Project management for software teams
What this situation needs
Software teams want issues rather than tasks, a backlog rather than a list, and dependencies that mean something. Two of these are purpose-built trackers, two are self-hosted, and the rest are general tools that stretch to the job.
Suitability scores follow a published rubric: 40 points for being built around issues or a backlog, 25 points for stated dependency management, 20 points for a free tier a small engineering team can actually work in, and 15 points for developer-facing extras such as an API or repository integration in the published plans.
Ranked for Project management for software teams
Suitability is an editorial score out of 100; facts on each row are verified- Rank 1No preview yet
Jira
Issue tracker and planning tool, free for ten users and US$7.91 per user a month above that.
Free plan, paid from $7.91/mo
Suitability 94 of 100. Free for ten users with backlog, board and timeline views; dependency management on Premium.
Not yet scored - Rank 2No preview yet
Linear
Issue tracker for software teams, free to 250 issues and US$10 per user a month billed yearly above that.
Free plan, paid from $10/mo
Suitability 88 of 100. Issue tracker built for engineering speed; free to 250 issues, US$10 per user after that.
Not yet scoredCompare with Jira - Rank 3
ClickUp
Broad work platform with a free forever plan and paid tiers at US$7 and US$12 per user a month.
Free plan, paid from $7/mo
Suitability 70 of 100. Boards, Gantt and custom fields at US$7 per user when non-engineers share the workspace.
Not yet scoredCompare with Jira - Rank 4No preview yet
Redmine
Self-hosted project management released under the GNU General Public License v2, with no licence fee.
Free
Suitability 66 of 100. Self-hosted issue tracking with repository integration and no licence fee.
Not yet scoredCompare with Jira - Rank 5
OpenProject
Open-source project management with a free self-hosted community edition and paid editions from €5.95 per user a month.
Free plan, paid from €5.95/mo
Suitability 62 of 100. Self-hosted work packages, agile boards and API access in the free community edition.
Not yet scoredCompare with Jira - Rank 6No preview yet
Notion
Documents and databases in one workspace, free for individuals and US$10 per seat a month above that.
Free plan, paid from $10/mo
Suitability 54 of 100. Databases with subtasks and dependencies, for teams that keep specifications beside the work.
Not yet scoredCompare with Jira