OpenProject vs Redmine

Hosting cost depends mostly on user count and how you deploy, and both platforms are free to download under their licenses. OpenProject's sizing guide suggests 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for up to 200 users, 8 cores and 8 GB for about 500 users, and 16 cores and 16 GB for about 1,500 users. Those tiers are recurring infrastructure charges from your cloud or data center provider. Redmine has no published sizing tiers in the supplied sources, so ask your team to load test a representative instance, and confirm current requirements in the Redmine installation guide before you size it. Also budget for a PostgreSQL or MySQL database, backups and storage for uploaded files on both sides.

The skill mix is the largest hidden cost. Redmine is a Ruby on Rails application, so the team needs Ruby and Rails knowledge to troubleshoot, patch and manage plugins. OpenProject ships as Docker-based installs (recommended), packages and Helm charts, and it requires PostgreSQL 16 or later with the pg_trgm, btree_gist and unaccent extensions. Your staff will need container and PostgreSQL operations skills, or a partner to provide them. Engineers who already run Docker and PostgreSQL in production usually find OpenProject's operating model familiar, while a Ruby shop may find Redmine easier to patch. Check which skills your current team already has before choosing.

OpenProject Community is free, and its support is community-based. OpenProject Enterprise on-premises is priced per named user per month: Basic at 5.95 euros and Professional at 10.95 euros with a 25-user minimum, Premium at 15.95 euros with a 100-user minimum, and Corporate on request for 250 or more users, according to OpenProject's pricing page. The subscription is recurring and scales with named users. It buys features such as SSO with SAML, OIDC, CAS, Kerberos or Okta, LDAP group synchronization, and custom branding. Redmine has no paid edition, so its equivalent costs are internal labor, plugin work or third-party support contracts. Compare the subscription against the staff hours you would otherwise spend building those features yourself.

Redmine upgrades are a manual, multi-step procedure. The official upgrade guide asks you to back up the database and uploaded files, copy configuration, uploads and third-party plugins to the new installation, then run db:migrate and redmine:plugins:migrate before clearing the cache and restarting. Each upgrade therefore recurs, and its effort rises with the number of plugins you run. Redmine 7.0.x is the fully supported line, while 6.0.x receives only important security updates, so plan to move between lines on a schedule. The labor is recurring and usually sits with your internal team or a services partner.

OpenProject ships roughly monthly minor releases, with 17.7.0 on August 5, 17.8.0 on September 2 and 17.9.0 on September 30, 2026, and 17.9.2 on October 15, 2026, according to the OpenProject release notes. That cadence means more frequent but smaller upgrade events. Each one still needs a tested backup, a staging run and a review of container images or packages, which is recurring labor. Ask your team to confirm the upgrade path for your install method, and whether your edition and plugins follow the same schedule. Budget for a window each cycle, not a one-off project.

Redmine's plugin model is where many long-running costs appear. Plugins are third-party code, so each one must be checked against each Redmine version, migrated during upgrades and tested against your database and Ruby versions. Redmine 7.0 runs on Rails 8.1 and supports Ruby 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 and 4.0, so a plugin that lags behind may block an upgrade. The built-in importers for Trac and Mantis are marked obsolete, and the third-party migration scripts are neither tested nor supported, which means migrations also rely on your own work. Inventory every plugin, record its maintainer and its last release, and ask who owns fixes when a plugin breaks. OpenProject's built-in features reduce plugin dependence for common needs, but confirm which of your requirements remain custom.

A useful quote follows from a written scope, and DeployOpen does not publish a price list. Most engagements are fixed-scope, with scope, deliverables and timelines agreed in writing before work starts. Ask the provider to separate one-time work (planning, installation, data migration, customization, hardening, documentation) from recurring work (upgrades, backups, support, continuous testing). Ask which platform version and edition the quote assumes, how plugins and integrations are counted, which user count and sizing tier are assumed, and what the retainer covers. Ask for the assumptions behind the quote, so you can compare offers from different providers on equal terms.

Redmine's license is free, since it is released under GPL v2 with no paid edition, but running it in production is not free. The cost comes from the servers or cloud account that host it, the database and backup work, plugin selection and maintenance, upgrades across Redmine's supported lines, and the staff time to keep it secure and available. Redmine 7.0.x is the fully supported line, while 6.1.x receives only bug and security fixes and 6.0.x only important security updates, so budget for moving between lines. Ask any implementation partner for a quote that lists each of these components separately, including who pays for each one and what recurs every year.

It can be, but the answer depends on your identity requirements rather than on the license. The Community edition is free and includes work packages, Gantt charts, agile boards, time tracking and dashboards, with community support. Single sign-on through SAML, OpenID Connect, CAS, Kerberos or Okta, LDAP group synchronization, full baseline comparison, portfolio and resource management, and custom branding are listed as Enterprise features on the pricing page. Check whether your directory and access policies need group-driven provisioning or federated sign-in, then confirm the current feature list on the pricing page before you decide.

No single duration applies, because the time depends on the source system, the volume of issues, attachments and history, the custom fields and workflows you need to map, and the rules of your own change control. Redmine's own migration guidance marks several built-in importers as obsolete and treats third-party scripts for systems such as Jira as neither tested nor supported. The OpenProject Jira Migrator imports from Jira Data Center 10.x and 11.x only, not Jira Cloud, and is in beta with documentation advising use only in test setups. Run a pilot import on a copy of your data, measure the errors, and ask for a timeline in the written scope that reflects those results.

A small team with Linux and PostgreSQL skills can install either platform for a limited number of users, and OpenProject's Docker-based setup is the recommended path. Plan carefully for the parts that cause outages: upgrades, which for Redmine include backing up the database and uploaded files, copying configuration and plugins, and running the migration tasks before restarting, and identity integration, which needs directory testing and a rollback path. OpenProject's sizing guide suggests 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for up to 200 users, so confirm capacity in your own environment before going live. Write down who owns patching, backups and restore tests before the first production user logs in.

A consultant changes who does the work and how predictable the schedule is, but the platform license is not the item being bought. DeployOpen plans, implements, customizes, integrates, hardens, backs up, upgrades, documents and supports self-hosted open-source platforms inside your own infrastructure. Most engagements are fixed-scope, with scope, deliverables and timelines agreed in writing before work starts, and ongoing support, upgrades and testing can be taken as retainers. The cost moves with the scope you define, such as the number of integrations, the migration sources and the identity design, so compare outside quotes against the same written scope rather than against a bare platform price.

Send the same written scope to every provider so the quotes can be compared line by line. Include the platform and version you want, the number of named users and their roles, whether you need Enterprise features such as SSO or portfolio views, the source systems and data volumes for migration, the integrations with identity, email, file storage and monitoring, the hosting environment and any air-gapped constraints, and the upgrade and backup expectations. Ask for deliverables, acceptance criteria, what is one-time and what recurs, which items are excluded, and how changes to scope are priced. DeployOpen does not publish a price list, so a quote follows from the written scope.