head to head

Jira vs Huly

Huly is the open source alternative to Jira — issue tracker and project management for software teams. Here is the honest comparison.

Yes — Huly is a viable free replacement for Jira. Huly is open source under EPL-2.0, written in TypeScript, with 27,700 GitHub stars, 2,155 forks and 849 open issues; it was last pushed 14 hours ago. Jira costs from $8, while self-hosting Huly carries no licence fee — the trade is your operational time instead of a subscription. 5 other open source Jira alternatives are tracked here, led by Plane at 59,546 stars. Huly ranks #3 of 6 tracked open source Jira alternatives by stars. The tracked set, by adoption: Plane (59,546 stars), Gitea (58,048 stars), Wekan (21,089 stars), Vikunja (5,438 stars), Taiga (850 stars). Replacement criteria on this page: 4 reasons to move to Huly and 3 reasons to stay on Jira.

Huly stars ★ 28K license EPL-2.0 self-host yes Jira pricing $8.15-$16/user/month

choose Huly if

Your Jira bill is growing with seats or usage
You need your data in a format and server you control
Your compliance posture requires auditing the code that touches sensitive data
You have (or can rent) a server and basic Docker comfort

full Huly profile →

stick with Jira if

You need the polished onboarding and support SLAs of a commercial vendor
Your team has zero capacity to operate software, even self-hosted-simple
You depend on a Jira integration ecosystem that the OSS alternatives have not replicated

Side by side

	Huly (open source)	Jira
Price	Free (self-hosted)	$8.15-$16/user/month
License	EPL-2.0	Proprietary
Source code	Public, auditable	Closed
Self-hosting	Yes — hcengineering/platform	Cloud only
Data ownership	Your server, your format	Vendor's cloud
Community	★ 28K · ⑂ 2.2K	—
Built with	TypeScript	—

Why people look for a Jira alternative

Jira's pricing scales per-user and per-feature, with Advanced Roadmaps and other tools locked behind Premium. The interface complexity is a common complaint — it was built for enterprise workflows and carries that weight. Self-hosted options were discontinued.

About Huly

Huly is an open source, EPL 2.0 licensed, TypeScript built all in one work platform that folds project management, issue tracking, chat, CRM, HRM and applicant tracking into one system teams can run on their own servers, aimed at organisations that want the ground Jira, Linear, ClickUp, Slack and Notion cover without renting it from five separate vendors.

read the full Huly overview →

Other open source alternatives to Jira

last updated nightly · ranking method: github stars, live-tracked

Frequently asked questions

Is Huly a good replacement for Jira?

Huly is an open source alternative to Jira (Issue tracker and project management for software teams). It is written in TypeScript and licensed under EPL-2.0, with 27,700 GitHub stars.

Is Huly free compared to Jira?

Yes. Huly is open source — there is no licence fee, and you can self-host it. Jira is typically a paid subscription, so the trade-off is licence cost against the operational work of running it yourself.

How do I migrate from Jira to Huly?

Migration effort depends on the data formats involved. Check Huly's documentation for import options, and compare the feature table above to confirm the capabilities you depend on are covered before switching.