Choosing a Jira alternative
Before shortlisting tools, decide where the thing runs and how it is billed. That one answer removes most of the options. Below: the realistic choices, what each is actually good at, and where Spryn — self-hosted, one-time license, unlimited seats — fits.
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$99 one-time · Unlimited seats · Setup in 10 minutes
The shortlist
Each comparison below covers the same ground in detail — features, hosting model, pricing, and the cases where the other tool is the better call.
For teams coming off Server or Data Center who want the sprint workflow back without the process theatre.
Read comparison →Linear is fast and polished, but cloud-only and per-seat. This is the cycles-vs-sprints, rented-vs-owned call.
Read comparison →Plane is open source and built to be everything. Pick it if you want breadth; pick Spryn if you want sprints to be simple.
Read comparison →A full open-source project suite with Gantt, budgeting and more — against a focused self-hosted sprint planner.
Read comparison →If Data Center EOL is what brought you here, this is the migration path and the timeline you are working against.
Read comparison →The full compare hub, if you would rather scan every option side by side before shortlisting.
Read comparison →Where Spryn fits
Spryn only does sprints, so there is no bloat to disable before the team can start. No workflow engine to design first.
Browser-based installer on your own server. No Docker, no Kubernetes, no DevOps background required.
Pay once. Headcount stops being a line item — the opposite of per-seat Jira Cloud maths.
OAuth-based, with preview before import. Not a paid add-on and not a third-party migration tool.
Sprint data, estimates and customer issues stay on infrastructure you control, under your retention policy.
Add your own OpenAI, Anthropic or Gemini key — or leave it off and run fully air-gapped with zero outbound calls.
The honest limit: Spryn does not replace Jira's service desk, its plugin marketplace, or a heavily customised workflow engine. If your team depends on those, stay on Jira Cloud — that is a better outcome than switching and regretting it. If what you actually use Jira for is a backlog, a sprint and a board, the trade is straightforward.
Native Jira import — OAuth-based, with preview before anything is written.
Native Jira import — OAuth-based, with preview before anything is written.
From a running instance
Issue detail — AI assists on descriptions, acceptance criteria, and child issues.
Issue detail — AI assists on descriptions, acceptance criteria, and child issues.
Timeline — schedule and capacity across week, month, or quarter.
Timeline — schedule and capacity across week, month, or quarter.
Self-hosted pricing
$99
One-time license. Unlimited seats. Your server.
Buy SprynSee full self-hosted pricing details →
Prefer monthly and managed? See cloud pricing →
What it takes to run Spryn:
Prefer we handle it? Add installation (+$30) or server setup (+$20) at checkout.
FAQ
Two separate reasons. Self-hosted teams are being forced off: Jira Server died in February 2024, and Jira Data Center stopped taking new subscriptions on March 30, 2026 with full end of life on March 28, 2029. Cloud teams tend to leave for a different reason — per-seat billing that grows with headcount, and a configuration surface that needs an owner.
It depends on how much you want to run. Plane and OpenProject are open-source project suites and will do far more than sprints, but they generally expect Docker or Kubernetes and real setup time. Spryn is narrower on purpose — sprint planning and execution only — and installs through the browser in about 10 minutes on 2 CPU cores and 4GB RAM.
Yes. Self-hosted Spryn is a one-time licence with unlimited seats, so adding people does not change the bill. Most cloud alternatives, including Linear and Jira Cloud itself, price per user per month.
Yes. Spryn has a native OAuth-based Jira importer built in, with a preview step before anything is written. Connect the account, pick a project, review what will come across, and import. It is included rather than a paid add-on or a third-party migration tool.
Some, deliberately. Spryn covers backlog, sprint planning with capacity, an execution board, timeline, standups and reports. It does not try to replace Jira's service desk, its plugin marketplace, or heavily customised workflow engines. If your team depends on those, Jira Cloud is the honest answer.
Usually yes, at roughly 3 to 25 people. That is the size where Jira's configuration overhead costs more than it returns, and where a one-time licence removes the per-seat maths entirely.
Install is about 10 minutes. The import is a preview-then-confirm step per project. The real cost is agreeing what not to bring across — most teams find a large share of a long-lived Jira backlog is not worth migrating.
Two related pages go deeper on what you would be running afterwards: sprint planning software covers capacity, commitment and sprint close, and agile project management software covers the wider delivery loop. If Data Center EOL is your deadline, start with the migration path.
