Jira vs GitHub
Project Management pricing comparison · 2026
Jira pricing ranges from $0–$14.54/user/month, while GitHub ranges from $0–$21/user/month. GitHub is typically 49% more affordable, though your actual cost depends on tier and team size.
Sources & confidence
Every dollar amount and contract clause below traces back to a sourced fact. We don't manufacture composite scores.
Plans at a glance
Every tier per product. Lock one to drive the cost row above and reveal a tier-specific outbound CTA.
What users say
Aggregated, with sample sizes. We use whichever review platform has data.
Jira and GitHub are both widely used for software project management, but from different starting points. Jira is purpose-built issue and project tracking software with deep workflow customization, sprint planning, and reporting. GitHub Issues is a development-centric tracker that lives alongside your code, pull requests, and CI/CD pipeline.
The pricing comparison is stark: GitHub Team at $4/user/month includes unlimited repositories, Actions CI/CD, code review, and project boards — making it one of the best-value developer platforms. Jira is a dedicated project management tool with richer features but higher per-user cost when compared apples-to-apples.
Plan-by-Plan Pricing
| Plan | Jira | GitHub |
|---|---|---|
| Free | Free /user/month | Free /user/month |
| Standard | $7.91 /user/month | $4 /user/month |
| Premium | $14.54 /user/month | $21 /user/month |
| Enterprise | Custom | — |
Cost at Scale
Total cost of ownership — licenses, implementation, and hidden costs included.
Jira
6 scenariosGitHub
5 scenariosMarket Intelligence
Jira
- Median annual cost
- $85,618
- Average negotiated discount
- 11%
- Based on
- 484 deals
GitHub
- Median annual cost
- $1,188
- Based on
- 161 deals
Contract Terms
| Term | Jira | GitHub |
|---|---|---|
| Auto-renewal | Yes | — |
| Cancellation | Contact required before renewal date | — |
| Minimum commitment | 1 year for annual plans, month-to-month available | — |
| Price escalation | 5-20% annual price increase every October (5-10% for Jira/Confluence, 8-20% for Jira Service Management). Annual contracts signed before October lock in current pricing. | — |
| Can downgrade | Yes | — |
Continue researching
Our Verdict
Choose Jira if you need advanced workflow customization, portfolio-level project tracking across many teams, detailed sprint velocity and burndown reporting, or tight integration with Confluence and other Atlassian tools. Best for larger engineering organizations with dedicated project managers.
Choose GitHub if your team is already on GitHub for code and wants project tracking close to the code. GitHub Issues + Projects is sufficient for most engineering teams and the per-user cost is lower. Best for developer-led startups, open-source projects, and teams that want minimal context-switching between code and tasks.
Frequently Asked Questions
01 Is GitHub cheaper than Jira?
Yes, significantly. GitHub Team at $4/user/month includes project tracking (Issues + Projects), code hosting, CI/CD via Actions, and code review. Jira Standard at $7.91/user/month is for project tracking alone — you'd still need GitHub or another code host. For a 20-person team: GitHub is $80/month vs Jira at $158/month just for issue tracking.
02 Can GitHub Issues replace Jira?
For many software teams, yes. GitHub Issues with GitHub Projects supports kanban boards, sprints, milestones, labels, and automation. What Jira offers that GitHub doesn't: complex workflow states with mandatory transitions, sub-tasks and linked issues at scale, velocity charts, capacity planning, and Atlassian ecosystem integration. Teams with 1–50 engineers can often use GitHub exclusively.
03 Which is better for Scrum/Agile?
Jira was purpose-built for Scrum — it has sprint boards, backlog grooming, velocity charts, and burndown reports built in. GitHub Projects now supports sprints (iteration fields) and backlog views, but lacks native velocity reporting. For strict Scrum ceremonies with metrics, Jira is more mature. For lightweight agile, GitHub Projects is adequate.
04 Do Jira and GitHub have free plans?
Yes. Jira Free supports up to 10 users with most project tracking features. GitHub Free supports unlimited public repositories and unlimited users (for public projects), with private repos supporting teams on a per-user paid basis. For open-source projects, GitHub Free is fully functional. For private commercial projects with teams under 10, Jira Free is competitive.
05 What are the hidden costs of Jira vs GitHub?
Jira's hidden costs include Atlassian Marketplace plugins (popular ones like Zephyr for testing, BigPicture for portfolio planning add $2–$10/user/month), required Confluence license for team documentation ($6.40/user/month), and admin time for workflow configuration. GitHub's hidden costs include Actions compute minutes beyond the free tier ($0.008/minute for Linux) and storage for large artifacts.