Jira alternative for project management
Jira organizes issues for software teams; as soon as dates are calculated, resources planned and costs tracked, Marketplace apps and Premium plans come into play. What WORKSPACE.PM brings in every account without additional products and what that costs.
At a glance
- Scrum and Kanban next to the network diagram in the same project; Jira documents no network calculation.
- Network diagram, risk register, costs and portfolio without Marketplace apps; at Jira plans from Premium, the rest via apps.
- Jira Premium $14.54 plus $4 Guard for SSO per user; WORKSPACE.PM under €20 including SSO.
- Hosting in Germany; at Atlassian data residency from Standard for pinned data only, US parent company.
Who this question is for
Three situations in which organizations weigh Jira against WORKSPACE.PM.
Sprints become projects with dates and budget
Development works in Jira, but rollouts, implementations and customer projects need a network diagram, milestones with float, cost types and reports to management. In Jira that means Marketplace apps and plans; in WORKSPACE.PM it is in the base product.
The PMO needs a level above the boards
Capacity across teams, portfolio hierarchy, risk register and status reports with approval. Jira plans from Premium plan capacity per team; portfolio, risk, costs and earned value are not documented by Atlassian for Jira.
SSO and SCIM without an extra license
SAML SSO and SCIM run at Atlassian via Atlassian Guard for an additional $4 per user and month; data residency from Standard applies to pinned product data only. With WORKSPACE.PM, SSO, SCIM and audit trail are included and all data resides in Germany.
What WORKSPACE.PM brings
The difference starts where an issue becomes a work package with date, effort, cost and risk. Six areas in which WORKSPACE.PM goes beyond boards, backlog and timeline, without Marketplace apps.
Features compared
From scheduling to AI, row by row.
| Criterion | WORKSPACE.PM | Jira |
|---|---|---|
| Traditional and agile in the same project | Network diagram, Scrum backlog with sprint board, burndown and velocity, Kanban in the same project | Scrum and Kanban boards, backlog, sprints and timeline; network diagram not documented |
| Network diagram and critical path | Forward and backward pass, early/late start and finish, total float per task, dedicated network view with cycle check | Timeline in all plans, Plans (Advanced Roadmaps) from Premium; network calculation with float per task not documented |
| Risk register | Register with gross/net rating, 5×5 matrix, review cycles of 30 to 365 days, review history, convert risk to task | Not documented (via Marketplace apps) |
| Cost types and forecast | Tenant-wide catalogue with account number and Capex/Opex; cost forecast from bookings | Not documented (via Marketplace apps) |
| Capacity and utilization planning | Organization-wide utilization matrix for people and machines, availability check including absences, in every plan | Capacity planning per team in plans from Premium |
| Earned value | PV, EV and AC recorded per as-of date, earned value dashboard | Not documented |
| Meetings and decisions | Minutes with mentions, decisions with approval status, series evaluation of open items, Outlook coupling | Meeting notes with decisions and action items as a Confluence template, a separate product; decisions with approval status not documented |
| Change requests and quality gates | Change request register with category, impact dimensions, approvers and risk link; quality gates with release criteria in the structure tree | Change management in Jira Service Management, a separate product; quality gates not documented |
| Risk simulation | Monte Carlo with PERT distribution, 10,000 iterations, P50/P80/P90, reserve as cost item; bowtie diagram | Not documented |
| Measures and early indicators | Preventive and corrective measures with reduction value, cost and deadline; key risk indicators with threshold alerts | Not documented |
| Resources per work package | Several people and machines per work package with planned and actual effort; actuals derivable from time tracking | One assignee per issue; effort shares of several people not documented |
| Skill pools | Book effort on a skill before the person is known; resolve to people or machines later | Not documented |
| Time tracking | Weekly timesheets with one- or two-stage approval, auto-approval within tolerance, bulk approval | Native time tracking per issue (estimate, time spent, remaining); timesheets with approval not documented |
| Personnel costs | Automatically from assignment or time tracking times hourly rate, plan and actual; daily rates per attribute or person | Not documented |
| Status reports | Three-stage approval workflow (draft, submitted, approved), locked as-of snapshots, roll-up into the portfolio | Dashboards and reports; status reports with approval workflow not documented |
| Dependencies | FS/SS/FF/SF with lag, by text entry (e.g. 6.4FF+3) or by dragging; cross-project between milestones of different projects | Dependencies between issues (blocks, is blocked by) in timeline and plans; dependency types with lag not documented |
| Baseline and milestone trend analysis | Several baselines per project, compare any two, delta calculated, history browsable; milestone trend analysis as a dedicated view across the project’s reporting dates with a trend rating per milestone | Scenarios in plans from Premium; baseline comparison not documented; milestone trend analysis not documented |
| Work breakdown structure and progress | WBS codes automatic or manual, stable as an external reference; seven progress methods (0/50/100, 0/100, from Kanban, from sub-containers and more) | Hierarchy epic, story, subtask; WBS codes and progress methods not documented |
| Import of schedule files | MS Project (.mpp, XML) including dependencies and assignments; Primavera P6 and Asta Powerproject; CSV for projects, Kanban cards and users; Trello import | CSV import and REST API; MS Project import only via Marketplace apps |
| Responsibility matrix and stakeholders | Responsibility matrix (A/E/I/K/M/P) per project; stakeholder register with action plan, environment analysis and stakeholder portfolio | Not documented |
| Requirements management | Presets for Automotive SPICE and V-Modell XT, verification items with runs, audit trail | Not documented (via Marketplace apps) |
| Goals and strategy | Strategy fields, OKR cycles, six key result types, alignment matrix, gap analysis | Not documented |
| AI assistant | Assistant acts only after approval; own provider key or local model; AI-supported risk detection | Atlassian Intelligence and Rovo from Premium; own model provider and approval before changes not documented |
Law, operations and licensing
What data protection reviews and procurement ask for.
| Criterion | WORKSPACE.PM | Jira |
|---|---|---|
| Vendor and headquarters | AMNAU GmbH, Hanover (Germany) | Atlassian; group headquarters Sydney (Australia), parent company Atlassian Corporation in the USA |
| Governing law and jurisdiction | German law, place of jurisdiction Hanover | For customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa Irish law and Irish courts; otherwise California law, San Francisco |
| Server location | German data centers only (SaaS, Managed Hosting) or your own data center | Data residency selectable in Standard, Premium and Enterprise; EU region Frankfurt and Dublin (AWS); Free without data residency |
| Data outside the region | None; exception: optional AI features with an external model provider | Only pinned, in-scope product data stays in the region; data not pinned is placed at Atlassian’s discretion and may be moved |
| US legal entity (CLOUD Act) | No US legal entity in the processing chain | Parent company is a US legal entity; the CLOUD Act applies regardless of storage location |
| On-premises | Docker deployment in your own infrastructure with the same functional scope | Jira Data Center as an annual license from 500 users; Jira Server unsupported since February 2024 |
| Editions and licensing | No editions; every account booked individually, €16.80 per month | Free (up to 10 users), Standard ($7.91), Premium ($14.54) per user and month list price, Enterprise on request from 801 users; SSO and SCIM via Atlassian Guard Standard for an additional $4 per user and month |
Statements about Jira from Atlassian’s public documentation (pricing page, Atlassian Support, product pages, Atlassian Community with posts by the Atlassian team); statements about WORKSPACE.PM from the feature catalogue of the current version. Reviewed: September 7, 2026.
Where the differences lie
Three points decide the question in practice.
Without apps
Network diagram, resources, costs in the base product
WORKSPACE.PM calculates a network diagram with float, plans capacity for people and machines, keeps cost types and earned value and a risk register with simulation, all in one account. In Jira timeline and dependencies are in the core, capacity per team in plans from Premium; risk, costs, earned value and requirements management are not documented by Atlassian for Jira, which points to the Marketplace.
Sprint and Gantt together
Agile and traditional in the same project
Scrum backlog with sprint board, burndown and velocity next to the network diagram with milestones and baseline, in the same project and the same data foundation. Jira is built for Scrum and Kanban; a network diagram with forward and backward pass is not documented.
Framework
SSO included, data in Germany
With WORKSPACE.PM, SAML/OIDC SSO, SCIM and audit trail are included and all data resides in German data centers or in-house. At Atlassian SSO and SCIM come via Atlassian Guard for $4 per user on top, data residency from Standard applies to pinned data only, and Data Center starts at 500 users.
Prices side by side
Compared is Jira Premium, the lowest plan with plans, capacity planning and data residency selection, plus Atlassian Guard Standard for SSO and SCIM.
| Users | WORKSPACE.PM SaaS per month | per user | Jira Premium plus Guard Standard per month (US dollars) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 | €183 | €18.30 per user and month | $185.40 |
| 20 | €351 | €17.55 per user and month | $370.80 |
| 50 | €855 | €17.10 per user and month | $927 |
| 100 | €1,695 | €16.95 per user and month | $1,854 |
WORKSPACE.PM SaaS: €99 base price per month including 5 accounts, each additional account €16.80 per month, billed monthly, all amounts net. Jira Premium: $14.54 per user and month list price; Atlassian Guard Standard for SAML SSO and SCIM: $4 per user and month. Without Guard: $145.40, $290.80, $727 and $1,454.
Jira Standard without plans and capacity planning costs $7.91 per user and month. Risk, cost and requirements functions come to Jira via Marketplace apps with their own per-user prices; Confluence for wiki and meeting notes is a separate product. WORKSPACE.PM includes wiki, meetings, risk, costs, SSO and SCIM in the base price, bills in euros and monthly.
The full calculation for your team size is on the pricing page and in the ROI calculator.
Migration in practice
Which path, what carries over and what takes shape in the new system.
Inventory
Which Jira projects are software development and stay, which are implementation, customer or organizational projects that need dates, budget and reports? The switch often affects only the second group.
Export from Jira
Export issues with fields, sprints and worklogs as CSV via the Jira search or pull them via the REST API; export Confluence pages separately.
Import into WORKSPACE.PM
Projects, Kanban cards and users arrive via CSV import with field mapping and preview; other sources via the REST API.
Build the scheduling logic
Epics and stories become work packages in the structure tree with WBS codes, dependencies and milestones; the network diagram is calculated, the first baseline set.
Add steering
Risk register, cost types, capacity planning and status reports with approval are created in the new system.
Settle coexistence
If development stays in Jira, the interface is defined via the REST API; then a parallel run for one reporting cycle and a hard cutover for the project side.
How long it takes
The data path is a CSV export and import. The time goes into the scheduling logic and structure that did not exist in Jira: network diagram, cost types, risks. How many of your Jira projects are affected and what coexistence with development looks like is what we clarify in a 30-minute migration call.
What is set up fresh
- Workflows and automation rules: set up as workflows.
- Comment threads: save via the API if needed.
- Marketplace apps for risk, costs and time tracking: replace with the included functions.
- Confluence pages: export and create in the wiki.
Frequently asked questions: Jira alternative
What IT leaders, PMOs and heads of development ask about Jira and WORKSPACE.PM.
For Scrum and Kanban, WORKSPACE.PM offers backlog, sprint board, burndown, velocity and Kanban with estimation units. The difference lies in what Jira does not document: network diagram with float, capacity for people and machines, cost types, earned value, risk register with simulation and status reports with approval, without Marketplace apps. Both can be combined: development in Jira, project steering in WORKSPACE.PM, coupled via the REST API.
Jira offers a timeline in all plans and Plans (Advanced Roadmaps) from Premium with dependencies and capacity per team. A network calculation with forward and backward scheduling and total float per task is not described in Atlassian’s documentation.
WORKSPACE.PM costs €99 per month including five accounts, each additional one €16.80, SSO and SCIM included. Jira Premium costs $14.54 per user and month, Standard $7.91; SAML SSO and SCIM come via Atlassian Guard Standard for $4 per user and month. At 50 users that is €855 versus $927 for Premium plus Guard.
Data residency is selectable in Standard, Premium and Enterprise, for the EU in Frankfurt and Dublin. It applies to pinned, in-scope product data; data not pinned is placed at Atlassian’s discretion and may be moved. Free has no data residency. WORKSPACE.PM stores all data in German data centers or in your own.
According to the Atlassian Customer Agreement, Irish law with Irish courts for customers in Europe, the Middle East and Africa, California law with venue in San Francisco for everyone else. The parent company Atlassian Corporation is a US legal entity. WORKSPACE.PM is governed by German law with venue in Hanover.
Yes, as Jira Data Center with an annual license from 500 users; Jira Server has been unsupported since February 2024. WORKSPACE.PM runs on-premises as a Docker deployment from 50 accounts with the same functional scope as in the cloud.
Yes. Development stays in Jira, implementation and customer projects run in WORKSPACE.PM; the coupling runs via the REST API with bearer token and OpenAPI specification. Timesheets, costs and portfolio then sit in one place.
Issues with fields, sprints and worklogs via CSV or REST API; from these, work packages arise in the structure tree with dependencies, network diagram and baseline. Workflows and automation rules are set up as workflows in WORKSPACE.PM.
More comparisons
All comparisons in one checklistReviewed: September 7, 2026. Statements about the compared product come from its publicly available information and are re-checked every six months. Statements about WORKSPACE.PM refer to the current version.