What is the difference between Jira and Plane?

Jira is best for Large engineering teams that need customizable workflows and reporting, while Plane is best for Teams that want open-source, self-hosted project management. Jira starts at $7.75/user/mo and Plane starts at Free.

Is Jira or Plane cheaper?

Jira starts at $7.75/user/mo with a free tier. Plane starts at Free and is free.

Is there a free alternative to Plane?

Both Jira and Plane offer free tiers.

Jira vs Plane

Jira is enterprise project management and issue tracking for software development teams, while Plane is open-source project management tool for software teams. Self-hostable alternative to Jira and Linear. The biggest difference up front: Plane is free, while Jira starts at $7.75/user/mo. Jira is built for large engineering teams that need customizable workflows and reporting, whereas Plane targets teams that want open-source, self-hosted project management.

At a glance

	Jira	Plane
Best for	Large engineering teams that need customizable workflows and reporting	Teams that want open-source, self-hosted project management
Starting price	$7.75/user/mo	Free
Free tier	✓	✓
Open source	—	✓
Free tier available	✓	✓
Open source	—	✓
Custom Workflows	✓	—
Cycles	—	✓
Dashboards	✓	—
Marketplace	✓	—
Modules	—	✓
Open Source	—	✓
Roadmaps	✓	—
Self-Hosted	—	✓
Sprints	✓	—
Views	—	✓

Jira

Strengths

Extremely customizable workflows and fields
Advanced reporting and dashboards
Massive marketplace of add-ons
Handles complex enterprise requirements

Weaknesses

Slow and bloated interface
Overwhelming complexity for small teams
Configuration often requires a dedicated admin
Simple tasks take too many clicks

Try Jira → Full review

Plane

Strengths

Open source and self-hostable
Clean, modern interface inspired by Linear
Free for unlimited users (self-hosted)
Active development and growing community

Weaknesses

Less mature than established alternatives
Fewer integrations
Self-hosting requires infrastructure management
Some features still in development

Try Plane → Full review

The bottom line

Pricing: Plane is completely free, which makes it the obvious pick if budget is the top concern. Jira starts at $7.75/user/mo, but Free for up to 10 users. That cost buys you a more polished or feature-rich experience, so it comes down to whether the extras justify the spend.

Feature gaps: Jira offers Custom Workflows, Dashboards and Marketplace that Plane lacks. Plane brings Cycles, Modules and Open Source that Jira does not have.

Team fit: Jira is geared toward enterprise teams, while Plane is aimed at small teams teams. Pick the one that matches where your team is today and where it is headed — migrating tools later is always painful.

Open source: Plane is open source, meaning you can self-host, audit the code, and avoid vendor lock-in. Jira is proprietary — you are trusting the vendor with your data and uptime.

Where each tool shines: Jira's biggest strengths are: extremely customizable workflows and fields. advanced reporting and dashboards. Plane's biggest strengths are: open source and self-hostable. clean, modern interface inspired by linear.

Watch out for: With Jira, users commonly note that slow and bloated interface. With Plane, the main complaint is that less mature than established alternatives.

Choose Jira if...

You need a tool built for large engineering teams that need customizable workflows and reporting
You specifically need Custom Workflows and Dashboards
You care about advanced reporting and dashboards
Your team size fits the enterprise profile Jira is designed for
The free tier works for you: free for up to 10 users

Choose Plane if...

Your profile matches its sweet spot: teams that want open-source, self-hosted project management
Budget is a hard constraint — Plane is free, Jira is not
You need self-hosting, data sovereignty, or the ability to audit source code
You specifically need Cycles and Modules
You care about clean, modern interface inspired by linear