cycle. This is one of the cleanest sprint implementations among the tools in this guide. Modules group tasks under thematic sub-projects with dedicated leads and progress charts, functioning like Jira's components but with better visibility into completion status. Views save complex filter and sort configurations with rich filtering across assignee, priority, dates, labels, custom properties, and "is empty" conditions. Views can be published publicly for customer or stakeholder interaction without granting full project access.

Initiatives provide cross-project strategic tracking with Kanban, Gantt, and list views, automatic roll-up of updates from child projects, and progress bars. Epics organize long-term work housing work items, cycles, and modules under a single umbrella. Milestones (added in v1.16.0) mark key delivery points across a project timeline.

Documentation and knowledge management

Pages provide rich-text collaborative editing with draw.io diagram integration, LaTeX support, version history with multi-user diffs, and the ability to convert notes into actionable work items. This means meeting notes become tasks without leaving the document. Wiki extends Pages to workspace-level knowledge management with nested pages and real-time co-editing, available on Pro and above. The combination means teams do not need a separate Confluence or Notion instance for documentation.

Intake and triage

Intake is a dedicated triage system where incoming requests sit in a single "Triage" state until acted upon. Intake owners manage the queue. Business-tier users get custom intake forms with drag-and-drop fields and intake email addresses for receiving requests directly from external stakeholders, customers, or cross-functional teams. This replaces the common Jira pattern of creating a separate "intake project" with complex workflow transitions.

AI capabilities

Plane AI operates in two modes. Ask queries in the workspace conversationally: "What's blocking the mobile release?" returns synthesized answers drawn from work items, comments, and dependencies across projects. "Summarize this week's completed work for the backend team" generates a formatted recap. Build executes actions via natural language: "Create a P0 bug for login timeout on Android, assign to Maya, due Friday" creates the work item with correct properties. It can also draw charts in responses and search the live web for context.

Plane AI runs on GPT-5.2, GPT-5, GPT-4.1, Claude Sonnet 4.5, and Claude 4. Self-hosted AI launched March 1, 2026, with BYOK (bring-your-own-key) architecture. Users supply their own OpenAI or Anthropic API keys, and no data is stored or transmitted to Plane's servers. This makes Plane the only self-hosted PM tool with production-grade AI that works in isolated environments.

Additional capabilities

• Time tracking logs hours per work item with downloadable reports (Pro+).
• Dashboards display velocity charts, workload breakdowns, and project health metrics.
• Workflows and Approvals (Business+) add gating logic to state transitions.
• Customers with dedicated profiles (Business+) link customer feedback to work items.
• Teamspaces (Pro+) create team-scoped views across projects.
• Templates for both work items and projects standardize repeatable processes.

Deployment options

• Docker/Kubernetes: One-click deploy via Docker Compose (sub-2GB image) or official Helm Charts. Minimum requirements are 2 CPU cores, 4GB RAM, and 20GB storage. Production recommendation is 4+ cores, 16GB RAM, and S3-compatible storage. CLI tools handle health monitoring, version updates, and backups. Podman is also supported.
• Air-gapped: A signed offline .tar.gz bundle (approximately 6GB) containing all services, dependencies, and resources. Activated with a license file. Zero external connections required. Updates are delivered from your organization's own Docker registry. Full feature parity with the Commercial Edition. Available on 12-month commitment under Prime licensing. This is currently the only modern PM tool offering a true air-gapped deployment.
• Plane Compose (Projects-as-Code): Declarative YAML project configuration versioned in Git and deployed from terminal. Treats project setup as infrastructure-as-code. Define your project structure, states, labels, and modules in a YAML file, commit it, and apply it to your Plane instance.
• A God Mode admin panel configures authentication, SSO providers, communication settings, and AI configuration for self-hosted instances. OTA updates ship bi-weekly for the commercial edition.

Integrations and compliance

GitHub and GitLab (including Enterprise and self-hosted GitLab) integration links commits, branches, and pull requests to work items. Slack integration via the @Plane bot creates work items from conversations. Sentry integration links error events to issues. Importers from Jira, Linear, Asana, ClickUp, and Monday reduce migration friction. The MCP (Model Context Protocol) server at github.com/makeplane/plane-mcp-server enables AI agents to interact with Plane workspace data programmatically via stdio, SSE, and streamable HTTP transports.

SOC 2, ISO 27001, GDPR, and CCPA certifications cover the compliance surface. SSO, SAML, and LDAP are supported across tiers.

Pricing (self-hosted)

Annual billing saves 13 to 25 percent. Guests are included at 1 per 5 paid seats.

Why it stands out

Plane is the only tool in this list that simultaneously offers a true air-gapped deployment with full feature parity, built-in AI that works in self-hosted environments with your own API keys, modern UX that does not require weeks of admin configuration, and a deployment process simple enough that a single engineer can have it running in under an hour. It covers project management, documentation, intake, and AI in a single platform, eliminating the need to stitch together separate tools for each function.

The Community Edition is open-source under AGPL-3.0 with roughly 45,000 GitHub stars, giving teams full source visibility and the ability to evaluate the codebase before committing to a paid tier. That transparency is a trust signal, not a limitation. The paid tiers (Pro, Business, Enterprise Grid) unlock capabilities like time tracking, workflows, intake forms, and LDAP that teams scaling beyond 12 users will need.

For teams leaving Jira who need a tool they can run on their own infrastructure without compromising on features or UX, Plane is the strongest option available today. Book a demo to see how it works for your team.

2. OpenProject

• Website: openproject.org
• GitHub: opf/openproject
• Stars: ~13,300
• License: GPLv3 (Community), proprietary Enterprise add-ons
• Stack: Ruby on Rails
• Latest: v17.1.1

OpenProject is the most mature traditional project management tool in the open-source space, backed by OpenProject GmbH in Berlin. The Community Edition is genuinely free with no user limits, making it one of the few tools where "open-source" means "actually usable at scale without paying."

What it does well

OpenProject has the strongest Gantt chart implementation among all open-source PM tools. Interactive scheduling with dependencies, milestones, critical path analysis, and baseline comparisons makes it the natural choice for teams doing structured waterfall or hybrid waterfall-agile project management. If your workflows involve hard deadlines, resource scheduling, and multi-project dependency chains, OpenProject handles this better than any other tool here.

Agile boards support Kanban and Scrum backlogs with burndown charts. Built-in time and cost tracking includes budgets and reporting without requiring a paid tier, an area where many tools paywall essential functionality. Meeting management handles recurring meetings with agendas and minutes linked directly to work packages.

A BIM (Building Information Modeling) module provides IFC model viewing and BCF (BIM Collaboration Format) support, making OpenProject uniquely suited for construction, architecture, and engineering firms. No other tool in this list offers anything comparable. If your organization builds physical things, this alone may be the deciding factor.

Integrations cover GitHub, GitLab, Nextcloud, and OneDrive/SharePoint, with a HATEOAS REST API and BCF API v2.1.

Deployment

Docker, DEB/RPM Linux packages, or manual Rails installation. PostgreSQL 13+ required. Active release cadence with multiple releases per quarter. The Docker path is straightforward; manual installation involves more Ruby on Rails ecosystem knowledge.

Pricing (self-hosted)

The Community Edition is free and unlimited. Enterprise self-hosted pricing starts at $7.25 per user per month (Basic, minimum 5 users), $13.50 (Professional, minimum 25), and $19.50 (Premium, minimum 25), with custom Corporate pricing at 250+ users.

GDPR and compliance

OpenProject is EU-based and hosts in EU data centers. They do external privacy audits and run a bug bounty program. Checks the boxes for EU data sovereignty if that's what's driving the decision.

Where it falls short

The UI is functional but utilitarian. It looks and feels like enterprise software from a previous generation, which affects adoption velocity, especially with younger engineering teams accustomed to tools like Linear or Notion. The learning curve is steeper than modern tools. Workflow automation is limited compared to what Jira offers through its rule engine. There is no built-in AI. The mobile experience is minimal. Agile features, while present, are less refined than what Jira or newer tools provide.

Best for: Teams that need strong scheduling, Gantt charts, and cost management. Construction and architecture firms (BIM module). EU-based organizations with strict GDPR requirements. Teams doing hybrid waterfall-agile PM. Organizations that need a free, unlimited-user self-hosted tool with enterprise-grade scheduling.

3. Focalboard (Mattermost) [Deprecated]

• GitHub: mattermost-community/focalboard
• Stars: ~25,600
• License: MIT
• Status: Not actively maintained

Focalboard is effectively deprecated. On August 28, 2024, Mattermost officially declared it unmaintained and transferred the repository to the mattermost-community organization. The last standalone release was v7.8.9/v7.9.7 in early 2023, over two years ago. No new features, security patches, or bug fixes are expected. The team is seeking community maintainers, but none have stepped up.

When it was active, Focalboard offered Kanban, table, calendar, and gallery views with card-based project management, templates, and a personal desktop app. It was always positioned more as a Trello/Notion competitor than a Jira alternative, lacking sprints, epics, Gantt charts, time tracking, and advanced workflows.

Mattermost Boards continues as an integrated feature within the Mattermost platform itself. But standalone Focalboard should not be adopted for new deployments. Including it here because its 25,000+ GitHub stars mean it still appears in search results, and readers deserve clarity about its status. High GitHub star counts do not equal active maintenance.

4. Taiga

• Website: taiga.io
• GitHub: taigaio org
• Combined stars: ~3,700
• License: MPL-2.0 / AGPL-3.0
• Stack: Python + Angular

Taiga delivers the best pure Scrum implementation among open-source tools. Sprint planning, backlog management, user story estimation with story points, burndown charts, custom swimlanes with WIP limits, and epics all work out of the box with a UI that is widely praised as more pleasant than Jira's.

What it does well

Scrum and Kanban boards with a clean, intuitive interface. Wiki pages for documentation. Custom fields for extending the data model. Importers from Jira, Trello, GitHub, and GitLab simplify migration. LDAP and Active Directory support for enterprise authentication. Twenty-plus language translations for international teams. REST API for custom integrations. Video conferencing integration with Jitsi and Whereby.

Self-hosting is straightforward via Docker with PostgreSQL and RabbitMQ. The platform is completely free with no feature paywalling. Over 400,000 users on the SaaS version, more than 2 million Docker pulls, and usage by organizations including RedHat, Orange, and Lockheed Martin demonstrate real-world traction.

The ownership question

In March 2024, Kaleidos (Taiga's original creator) transferred operations to Taiga Cloud Services SL (TCS), a Spain-based company, and refocused entirely on Penpot. The planned major rewrite, "TaigaNext," was handed to a separate entity called BIRU, which rebranded it as Tenzu (announced September 2024). TCS continues maintaining Taiga 6 with security fixes and performance improvements, but the development pace has slowed significantly.

This creates genuine strategic confusion. If you adopt Taiga today, you are committing to a platform where the original creators have left, the next-generation rewrite is being developed by a different organization under a different name, and the maintenance entity is a relatively new company. For short-term use, Taiga 6 is stable and functional. For multi-year planning, the uncertainty is real.

Where it falls short

No Gantt charts. No native time tracking. Limited automation capabilities. A smaller plugin ecosystem than Redmine or OpenProject. The ownership transition introduces long-term uncertainty that matters for teams making tooling decisions they will live with for years.

Best for: Scrum-focused teams who prioritize a clean UX over feature breadth. Teams comfortable with a platform whose long-term roadmap is uncertain. Organizations that need a free, no-strings-attached Scrum tool immediately.

5. Leantime

• Website: leantime.io
• GitHub: Leantime/leantime
• Stars: ~8,700
• License: AGPL-3.0
• Stack: PHP + MySQL
• Latest: v3.5.6

Leantime occupies a unique position in the open-source PM landscape. It is purpose-built for neurodivergent teams, specifically designed with ADHD, autism, and dyslexia in mind. This is not a marketing angle applied after the fact. It is the foundational design philosophy of the product, reducing cognitive overload through accessible, goal-driven interfaces.

What it does well

Kanban boards, table and list views, subtasks, Gantt charts, milestones, roadmaps, and calendar views cover the standard PM surface. What distinguishes Leantime from everything else in this list is its strategic planning toolset: OKRs, Lean Canvas, SWOT analysis, empathy maps, and twelve-plus strategy board templates. These tools link high-level goals directly to executable tasks, creating the OKR-to-task linkage that Jira fundamentally lacks even with plugins.

Built-in timesheets with start/stop tracking and hour approval. Whiteboards and mind maps for visual brainstorming. Document manager and wiki for notes and knowledge. AI-assisted task prioritization. Themes include dark mode and an inclusive read theme designed for dyslexia.

The PHP + MySQL stack means self-hosting is accessible to virtually any team with basic hosting experience. Docker or shared hosting both work. Available on Cloudron, TurnKey Linux, and Coolify for one-click deployments. Version 3.3.0 delivered a major rewrite with 70% performance improvement through a Laravel/Symfony migration.

Pricing

Completely free with no paywalled features for the self-hosted version.

Where it falls short

No native mobile apps. A smaller ecosystem and community than larger tools. Less mature for large enterprise deployments with hundreds of users. No advanced workflow automation. Scrum support is minimal compared to Taiga or Plane.

Best for: Non-technical teams, startups, and agencies. Teams that need strategic planning tools (OKR-to-task linkage) alongside task management. Organizations that value inclusive, accessible design. Teams where the PM tool needs to serve marketing, product, and ops, not just engineering.

6. Redmine

• Website: redmine.org
• Stars: ~5,800
• License: GPLv2
• Stack: Ruby on Rails
• Latest: v6.1.1 (January 2026)

Redmine has been in active development since 2006. Nearly 20 years of continuous iteration. The Ruby language project itself uses Redmine for issue tracking. In the 2024 Stack Overflow Developer Survey, 2.9% of developers reported using it. That longevity brings both credibility and baggage.

What it does well

Comprehensive issue tracking with custom trackers, statuses, priorities, and workflows per tracker. Multi-project support with hierarchical subprojects and cross-project issue relations. Built-in Gantt charts. Time tracking with activity types. Per-project wikis, forums, documents, calendar, and news systems. Granular role-based access control with per-project permissions. Native SCM integration supports Git, SVN, Mercurial, Bazaar, and CVS.

Redmine 6.1, released January 2026, added reactions, OAuth2 provider capability, progress bar custom fields, and modern Stimulus.js frontend components.

The plugin ecosystem is enormous: 1,177 plugins available, with 60 new ones added in 2024 alone. Commercial ecosystems including RedmineUP and Easy Redmine (300,000+ users) extend functionality significantly. If the core product does not do something, there is likely a plugin for it.

Deployment

Ruby on Rails stack, which is more complex to set up and maintain than Docker-first tools. Community Docker images are available but are not officially maintained. Supports MySQL and PostgreSQL. Upgrades require careful plugin compatibility checking.

Pricing

Completely free.

Where it falls short

The UI is dated. Functional, reliable, but visually a product of the late 2000s. There are no native Kanban or Scrum boards without plugins. The Ruby on Rails setup and upgrade process is more involved than Docker Compose. No built-in AI or automation. Plugin management across version upgrades can be fragile, requiring manual compatibility checks. No native mobile apps. Onboarding new team members takes longer due to the interface learning curve.

Best for: Teams already familiar with Redmine. Organizations with complex, multi-project hierarchies. Teams that need deep SCM integration (especially SVN or Mercurial). Anyone who values a battle-tested, stable platform over a modern interface.

7. WeKan

• Website: wekan.github.io
• GitHub: wekan/wekan
• Stars: ~20,800
• License: MIT
• Stack: Meteor.js + MongoDB
• Latest: v7.94

WeKan is a fully free, open-source Trello replacement focused purely on Kanban boards. Its largest known deployment serves 30,000 users in a single company on Kubernetes. Over 32 million Docker pulls and 503+ releases across its history demonstrate staying power.

What it does well

Drag-and-drop Kanban cards, swimlanes, checklists, calendar view, custom fields, 105+ language translations, LDAP/SAML SSO, and a REST API. The MIT license means no restrictions on commercial use, forking, or modification. Self-hosting via Docker, Snap (roughly 10,000 active installs), or Sandstorm is straightforward. Requires MongoDB. Minimum 1GB RAM for testing, 4GB+ for production.

WeKan is maintained primarily by a single developer (xet7/Lauri Ojansivu), with experimental prototypes underway in Meteor 3/React and Next.js.

Where it falls short

WeKan is Kanban-only. No Scrum support, no sprints, no agile ceremonies, no Gantt charts, no time tracking, no reporting or analytics, no issue types, no custom workflows, and no undo feature. Performance degrades with larger boards.

WeKan replaces Trello, not Jira. If your team's entire workflow fits on a Kanban board and you need nothing else, WeKan is excellent. If you need sprint planning, burndown charts, time tracking, or multi-project reporting, you will outgrow it immediately.

Best for: Teams migrating from Trello. Simple Kanban workflows. Teams that value MIT licensing and want zero commercial restrictions.

8. Vikunja

• Website: vikunja.io
• GitHub: go-vikunja/vikunja
• Stars: ~3,400
• License: AGPL-3.0
• Stack: Go + Vue.js

Vikunja describes itself as a "to-do app" and it is honest about that scope. List, Kanban, Gantt, and Table views with subtasks, task relations, labels, due dates with natural language input, CalDAV support, and importers from Todoist, Trello, and Microsoft To-Do. It runs extremely lightweight with sub-100ms interaction times and a single Go binary. Deployment via Docker or native binaries is as simple as self-hosting gets.

Vikunja is not a Jira-level project management tool. It lacks sprints, issue tracking workflows, burndown charts, advanced time tracking, reporting, custom workflows, and enterprise features like SSO or RBAC. It is a clean, fast personal and small-team task manager that happens to be self-hostable. If that scope matches your needs, it executes well within it.

Best for: Personal task management. Small teams (under 10) with simple workflows. Users migrating from Todoist or Trello who want to self-host. Developers who want the lightest possible self-hosted task tool.

9. AppFlowy

• Website: appflowy.io
• GitHub: AppFlowy-IO/AppFlowy
• Stars: ~68,000
• License: AGPL-3.0
• Stack: Flutter (Dart) + Rust

AppFlowy has the highest GitHub star count on this list by a wide margin, but calling it a "Jira alternative" would be inaccurate. AppFlowy is explicitly and consistently positioned as the leading open-source Notion alternative. Its own README states: "We do not claim to outperform Notion in terms of functionality and design."

Features include rich-text document editing, databases with Table/Board/Calendar/Grid views, knowledge management wikis, and AI integration. Cross-platform native apps exist for macOS, Windows, Linux, iOS, and Android. The project raised $6.4 million in seed funding from Matt Mullenweg (Automattic), Steve Chen (YouTube), and Tom Preston-Werner (GitHub).

AppFlowy has basic Kanban boards via database views, but these are data visualizations, not project-management-grade boards. No sprint or Scrum management, no issue tracking workflows, no burndown charts, no time tracking, no backlog management, no CI/CD integration, and no custom issue types. Self-hosting follows an open-core model: the Flutter client is AGPL-3.0, but the commercial self-hosted cloud component is partially closed-source.

Including it here because its star count means it will appear in every search for "open-source Jira alternative," and readers deserve clarity: AppFlowy is a strong Notion alternative with light task management, not a Jira replacement.

Best for: Teams looking for a self-hosted Notion alternative with some task management capabilities.

10. Huly

• Website: huly.io
• GitHub: hcengineering/platform
• Stars: ~24,500
• License: EPL-2.0
• Stack: TypeScript

Huly is the most ambitious tool in this list. It genuinely attempts to replace Jira, Slack, Notion, and Motion in a single platform, and in many areas, it succeeds.

What it does well

Issue and task tracking with customizable workflows. Sprint planning with burndown charts and velocity tracking. Built-in Slack-style chat with channels, threads, and direct messages. Video and audio conferencing. Virtual office rooms where you can see who is "at their desk" and drop in for conversations. Rich-text collaborative documents. GitHub bidirectional sync that keeps issues and PRs linked in both directions. Time tracking with a personal planner for managing your day. It even includes HRM, ATS (applicant tracking), and CRM modules.

The feature scope is remarkable for an open-source project. The UI is modern and responsive. Real-time collaboration works well. For small teams that want a single tool replacing their entire stack, Huly's density of functionality is compelling.

The deployment problem

Huly requires MongoDB, PostgreSQL, Elasticsearch, MinIO, and Kafka. That is five infrastructure services minimum before you get to the application itself. A clean Docker deployment consumes over 35GB of disk space. As Hacker News commenters noted when it was posted, "deploying this requires running 5 different open source servers."

This is not a criticism of the architecture. These services serve real purposes. But it means Huly's self-hosting story requires dedicated DevOps capacity. A team without operations expertise will struggle to deploy, maintain, upgrade, and troubleshoot this stack. For the target persona of "team leaving Jira that wants to self-host," this is a significant friction point.

Pricing

Completely free and open-source for self-hosting. No paid tiers for self-hosted deployments.

Where it falls short

No Gantt charts. The EPL-2.0 license is less commonly understood than AGPL or MIT, which may create friction in some corporate legal review processes. The project is relatively young with a core contributor team of around 17 people. The infrastructure requirements make it impractical for teams without serious ops expertise. Documentation for self-hosted deployment could be more comprehensive.

Best for: Small to mid-size teams with strong DevOps capability who want to consolidate multiple tools into one platform. Teams willing to invest in deployment complexity for feature breadth.

11. Worklenz

• Website: worklenz.com
• GitHub: Worklenz/worklenz
• Stack: React + Express.js + PostgreSQL

Worklenz is a newer entrant targeting agencies and professional services teams. Project planning, Kanban boards, time tracking, resource allocation, reporting, client portals, and budget monitoring are all built in. The focus on billable hours, client-facing workflows, and time-and-materials reporting makes it a strong niche pick for service-oriented teams that are currently using Jira as an awkward proxy for agency project management.

Docker deployment with automated setup. Open source and actively developed.

Best for: Agencies and consultancies. Teams that bill for time. Professional services organizations that need client portals and budget tracking alongside task management.

How to choose

The right tool depends on what you actually need, not which has the most GitHub stars.

• Replacing Jira for software engineering with modern UX: Plane covers sprints, Kanban, Gantt, AI, time tracking, documentation, and intake in a single platform with the simplest deployment path. It is the closest to a drop-in Jira replacement that also happens to be better to use.
• Gantt charts, scheduling, and cost management are your primary needs: OpenProject has scheduling implementation in the open-source space, is backed by a stable EU-based company, and the Community Edition is free without user limits.
• Pure Scrum shop that wants the cleanest Scrum implementation: Taiga, with the caveat that long-term roadmap uncertainty exists due to the ownership transition.
• Non-technical team, neurodivergent-friendly, or need strategic planning tools: Leantime offers OKR-to-task linkage and accessible design that no other tool provides.
• Battle-tested stability with a 20-year track record: Redmine, with the understanding that the UI reflects its era.
• Just a Kanban board, nothing else: WeKan under MIT license.
• Compliance mandates air-gapped deployment: Plane is currently the only modern option offering a fully offline deployment bundle with complete feature parity. No other tool in this list supports true air-gapped operation.

Comparison table

The bottom line

Jira Server is dead. Data Center has a countdown clock. Cloud pricing keeps climbing. The tools to replace it on your own infrastructure exist today, and several of them are genuinely good.

If you are evaluating self-hosted alternatives, start with what your team actually needs: sprint ceremonies, Gantt scheduling, compliance certifications, AI capabilities, strategic planning, or simply a clean Kanban board. Then match that against the options above.

For teams that want the broadest feature coverage, the most modern developer experience, and the only credible air-gapped deployment option among self-hosted PM tools, Plane is worth evaluating first. Book a demo to see how it fits your workflow.