AlianHub vs JiraKeep the sprints. Lose the rent.
Jira bills every seat, every month, and saves its best answers for higher tiers. AlianHub puts ten views, native time tracking, AI, and built-in chat on your server — unlimited engineers, $0, open source under AGPL-3.0.
AGPL-3.0 open source$0 for unlimited usersJira’s wins listed below, too
- 50 seatsPer-seat pricing
- Time trackingMarketplace add-ons
- Team chatNot included
- Source codeNot open source
- Advanced permissionsHigher tiers
- Unlimited seats$0 forever
- Time trackingIncluded
- Chat + AIIncluded
- Source codeAGPL-3.0, on GitHub
- 40+ permissionsEvery plan
Both are serious tools. Here’s who picks which.
We make one of these, so we wrote the other side’s case first. If Jira genuinely fits your team, we’d rather you know now.
Choose AlianHub if…
- You want to own your data. AlianHub runs on your server — direct MongoDB access, files on local disk or S3-compatible storage, no export walls.
- Per-seat math stopped being funny. Self-hosted is $0 for unlimited users and unlimited projects. Free forever isn’t a trial — it’s the plan.
- You want the toolkit in the box. Built-in chat, native time tracking, AI, and 12+ custom field types — included, not sold as add-ons.
- You’d rather run one simple stack. One Docker Compose command, one install wizard — no dedicated platform team required.
Jira might fit if…
- You’re deep in the Atlassian ecosystem. Confluence, Bitbucket, and years of admin muscle memory already live there — that gravity is real.
- You depend on Marketplace apps. If a specific Atlassian Marketplace add-on runs your process, check for a replacement before you move.
- A decade of custom schemes lives in your instance. Rebuilding old workflows and automations is a genuine cost — weigh it honestly.
- You want a vendor-run cloud at enterprise scale. If someone else holding the pager matters more than owning the data, Jira’s cloud is mature.
No tool wins every team. Ten rows of detail below — jump to the table.
Ten rows, straight answers
AlianHub’s column is what ships free on your own server. Jira’s column reflects publicly listed plans — conservative on purpose.
| Feature | AlianHubFree forever | Jira |
|---|---|---|
| Price for unlimited usersThe row that decides budgets | Free forever (self-hosted)Cloud from $7.75/user/mo annual | Per-seat pricing |
| Open sourceAGPL-3.0, audit every line | IncludedAll code on GitHub | Not open source |
| Self-hosted, your dataYour server, your MongoDB | IncludedDirect database access, no export walls | Higher tiers |
| Built-in team chatChannels, @mentions, live sync | IncludedReal-time, Socket.io | Not included |
| Native time trackingTimers, timesheets, capacity | IncludedDesktop trackers: Win / macOS / Linux | Marketplace add-ons |
| AI includedWrite, generate tasks & sprints | IncludedBring your own LLM key | Paid add-on |
| Custom fields free12+ field types | IncludedMoney, rating, people & more | Higher tiers |
| 40+ granular permissionsCustom roles, full RBAC | IncludedOn every plan | Higher tiers |
| All 10 views includedList, Board, Table, Calendar, Workload + 5 more | IncludedAll drag-and-drop | Not all views |
| SetupFrom zero to first sprint | docker compose up -dOfficial GHCR images, amd64 + arm64 | Varies by deployment |
Comparison based on publicly listed plans, July 2026. Jira is a trademark of Atlassian.
Switching is a weekend, not a quarter
Deploy Saturday morning, invite everyone Sunday, run Monday stand-up on your own server. If years of Jira history need to come along, we help with that too.
Deploy with Docker
One command pulls official GHCR images (amd64 + arm64) and boots the whole stack. The install wizard walks you through MongoDB, storage, and optional services — SMTP, AI, Firebase.
$ docker compose up -d
Pulling ghcr.io images… done
alianhub v14.7.0 · running
Invite the whole team
No seat math, no licence approvals. Invite all fifty engineers — and QA, and the contractors — then scope access with 40+ permissions and custom roles.
Bring your Jira history
Export from Jira, import the CSV — AlianHub’s built-in Jira importer maps it in. For gnarlier setups, Alian Software offers migration help, custom features, and custom integrations on request.
Send a sample of your Jira projects — we’ll scope mapping issue types, sprints, and history into AlianHub.