Jira vs Linear vs Asana vs ClickUp vs Trello vs monday.com vs GitHub Projects vs Plane
Jira, Linear, Asana, ClickUp, Trello, monday.com, GitHub Projects and open-source Plane compared on free plans, per-seat pricing, developer workflow and self-hosting.
Quick Answer
Engineering-only teams should start with Linear (speed) or GitHub Projects (zero extra tooling); teams that need heavy customisation and reporting pick Jira. Cross-functional companies lean to Asana, ClickUp or monday.com; small teams wanting simple boards pick Trello. Pick Plane if you need an open-source, self-hostable tracker.
Reviewed by TechLogHub Engineering Team. Last updated November 6, 2026. Pricing and free-plan limits re-checked on each vendor's pricing page in November 2026, including Atlassian's Data Center end-of-life dates and Plane's AGPL-3.0 licence.
| Feature | Jira | Linear | Asana | ClickUp | Trello | monday.com | GitHub Projects | Plane |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Free Plan | Up to 10 users | Unlimited members, 250 issues, 2 teams | Personal: up to 2 users, unlimited projects and tasks | Unlimited members and tasks, 60 MB storage, 5 spaces | Up to 10 collaborators and 10 boards per workspace | Up to 2 seats, 3 boards | Included in GitHub Free | Up to 12 users (cloud) |
| Entry Paid Plan | See vendor pricing | Basic $10/user/month (billed yearly) | Starter $10.99/user/month yearly ($13.49 monthly) | Core $9/user/month (billed yearly) | Standard $5/user/month yearly ($6 monthly) | Basic $9/seat/month (billed yearly, 3-seat minimum) | GitHub Team $4/user/month | Pro $6/seat/month (annual) |
| Built for Software Teams | ||||||||
| Git Integration | Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab (see vendor docs) | GitHub, GitLab | See vendor integrations | See vendor integrations | Via Power-Ups | Via integrations | Native (GitHub) | GitHub, GitLab (paid plans) |
| Views | Board, backlog, list, timeline | List, board, timeline (projects and roadmaps) | List, board, calendar; timeline and Gantt from Starter | List, board, calendar, table; Gantt from Core | Board; calendar, timeline, table, dashboard, map on Premium | Boards; timeline, Gantt and calendar from Standard | Table, board, roadmap | List, board, calendar, spreadsheet, Gantt |
| Workflow Customisation | Extensive | Limited, opinionated | Moderate (rules, custom fields) | Extensive | Basic (lists, automation) | Extensive (columns, automations) | Moderate (custom fields, built-in automations) | Moderate |
| Self-Hosted Option | Data Center (existing customers only; EOL 28 March 2029) | With GitHub Enterprise Server | ||||||
| Open Source | AGPL-3.0 |
Pricing at a glance
Entry prices and free tiers as listed on TechLogHub for ClickUp; the other tools are not listed in the directory yet.
| Tool | Free tier | Starts at | Billing | Plans listed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ClickUp pricing | Yes | — | — | Free Forever · Unlimited · Business |
Prices as written by the maker on their listing; medians and context on each tool's pricing page. See the 2026 pricing report for the directory-wide picture.
Jira
Atlassian's issue and project tracker, the long-standing default for agile software teams and widely used by other departments.
Pros
- Free for up to 10 users
- Deep customisation of workflows, issue types, fields and permissions
- Scrum and Kanban boards, backlogs and strong agile reporting
- Very large Atlassian Marketplace and tight Confluence and Bitbucket integration
- Scales to large, multi-team and regulated organisations
Cons
- Instances become slow and cluttered without a dedicated admin
- Steeper learning curve (JQL, schemes, permissions) than Linear or Trello
- Data Center (self-hosted) stopped selling to new customers on 30 March 2026 and reaches end of life on 28 March 2029
- Paid-tier prices change regularly; check current pricing before budgeting
Best For
Larger engineering organisations that need custom workflows, rigorous reporting and the Atlassian ecosystem.
Linear
Fast, opinionated issue tracker for product and engineering teams, built around cycles, projects and keyboard-driven workflows.
Linearon TechLogHub: reviews, pricing & alternativesPros
- Very fast, keyboard-first interface with little setup
- Opinionated defaults (cycles, triage, projects) reduce admin overhead
- Free plan allows unlimited members
- Smooth GitHub and GitLab integration that updates issues as pull requests move
- Simple, published per-seat pricing
Cons
- Free plan capped at 250 issues and 2 teams
- Less configurable workflows and fields than Jira
- Built for software teams; less suited to marketing or operations work
- Cloud only, no self-hosted option
Best For
Startups and product-led engineering teams that want speed and minimal process overhead.
Asana
Work management platform for cross-functional teams, strong on projects, portfolios and goals across departments.
Pros
- Polished interface that non-technical teammates adopt quickly
- List, board and calendar views free; timeline and Gantt from Starter
- Goals and portfolios (Advanced plan) for cross-department planning
- Personal plan is free forever with unlimited projects and tasks
Cons
- Personal free plan limited to 2 users
- Higher per-seat price than most developer tools
- No native sprint/backlog model comparable to Jira or Linear
- Cloud only
Best For
Companies coordinating engineering work with marketing, design and operations in one tool.
ClickUp
All-in-one work platform combining tasks, docs, whiteboards, chat and automations, aimed at replacing several tools at once.
ClickUpon TechLogHub: reviews, pricing & alternativesPros
- Free Forever plan with unlimited members and unlimited tasks
- Very broad feature set: tasks, docs, whiteboards, chat, forms, automations
- Highly configurable hierarchy, statuses and custom fields
- Low entry price for paid plans
Cons
- Free plan storage is only 60 MB, with tight caps on automations and spaces
- Feature breadth makes the interface busy and harder to learn
- Less focused on engineering workflows than Linear or Jira
- Cloud only
Best For
Teams that want one configurable workspace for tasks, docs and chat instead of several tools.
Trello
Atlassian's simple Kanban board tool, built around boards, lists and cards with Power-Ups for extra features.
Pros
- Easiest tool here to learn; boards are usable in minutes
- Free plan includes unlimited Power-Ups per board
- Cheapest paid entry tier in this comparison
- Works well for personal and small-team task tracking
Cons
- Free plan limited to 10 collaborators and 10 boards per workspace, 10 MB per file
- Kanban-centric; weak for sprints, dependencies and reporting
- Larger projects outgrow it quickly
- Cloud only
Best For
Small teams and side projects that need simple visual boards, not a full issue tracker.
monday.com
Visual work management platform built on configurable boards, popular with operations, marketing and cross-functional teams.
Pros
- Highly visual, colourful boards that non-engineers like
- Flexible board columns and automations for many kinds of workflow
- Strong dashboards for managers
- Separate monday dev product for software teams, also from $9/seat/month
Cons
- Free plan limited to 2 seats and 3 boards
- Paid plans start at a 3-seat minimum
- Less natural for issue tracking and sprints than developer tools
- Cloud only
Best For
Operations-led or cross-functional teams that want visual boards and dashboards over developer-centric tracking.
GitHub Projects
Planning boards, tables and roadmaps built into GitHub, working directly on issues and pull requests.
Pros
- Included in GitHub Free, so no extra tool or bill
- Lives next to code: issues, pull requests and milestones in one place
- Table, board and roadmap layouts with custom fields and iterations
- Great for open-source projects with public boards
Cons
- Fewer reporting and portfolio features than Jira or Asana
- Awkward for non-engineering teammates who do not use GitHub
- Ties planning to GitHub; not useful if code lives elsewhere
Best For
Engineering teams and open-source projects that already live in GitHub and want planning without another tool.
Plane
Open-source project and issue tracker, often described as a Jira or Linear alternative, available as Plane Cloud or self-hosted.
Pros
- Open source under AGPL-3.0, with self-hosting on your own servers
- Free cloud plan for up to 12 users
- Cycles, modules and five layouts (list, board, calendar, Gantt, spreadsheet) on the free plan
- Low per-seat paid pricing
- Commercial and air-gapped editions for organisations with strict requirements
Cons
- Smaller integrations ecosystem than Jira, Asana or ClickUp
- Self-hosting means you own upgrades, backups and uptime
- Younger product; some advanced features sit in paid editions
Best For
Teams that need an open-source, self-hostable tracker for data control or budget reasons.
Developer-first trackers versus work management platforms
These eight tools split into two camps. Jira, Linear, GitHub Projects and Plane are built around issues, sprints or cycles, and links to code. They understand branches and pull requests, and their default concepts match how software is built. Asana, ClickUp, monday.com and Trello are general work management tools. They are excellent at projects that span departments, such as a launch involving engineering, marketing and support, but issue tracking is one use case among many. Developers often find them slower for daily triage and lacking in Git automation. A useful rule: pick the tool where the people doing most of the work spend their day. If 80 percent of the work is engineering, use a developer tracker and give other teams a lightweight view or integration. If engineering is one team of many, a work management platform with a GitHub integration usually beats forcing everyone into Jira.
Free plans: what you actually get
Free plans differ more than paid ones. Jira is free for up to 10 users. Linear allows unlimited members but caps you at 250 issues and 2 teams, so it is effectively a trial. Asana's Personal plan is limited to 2 users, and monday.com's free plan to 2 seats and 3 boards. ClickUp's Free Forever plan allows unlimited members and tasks but only 60 MB of storage, 5 spaces and 100 automation actions a month. Trello's free plan supports up to 10 collaborators and 10 boards per workspace with a 10 MB per-file limit. GitHub Projects is included with GitHub Free. Plane's cloud free plan covers up to 12 users, and the self-hosted open-source edition costs nothing beyond your own infrastructure. For a small engineering team that wants a free tool long term, Jira (up to 10 users), GitHub Projects and Plane are the realistic options.
Paid pricing per seat
At list price, billed yearly, entry paid tiers are: GitHub Team $4 per user per month, Trello Standard $5, Plane Pro $6, ClickUp Core $9, monday.com Basic $9 per seat with a 3-seat minimum, Linear Basic $10, and Asana Starter $10.99 ($13.49 billed monthly). Jira's Standard price is not listed in a form we could verify this cycle, so check Atlassian's pricing page directly. Entry tiers often lack features teams expect, such as advanced reporting, guests or SSO, which sit in mid tiers: Linear Business $16, Asana Advanced $24.99, ClickUp Business $17, monday.com Standard $12 and Pro $19, Trello Premium $10, Plane Business $13. Budget against the tier that has the features you need, not the cheapest one.
Self-hosting and open source
Only Plane in this list is open source. Its code is published under the AGPL-3.0 and you can self-host it, with commercial and air-gapped editions available for organisations that need support or offline installs. If you modify Plane and offer it to users over a network, the AGPL requires you to make your modified source available. GitHub Projects can run on-premises as part of GitHub Enterprise Server. Jira Data Center is being retired: Atlassian stopped selling it to new customers on 30 March 2026 and it reaches end of life on 28 March 2029, when products become read-only. Linear, Asana, ClickUp, Trello and monday.com are cloud only. For teams with data residency rules or air-gapped environments, the realistic choices are Plane self-hosted or GitHub Enterprise Server. TechLogHub's open-source project management category lists more self-hostable options.
Verdict
For pure software teams, the shortlist is Linear, Jira, GitHub Projects and Plane. Choose Linear for speed and low process overhead, Jira for heavy customisation, compliance and reporting at scale, GitHub Projects if your team already lives in GitHub and wants zero extra cost, and Plane if you need open source and self-hosting. If engineering has to share one tool with marketing, design and operations, Asana, ClickUp and monday.com fit better; ClickUp is the cheapest and most feature-packed, Asana the most polished, monday.com the most visual. Trello remains the fastest way to get a small team onto a board, but most growing teams outgrow it. Watch the free-plan limits: Linear caps issues, Asana and monday.com cap seats, and Jira caps users at 10.