OpenProject vs Redmine vs Plane

No. The OpenProject Jira Migrator imports from Jira Data Center 10.x and 11.x, not Jira Cloud, and it is still in beta. The migration documentation advises using it only in test setups. If your source is Jira Cloud, you will need a different extraction path or a planned export and mapping project, and you should confirm that path with OpenProject before committing to a date. Check your Jira version against the documented range first, since a version outside 10.x and 11.x is out of scope for the importer regardless of your plans.

Plane's Jira importer supports Jira Cloud as well as Jira Server and Jira Data Center. It is available on Plane Cloud and on all plans of the self-hosted Commercial Edition. That matters for self-hosters: the importer is not part of the Community Edition, so a team that wants Jira import on its own servers must plan for the Commercial Edition and its license key. Confirm which Jira deployment type and version you run, and confirm the importer behavior for your exact setup with Plane before you plan the cutover.

Not with confidence out of the box. The built-in importers for Trac and Mantis are marked obsolete and not working. The third-party migration scripts listed for systems such as Jira and Bugzilla are described as neither tested nor supported. In practice, a Redmine migration from Jira is a custom project: someone must extract the data, map statuses, trackers and custom fields, and validate the result. Budget for that engineering work and for ongoing ownership of the script, because nobody upstream is accountable for it.

Expect cleanup to be the largest variable in any tracker migration, regardless of tool. Common items to resolve before import include:

• Duplicate or abandoned projects and users, including accounts from departed staff
• Workflow statuses and issue types that have no direct equivalent in the target
• Custom fields with inconsistent values or mixed data types
• Attachments and links that point to systems you are retiring

The effort depends on how many projects you move, how much history you keep, and how much mapping your workflows need. Ask any implementation partner to list these items in the written scope, with who decides each mapping rule.

Run the import in a separate test environment built from the same target version and configuration you will use in production. Then compare counts and samples: total projects, work items or issues, users and roles, comments, attachments and time entries. Spot-check a set of complex items, such as parent-child links, custom field values and closed history. Repeat the run after each mapping change, and record the results so the final run is reproducible. Treat any tool documented as beta or untested as a test-only path until you have verified its output yourself.

Ownership depends on the path you choose. With a vendor-supported importer, the vendor documents its scope, but you still own your data decisions and validation. With Redmine's community-maintained scripts, no vendor supports the output, so your team or an implementation partner carries the fix. DeployOpen implements, customizes and migrates self-hosted open-source platforms inside your infrastructure under a fixed-scope written agreement, so the scope of any migration work, including who fixes which failures, is set in writing before work starts.

A small team with a clean Jira instance, a narrow set of projects and an in-house administrator can run a test import on its own, provided the source version falls within the importer's documented scope. Teams should be cautious when the source is out of scope, the data has years of history, or the workflows are heavily customized. In those cases, the work shifts to scripting, data mapping and validation, which is where most schedule risk sits. Decide early which part you will do internally and which you will scope with a partner.

A migration scope should name the source system and exact version, the target edition and version, the projects and date ranges to move, and the fields and attachments to carry across. It should also list the mapping rules, the test environment, the validation checks, the cutover steps and the rollback plan. Ask for acceptance criteria tied to the counts and samples described above. Any timeline or effort figure belongs in a written quote that follows from this scope, not in a general estimate.

Software cost is the smallest part for two of the three. Redmine has no paid edition under GPL v2, so its cost comes from hosting, implementation, plugins, upgrades and the staff who maintain it. OpenProject Community is free, but Enterprise features such as SSO and LDAP group sync are paid per named user per month, with Basic at 5.95 euros and Professional at 10.95 euros, each with a stated user minimum. Plane Community is free, while SSO on self-hosted Plane starts at the Pro plan, which is a paid plan on the Commercial Edition. Ask any vendor or partner for a written quote that separates one-time work (installation, migration, configuration) from recurring costs (licenses, hosting, upgrades, support).

The timeline depends on the source system, the volume of history you keep, how many custom fields and workflows must be rebuilt, and how many people must test the result. Plane's Jira importer covers Jira Cloud as well as Jira Server and Data Center, which narrows the work for Jira users. OpenProject's Jira Migrator reads only Jira Data Center 10.x and 11.x and is in beta, with its documentation advising test setups only, so Jira Cloud users need a different path. Redmine's built-in importers for Trac and Mantis are obsolete, and its third-party scripts for Jira are neither tested nor supported. No public migration duration is supplied for these tools, so ask for a timeline tied to your data volume and a test cycle in the written scope.

Yes, many teams do, provided they have a Linux or container skill set and time for upgrades. OpenProject supports Docker-based installation as its recommended path, along with .deb and .rpm packages and a Helm chart for Kubernetes. Plane documents Docker Compose for small and mid-size teams and Kubernetes with Helm for high availability, and it needs PostgreSQL, Redis or Valkey, RabbitMQ and S3-compatible storage. Redmine runs on PostgreSQL, MySQL or SQL Server, with SQLite unsuited to multi-user production. The real question is who owns backups, patching and upgrades after go-live, so decide that before you choose the install path.

Plan for administrators who can manage a database, a reverse proxy, TLS certificates, backups and a release process. OpenProject needs PostgreSQL 16 or later with the pg_trgm, btree_gist and unaccent extensions, and its sizing guide scales from 4 cores and 4 GB RAM for up to 200 users upward. Redmine 7.0 runs on Rails 8.1 with Ruby 3.2, 3.3, 3.4 or 4.0, and its upgrade procedure requires running db:migrate and redmine:plugins:migrate. Plane depends on several services at once, so an operator needs to troubleshoot queues and object storage as well as the application. Ask your team to name an owner for each layer before you commit.

Usually yes, because Redmine plugins are written against Redmine's own code and data model, and neither OpenProject nor Plane runs them. Start by listing every plugin your team depends on and noting what it does, such as custom workflows, reporting or repository links. For each one, check whether OpenProject or Plane provides the feature natively, whether a paid edition covers it, or whether the work must be rebuilt through the API. Redmine's REST API exposes core resources such as issues, projects, users and time entries, which helps with scripted data export. Confirm the mapping with the vendor before you approve the migration scope.

Choose the paid edition only after you list the features you need that Community or Free does not include. For OpenProject, the Enterprise features named on its pricing page include SSO through SAML, OIDC, CAS, Kerberos or Okta, LDAP group synchronization, full baseline comparison, portfolio and resource management, and custom branding, so match these to your access and reporting requirements. Plan tiers follow named-user counts, so count your active users, not your total headcount. For Plane, SAML and OIDC start at Pro, and LDAP and API-enabled audit logs are Enterprise features, so the choice depends on your identity setup. Ask the vendor for the per-user cost for your exact user count and for how the paid license is applied to your self-hosted install.

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 and upgrades are available as retainers. DeployOpen does not publish a price list, so a quote follows from the written scope. It prepares systems and evidence for compliance assessments, but it does not issue audit reports or certifications. Ask for a scope that names the platform, the edition, the migration source and the handover tasks.