Plane or Taiga for a self-hosted software team leaving a hosted tracker
Choose Plane vs Taiga based on how your software team plans work. Plane fits teams that organize work around cycles and modules and want a modern issue tracker with a paid upgrade path inside the same product family. Taiga fits teams that run Scrum sprints, estimations and burndown charts or Kanban boards with swimlanes and WIP limits, and that want a single open-source edition with no paid tier to evaluate. The first decision is which planning model your engineers already use, because migrating a hosted board into the wrong model costs more in retraining than any license difference.
Next, decide whether you need paid identity features. On self-hosted Plane, SAML and OIDC sit on the Pro plan and above, and LDAP is listed as an Enterprise feature, so you will need the Commercial Edition and a license key before buying those. Plane Community Edition is AGPL-3.0 and matches the Cloud Free feature set. Taiga's documentation describes a single open-source edition, so confirm directly with Taiga which authentication options your deployment needs and whether they come from the open-source code or from a separate service you would run yourself. Ask for the exact list before you commit to either path.
Finally, decide who operates the stack. Plane's Docker Compose setup is positioned for small and mid-size teams, and its Kubernetes guide installs the Commercial Edition with PostgreSQL, Redis or Valkey, RabbitMQ and S3-compatible storage. Taiga's recommended production method is Docker, with taiga-back, taiga-front, taiga-events, taiga-protected and taiga-async running against PostgreSQL and RabbitMQ, and the events and protected services sharing the back end secret key. Count those moving parts against the people you have, and plan for upgrades, backups and on-call coverage before you choose.
Which platform fits which team scenario
This table maps common team situations to the platform that fits better and the condition that makes it so. Read each row as a conditional recommendation, and treat any item marked as a question as something to confirm with the vendor or in a trial before committing.
| Scenario | Better fit | Condition that makes it so |
|---|---|---|
| Scrum team that runs sprints and wants burndown charts | Taiga | Taiga's site lists Scrum backlogs, sprint planning, estimations and burndown charts as core features. Confirm that the Scrum workflow you use maps to these views before migrating. |
| Product team that plans in cycles and modules | Plane | Plane organizes work into cycles and modules. This fits when the team already thinks in those terms. Taiga teams planning in Scrum sprints or Kanban swimlanes would need to remap their process. |
| Team that needs SSO or LDAP on day one | Plane, with a paid plan (confirm the edition) | On self-hosted Plane, SAML and OIDC start at the Pro plan and LDAP is listed as Enterprise, so this requires the Commercial Edition with a license key. Ask Taiga whether its self-hosted edition supports your SSO or LDAP requirement, since no supplied fact confirms it. |
| Team with a Jira history that wants to import projects | Plane (confirm scope) | Plane's Jira importer supports Jira Cloud and Jira Server or Data Center on the Commercial Edition and Cloud. Taiga's documentation lists importers for GitHub, Jira and Trello. Test both on a sample project, including custom fields and attachments, before deciding. |
| Team with a single open-source edition and no interest in paid tiers | Taiga | Taiga describes itself as 100% open source with an on-premise option, with no edition split in the supplied facts. Plane's Community Edition has the Cloud Free feature set, so paid features require a move to the Commercial Edition. |
| Team with no container operations skills | Neither without an operator (confirm) | Both deploy through Docker. Taiga's recommended production path is Docker, and its stack includes five services plus PostgreSQL and RabbitMQ. Plane's Compose setup targets small and mid-size teams. Plan for an operator or a managed implementation partner either way. |
| Team that needs a managed hosted option as a fallback | Plane (confirm) | Plane offers hosted plans and a one-way Cloud-to-self-hosted path. Taiga's site mentions a hosted version at tree.taiga.io. Confirm migration paths and data residency with each vendor. |
How Plane and Taiga are built and what that means for operations
Plane and Taiga both run on your own infrastructure, but they ask for different moving parts. Plane spreads its footprint across several dependencies and deployment methods, while Taiga's Docker stack is smaller yet ties its services together through one shared secret. The cards below set out what each one requires and what your operations team should confirm before choosing.
Plane self-hosting methods
Plane documents Docker Compose for small and mid-size teams, Kubernetes with Helm for high availability, and other methods including Podman and air-gapped installs. The method you pick sets how much cluster work your team takes on. Docker Compose keeps the footprint simple, while Helm is the route Plane positions for high availability and scaling. Confirm which method your platform team will support long term before you plan upgrades.
Plane dependency stack
A self-hosted Plane deployment uses PostgreSQL, Redis or Valkey, RabbitMQ and S3-compatible object storage such as MinIO. Each dependency is a service you must back up, patch and monitor. The Helm chart can point each one at an external managed service, which shifts that operating work to your database or cloud team. Ask who owns each component and how restores are tested.
Plane external managed services
Helm lets you point PostgreSQL, Redis or Valkey, RabbitMQ and object storage at services you already run. This reduces in-cluster state but adds network paths, credentials and version compatibility checks between Plane and each managed service. Before committing, confirm with your database and cloud teams which managed offerings they support and who is paged when a connection fails.
Taiga Docker production install
Taiga's documentation names Docker as the recommended production installation, with a separate guide for installing from source. The taiga-docker README asks for Docker 19.03.0 or later with Docker Compose and says to deploy production from the stable branch, not main. Your team should pin to the stable branch, test upgrades in staging, and confirm that its Docker host baseline matches your hardening standard.
Taiga services and shared secret
A Taiga Docker deployment runs taiga-back, taiga-front, taiga-events, taiga-protected and taiga-async alongside PostgreSQL and RabbitMQ. The events and protected services must share the back end's secret key. Rotating that key is a coordinated change across services, so plan it as a maintenance event and record where the key is stored and who can read it.
Feature and capability differences that affect the choice
This table compares Plane and Taiga on the features a software team will use every day, plus identity, importers and deployment. Read each row against your current hosted tracker, and treat any cell that says to confirm as an open question for the vendor or a test install.
| Capability | Plane | Taiga |
|---|---|---|
| Work model | Cycles for time-boxed work and modules for grouping features; confirm how cycles map to your existing sprint cadence. | Scrum backlogs with sprint planning, estimations and burndown charts, plus Kanban boards with swimlanes and WIP limits. |
| Epics and sub-tasks | Confirm epic and sub-task behavior against your hierarchy before migrating, since the data model differs from Taiga's epics. | Epics with sub-tasks, plus custom issue types, priorities and severities. |
| Wiki | Confirm whether Plane's built-in documentation covers the wiki pages your team needs, or plan a separate wiki tool. | A project wiki is listed on Taiga's site; confirm page structure and permissions for your use. |
| Jira importer | Jira Cloud and Jira Server or Data Center are supported by the Jira importer, available on all plans of the self-hosted Commercial Edition. | Imports from Jira are documented; confirm which Jira versions and object types transfer for your instance. |
| Other importers | Linear importer documented; confirm GitHub or Trello import paths if your source is one of them. | Documented importers for GitHub, Jira and Trello. |
| API and webhooks | Confirm API coverage and webhook events for your automation needs in the current release. | REST API is the same API the web app uses, and webhooks are documented. |
| Source and chat integrations | Confirm which source control and chat integrations exist in your edition before assuming parity. | Integrations listed for GitHub, GitLab, Bitbucket, Gogs and Slack. |
| Identity options | SAML and OIDC on Pro and above; LDAP is an Enterprise feature, both on self-hosted Plane. | Confirm SSO and directory options for your identity provider in the current Taiga release. |
| Deployment methods | Docker Compose for small and mid-size teams, Kubernetes with Helm for high availability, plus Podman and air-gapped installs. | Docker is the recommended production method, with a separate guide for installing from source code. |
What is free, what is licensed and what is paid for each platform
Plane Community Edition is the self-hosted build licensed under AGPL-3.0. Its feature set matches the Plane Cloud Free tier, so Plane's Cloud Free documentation is the practical reference for what a Community install includes. It is a separate codebase from the Commercial and Airgapped editions and follows its own release cycle, so upgrade paths and feature timing should be checked against the edition you actually install. AGPL-3.0 obligations apply when you modify the software and offer it to users over a network, so counsel should review any internal changes you plan.
- License: AGPL-3.0, the only open-source license in Plane's edition list.
- Feature parity: matches Cloud Free, so Cloud Free limits are the baseline for what you can run without a paid plan.
- Separate release cycle: the Community Edition does not share a release track with the Commercial Edition, so check upgrade steps before choosing an edition.
- Latest release: v1.4.2, published in August 2026, after v1.4.0 in July 2026, per Plane's GitHub releases.
- Paid features: moving to any paid plan requires switching to the Commercial Edition first.
Before committing, confirm with Plane which features your team needs are included in Cloud Free and which only appear in a paid plan.
Plane's Commercial and Airgapped editions are proprietary, and each is built on its own codebase. The Commercial Edition is the one that unlocks paid plans through a license key, and seats are counted by users with paid roles. Plane's Kubernetes guide installs the Commercial Edition, and its Free plan includes 12 seats with the Free feature set and no license key. Plane's self-hosting overview also documents air-gapped installs as a method, but the supplied facts do not say whether that method requires the Airgapped edition, so confirm this with Plane.
- License model: proprietary, with paid plans activated through a license key.
- Free plan on Commercial: 12 seats and the Free feature set, with no license key needed, according to Plane's Kubernetes documentation.
- Seat counting: under a paid plan, seats are counted by users with paid roles, which affects how many licenses you buy.
- Airgapped edition: a separate proprietary edition for disconnected networks, with its license terms not stated in the supplied facts.
- Release cycle: the Commercial Edition has its own release cycle, separate from the Community Edition.
For disconnected networks, ask Plane which edition and license terms apply, and how license keys are validated or renewed when the environment has no internet access.
Plane's pricing page lists Free, Pro, Business and Enterprise Grid plans. Pro is shown at 6 to 8 US dollars per user per month and Business at 13 to 15 US dollars per user per month, while Enterprise Grid is priced on request. On self-hosted Plane, SAML and OIDC are available from Pro upward, and LDAP support and API-enabled audit logs are listed as Enterprise features. The license fee is only one cost. You also pay for and operate the hosting stack, which uses PostgreSQL, Redis or Valkey, RabbitMQ and S3-compatible object storage.
- Pro: 6 to 8 US dollars per user per month, with SAML and OIDC sign-in on self-hosted installs.
- Business: 13 to 15 US dollars per user per month; confirm which self-hosted features it adds beyond Pro.
- Enterprise Grid: priced on request, with LDAP support and API-enabled audit logs listed as Enterprise features.
- Recurring cost: seat fees recur per user per month, so total license spend grows with the number of paid-role users.
- Infrastructure cost: the hosting stack and the staff who run it are separate costs that the plan prices do not cover.
Ask Plane for a written quote that states the seat count, billing period, and the self-hosted features included in each plan you are considering. Current prices are on Plane's pricing page.
Taiga's back end, taigaio/taiga-back, is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0, according to the repository's license metadata. The taiga-docker README also states that accepted code is licensed under MPL 2.0. Taiga describes itself as 100% open source, with an on-premise option for keeping data on your own servers and a hosted version at tree.taiga.io. The supplied facts do not list any paid tier, commercial edition, or support contract for Taiga, so you should confirm those directly with Taiga.
- Back end license: MPL 2.0, a file-level copyleft license, so changes to Taiga's own files carry obligations that counsel should review.
- Single edition: Taiga describes one open-source edition, with no paid edition listed in the supplied facts.
- Hosted option: available at tree.taiga.io, with hosting terms and data location to be confirmed for your use case.
- Recent releases: the taiga-back repository lists 6.10.2, 6.10.1 and 6.10.0 as its most recent tags.
- Paid or support options: not covered by the supplied facts, so ask Taiga whether any exist and what they include.
Ask Taiga for written confirmation of the license for every component you plan to deploy, including any plug-ins, and whether a support agreement is available for an on-premise install.
What drives the running cost of each option
The running cost of Plane and Taiga comes from four places: infrastructure for each dependency stack, engineering time for upgrades and backups, software fees for any paid tier, and external support. For a self-hosted Plane deployment, the stack includes PostgreSQL, Redis or Valkey, RabbitMQ and S3-compatible object storage such as MinIO, and the Helm chart can point each of these at an external managed service. Taiga's Docker deployment runs taiga-back, taiga-front, taiga-events, taiga-protected and taiga-async with PostgreSQL and RabbitMQ. Plane has more moving parts, so expect a larger infrastructure line, but each part can be bought as a managed service that moves patching and backups off your team. Ask your team to list every component it would operate itself and to price each one against the managed option.
Separate one-time work from recurring work. Migration and setup are one-time: mapping Jira or Taiga data, configuring SSO, validating the Plane Jira importer output and wiring integrations. Recurring work is upgrades, backups, restore tests, monitoring and security patching. Plane's Community Edition has no license fee, but moving to a paid Plane plan first requires switching to the Commercial Edition, which is licensed by seat. Taiga's open-source edition carries no subscription fee in the supplied facts. Ask whether any Taiga hosting or support you choose is sold per seat, and whether a Plane paid plan is priced per user with a paid role, since those seat counts are what grow with headcount.
Several factors move the running cost up or down. Seat count drives Plane's paid tiers, and the Pro and Business price ranges on the pricing page are published per user per month, so confirm the currency and billing terms directly with Plane. Project count and data volume affect database sizing and attachment storage. High availability raises cost on both sides, since Plane documents Kubernetes with Helm for high availability, and any HA design multiplies the replicas, load balancing and backup targets you must run. Managed PostgreSQL trades engineering hours for a monthly service fee. Written quotes from DeployOpen follow the agreed scope, so ask for line items covering initial setup, the upgrade and backup routine, testing and any retainer, and state which items are one-time and which recur. Ask the vendor for its support terms, upgrade cadence and any minimum server specification in writing before you commit.
How to move a hosted tracker into Plane or Taiga
This sequence moves issues, projects and team workflows from a hosted tracker into a self-hosted Plane or Taiga instance in a controlled order, so each stage ends with a check that the data arrived intact before the next one starts.
Inventory projects, workflows and integrations
The migration lead lists every project in the source tracker, with its open issue count, custom fields, status names, issue types, board configuration and any automations, webhooks or marketplace apps the team relies on. Mark which items are data and which are behavior, because only data is likely to transfer. Ask the source vendor for an export of issues and attachments and confirm the export format. The step is done when the team has a written inventory that a reviewer outside the project can read and challenge.
Decide the target edition and licensing
The platform owner chooses between Plane's Community Edition, its Commercial Edition with a license key, or Taiga's single open-source edition, using the seat count, identity requirements and whether a paid Plane plan is needed. For Plane, confirm before install that moving from Community to a paid plan requires switching to the Commercial Edition first, so the choice is not reversed later. The step is done when the edition, seat count and identity needs are recorded in a short decision note that procurement and security have signed off.
Stand up the platform in a test environment
The platform engineer installs the chosen target in a non-production environment that mirrors the planned production stack. For Plane, that means the Docker Compose or Kubernetes method, with PostgreSQL, Redis or Valkey, RabbitMQ and S3-compatible storage. For Taiga, the taiga-docker deployment needs Docker with Docker Compose, PostgreSQL and RabbitMQ, and the events and protected services must share the back end's secret key. The step is done when a test user can log in, create a project and attach a file, and the team has confirmed the stack matches what production will run.
Run the importer for the source tool
An engineer runs the importer that matches the source. Plane's Jira importer is available on its Cloud service and on all plans of the self-hosted Commercial Edition, and supports Jira Cloud as well as Jira Server and Data Center. Taiga's documentation covers importing projects from GitHub, Jira and Trello. Run the import against a copy of the production data first, not the live tracker. Confirm for the specific source tool which fields, comments, attachments, history and links the importer carries over, because importer coverage changes between versions and between source configurations. The step is done when the import log shows no unhandled errors for the test project.
Map statuses and custom fields to cycles, modules or Kanban columns
The product owner maps each source status to a Plane state group or a Taiga Kanban column, decides whether sprint boards become Plane cycles or Taiga Scrum sprints, and assigns epics or feature groupings to Plane modules or Taiga epics. Custom fields that have no native counterpart are either mapped to a text field, stored in the description, or dropped with a recorded decision. Write the mapping table before the full import, then compare it against the test output. The step is done when the mapping table is approved and every status in the source has a named destination.
Validate issue counts, links and attachments
The QA lead compares issue counts per project, per status and per assignee between source and target, then samples issues with attachments, sub-tasks and cross-project links to confirm they resolve. Check that attachments open and that comment timestamps and authors are either preserved or documented as changed. Keep a signed reconciliation sheet. Expect that dashboards, saved filters, automation rules and approval workflows will not transfer and must be rebuilt by hand, so list them as a separate rework item. The step is done when the reconciliation sheet shows zero unexplained differences.
Configure identity and access
The identity owner connects the platform to the organization's sign-in source and sets roles per project. For Plane, confirm which sign-in methods the chosen edition and plan support, since SAML and OIDC and LDAP sit on different tiers in the Plane pricing and editions documentation. For Taiga, confirm the authentication options in its current documentation against the organization's identity provider. Test a user from each role group and confirm that deprovisioning removes access. The step is done when each role has been tested with a real sign-in and the access list is recorded for audit.
Cut over and retain the source for a read period
The team freezes new work in the hosted tracker, runs a final incremental import of changes made since the test run, repeats the reconciliation for the delta, and switches users and integrations to the new platform. Keep the hosted tracker in read-only mode for a period agreed in advance, and point webhooks, commit hooks and chat notifications at the new instance. Rebuilt workflows and dashboards go live in this window. The step is done when the final reconciliation is clean, integrations fire from the new platform, and the team has written down how to restore or consult the source if a gap appears.
Where self-hosted project tracker implementations usually run long
Projects rarely slip on installation. They slip on the work around it: legacy workflows that do not map cleanly, import results nobody validated, and identity groups that do not match the roles the team expects. On the Plane side, the first decision is the edition. A self-hosted Community install is AGPL-3.0 and matches Cloud Free, but any paid plan requires moving to the proprietary Commercial Edition first, so that switch belongs in the written scope, not in a later change ticket. Plane's stack also adds PostgreSQL, Redis or Valkey, RabbitMQ and S3-compatible object storage. Confirm whether your team will run each of these itself or point the Helm chart at managed services, because that choice sets who patches and backs up each component.
On the Taiga side, the Docker deployment runs taiga-back, taiga-front, taiga-events, taiga-protected and taiga-async with PostgreSQL and RabbitMQ. The events and protected services must share the back end's secret key, and a mismatch is a configuration error that often shows up only after go-live. Ask the implementer to document every shared secret, the service ordering, and how each container is restarted during an upgrade. The taiga-docker README also separates the stable branch for production from the main branch for development, so confirm which branch the team pins and who approves moving it forward. Plan backups for PostgreSQL and the media volumes together, and rehearse a restore before the first sprint is loaded.
Identity and adoption cause the most rework. Map each Plane and Taiga role to a directory group before importing anything, because group membership drives project visibility and is hard to unwind once issues are assigned. Validate imports against a sample of items, comparing statuses, owners, attachments and sprint dates with the source system, and agree in writing who signs off each cohort. Adoption depends on whether the team keeps one workflow model rather than running two in parallel. A written scope that names the legacy workflows to map, the import checks, the identity groups, the upgrade routine and the training owner is the most effective control against overruns.
Questions teams ask before choosing or hiring help
What does it cost to run self-hosted Plane or Taiga?
The software licenses are not the main cost. Both platforms run in your own infrastructure, so you pay for servers or cloud accounts, backups, monitoring, and the staff time to patch and upgrade. Plane's self-hosted stack includes PostgreSQL, Redis or Valkey, RabbitMQ and S3-compatible object storage, and each can be run in-house or pointed at an external managed service. Taiga's Docker deployment runs five services with PostgreSQL and RabbitMQ. Costs rise with user count, availability targets and the number of environments you keep. Ask any provider for a written quote that lists each component, who operates it, and which items recur each year.
Can our own engineers run Plane or Taiga without outside help?
Often yes, if your team already operates Docker, PostgreSQL and a message broker. Plane documents Docker Compose for small and mid-size teams and Kubernetes with Helm for high availability, so the choice of method decides how much platform skill you need. Taiga's documentation names Docker as the recommended production installation and requires Docker 19.03.0 or later with Docker Compose. The events and protected services must share the back end's secret key, which is a configuration detail your engineers should check during setup. Teams without that in-house depth often buy a fixed-scope deployment and runbook, then operate the platform themselves.
How long does migrating from a hosted tracker take?
No duration applies to every migration, so treat any single number with caution. The main drivers are the number of projects, how much history you keep, custom fields and workflows that need mapping, and attachments. Plane's Jira importer supports Jira Cloud as well as Jira Server and Data Center on its Commercial Edition. Taiga's documentation covers importing projects from GitHub, Jira and Trello. Ask the implementation partner to inventory your data, run a test import on a copy, and state in the written scope which items are moved, which are archived and which are rebuilt by hand.
Is single sign-on included in Plane's free tier?
On self-hosted Plane, SAML and OIDC are listed from the Pro plan upward, not in the free tier. LDAP support and API-enabled audit logs are listed as Enterprise features. The Community Edition matches the feature set of Plane Cloud's Free tier, so the free self-hosted install does not include these sign-on options. Plane's pricing page also lists per-user rates for paid plans, which you should compare with the self-hosted edition rules in Plane's documentation. For Taiga, confirm directly with Taiga whether SSO is available in your chosen deployment, since the sources we checked did not settle that question.
Can we move from Plane Community to a paid plan later?
Yes, but the path runs through the Commercial Edition. A self-hosted Community install must first switch to the Commercial Edition before it can unlock a paid plan with a license key. Plane counts seats by users with paid roles on those plans. Plane's Kubernetes guide installs the Commercial Edition, and its Free plan on that edition includes 12 seats with no license key. Plan the switch as a supervised upgrade with a backup, a test on a copy, and a written step list. Ask the vendor which versions are supported for the switch and how rollback works if it fails.
Does Taiga offer a paid edition?
The sources we checked describe Taiga as fully open source, with an on-premise option for keeping data on your own servers and a hosted version at tree.taiga.io. The Taiga back end is licensed under the Mozilla Public License 2.0. Taiga's public materials do not describe a tiered commercial edition with a license key, so confirm with Taiga before you budget for one. Ask whether any paid support, hosted tiers or enterprise features exist, which features they add, and whether they change the license of the code you deploy. Compare that answer with the Plane Commercial Edition terms before you decide.
What does DeployOpen do on a Plane or Taiga project?
DeployOpen plans, implements, customizes, integrates, hardens, backs up, upgrades, documents and supports self-hosted open-source platforms inside your own cloud accounts, data centers or air-gapped networks. Most engagements are fixed-scope, with scope, deliverables and timelines agreed in writing before work starts. Ongoing support, upgrades and testing are available as retainers. DeployOpen does not publish a price list, so a quote follows from the written scope. Ask for the deliverables list, the migration approach, the handover plan and what remains your team's responsibility after go-live.
How DeployOpen helps choose, implement and migrate
DeployOpen starts by agreeing in writing what a Plane or Taiga rollout must cover, then builds, documents and hands it over inside your own infrastructure. Engagements are fixed-scope, so the migration, edition choice and run model are settled before any work begins.
How we scope
- Written scope names the Plane edition, deployment method and Taiga Docker topology you are evaluating before work starts.
- We list which hosted tracker data moves, including Jira or other importer sources, and which history stays in the old system.
- Ongoing support, upgrades and continuous testing can be scoped as a retainer alongside the fixed-scope build.
How we build
- We install the chosen stack in your cloud account, data center or air-gapped network, including PostgreSQL, Redis or Valkey and object storage.
- We configure identity integration, project structure, cycles or sprints, and workflow settings to match how your software teams work.
- We test imports against sample projects and check integrations such as Git hosting and webhooks before any cutover.
How we hand over
- You receive documentation of the deployed architecture, configuration decisions and the migration steps actually run.
- We hand over runbooks for upgrades, backups and restores, so your team can operate the chosen platform without us.
- Compliance-relevant evidence, such as access settings and backup records, is prepared for your own auditors to review.
How we support
- Support retainers can cover platform upgrades, patch windows and monitoring of the self-hosted services over time.
- Continuous security testing of the deployed tracker is available if your organization requires it on a recurring basis.
- Before any retainer starts, confirm the response expectations and service boundaries in the written agreement.
