OpenProject, Redmine, Taiga, Plane and Kaneo are the tools people actually mean when they search for an open source Jira alternative. Each one is free to install on a server you control, with no per-seat licence to negotiate. What most lists of them skip is the second question: self-hosting is real work, and some of the people running this search do not need it at all. They want away from Jira's price and its workflow schemes, not away from hosted software, and this post covers both groups.
Why this search got busier this year
Atlassian retired Jira Server, its original self-hosted product, a while ago. Data Center was the option left for anyone who still needed to run Jira on their own infrastructure. Checked directly on atlassian.com in September 2026: Atlassian stopped selling new Data Center licenses on March 30, 2026. The product itself reaches end of life on March 28, 2029. Self-hosted Jira is no longer a stable option with an open-ended future; it is a shrinking one with a fixed deadline, which is a reasonable moment to start comparing what else exists.
Cost is the other driver. Jira's Free plan covers up to 10 users with 2 GB of storage and community support. Past that, Standard runs $7.91 per user per month and Premium $14.54, both billed annually, and enforcing single sign-on across the team needs an added Atlassian Guard Standard subscription even on a paid tier. For a team that outgrew the free ceiling and does not want per-seat licensing on top of an SSO add-on, "open source" is often shorthand for "something with a fixed cost I control."
The real open source options
These five actually meet the "open source, self-hostable" bar. None charges a licence fee for the self-hosted core.
| Tool | License | Hosting | Built for |
|---|---|---|---|
| OpenProject | GPLv3 core, paid Enterprise add-on | Self-hosted or their own cloud | Portfolios: Gantt charts, budgets, cost tracking |
| Redmine | GPLv2 | Self-hosted only | A mature plugin ecosystem, at the cost of a dated interface |
| Taiga | MPL-2.0 | Free to self-host | Scrum specifically: sprints, story points, burndowns |
| Plane | AGPL-3.0 (Community edition) | Self-hosted | A Linear-shaped workflow: cycles, modules, an intake queue |
| Kaneo | MIT | Free to self-host, paid cloud option | The lightest install of the five, with free OIDC login |
OpenProject and Redmine carry the most built-in reporting, which is also why they are the heaviest installs. Taiga and Plane assume a specific methodology (Scrum, and Linear-style cycles) rather than trying to fit every workflow. Kaneo is the newest and smallest, closer to a lightweight board than a full portfolio tool.
What self-hosting actually costs
The software is free. Running it is not. At minimum, self-hosting one of these means a server (your own hardware or a small monthly VPS), someone who applies updates when a security patch ships, a backup routine you have actually tested by restoring it once, and being the one who gets paged when the service goes down at an inconvenient hour.
For a developer who already runs other self-hosted services, that is a rounding error. For a two-person agency or a non-technical founder, it is a second job nobody signed up for, layered on top of the project management the tool was supposed to simplify.
Do you actually need to self-host?
The honest test is what is really driving the search. If the requirement is data residency, a compliance framework like SOC 2 or HIPAA, or a policy that forbids third-party hosting, self-hosting is genuinely the requirement, and one of the five tools above is the right call. If the actual complaint is that Jira got expensive and fiddly to configure, self-hosting was never the requirement. It was just the first search that came to mind when "there has to be something cheaper and simpler than this" turned into "there has to be something open source."
Where EasyKanban fits, and where it doesn't
Worth saying plainly: EasyKanban is not open source and cannot be self-hosted. If self-hosting is a firm requirement, use one of the five tools above, most likely OpenProject or Redmine if you need Jira-level reporting, Taiga if your team runs Scrum, or Kaneo if you want the smallest possible install.
If the real complaint is Jira's price and its workflow schemes, EasyKanban is a hosted board with no server to run: three boards with unlimited cards free, a CSV import that reads a Jira export directly, and no workflow scheme to configure before the team can start moving cards. It solves the "too expensive and too fiddly" version of this search. It does not solve the "must run on our own infrastructure" version, and pretending otherwise would waste your time.
Frequently asked questions
Is there a truly free, open source alternative to Jira?
Yes. OpenProject, Redmine, Taiga, Plane and Kaneo are all free to install and run on your own server, with no per-seat licence for the self-hosted core. Some, OpenProject in particular, also sell a paid Enterprise add-on or a hosted plan, but that is optional on top of a genuinely free base.
Does Jira still offer a self-hosted version?
Only Data Center, and its future is limited. Atlassian stopped selling new Data Center licenses on March 30, 2026. The product reaches end of life on March 28, 2029 (checked on atlassian.com, September 2026). Jira Server, the older self-hosted product, was retired earlier and is no longer an option at all.
What's the easiest open source Jira alternative to actually run?
Kaneo and Taiga have the smallest footprint of the five and are the quickest to get running from a single container. OpenProject and Redmine are heavier installs with more moving parts, which buys you more built-in reporting if your team needs it.
Do I need to be a sysadmin to self-host one of these?
Not necessarily, but someone on the team needs to be comfortable running the server, applying updates, and restoring a backup they have actually tested rather than assumed works. If nobody wants that job, that answers the self-hosting question by itself.
Is EasyKanban open source?
No. It is a hosted kanban board, and there is no self-hosted version to install. The free plan covers three boards with unlimited cards and up to three collaborators per board, which is enough for the "Jira got too expensive" reason people land here. If self-hosting itself is the hard requirement, rather than just a route to lower cost, use one of the five open source tools listed above instead.
Related reading
- Jira alternative for small teams
- Kanban for developers: sprint planning, bug triage, releases
- EasyKanban vs Trello
- A free Asana alternative: when kanban is enough
If self-hosting is the actual requirement, any of the five tools above beats staying on Jira Data Center past a deadline you do not control. If the requirement turns out to be Jira's price rather than its hosting, importing a CSV export into a free EasyKanban board takes less time than standing up a server for one.