Should you build your own Jira?
Buy it, and start free. Jira costs nothing for up to 10 users, and Standard runs about $8 a user beyond that.
Short answer
Jira Standard is $7.92 per user per month on annual billing, about $2,850 over 3 years for ten people. Jira Free already covers up to 10 users with boards, backlog and timeline views, so many teams that size don’t need to pay yet. A homemade tracker with custom workflows, permissions and sprints would cost about $5,400 to build and maintain over 3 years.
- Buy for 3 years
- $2,851 Standard, $7.92/mo × 10 seats
- Build and run for 3 years
- $5,425 60 h to build, 3 h/mo upkeep
- Verdict
- BUY Money and risk combined
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Cheaper options
Jira pricing in 2026
| Plan | Billed yearly | Billed monthly |
|---|---|---|
| Standard Typical | $7.92/seat/mo | $9.70/seat/mo |
| Premium | $16.25/seat/mo | $19.60/seat/mo |
Free plan: Up to 10 users, unlimited projects and work items, and 2 GB of storage
Paying too much? Jira Free covers up to 10 users, so a team that size rarely needs Standard unless it wants user roles and permissions, 250 GB of storage or business-hours support.
From Atlassian’s pricing page, prices effective 13 October 2026. Annual billing is a flat $950 a year for 1 to 10 users ($7.92 per user at 10 users) and $1,950 for Premium. With 8 or fewer users, monthly billing at $9.70 per user is cheaper than the annual tier. We assume 10 seats, the size of the free plan and of the first paid tier. Checked October 26, 2026.
Run your own numbers
Defaults are a typical small team at $30/hour. Change anything.
Buying is about $2,574 cheaper over 3 years.
3-year totals. Building includes your time, upkeep, running costs and one month of an AI app builder ($25). Change any number to match your situation.
What you’d build
- Issues with custom statuses and workflow transitions
- Scrum and kanban boards with a backlog and sprints
- Custom fields, labels and saved filters
- Role-based permissions per project
- Email notifications and simple reports
Our estimate for a database, hosting, search and an email sending service.
What you’d give up
- 3,000+ marketplace apps and integrations
- Advanced roadmaps and cross-project planning on Premium
- Connections to Confluence, Bitbucket and Trello
- SSO, audit logs and compliance options
Risks the price doesn’t show
Configurable statuses and transitions are the heart of Jira and easy to get subtly wrong.
Per-project roles and issue-level security need careful testing.
Burndown and velocity charts are simple once the data is clean.
When the verdict flips
Move to a SWITCH if you don’t use Atlassian’s other tools: Plane’s free plan imports Jira issues and costs nothing for up to 12 users. Switch to BUILD only if issue tracking is part of your own product.
Sources
Build hours are our estimates for one person using an AI app builder. How we score. Spotted a wrong price? Tell us on X @BuildictHQ.
Related verdicts
Asana
Project management
Switch to ClickUp or Trello. ClickUp’s free plan has no member cap, and Trello costs $5 a user against Asana’s $10.99.
- Buy, 3 yrs
- $1,978
- Build, 3 yrs
- $2,725
ClickUp
Project management
Buy it, or start on the free plan. At $7 a user, ClickUp costs far less than building even a slice of it.
- Buy, 3 yrs
- $1,260
- Build, 3 yrs
- $4,363
Linear
Project management
Switch to Plane. It imports Linear issues and cycles, is free for up to 12 people, and Pro costs $6 a user against Linear’s $10.
- Buy, 3 yrs
- $1,800
- Build, 3 yrs
- $5,053