Jira vs Makeplane
Self-hosted for $4/mo on hetzner CAX11, versus $8-$16/user/mo on Jira.
Side-by-side
| Jira | Makeplane (self-hosted) | |
|---|---|---|
| Pricing model | $8-$16/user/mo | $4.13/mo flat (any team size) |
| Hosting | Jira's servers | Your VPS (hetzner CAX11) |
| Data ownership | Jira controls the data | Your disk, your encryption |
| Source code | Closed | Open (AGPL-3.0) |
| Customization | API + integrations only | Full source access; modify freely |
| Maintenance burden | Zero | Backups + updates (manual) |
| Health score (ossreplace) | — | 71 / 100 |
Why teams leave Jira
- Per-seat pricing scales painfully past 10 users
- Atlassian Cloud-only, Jira Server end-of-life since 2024
- Slow page loads vs lightweight competitors
- Workflows lock to Atlassian ecosystem (Confluence, Bitbucket)
Makeplane answers this by: Plane, OpenProject, and Leantime give kanban + issues + sprints + roadmaps for unlimited users on a single VPS.
The cost math
Assumes 5-person team using Jira at the midpoint price ($12/user/mo).
| Period | Jira | Makeplane on hetzner | You save |
|---|---|---|---|
| Monthly | $60 | $4.13 | $55.87 |
| Yearly | $720 | $49.56 | $670.44 |
| 3 years | $2,160 | $149 | $2,011 |
Deploy Makeplane now
One-click deploys at the cheapest provider for this workload:
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Common questions
Is Makeplane a good alternative to Jira?
Makeplane is an open-source, self-hostable alternative to Jira with an ossreplace health score of 71/100 — a composite of project activity, maturity, community, security, and adoption. It runs on your own hetzner VPS from $4.13/mo with full source access under the AGPL-3.0 license, versus Jira's $8–16/user/mo hosted plans.
How much cheaper is Makeplane than Jira?
A 5-person team pays about $60/mo on Jira. Self-hosting Makeplane on hetzner CAX11 costs a flat $4.13/mo regardless of team size — roughly $2,011 less over three years (93% lower).
Is Makeplane hard to self-host?
Makeplane self-hosts on your own VPS. You handle the install, backups, and updates yourself in exchange for full data ownership and no per-seat fees.
Do you keep control of your data with Makeplane vs Jira?
Yes. Because Makeplane runs on your own server, the data lives on your disk under your encryption. With Jira, Jira controls the hosting, storage, and access.