- Jira Standard costs $7.91/user/month. Add Confluence (which most teams need) and the real cost is around $14/user/month before any add-ons. - Atlassian stopped selling new Data Center subscriptions on March 30, 2026. Full end-of-life is March 28, 2029. - **AdeptDev**: best Jira alternative for web developers. Connects your Kanban board to GitHub and Vercel in one workspace. $10/month flat, not per user. - **Linear**: best for engineering teams that want fast, keyboard-driven issue tracking. - **GitHub Projects**: best free Jira alternative. Already in your workflow. - **Plane**: best if you want open source and self-hosting. - **Shortcut**: best if you want Jira-level structure without the complexity.

## Why Web Developers Are Leaving Jira in 2026 Jira was built for a different era. Large teams, long projects, dedicated project managers handling the overhead. In 2026, most web developers building their own products are a team of one to five. There is no Scrum Master. No admin maintaining custom fields. No PM grooming the backlog. The result is predictable. Jira gets set up, falls behind within weeks, and becomes a graveyard of stale tickets nobody trusts. Two things pushed the exodus further in 2026. Atlassian stopped selling new Data Center subscriptions on March 30, 2026, forcing teams to evaluate their options for the first time in years. And the total cost of [Jira](https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira) keeps climbing. The $7.91/user/month headline price hides a real cost that is significantly higher once you add Confluence (most teams need it at $6.05/user/month) and any Marketplace add-ons. A five-person team on Jira Standard plus Confluence is paying over $700/year for tools that require someone to maintain them. For web developers who just want to track features, see deployment status, and know what shipped, there are better options.

## Quick Comparison: Best Jira Alternatives for Web Developers | Tool | Best for | Price | GitHub integration | |---|---|---|---| | [AdeptDev](https://adeptdev.io) | Web developers on GitHub and Vercel | $10/mo flat | Webhooks, auto-moves tasks | | [Linear](https://linear.app) | Engineering teams, speed-first | Free / $8/user/mo | Native, reliable | | [GitHub Projects](https://github.com/features/project-management) | Free, already in GitHub | Free | Native | | [Plane](https://plane.so) | Open source, self-hosted | Free self-hosted / $8/user/mo cloud | Yes | | [Shortcut](https://shortcut.com) | Agile teams without Jira's complexity | Free to 10 users / $8.50/user/mo | Native | | [Jira](https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira) | Large engineering orgs with dedicated admins | $7.91/user/mo (+ Confluence $6.05/user/mo) | Via app |

## Why Jira Specifically Fails Web Developers The problems with Jira for web developers are structural. A UI refresh won't fix them. **It takes 2 to 3 weeks to master.** That's time a solo developer or small team doesn't have. Every hour spent configuring workflow states, custom fields, and permission schemes is an hour not spent building. **It was built for project managers, not developers.** Jira's model is top-down: a PM creates tickets, developers work the queue. For a web developer who is also the founder and the PM, this creates friction at every step. **It doesn't know your code exists.** Jira has a GitHub integration, but it's a bolt-on. The board doesn't update when you push code. You manually transition tickets. The board reflects what you remembered to update, not what's actually happening in the codebase. **The real cost is higher than advertised.** Jira Standard is $7.91/user/month. But Confluence is not included and most teams need it. Add Confluence Standard at $6.05/user/month and a five-person team pays $709/year just for the base tools, before any Marketplace add-ons. Atlassian's own data shows teams typically pay 2 to 3x the base license price once the full cost picture is accounted for. **The admin tax.** Jira has spawned an entire consulting industry around keeping it organized. If nobody owns the maintenance, the tool degrades. For a small web development team, this is a hidden cost that shows up in lost time, not invoices.

## 1. AdeptDev: Best Jira Alternative for Web Developers **AdeptDev is the only Jira alternative built specifically for web developers who are also managing their own product.** Every other tool on this list is a task tracker with a GitHub integration bolted on. AdeptDev connects your Kanban board, GitHub repository, Vercel deployment tracking, and analytics into one workspace. Here is what that looks like in practice. You push code. The task moves from In Progress to In Review automatically. No manual update. You check the same workspace and see the Vercel build succeeded. Three days later you open the analytics panel and see how the feature performed. All without switching tabs. **What you get:** Two Kanban boards per workspace: a Roadmap for feature work and a Bug Tracker for GitHub issues. GitHub webhooks move tasks automatically when you push code or open a PR. Vercel deployment status lives next to your tasks. Analytics from PostHog or Google Analytics in the same workspace. **Pricing vs Jira:** Jira Standard is $7.91/user/month. Add Confluence and a two-person team pays $283/year. AdeptDev is $120/year flat regardless of team size: one price, everything included. **Where AdeptDev falls short:** No sprint velocity tracking, no epics hierarchy, no enterprise SSO. If you need Agile ceremony tooling or you're managing a 20-person engineering organization, look at Linear or Shortcut. AdeptDev is for developers who want less overhead, not more features. ![AdeptDev Feature Board](https://vyoyxwhjtxsktvvpxdvj.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/blog_images/mock-feature-board.png) Try it free for 7 days at [adeptdev.io](https://adeptdev.io).

## 2. Linear: Best for Engineering Teams That Want Speed **Linear is the fastest Jira alternative available and the best choice for engineering teams that want speed and opinionated defaults over infinite configuration.** Sub-100-millisecond UI response times. Keyboard-first interface. No configuration ceremony before you can start using it. The GitHub integration is native and reliable. Commits, pull requests, and branches link automatically to issues. The free tier covers 2 teams and 250 issues. Most active teams hit that cap within weeks, at which point Basic is $8/user/month. A five-person team pays $480/year. That's more than AdeptDev for pure task tracking with no deployment visibility, but significantly less than Jira Standard plus Confluence. Linear's speed advantage is real. Everything is instant. For a developer already working in a fast editor and a fast terminal, Linear matches the pace. For a team that tried Jira and found it slow and heavy, Linear is the most natural first step. **Where it falls short:** Linear is a task tracker. It doesn't know whether your Vercel build succeeded. It doesn't surface your analytics. The context-switching problem remains. **Website:** [linear.app](https://linear.app)

## 3. GitHub Projects: Best Free Jira Alternative **GitHub Projects is the best free Jira alternative for developers who already live in GitHub.** It's included with any GitHub account, has no issue cap, no user limit, and no plan upgrade required for core features. The zero-context-switch argument is real. Issues, pull requests, and your project board are all in the same place. Close a PR and the linked issue updates. Reference an issue in a commit message and it links automatically. Custom fields, multiple views (board, table, roadmap), and workflow automation have all landed in the past two years. There is no 250-issue wall. No credit card required. For a team evaluating Jira alternatives specifically because of cost, this is the obvious starting point. **Where it falls short:** No deployment tracking, no analytics, no workspace structure for managing multiple products separately. The views are functional but less polished than Linear. For developers who need more than a task board, GitHub Projects alone won't cut it. **Website:** [github.com/features/project-management](https://github.com/features/project-management)

## 4. Plane: Best Open Source Jira Alternative **Plane is the most feature-complete open source Jira alternative available in 2026, and the only option on this list that costs nothing if you self-host.** Issues, cycles (sprints), modules (epics), pages (docs), and Gantt charts all work out of the box. Over 40,000 GitHub stars and 89 releases in 2025. The Community Edition self-hosts via Docker Compose in under 10 minutes on a 2 CPU/4GB RAM instance, with no user limits and no recurring cost beyond your own infrastructure. For teams with data residency requirements or a strong preference for owning their data, Plane is the most credible option. The $8/user/month cloud Pro plan is competitive with Linear and Shortcut if you don't want to manage your own infrastructure. **Where it falls short:** Plane is newer than Jira. Some enterprise features like automations and advanced analytics are still catching up. Self-hosting adds infrastructure responsibility. If you need something polished out of the box today, Linear or Shortcut is faster to adopt. **Website:** [plane.so](https://plane.so)

## 5. Shortcut: Best Jira Alternative for Agile Teams **Shortcut is the best choice if you need Jira-level Agile structure, meaning epics, sprints, story points, and velocity tracking, but without Jira's configuration overhead.** The epic-story-task hierarchy is intact but stripped of unnecessary complexity. Sprint planning, backlog management, and velocity reporting work without needing a Scrum Master to configure them. The free plan covers up to 10 users with no issue cap. A 20-person software team that migrated from Jira to Shortcut reported sprint planning time dropping from 2 hours to 45 minutes because the simplified workflow eliminated configuration steps that added no value. GitHub integration syncs commits, pull requests, and branch status automatically. Slack updates keep non-technical team members informed. Team plan is $8.50/user/month, slightly less than Linear. **Where it falls short:** No deployment tracking. No analytics. The context-switching problem remains. For web developers who want their deployment status and product metrics alongside their tasks, Shortcut solves the Jira complexity problem but not the tab-switching problem. **Website:** [shortcut.com](https://shortcut.com)

## How to Choose the Right Jira Alternative One question cuts through: what bothered you most about Jira? **The complexity and setup overhead**: AdeptDev or Linear. Both are functional in under an hour, no ceremony. **The cost**: AdeptDev at $10/month flat, GitHub Projects for free, or Plane self-hosted at zero recurring cost. **No deployment visibility**: AdeptDev is the only tool on this list that connects your task board to Vercel deployment status. **Per-user pricing**: AdeptDev ($10/month flat) or Plane self-hosted (free). **You need Agile structure without the overhead**: Shortcut or Plane. **You want open source and data ownership**: Plane. The honest summary: for web developers building their own product on GitHub and Vercel, AdeptDev closes gaps that no other Jira alternative addresses. For engineering teams that need sprint tooling and velocity tracking, Linear or Shortcut. For free with no friction, GitHub Projects.

## Wrap Up Jira was the default for a decade because nothing better existed. In 2026 that's changed. There are faster, cheaper, and simpler Jira alternatives built for the way web developers actually work. The right choice depends on your specific frustration with Jira. Deployment visibility alongside tasks: AdeptDev. Pure task tracking speed: Linear. Free with no friction: GitHub Projects. Open source control: Plane. Agile structure without ceremony: Shortcut. If you want your project management, Vercel deployment tracking, and analytics in one workspace, check out [AdeptDev](https://adeptdev.io). Free for 7 days.

## What is the best Jira alternative for web developers in 2026? For web developers building their own products on GitHub and Vercel, AdeptDev is the strongest Jira alternative. It connects your Kanban board directly to GitHub via webhooks (tasks move automatically when you push code) and surfaces Vercel deployment status alongside your tasks. At $10/month flat it costs less than Jira Standard alone for any team of two or more. For engineering teams that need sprint tooling, Linear is the best Jira alternative. For free, GitHub Projects has no issue cap and no user limit. ## What is the best free Jira alternative? GitHub Projects is the best free Jira alternative. It's included with any GitHub account, has no issue cap, no user limit, and now includes custom fields, multiple views, and workflow automation. Plane self-hosted is also free via Docker Compose with no user limits and no recurring infrastructure cost. Linear's free tier covers 2 teams and 250 issues, which most active teams outgrow within weeks. ## Why are developers leaving Jira in 2026? The main reasons are the 2 to 3 week learning curve, the admin overhead required to keep it organized, and the true cost being much higher than the advertised per-user price. Jira Standard at $7.91/user/month doesn't include Confluence, which most teams also need at $6.05/user/month. Add Marketplace add-ons and teams typically pay 2 to 3x the base license cost. Atlassian also stopped selling new Data Center subscriptions on March 30, 2026, forcing many teams to evaluate alternatives for the first time in years. ## What Jira alternative has the best GitHub integration? AdeptDev has the deepest GitHub integration for web developers: it connects via webhooks so tasks move automatically between Kanban columns when you push code, open a PR, or close an issue. Linear and Shortcut also have solid native GitHub integrations that link commits and PRs to issues. GitHub Projects has native integration by definition. Jira's GitHub integration exists but requires the Atlassian GitHub app and manual configuration. ## Is Linear a good Jira alternative for small teams? Yes. Linear is fast, keyboard-driven, and functional within minutes compared to Jira's 2 to 3 week learning curve. The free tier covers 250 issues and 2 teams. The main limitations for small teams are the 250-issue cap on the free tier and the lack of deployment tracking. For web developers who want deployment visibility alongside task management, AdeptDev is more practical. For pure engineering issue tracking without the Jira overhead, Linear is the best Jira alternative available. ## What is Plane and is it a good Jira alternative? Plane is an open source Jira alternative with over 40,000 GitHub stars. It offers issues, cycles (sprints), modules (epics), Gantt charts, and documentation in one tool. The self-hosted Community Edition is free with no user limits, deployable via Docker in under 10 minutes. It's the best Jira alternative for teams that need Agile structure, want to self-host, and care about data ownership. The trade-off is that some features are less polished than Jira's and self-hosting adds infrastructure responsibility. ## How much does Jira cost compared to alternatives in 2026? Jira Standard is $7.91/user/month but Confluence is not included. Most teams need both, making the real base cost around $14/user/month. A five-person team pays roughly $840/year before any Marketplace add-ons. Alternatives: AdeptDev is $120/year flat for the whole team. Linear Basic is $8/user/month ($480/year for five people). GitHub Projects is free. Plane self-hosted is free. Shortcut Team is $8.50/user/month ($510/year for five people). For most small web development teams, AdeptDev and GitHub Projects offer the best value.