The most popular Jira alternatives, compared

You're here because Jira isn't working. Maybe it's the 10-second page loads, growing complexity, dozens of clicks to update stories, missing context between sprints, or the fact that your team maintains Jira for visibility but does actual work elsewhere.

We get it. We've all played Jira archaeology at 10pm trying to find why something was built. Let's fix that.

Whatever brought you here, you're evaluating alternatives. This guide covers seven leading options—from lightweight tools like Linear and Shortcut to all-in-one platforms like ClickUp and Monday.com. We'll show you what each does well, where they fall short, and which teams they're actually built for.

We built Atono, so we're in this guide too. We've lived through these same frustrations, which means we know what actually matters. We've tried to be as honest about our limitations as we are about competitors' strengths. You'll find real user reviews from G2, not marketing claims.

Here's the overview if you're in a hurry:

Tool	Best for	Starting price	What it does well	What it doesn't do
Linear	Small engineering teams (under 20)	$8/user/month	Speed, design, keyboard shortcuts	Cross-functional work, context & analytics
Shortcut	Dev-focused teams	$8.50/user/month	GitHub integration, straightforward workflows	Product discovery, complex workflows
Monday.com	Cross-dept coordination	$9/user/month	Stakeholder visibility, flexible boards	Velocity tracking, agile metrics
ClickUp	Companies wanting all-in-one tool	$7/user/month	Feature breadth, customization	Performance at scale, simple onboarding
Asana	General project management	$10.99/user/month	Non-technical adoption, ease of use	Agile metrics, native Git integration
Atono	Cross-functional product teams	$14/user/month	Built-in feature flags, context preservation	Mature ecosystem, wide integrations

Now let's dig into each one.

Founded: 2021
Best known for: Beautiful, fast interface, keyboard shortcuts
Best for: Design-conscious engineering teams under 20 people
Pricing: $8-14/user/month

Linear feels like the anti-Jira. Clean design, keyboard shortcuts everywhere, genuinely fast. If Jira feels like enterprise software from 2010, Linear feels like a consumer app built yesterday. It is an effective task tracker.

Key differences

Speed and performance: Linear is genuinely fast. No page loads, instant updates, keyboard shortcuts that actually work. Operations that take minutes in Jira happen in seconds.

Everything is an "issue": Linear treats stories, bugs, and tasks identically. You lose the ability to maintain narrative context for features that evolve over multiple iterations.

Developer-first philosophy: Built specifically for engineering teams. Great for pure dev workflows, but PMs and designers often feel like second-class citizens.

Limited customization: Linear is opinionated about workflows. If you need extensive custom fields or approval processes, you'll hit walls quickly.

What people like about Linear

"The speed is unmatched compared to other tools—no lag, no clutter, just a smooth experience."

"Linear is fast, easy and carefully designed. Unlike other project management tools you are asked to work in a methodology which they have defined."

What people dislike about Linear

"One limitation I've felt is with epics management. Currently, epics feel too lightweight—I'd love the ability to create a full-fledged epic structure."

"Linear insights are underwhelming, for a premium feature it should offer more options."

"It fits well for small startup teams but gets messy when the roadmap grows just a little."

Bottom line: Choose Linear if you're a small, engineering-only team that values speed and design over cross-functional collaboration features.

Founded: 2014 (rebranded from Clubhouse in 2021)
Best known for: Lightweight workflows
Best for: Software teams wanting simplicity without enterprise complexity
Pricing: $8.50+/user/month

Shortcut (formerly Clubhouse) positions itself as project management designed specifically for software teams—simple enough to use immediately, powerful enough for growing companies.

Key differences

Software-first approach: Built for software development teams from the ground up. Understands sprints, iterations, and GitHub/GitLab workflows natively.

Strong API: Developers appreciate the robust API that makes custom integrations straightforward. Good for teams that want to build their own workflows.

Limited scope: Doesn't try to be everything. No extensive portfolio management, no feature flags, no resource planning. Stays in its lane.

What people like about Shortcut

"The ease of use is absolutely amazing. It's extremely easy not only to use for all the team."

"Shortcut has great Github integration, an easier to use and more powerful mobile app, and a host of new task organization and sorting features."

What people dislike about Shortcut

"It has very few integrations overall compared to JIRA and is much less automated as a result. This can put more work on developers to maintain the cards than they would in competitor's products."

"Completion dates are buried, no project budgeting or hourly rates, no invoicing or adding expenses, time tracking, resource management, personal task lists, custom fields, dependencies"

Bottom line: Choose Shortcut if you want a developer-focused tool without Jira's complexity or Linear's design constraints. Good middle ground for small to mid-sized engineering teams.

Founded: 2012
Best known for: Visual work OS
Best for: Cross-departmental project management
Pricing: $10-20+/user/month

Monday.com positions itself as a "work operating system" you can customize for any workflow. Color-coded boards, visual timelines, and enough flexibility to handle nearly any process.

Key differences

Visual-first approach: Everything is color-coded boards and timelines. Intuitive for non-technical stakeholders, but less natural for developers used to terminal and code.

Not purpose-built for software: Handles development workflows but feels like a general project tool adapted for engineering rather than built for it.

Flexibility vs complexity: Can be configured for almost anything, which means teams often spend considerable time setting up and maintaining workflows.

Integration depth: Git integration exists but feels surface-level compared to tools built specifically for development teams.

What people like about Monday.com

"Monday has enabled the different departments in our company to interact and made it much easier for the work to flow and thus improving the overall performance."

"We love the ability to manage views, tasks & boards as well as assigning things to other team members."

What people dislike about Monday.com

"While monday.com has grown impressively in scope and capability, its richness can sometimes be a double-edged sword. For smaller teams or simpler projects, it can feel overwhelming."

"I found managing tasks in Monday.com to be quite challenging due to the complex and unintuitive UI, which is also sometimes sluggish and nonresponsive."

"Monday.com's paid plans are expensive for startups, especially compared to competitors who offer more generous discounts or freemium options."

Bottom line: Choose Monday.com if cross-departmental visibility matters more than developer velocity and you're okay with developers maintaining parallel tools for technical work.

Founded: 2017
Best known for: "Everything in one tool"
Best for: Teams willing to invest heavily in configuration
Pricing: $7-12/user/month

ClickUp's pitch is simple: replace everything with one tool. Tasks, docs, wikis, goals, time tracking, whiteboards, and more. It's genuinely ambitious.

Key differences

Feature breadth vs depth: ClickUp does many things adequately but few things exceptionally. The tradeoff of being an all-in-one tool.

Configuration burden: ClickUp's flexibility means you'll spend significant time setting it up. Some teams report spending weeks configuring workflows.

Performance issues: Users frequently report slow loading times, especially with large workspaces or complex automations.

Value proposition: Good value at $7/user if you use most features. Expensive if you only need 20% of what it offers.

What people like about ClickUp

"ClickUp has most of the expected functionality for project and task management, no need for external add ons which makes it easier to understand required."

"I like the shortcuts and UI. It's easy to navigate and organize my tasks into lists with custom statuses."

"Time tracking, priority, status, dashboards, filters, views, documents, linked tasks, etc. There are a ton of features here that you'll find useful."

What people dislike about ClickUp

"The feature overload can be a bit overwhelming at times and the learning curve can be steep for new users."

"Users may receive notifications for every comment, task update, or change made by team members. For example, if a team is actively collaborating on a project, a user could get dozens of notifications in a single day.”

Bottom line: Choose ClickUp if you want maximum flexibility and have time to invest in configuration. Skip it if you need speed and simplicity out of the box.

Founded: 2008
Best known for: Project coordination
Best for: Cross-functional teams prioritizing general project management
Pricing: $10-25+/user/month

Asana has proven itself as a solid collaboration tool over 15+ years. It's reliable, integrates with common business tools, and non-technical teams find it approachable.

Key differences

General project management focus: Asana isn't purpose-built for software development. It handles dev work but doesn't understand concepts like branches, deployments, or feature flags.

Cross-functional strength: Non-developers actually adopt and use Asana, which is valuable for alignment. Jira tends to remain an engineering-only tool.

Workflow simplicity: Asana's workflows are simpler than Jira's, which can be both an advantage (easier to use) and limitation (less powerful).

Cost structure: Per-user pricing at $10-25+/month gets expensive quickly, especially since everyone needs access for cross-functional work.

What people like about Asana

"When you login to Asana you can figure it out just by clicking around. You don't need to spend money on consultants or browse YouTube for hours to figure it out."

"I love how useful it is to run workflows and automations, they make sure everything gets done in a timely manner and nothing is forgotten along the way."

"The ease of integration and implementation with Asana into my daily routine has been effortless."

What people dislike about Asana

"One downside to using Asana is that it doesn't support assigning work to a large group of individuals very well."

"The worst part is we have a ton of automations running and I get a notification about every single one."

"The biggest downside is how limited the free version is. Features that are standard on many other platforms—like custom fields, timeline views, or even basic automation—are locked behind a paywall."

Bottom line: Choose Asana if general project coordination matters more than development velocity and you're okay with developers working in parallel systems for technical work.

Founded: 2023
Best known for: Cross-team collaboration and workflow intelligence
Best for: Product teams 
Pricing: Free for first 5 users, $14 per user per month thereafter

Here's where it gets interesting. We built Atono after trying everything else and realizing: the problem isn't speed, it's coordination.

Atono was built by the same team who scaled xMatters to over 2 million users experiencing every pain point in this guide firsthand. The Atono team believes the problem isn't task management—it's workflow intelligence.

Key differences

Stories that actually evolve: Forget tickets frozen in time. In Atono, Living Stories stay alive through iterations—because that's how software actually gets built. They maintain context from initial idea through deployment and beyond.

Built-in feature flags: Developers control feature flags directly in stories. No separate LaunchDarkly subscription ($20/user/month), no filing tickets for permission. The flag documentation lives with the work.

Purpose-built objects: Different types of work get their own structure. Stories maintain narrative context. Bugs track reproduction. No more scrolling past irrelevant custom fields.

Feature engagement built-in: Track how features are used across environments and customer segments without external analytics tools. Usage data lives in the story where the feature was built.

Tool consolidation: Replaces Jira, LaunchDarkly, Confluence pages, and basic feature analytics. Average savings: $50/user/month.

Think of it this way: Other tools create handoffs. Atono creates a campfire where your team gathers. Everyone sees the same flame, contributes to the same story, moves toward the same goal.

What people like about Atono

"What I like about Atono is that it cuts through a lot of the complexity you get with Jira."

"The ability to toggle features directly from stories and generate bug reports with full diagnostic context is brilliant."

"It's refreshing to see a product built with true cross-functional collaboration in mind."

"Finally, a tool that doesn't make me choose between velocity and sanity. Features ship, context stays, nobody panics."

Things to know about Atono

Free tier limits: Free for up to 5 users. 

Jira Cloud import: Import works with Jira Cloud. If you're on Jira Server/Data Center, you'll need to migrate to Cloud first or use CSV export/import.

Opinionated workflows: Built with cross-functional collaboration and developer autonomy in mind. If you need 100+ custom fields and complex approval gates, Jira's flexibility might be better.

Best for modern stacks: Designed for teams using GitHub/GitLab, modern CI/CD, and cloud infrastructure. If you're on legacy systems, migration planning is needed.

Integrates, doesn't replace everything: Atono integrates with Slack (not replace it), connects to your GitHub/GitLab, and works with your existing CI/CD. Atono replace PM/workflow tools, not your entire stack.

Migration from Jira

With Atono’s Jira import, you can bring your stories and bugs over—titles, descriptions, statuses, assignments, and comments included—so your team keeps the context that matters.

Imports usually take 5–15 minutes depending on your data. Your team can start working in Atono right away while keeping full visibility into past work.

See full migration documentation here.

Bottom line: Choose Atono if you want cross-functional teams to work together (not in sequence), developers to control feature flags autonomously, tool consolidation without vendor lock-in, and context preservation that actually works.

Choose Linear if:

• You're a small, design-conscious engineering team (under 15 people)

• Speed and aesthetics matter more than cross-functional features

• You're willing to pay for additional tools (feature flags, analytics)

• Your team is primarily engineers

Choose Shortcut if:

• You want developer-focused simplicity without Jira's complexity

• Your team values straightforward workflows over extensive customization

• You need strong GitHub/GitLab integration out of the box

• You're a small to mid-sized software team (10-50 people)

Choose Monday.com if:

• Cross-departmental visibility is your primary goal

• Non-technical stakeholder adoption matters most

• Development velocity is secondary to project coordination

• You need high-level portfolio management

Choose ClickUp if:

• You want maximum feature breadth in one tool

• You have time and resources to invest in configuration

• You value flexibility over speed of implementation

• Budget is tight and you'll use most features

Choose Asana if:

• General project management trumps development-specific needs

• Non-technical team adoption is critical

• You need simple, reliable task coordination

• Portfolio management for leadership matters more than dev tools

Choose Atono if:

• Your cross-functional product team needs to work together, not in sequence

• Developer autonomy matters (especially for feature flags)

• You're tired of tool sprawl eating your budget and team's focus

• You want basic feature analytics without another subscription

• Context preservation matters more than rigid task management

Which Jira alternative is fastest to learn?

Linear and Atono have the shortest learning curves. Linear if your team is engineering-only, thanks to its keyboard-first design. Atono because it's built around familiar concepts (stories, bugs, incidents) without Jira's complexity.

ClickUp and Monday.com take longer because they're so customizable. You'll spend time configuring before your team is fully productive.

Can I import my Jira data?

Most tools support Jira imports to varying degrees:

• Atono: Full import preserving history, assignments, story points, and teams.

• Linear: Supports Jira import with history preservation

• ClickUp: Jira CSV import available

• Shortcut: Jira import through their API

• Monday.com: Import via CSV or third-party tools

• Asana: CSV import (more manual)

• Trello: CSV import (basic)

How much does switching cost beyond the tool price?

The real cost is migration time and learning curve:

• Low disruption (1-2 weeks): Atono, Linear, Shortcut

• Medium disruption (3-4 weeks): Asana

• High disruption (1-2 months): ClickUp, Monday.com (due to configuration)

Most teams run parallel for 1-2 sprints during transition.

Which tool has the best free tier?

Atono is free for up to 5 users with full features, making it good for small product teams that need more than basic task tracking.

Linear, Shortcut, ClickUp, Monday.com, and Asana have limited free tiers that push you toward paid plans fairly quickly.

What if we need something Jira-specific like custom fields or complex workflows?

Honestly? You might be better off staying with Jira.

If your team relies on 50+ custom fields, intricate approval workflows, or enterprise-specific Jira configurations, most alternatives will feel limiting. Linear and Shortcut are deliberately simple. Atono is opinionated about workflows.

ClickUp and Monday.com offer the most Jira-like flexibility, but you'll recreate similar complexity.

Do any of these integrate with our existing tools?

All of them integrate with common tools like Slack, GitHub/GitLab, and Figma. Differences:

• Developer tools (GitHub, GitLab): Best integration with Linear, Shortcut, Atono

• Business tools (Salesforce, HubSpot): Best with Monday.com, Asana

• Design tools (Figma): Most tools handle this well

• CI/CD pipelines: Atono, Linear, and Shortcut have better native support

Check each tool's integration page for your specific stack before committing.

Modern product teams need workflow intelligence built for how they actually work—not retrofitted task management from 2015.

Try Atono with your team—free for up to 5 users, no credit card required. Our Jira import preserves your history, teams, and assignments with three flexible import options.

Questions about migrating? Want to see how the import works? Book a 15-minute demo with our team—we'll walk through exactly what gets preserved and how your team can start shipping faster.