A GitHub Projects alternative for software teams
Your tracker knows what is being built. It has never once known whether Wednesday has room for it.
Why software teams use GitHub Projects
It is free, it is next to the code, and if every piece of work is an issue it is hard to beat.
Where it stops
It assumes everybody is on GitHub, which stops being true the moment design or support is on the critical path, and there is no calendar anywhere in it.
The week software teams actually have
The board is honest and the sprint is not, because the sprint was estimated in points and lived in hours nobody counted. Two of those hours went to a review that arrived on Tuesday, three to an incident, and the rest to meetings that were scheduled around nothing in particular. At standup everyone says they are close.
Points are not hours and the sprint knows it
Estimating in points and planning in a tool with no calendar means the commitment is made without ever looking at how much of the week was already gone.
In UnaTask: Put the work on real hours before you commit to it, so the plan fails on Monday when it is cheap rather than on Friday when it is a conversation.
Review time is real and nobody schedules it
Reviews are the work that has no ticket. They arrive, they take an hour, and they are never in the plan, which is why the plan is always wrong by the same amount.
In UnaTask: Link the pull request to the task, see its status and checks on the task, and give the review an actual block instead of hoping.
Half the work belongs to people without a GitHub login
Design, copy, support and the person who has to tell the customer are all on the critical path and none of them are in the tracker.
In UnaTask: One place where engineering work and everything around it sit on the same calendar, without asking anyone to learn a tracker.
The dependency was known and still surprised everybody
Somebody knew the API had to land before the client work started. It was in a thread.
In UnaTask: Dependencies on a timeline, so what is waiting on what is a picture rather than a memory.
On the things software teams asked about
| What it does | GitHub Projects | UnaTask |
|---|---|---|
| Time blocking on a calendar | No | Core |
| Dependencies and a timeline | Partly | Yes. Dependencies with a timeline that shows what is waiting on what. |
| See who has room | Partly | Core |
| Pull requests linked to work | Core. Issues and pull requests are the items. Nothing to link. | Yes |
| A free plan | Yes | Yes |
What it costs
GitHub Projects does not publish a per seat price we can put in a sum. UnaTask is €480 a year for a team of 5, billed yearly, plus VAT, and free while you work on your own.
GitHub Projects: Included with GitHub. There is no separate charge for Projects.
Common questions
Why do software teams use GitHub Projects?
It is free, it is next to the code, and if every piece of work is an issue it is hard to beat.
Where does GitHub Projects stop working for software teams?
It assumes everybody is on GitHub, which stops being true the moment design or support is on the critical path, and there is no calendar anywhere in it.
Should we leave GitHub Projects?
Not necessarily, and we would rather say so. Keep GitHub Projects if every piece of work is an issue, it never leaves the repo, and everybody has a GitHub login. Move if the missing piece is the week itself: hours on a calendar, for everyone, before the work is promised.
Do I have to leave my issue tracker?
No, and we would not suggest it. UnaTask imports GitHub Issues as tasks and links pull requests with their status and an on merge action. Plenty of teams keep the tracker for the record and use UnaTask to plan the week around it.
Does it do sprints and burndown?
No. If burndown and velocity are what you need, a tool built for agile reporting will serve you better and we would rather say so. UnaTask is about when the work happens.
GitHub Projects details checked June 2026.