Note: Pricing figures in this article are sourced from the original post dated July 2019. Atlassian pricing changes frequently — always verify current costs on Atlassian’s official pricing page before making a purchasing decision.
What Is Jira and Who Makes It?
Jira is a widely used project management and issue-tracking platform developed by Atlassian. It started as a tool designed specifically for software development teams but has since expanded into general project management use cases. Jira uses a Kanban-style board interface, where work items move through columns — typically To Do, In Progress, and Done — giving teams a visual representation of project status.
Atlassian offers two main Jira products:
- Jira Software — Tailored for software development teams, with features like sprint planning, backlog management, and release tracking.
- Jira Core — A more general-purpose project management tool suited to business teams outside of engineering.
Jira Pricing Plans Overview
Jira’s pricing is structured around three deployment models, each targeting a different type of customer:
- Jira Cloud — A fully managed SaaS option hosted by Atlassian. Starts at $10/month for up to 10 users.
- Jira Server — A self-hosted option for companies that want to run Jira on their own infrastructure. Starts at $10 as a one-time license fee for up to 10 users.
- Jira Data Center — An enterprise-grade self-hosted or private cloud option for large organizations. Starts at $12,000/year for a minimum of 500 users.
Each model has a distinct cost structure, set of features, and ideal customer profile. The sections below break each one down in detail.
Jira Cloud Pricing
Jira Cloud is the simplest option to get started with. You sign up online, and Atlassian handles all infrastructure, security patching, backups, and feature updates. New Jira features are automatically available to Cloud subscribers as they are released.
Jira Cloud also integrates directly with Atlassian’s mobile apps and supports seamless connections to other Atlassian products like Confluence.
Jira Cloud Cost by Team Size (as of 2019)
| Users | Jira Core Cloud (monthly) | Jira Software Cloud (monthly) |
|---|---|---|
| 1–10 | $10 flat | $10 flat |
| 100 | $500 | $700 |
| 500 | $1,300 | $1,725 |
| 2,000 | $2,950 | $3,375 |
| 5,000 | $6,250 | $6,675 |
Pricing scales on a per-user basis, with the effective per-user rate decreasing as your team grows. For teams up to 10 users, the $10/month flat rate makes Jira Cloud extremely affordable. For 100 users on Jira Core Cloud, the effective rate works out to $5 per user per month. Between 100 and 200 users, the rate gradually decreases toward approximately $4.25 per user per month.
Best for: Small to mid-sized teams that want a low-maintenance setup without managing their own servers.
Jira Server Pricing
Jira Server is a self-hosted option that requires your team to install and manage Jira on your own hardware or virtual machines. Unlike Cloud, Server licenses are paid as a one-time fee rather than a recurring subscription. This can make it significantly more economical over the long term.
However, Jira Server does not automatically receive feature updates. Atlassian includes feature upgrades and critical security fixes for the first 12 months of a Server license. After that period, you must pay the annual renewal rate to continue receiving updates. If you choose not to renew, you keep the version you have — but it will not receive new features or security patches.
Jira Server licenses are sold in preset user tiers rather than by exact user count. For example, if you need 166 users, you must purchase either the 100-user or 250-user tier — there is no intermediate option.
Jira Server Cost by Team Size (as of 2019)
| Users | Jira Core Server (one-time) | Jira Software Server (one-time) |
|---|---|---|
| Up to 10 | $10 | $10 |
| 100 | $5,500 | $8,300 |
| 500 | $16,500 | $24,800 |
| 2,000 | $20,200 | $30,400 |
| 10,000 | $25,300 | $38,000 |
Cost comparison example: A 100-user team paying $500/month for Jira Core Cloud would spend $6,000 per year. The equivalent Jira Core Server one-time license costs $5,500 — essentially paying for itself in under a year, assuming no renewal fees are needed.
The trade-off is operational responsibility: your team handles backups, security patching, uptime, and capacity planning.
Limitation: Jira Server does not support SAML 2.0 single sign-on.
Best for: Small to mid-sized businesses with a capable IT team that want full control over their data and a predictable one-time cost.
Jira Data Center Pricing
Jira Data Center is Atlassian’s enterprise-grade, self-managed deployment option. It is available only for Jira Software — not Jira Core. Data Center is designed for large organizations that need high availability, active-active clustering, and advanced security features, but still want to maintain control over their own infrastructure.
Key Data Center Features
- SAML 2.0 support for enterprise single sign-on (SSO) integration
- Disaster recovery support provided by Atlassian
- Project archiving to improve system performance at scale
- Optimized deployments for Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure
- Active-active clustering for high availability
Jira Data Center Annual Pricing (as of 2019)
| Users | Annual Cost | Effective per-user/year |
|---|---|---|
| 500 | $12,000 | $24.00 |
| 2,000 | $48,000 | $24.00 |
| 5,000 | $120,000 | $24.00 |
| 10,000 | $240,000 | $24.00 |
| 50,001+ | $450,000 | ~$9.00 |
Between 500 and 10,000 users, the per-seat rate holds steady at $24/user/year. Beyond 10,000 users, the rate begins to scale down incrementally, eventually reaching approximately $9/user/year at the 50,000+ tier.
Licenses are available in preset increments: up to 10,000 users in steps of 1,000; beyond 10,000 in steps of 5,000.
Best for: Enterprise organizations with 500 or more users that require high availability, enterprise SSO, and fine-grained control over deployment infrastructure.
Add-On Costs: Confluence
Many Jira users also adopt Confluence — Atlassian’s team documentation and wiki platform — to complement Jira’s task management with collaborative document creation. Confluence is licensed separately across all three deployment types.
- Confluence Cloud: Approximately $500/month for 100 users (as of 2019)
- Confluence Server: Approximately $6,400 one-time fee for 100 users
- Confluence Data Center: Approximately $12,000/year for 500 users; up to $200,000/year for 40,001+ users
Factor in Confluence costs when calculating the total cost of your Atlassian toolchain, particularly at scale.
Choosing the Right Jira Plan
The right Jira deployment model depends on three key factors: team size, infrastructure preferences, and required security features.
| Scenario | Recommended Option |
|---|---|
| Small team, no IT staff, want easy setup | Jira Cloud |
| Mid-sized team, want to control own data | Jira Server |
| Enterprise, need SSO and high availability | Jira Data Center |
| Team wants Kanban without software complexity | Trello (Atlassian’s simpler alternative) |
If your priority is simplicity and low operational overhead, Jira Cloud is the clear choice. If long-term cost efficiency and data sovereignty matter more, Jira Server delivers a lower total cost of ownership for mid-sized teams. If you’re running a large enterprise and need clustering, SSO, and disaster recovery, Jira Data Center is the only option that meets all of those requirements.
It is also worth evaluating Trello — another Atlassian product with a similar Kanban-style interface — if your team is non-technical or you want a free tier for small groups. Trello is better suited to lightweight task tracking, while Jira is more appropriate for structured issue management and development workflows.
Important: Verify Current Pricing
The figures in this article reflect pricing as reported in July 2019. Atlassian has made significant changes to its product lineup and pricing since then — notably, Atlassian announced the end of sale and end of support for Server products, shifting focus to Cloud and Data Center. Always check Atlassian’s official Jira pricing page for the most current figures before making any purchasing decision.