What is Jira?
Jira is a work-tracking tool built around issues: units of work such as a bug, a user story, a task or a support request. Each issue moves through a workflow, for example from To Do to In Progress to Done, and carries an assignee, a priority, comments, attachments and any custom fields a team needs. Teams view their issues on scrum or kanban boards, in backlogs, lists, timelines or calendars, and can query them with JQL, Jira’s own search language.
The product started life in 2002 as a bug tracker for developers, and software teams remain its core audience. Jira connects to code hosting services such as Bitbucket, GitLab and GitHub so that commits, branches and pull requests appear on the related issue, and its sprint planning and reporting features are designed around agile methods like Scrum.
Jira has since spread well beyond engineering. In 2024 Atlassian folded its separate business-team product, Jira Work Management, into Jira itself, so marketing, HR and operations teams now use the same app with templates suited to their work. Related products share the Jira name, including Jira Service Management for IT help desks and Jira Product Discovery for product managers, and Atlassian’s Rovo AI features can draft issues, summarize discussions and break large pieces of work into smaller tasks.
Key features of Jira
- 01
Scrum and kanban boards
Visual boards show every issue as a card moving across columns. Scrum boards add backlogs, sprint planning and velocity tracking, while kanban boards focus on continuous flow and work-in-progress limits.
- 02
Custom workflows
Administrators define the statuses and transitions an issue can move through, with rules for who can move it, which fields are required and what happens automatically when its state changes.
- 03
JQL search and filters
Jira Query Language lets users build precise searches, such as every high-priority bug assigned to a team and updated this week, and save them as filters, dashboard gadgets or board sources.
- 04
Timelines and planning
Timeline views map epics and their child issues across weeks and months and show dependencies, while higher-tier plans add planning across multiple teams and projects.
- 05
No-code automation
A rule builder automates routine work, such as assigning new issues, closing a parent task when all of its subtasks are done or posting updates to chat tools.
- 06
Developer tool integrations
Connecting Jira to Bitbucket, GitHub, GitLab and CI/CD tools surfaces branches, commits, pull requests, builds and deployments directly on each issue.
- 07
Reports and dashboards
Built-in reports such as burndown charts, velocity charts and cumulative flow diagrams, along with configurable dashboards, help teams and managers track progress and spot bottlenecks.
- 08
Marketplace apps
Thousands of third-party apps on the Atlassian Marketplace add capabilities such as test management, time tracking, advanced reporting and custom fields.
Who uses Jira?
- Software development teams plan sprints, track bugs and manage releases, linking each issue to the code changes that resolve it.
- Product managers maintain backlogs and roadmaps, turning customer feedback and ideas into prioritized epics and stories.
- Marketing, HR and operations teams track campaigns, onboarding checklists and approval processes using business project templates.
- Large enterprises coordinate work across many teams and programs, often running Jira alongside Confluence for documentation.
History of Jira
Atlassian released Jira in 2002, the same year the company was founded, as a bug and issue tracker for software teams. The name is a truncation of Gojira, the Japanese name for Godzilla: Atlassian’s developers had used the open-source Bugzilla tracker internally and nicknamed it Gojira before building their own product.
Jira grew with the rise of agile development. Atlassian acquired the GreenHopper plugin, which became the basis of Jira’s scrum and kanban boards, and in 2015 it split Jira into separate products for software teams, IT service teams and business teams. It partly reversed that split in 2024 by merging the business edition back into a single Jira. Along the way, Atlassian stopped selling Server licenses and scheduled its self-managed Data Center editions for retirement in 2029, making Jira Cloud the product’s future.
- 2002
Atlassian releases Jira as a bug and issue tracker for software teams.
- 2009
Atlassian acquires GreenHopper, the agile plugin behind Jira’s scrum and kanban boards.
- 2015
Jira is split into three products: Jira Software, Jira Service Desk and Jira Core.
- 2024
Jira Work Management is merged into Jira, bringing software and business teams back into one product.
- 2025
Atlassian sets March 2029 as the end-of-life date for Jira Data Center and its other self-managed editions.
Jira pricing
Pricing modelFreemium
Free plan for up to 10 users; paid Standard, Premium and Enterprise plans are billed per user.
Prices change often. Check the official Jira website for current plans.
Jira alternatives
Profiled on SoftwareLore:
Also considerAsana, Linear, Monday.com, Azure Boards and ClickUp
Jira: frequently asked questions
Who makes Jira?
Jira is made by Atlassian, the collaboration software company founded in Sydney, Australia, in 2002 by Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar. Jira was the company’s first product, and Atlassian also develops related tools such as Confluence, Trello, Loom and Bitbucket.
What is Jira used for?
Jira is used to plan, track and manage work. Software teams use it to track bugs, plan sprints and manage releases, while product, marketing, HR and operations teams use it to organize projects, requests and approvals on boards, lists and timelines.
Is Jira free?
Jira has a free plan for teams of up to 10 users that includes boards, backlogs and basic reporting. Larger teams and organizations that need advanced permissions, cross-team planning, higher automation limits or enterprise support pay for Standard, Premium or Enterprise subscriptions billed per user.
When was Jira released?
Atlassian released Jira in 2002, the year the company was founded. It began as a bug tracker for software developers and has since expanded into a general work management platform with agile boards, automation and AI features.
What does the name Jira mean?
The name comes from Gojira, the Japanese name for Godzilla. Atlassian’s developers had used the open-source Bugzilla bug tracker internally and nicknamed it Gojira, and a shortened form of that nickname became the name of their own product.
Is Jira only for software development?
No. Jira began as a tool for software teams, but it is now widely used by business teams for marketing campaigns, recruiting, onboarding and other project work. In 2024 Atlassian merged Jira Work Management into Jira so that technical and non-technical teams share one product.
Sources
- Jira product page, Atlassian atlassian.com
- Jira pricing, Atlassian atlassian.com
- Jira (software), Wikipedia en.wikipedia.org
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