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| Payment schedule | 1-10 users | 100 users | 500 users | 2,000 users | 10,000 users | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Jira Core Cloud | Jira Core Server | Jira Software Cloud (Standard) | Jira Software Cloud (Premium) | Jira Software Server | Jira Data Center | |
Monthly fee | One time payment | Monthly fee | Monthly fee | Annual fee | Annual fee | |
Free | $10.00 (donated to charity) | Free for a trial, $70 for continued use | $140 ($14 per user) | $10.00 | $20,400 | |
$500 ($5 per user) | $8,800 | $700 ($7 per user) | $1,400 ($14 per user) | N/A | $20,400 | |
$1,850 ($3.70 per user) | $26,400 | $2,850 ($5.70 per user) | $4,650 ($9.30 per user) | $20,400 | $30,000 | |
$6,350 ($3.17 per user) | $40,000 | $10,350 ($5.17 per user) | $15,150 ($7.58 per user) | $52,800 | $52,800 | |
$30,350 ($3.04 per user) | $80,000 | $50,350 ($5.04 per user) | $71,150 ($7.12 per user) | $264,000 | $264,000 |
Jira's pricing starts at $10 per month. Jira offers two kinds of pricing plans: cloud-based options, where companies use Atlassian's online service, or self-hosted licensing. Most smaller and mid-sized companies are likely to be satisfied with the cloud services option, since there is no extra worry about managing your own hardware. For larger companies, however, Jira's server and data center options are likely to be ideal given the control they offer.
Jira is a popular name in project management. Developed by the online services company Atlassian, Jira began life mostly as a tool for managing software development projects, but has since expanded into more general usage. Jira uses the Kanban (or board) visual interface, where projects are managed by moving index cards across categories on a digital cork board. The software-specific version is called Jira Software, while the more general project management option is known as Jira Core.
Jira's pricing can get a little complex, but let's take a look at all the various options on offer.
In This Guide:
- Jira Pricing Plans — Jira provides users with a number of different pricing plans
- Jira Cost Per User — Jira pricing operates on a cost per user basis
- Jira Cloud Costs— An affordable option in which users don't have to worry about managing their own server
- Jira Server Costs— For small to medium sized businesses hosting their own server
- Jira Data Center Costs— Exclusively for companies with at least 500 employees.
- Verdict: Should You Pay for Jira?— The final verdict on whether Jira is right for you
- Jira FAQs — Some common questions (and answers) about Jira
Jira alternatives
Here are some of Jira's key rivals, below, or see our guide to the best project management software:
Jira Pricing Plans
Jira offers three pricing plan options. The first is Cloud, where you sign up for Jira just as you would for any other online service, such as Dropbox or Google Docs. Next there's the single server option, where a company installs Jira on its own server. Finally, there's the self-hosted Data Center option, designed for enterprises with teams of 500 or more.
- Jira Cloud starts from $500 per month
- Jira Server starts from $700 per month
- Jira Data Center starts from $12,000 per year
All three pricing options have some pretty clear use cases.
Jira Cloud is the online managed option, where companies don't have to worry about maintaining a server or protecting their data. They can just login when they need access to the product, and there it is. This also means that when new features are added to Jira, they automatically come to your subscription.
Jira Cloud also works seamlessly with Atlassian's mobile app, Jira Cloud. This is an ideal service for small and mid-sized companies, who may not have the technical chops – or even the will – to host their own server.
Jira Server, meanwhile, is available for a one-time fee. This means you will stay at the feature version of Jira that you purchase, unless you pay the annual renewal fee to receive feature upgrades and critical fixes. Jira Server’s pricing starts at 10 team members, and scales from there. This is a good option for those small and mid-sized companies that do want to host their own Jira iteration. It's also an option for larger companies that don't want an ongoing subscription. This option does not support SAML 2.0.
Finally, Data Center is intended for enterprises only, with annual subscriptions for a minimum of 500 users. This option adds some key enterprise-level features, including SAML 2.0, disaster recovery, project archiving, and compatibility with AWS. Jira Data Center is only available for Jira Software, and not the more general Jira Core project management software.
Jira Cost Per User
Jira's prices are all on a per-user basis, which is standard for business software. Jira Cloud allows you to input as many users as you'd like to get a per-user cost. This cost scales downwards, meaning the more users you have, the lower the per-user cost – another common approach for business software.
If you have just 10 team members, then Jira Core Cloud costs a flat $10 per month. If you have more users than that, you'll pay the equivalent of $5 per user, per month for teams of 100 or less. For teams with between 100 and 200 members, Jira Core Cloud scales down slowly from $5 to $4.25, depending on the exact number of seats required.
Jira Server starts with similar pricing to Jira Cloud, but this comes in the form of a one-time payment instead of a monthly charge. You'll pay a flat fee of $10 to run Jira for up to 10 users on your own server. Beyond that, Jira Server charges for preset numbers of team members. There is no option to pay for 166 users, for example – instead, you must choose either the 100 team member option at $8,800 for Jira Core Server, or pay $26,400 for the 500 user license.
Similarly, the Jira Data Center license for enterprises only offers preset user packages. It starts at 1-10 users for $20,400 per year. Data Center remains at $24 per user, per year until you get past 10,000 people, when the price finally starts to go down. By the time enterprises reach the highest option of more than 50,000 users, they’ll be charged $9 per user, per year for Jira.
Pros
- Very simple interface that's easy to use
- Lots of helpful integrations
- Scalable pricing structure - the more users you have, the more you save
Cons
- Missing more advanced project management features
- Integrations can be confusing
- Monthly rates are very expensive
Jira Cloud Costs
Jira Cloud's pricing gives you access to Jira Core or Jira Software. Both offer Kanban-style interfaces, with three basic categories for managing your project: To Do, In Progress, and Done. Tasks also support basics like attachments, subtasks, and the ability to link issues to create a task dependency structure.
Jira Cloud is ideal for small and mid-sized teams that aren't interested in managing their own servers. Jira Cloud with Jira Core is free for up to 10 users. After that, you must pay per-user pricing – one hundred users on Jira Core, for example, will cost $500 per month.
Anyone looking to add additional services – such as Confluence, Atlassian's supplementary service that adds document creation to your project management software – will have to pay fees as well. Confluence Cloud pricing currently costs $500 per month for 100 users.
Jira Server Costs
For smaller and mid-sized teams that want to manage their own server for Jira, there's Jira Server. Again, this package includes Jira Core for general project management – though you can opt for Jira Software if you're a software shop, just as with Cloud.
Jira Server offers a $10 flat fee for 10 users, just as Cloud does – however, Server's costs are all in the form of flat fees, since they are licenses for downloaded and self-hosted software. That means if a new version of Jira rolls out with added features, it won't be reflected in your version. Jira does support feature upgrades and critical fixes for the first 12 months of your license, but after that, you must pay the renewal rate to continue receiving these updates.
There's no question that this path is very economical. Let's say you want Jira Core for 100 users. On Jira Cloud, that is going to cost $500 every single month, adding up to $6,000 per year. With Jira Server, you pay $8,800 as a one-time fee – and that's it. Now, the downside is that everything is in your hands – including backing up your data, and making sure you apply any security patches to the server. Nevertheless, for teams that wish to host their own data, it's a good option. Jira Server can support any number of users, but is most ideal for small and mid-sized teams with a solid IT crew.
Again, companies that want it can add Confluence for an extra cost. Our fictional 100-member team would pay an additional flat fee of $6,400 for Confluence Server.
Jira Data Centers Costs
Now we're at the Enterprise level, where the pricing starts to get serious. The big deal with Data Center is that it provides the features which large businesses typically need under a self-hosted option. The idea here is that an enterprise would put Jira in its own cloud, or an enterprise-grade managed cloud.
Jira Data Center boasts a number of added features, including optimizations for Amazon Web Services or Microsoft Azure cloud deployments; support for SAML 2.0 to manage single sign-on; project archiving to improve performance; and disaster recovery supported by Atlassian.
Pricing options range from the minimum 500 users to more than 50,000, and are charged on an annual basis. The basic 500 user option costs $20,400 annually, while the very top option is $450,000 per year.
Verdict: Should You Pay For Jira?
If you're looking for a simple project management solution, then paying for Jira is a smart choice, especially if you run a team of engineers or tech-workers. However, due to Jira's steep price, it can also pay to look around. After all, a team of just 150 people will cost $1,000 a month to use Jira on the most basic level, and it only goes up from there
For example, for fans of the Jira interface, a better option could well be Atlassian's Trello. This has a similar look and feel to Jira, but is friendlier to non-technical types – and even has a free tier for individuals and small teams. You can see our Jira vs Trello guide for more on how the two stack up.
If you're looking for a self-hosted option, however, Jira is the better option. Anyone who needs to run project management software on their own server (or group of servers) would find themselves well served.
The best way to get a grip on Jira's pricing is to check our table at the top of this page, as pricing varies based on the service you need, as well as the amount of people you need it for.
You also only get 2GB of file storage, and you'll have to rely on community support. The free plan might be enough for a tiny company, but you'll need to pay more to really enjoy what Jira can offer.
However, some tech-savvy individuals have created an open source app that allows you to use Jira as a desktop client. Keep in mind, this is not officially sanctioned by Jira, so while there haven't been any major reports of mishaps or problems, it's certainly something to be used at your own caution.
Jira does offer time tracking. When creating a task, you can specify a time estimate dictated by how long you think it will take. Three colored bars will then show you this time estimate, the time that has so far been put into the task, and the estimated time remaining.
Jira does indeed allow you to use markdown on larger text fields. This can be helpful for anyone looking to emphasise certain parts of what they're writing.
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