# GitHub Projects vs Jira: where each wins Author: Sahil Dave Canonical: https://gitsu.app/compare/jira Published: 2026-10-09 Updated: 2026-10-09 Last checked: 2026-10-09 > **TL;DR** GitHub Projects is the planning layer built into GitHub: tables, boards and roadmaps over your issues and pull requests, included on GitHub's Free plan. Jira is Atlassian's separate tracker, with custom workflows, scrum and kanban templates, reports and a Free plan for up to 10 users. Pick Jira when people outside engineering plan in it or you need its workflow and reporting depth. Pick GitHub Projects when the work is code. If GitHub's own UI is the reason you are looking at Jira, Gitsu keeps the issues in GitHub and gives them dense lists, keyboard controls, nested filters and bulk edits, with a free web app. GitHub Projects and Jira answer different questions. GitHub Projects asks how to plan the issues and pull requests you already have in GitHub. Jira asks how a whole organisation should run its work, with engineering as one team among several. Most "GitHub Projects vs Jira" decisions get easier once you know which question your team is asking. We make Gitsu, a client for GitHub Projects, so we have a side. This page says where Jira wins, where GitHub wins, and when a third option fits: keep the work in GitHub and replace the interface. ## What is the difference between GitHub Projects and Jira? GitHub Projects is a planning layer inside GitHub; Jira is a separate tracker from Atlassian. GitHub's docs describe a project as "an adaptable table, board, and roadmap" built from your issues and pull requests. Changes sync both ways: reassign an item in the project and the issue changes too. Jira keeps its own work items, and connects to code through an integration. | What you compare | GitHub Projects | Jira | | --------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------------------------------------- | | Where the work lives | GitHub issues and pull requests | Jira work items, linked to code by an app | | Layouts | Table, board, roadmap | Boards, backlog, timelines; advanced roadmaps on Premium | | Workflows | Built-in automations set fields; no enforced transitions | Custom workflows | | Agile templates and reports | Iteration field, configurable charts | Scrum and kanban templates, reports and dashboards | | Fields | Up to 50 per project, built-in included | Custom fields | | Size limit | 50,000 items per project, archive included | Not stated on the pages we checked | | Free entry | Included on GitHub Free | Free for up to 10 users, 2 GB storage | | Integrations | GitHub's ecosystem | Atlassian lists 3,000+ | Sources: GitHub's [About Projects](https://docs.github.com/en/issues/planning-and-tracking-with-projects/learning-about-projects/about-projects) and [Adding items](https://docs.github.com/en/issues/planning-and-tracking-with-projects/managing-items-in-your-project/adding-items-to-your-project) docs, and Atlassian's [Jira pricing page](https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing), all checked on 9 October 2026. ## What does Jira do better than GitHub Projects? Jira is better when the process matters as much as the work. Its custom workflows let a team define what "done" means and which steps lead there, and it ships scrum and kanban templates with reports and dashboards built for them. GitHub Projects has automations that set a field when an item is added or changed, and an iteration field for week-by-week planning. Neither stops someone from moving a card straight from "Todo" to "Done". Jira is also better when the people planning are not engineers. Product, support, marketing and operations can all keep work in Jira without a GitHub seat or a repository to file into. Atlassian's pricing page lists advanced roadmaps on Premium, for planning across several teams. In GitHub, a roadmap lives inside one project, and our own research found an org-wide roadmap across projects to be the most-requested gap in GitHub Projects. Finally, Jira has more connectors. Atlassian lists over 3,000 integrations. If your support desk, documentation and incident tooling already run on Atlassian products, Jira sits in the middle of them and GitHub does not. ## Is GitHub good for project management? Yes, for software teams whose work is code. A project pulls in issues and pull requests from your repositories, adds custom fields such as priority, size and iteration, and lets you save views as a table, a board or a roadmap. Built-in workflows can add items from a repository automatically and archive them when they match criteria. Charts in Insights use the project's items as their data. Status updates let you mark a project "On track" or "At risk". The biggest advantage is that there is one record. An engineer comments on the issue, links the pull request, and the board shows it. Nobody copies a status from one tool to another. ## What are the disadvantages of GitHub Projects? The main disadvantages are planning depth and the interface. A roadmap covers one project, so there is no built-in portfolio view across projects. There are no enforced workflow transitions. The web UI is the other complaint: our research into GitHub Projects found slow, low-density screens and no real keyboard model to be universal complaints, alongside weak saved views. Projects filtering also lacks the full issue-search grammar, which makes serious dashboards awkward. These two halves are different problems. The planning half needs another tracker, or a lot of process. The interface half does not need a migration at all. ## How does the Jira and GitHub integration work? The integration is an Atlassian app called GitHub for Atlassian. A Jira site admin installs it from the Jira apps menu, and a GitHub organization owner connects the organization. Once connected, your team's branches, commits and pull requests appear on the linked Jira work items, on the Jira board and in the releases feature. During setup Atlassian also asks whether GitHub data should be searchable in its Rovo AI tools; you can opt out. What the integration does not do is make one record. The issue is still a Jira work item, and the code still lives in GitHub. Discussions split between a GitHub pull request and a Jira comment. Teams that run both pay for that every week, in context switching and in arguments about which status is current. ## How much do GitHub Projects and Jira cost? GitHub Projects costs nothing extra: GitHub's pricing page lists Issues and Projects on the Free plan. Team is $4 and Enterprise is $21 per user per month, both marked "for the first 12 months" and both mostly paying for things other than planning, such as Actions minutes, protected branches and security features. Jira's pricing page lists a Free plan for up to 10 users with 2 GB of storage, then Standard, Premium and Enterprise. Paid plans are priced per user, and the per-user figure depends on team size, so use Atlassian's calculator for your headcount. Enterprise is quoted by sales. Remember that a team on Jira and GitHub pays for both. Prices were checked on 9 October 2026 on [GitHub's pricing page](https://github.com/pricing) and [Atlassian's Jira pricing page](https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing). ## Is there anything better than Jira? For a team whose work is code, keeping it in GitHub is often better than Jira, because the second system goes away. For a team that wants a separate planning tool built around cycles and triage, [Linear is the usual alternative](/compare/linear). For a team that needs workflow rules, permissions and reports across departments, Jira is hard to beat, and we would not argue otherwise. There is also a third option that the usual comparisons skip. Many teams look at Jira because GitHub's interface is slow, not because they need Jira's process. For them, the fix is a better client over the same issues. ## When should you keep GitHub and use Gitsu instead? Choose Gitsu if your issues already live in GitHub and the interface, not the planning model, is what pushes you towards Jira. Gitsu reads and writes your GitHub project directly, so there is nothing to migrate and nothing to sync. It gives the same issues: - dense lists and a board, with keyboard shortcuts for every view and a `⌘K` command palette; - nested AND/OR filters across every field type, with saved views; - bulk edits on selected items, which show the moment you press the key and roll back if GitHub refuses; - a roadmap layout for one project, from its date or iteration fields; - on the paid macOS app, an MCP server so coding agents can read and update the same board. ![Gitsu's web app showing a GitHub project as a filtered list, with 34 issues selected and a bulk-edit bar for status, priority, assignee and labels](/app.webp) Gitsu is not a Jira replacement for every team, and its own research says so. Its product requirements list multi-project workspaces, cross-project views, notifications and mobile apps as non-goals. It loads up to 2,000 items per project. It has no Jira importer and no workflow enforcement. A team larger than about 10, or one where the planner is not an engineer, will likely miss things Jira has. Every item has an "Open on GitHub" action for the rest. | Your situation | Pick | | ----------------------------------------------------------------- | -------------------------- | | Non-engineers plan in the tracker, or you need enforced workflows | Jira | | Work is issues and pull requests, and GitHub's UI is good enough | GitHub Projects | | Work is issues and pull requests, and GitHub's UI is the problem | Gitsu over GitHub Projects | | You want a separate planning tool with cycles | Linear | Start with Gitsu's free web app on one existing project; teammates keep using github.com and see the same changes. Paid Seats add the macOS app and agents; see [current plans](/pricing). For the wider field, read the [roundup of GitHub Projects tools](/compare/github-projects-tools). ## How we checked Gitsu's own limits against a Jira-sized team, taken from its PRD non-goals, its 2,000-item cap in code and its ideal-customer research, next to Jira and GitHub facts checked on the vendors' own pages on 2026-10-09. Public references: - https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/pricing - https://github.com/pricing - https://docs.github.com/en/issues/planning-and-tracking-with-projects/learning-about-projects/about-projects - https://docs.github.com/en/issues/planning-and-tracking-with-projects/managing-items-in-your-project/adding-items-to-your-project - https://support.atlassian.com/jira-cloud-administration/docs/integrate-with-github/ - https://www.atlassian.com/software/jira/comparison/jira-vs-github - https://github.blog/news-insights/company-news/github-microsoft/ ## Frequently asked questions ### Is GitHub part of Atlassian? No. GitHub is owned by Microsoft, which announced the acquisition in 2018. Atlassian makes Jira, Confluence and Bitbucket. The two connect through the GitHub for Atlassian app, which an Atlassian site admin installs and a GitHub organization owner approves. ### Is GitHub good for project management? Yes, for software teams whose work is issues and pull requests. GitHub Projects gives table, board and roadmap layouts, custom fields including iterations, built-in automations and charts, and it is included on GitHub's Free plan. It is weaker for teams that need enforced workflows or planning across many projects in one view. ### Is there anything better than Jira? It depends on what Jira is doing for you. If it is mostly tracking code work, GitHub Projects removes a second system; Gitsu adds a faster client on top. If you want a separate planning tool with cycles, Linear is the usual alternative. If you need Jira's workflow rules, permissions and reports across departments, Jira is hard to beat. ### How much do GitHub Projects and Jira cost? GitHub's pricing page, checked on 9 October 2026, includes Issues and Projects on the Free plan; Team is $4 and Enterprise $21 per user per month, both marked “for the first 12 months”. Atlassian's Jira pricing page lists Free for up to 10 users with 2 GB of storage, then Standard, Premium and Enterprise priced per user. Confirm both before buying. ### Can I use Jira and GitHub together? Yes. The GitHub for Atlassian app links branches, commits and pull requests to Jira work items, so they show on the Jira board and in its releases feature. The issues themselves still live in two places, and someone has to keep them in agreement. ## Related resources - [GitHub Projects client: Gitsu vs GitHub's own UI](https://gitsu.app/compare/github-projects) - [GitHub Projects tools compared, Gitsu included](https://gitsu.app/compare/github-projects-tools) - [Linear vs GitHub Issues: keep your work in GitHub](https://gitsu.app/compare/linear) - [Zenhub alternatives: Gitsu compared with Zenhub](https://gitsu.app/compare/zenhub)