Jira Alternatives: 5 Best Cost-Efficient & Flexible Picks

Costly add-ons, limited visibility across multiple projects, lack of connection between strategy and execution, sound familiar? Even though Jira has its advantages, especially for IT departments, rising costs can lead many to consider alternatives. To make the right cost-efficient choice for your organization, we advise looking for an all-in-one work management platform that provides visibility into goals and operational work. So, here are the 5 best Jira alternatives to consider in 2025.

Key Features to Look for in a Jira Alternative

When choosing a Jira alternative, most importantly, consider the needs of your team and organization. Here are the key capabilities to prioritize:

✔️ Scalability from Daily Work to Strategic Goals

• Ensure the platform seamlessly supports multiple hierarchical levels within the organization.
• Establish an unambiguous link between daily output across IT or business teams and company goals/outcomes.

✔️ Customization & Flexibility

• A good Jira alternative allows you to create custom workflows, fields, and board configurations.
• Choose a tool that avoids reliance on excessive plugins or workarounds for basic functionality.

✔️ Advanced Performance & Flow Metrics

• Look for a platform with advanced flow metrics without add-ons (coming with additional cost).
• Ensure you have easy-to-read performance summaries for faster decision-making.

✔️ Workflow Automation

• Choose a solution that supports automating multiple time-consuming tasks with strong automation capabilities.
• Explore AI-powered tools to optimize your teams’ work by analyzing and streamlining processes.

Top 5 Jira Alternatives You Should Consider Based on Your Needs

Now that we’ve outlined the key features to look for in a solution let’s explore how our top 5 picks leverage these capabilities to provide a better project management experience. Whether seeking greater flexibility, enhanced collaboration, or improved reporting, these tools offer realistic alternatives to Jira.

1. Businessmap (formerly Kanbanize): Best Jira Alternative for Cost-Efficient & Scalable Project & Goals Management

Businessmap provides three powerful solutions in one platform at a fraction of the cost, making it a significantly more cost-effective alternative to Jira (Premium) with essential add-ons. Unlike Jira, which requires additional purchases for visualizing the complete hierarchy across multiple projects and goals across the organization, unlimited automations, etc., Businessmap includes these out of the box, eliminating added costs. It provides seamless workflow customization, OKRs at scale, and real-time collaboration in a single, unified environment.

»» Projects, Workflow & Goals Management in a Single Environment for a Fraction of the Cost

For example, for an implementation of 1000+ users:

• Businessmap costs less than $7/user/month, including automations, goals management, project portfolio management, or workflow customization.

• Jira (Premium)'s costs go upwards of $12/user/month, including some essential add-ons to achieve complete project & goals management.

• Businessmap eliminates the need for add-ons and helps you reach upwards of 40% cost-efficiency compared to Jira, with additional savings as your implementation grows.

»» Ease of Use and Organization-Wide Visibility

Businessmap provides a user-friendly experience that teams can adopt quickly - without requiring extensive administrative support. The platform ensures real-time visibility across all organizational levels, making it accessible not just for technical teams but for all stakeholders.

Key Features

• Goal-Setting/OKRs: You can connect goals to work delivery processes in a single hub.

• Executive Dashboards: This helps you centralize all business objectives, providing a real-time dashboard to monitor progress, identify risks, and compare work vs. goals across teams.

• Multiple Workflow Views: Choose between Timeline, Planning/Gantt view, Initiatives, and Cards workflows to visualize different types of work on a single work management board.

• Embedded Advanced Analytics: Real-time insights are accessible to all subscribers at no extra cost, providing accurate and detailed metrics to ensure consistency and transparency across workflows.

• Project Portfolio Management: Create unlimited portfolio management boards to break down strategic initiatives and track completion across teams.

»» Customizable Workflows and Automation

Businessmap adapts to your team’s unique way of working, not the other way around. It supports Scrum, Kanban, SAFe, Flight Levels, PMO, Hybrid, or custom Agile frameworks, allowing teams to manage work without being forced into a rigid structure. This flexibility ensures organizations can scale and evolve processes without sacrificing speed or quality.

Key Features

• Customizable Work Boards: Work boards for Kanban, Scrum, OKRs, and any workflows.

• Digital Whiteboards: Miro-like boards for team collaboration and idea generation directly where you work.

• AI-Powered Tools: Use the power of AI to create comments, prompts, work analyses, and summaries.

• Unlimited Automation Rule runs regardless of implementation scale.

2. Azure DevOps: A Jira Alternative for Tech Teams

Azure DevOps is a software development project management and issue-tracking tool. The solution is designed with robust developer-focused tools and is best geared toward technical teams. It supports the end-to-end development process, from requirements management to testing and release.

Key Features

• Work Items: Covers Issues, Bugs, Epics, Features, User Stories, and Tasks.
• Work Tracking with Kanban Boards: Enables teams to manage development workflows using Azure Boards.
• Unlimited Private Git Repos: Provides version control for code collaboration.
• CI/CD Integration: Offers continuous integration and delivery for faster releases.
• Extensions Marketplace: Includes multiple integration extensions for a customized experience.

Pricing Model

Azure DevOps offers a pricing structure based on individual services, user licenses, and open-source projects:

Individual Services:

• Azure Pipelines includes 1 free Microsoft-hosted and 1 free self-hosted CI/CD.
• Azure Artifacts includes 2 GiB free and starting at $2 per GiB.
• GitHub Advanced Security for specialized development needs at $49 per committer per month.

User Licenses:

• Basic Plan: First 5 users free, then $6 per user/month.
• Basic + Test Plans: $52 per user/month for advanced testing capabilities.

Open Source Plans:

• Azure Pipelines
• AzureDevOps Bundle (free for first 5 users, then $6 per user/month)

3. Asana: A Flexible Jira Alternative for Project & Task Management

Asana is a project management and collaboration tool for product teams, cross-functional coordination, and project tracking. It offers a flexible and intuitive platform that can adapt to different workflows. Asana is a strong Jira alternative for teams looking for a simple yet powerful tool for managing projects, collaboration, and Agile execution.

Key Features

• Task & Project Management: Organize work with tasks, projects, and portfolios.
• Portfolio Management: Group projects into portfolios for better oversight and goal tracking.
• Agile Adaptability: Can be customized for backlogs, sprints, and Agile workflows.
• Issue Tracking: Can be configured to manage and track issues effectively.
• User-Friendly for Non-Technical Teams: Designed for ease of use across various departments.

Pricing Model

Asana offers the following tiered pricing structure:

• Personal Plan: Free for teams of up to 10 users.
• Starter Plan: €10.99/user/month (billed annually) or €13.49/user/month (billed monthly) includes limited automation rules (250 actions per month).
• Advanced Plan: €24.99/user/month (billed annually) or €30.49/user/month (billed monthly), includes 100 portfolios and portfolios reporting with real-time data.
• Enterprise Plans: Custom pricing is available to manage complex workflows across departments.
• Enterprise+: For companies with strict compliance requirements and advanced security controls.

4. Rally: A Scalable Jira Alternative for Agile Enterprises

Rally (part of Broadcom's ValueOps Platform) is a powerful Agile project management solution for large enterprises. It provides extensive support for Scrum, Kanban, and Agile workflows, helping teams plan sprints, manage backlogs, and track project progress in real-time.

Key Features

• Scalability: Handles large volumes of tasks and users.
• Agile Methodology Support: Includes Scrum boards, Kanban boards, sprint planning, and backlog management.
• Advanced Agile Metrics: Offers charts for flow metrics.
• Timeline Views
• Enterprise-Grade Security: Supports data encryption, secure authentication, and compliance with industry standards (SOC, ISO/IEC 27001:2013, FISMA).
• Flexible Deployment: Available on-premise or in the cloud.

Pricing Model

Rally offers custom pricing, so potential customers need to request a quote for tailored plans based on their business needs.

5. Wrike: A Lightweight Jira Alternative for Project Management

Wrike is a project management platform to streamline task management, collaboration, and workflow automation. With real-time updates, customizable features, and shared workspaces, it helps teams manage projects efficiently from start to finish.

Key Features

• Essential Project Management Features: Plan, assign, and track tasks with custom workflows and real-time progress updates.
• Work Intelligence Features: Smart search, AI-recommended tasks, and subitem creation.
• Workflow Automation Features: Custom item types, task and project approval, limited automation actions per month.

Pricing Model

Wrike offers four pricing plans based on team size and feature needs:

• Team Plan: $10/user/month (billed annually) for 2-15 users.
• Business Plan: $25/user/month (billed annually) for 5-200 users, including a Chart view for advanced reporting and resource management features.
• Enterprise and Pinnacle Plans: Custom pricing, including advanced reporting, integrations, and security features.
• Add-Ons: Available for premium features such as Wrike Integrate or to add custom automation at an additional cost.

Businessmap: Flexible, Scalable, and Easy to Adopt

If you are still in doubt, here are some frequently asked questions that we answered for you.

>> What if our teams are already accustomed to Jira?

Businessmap can be tailored to the work of any team. We also offer flexibility in the implementation approach for enterprises. You can start using Businessmap with the teams ready for a change, or we can work on a gradual migration plan over time. Our expert team and partners are here to support you every step of the way, ensuring a smooth transition and helping you with the overall change management so you can deliver undeniable ROI.

>> Can Businessmap also be used by non-tech teams?

Absolutely! Businessmap is designed to include all teams, not just those with technical backgrounds. Our solution boasts a user-friendly interface and a short learning curve, making it accessible and intuitive for non-technical teams. In contrast to Jira, our platform ensures that every team member, regardless of their technical expertise, has a fantastic experience.

>> As our organization expands, is Businessmap equipped to accommodate this growth?

Businessmap was explicitly crafted to evolve alongside organizations as they grow, regarding team size and operational needs. Our solution is highly adaptable and can be tailored to suit any workflow seamlessly. Moreover, we provide a robust set of tools designed to support and facilitate organizations' growth actively, ensuring that Businessmap is there to meet and exceed your expectations as your requirements expand.