GitHub Projects vs Jira: which one fits your team?
Both of these are systems of record for shipping software, and both are good at it. The choice is usually about how much process you want enforced and where the issues already live.
It turns on how heavy a workflow your team will tolerate, and whether everything already lives in GitHub.
Pick GitHub Projects if
every piece of work is an issue, it never leaves the repo, and everybody has a GitHub login. Where it stops: no calendar, and it assumes everyone is on GitHub.
Pick Jira if
more than a handful of engineers ship on it and you need reporting that satisfies an audit. Where it stops: it needs somebody to administer it, and it is not a daily plan.
What it costs
For a team of 5, billed yearly: GitHub Projects does not publish a per seat price we can put in this sum, Jira is about $480 a year, and UnaTask is €480 plus VAT.
GitHub Projects: Included with GitHub. There is no separate charge for Projects. Jira: Free up to 10 users. Roughly $8 Standard and $15 Premium per user per month on annual billing.
Where they part company
Jira does more on 6 of them
- dependencies and a timeline
- two way calendar sync
- showing who has room
- turning email and chat into tasks
- portfolio and agile reporting
- rules that fire on their own
GitHub Projects does more on 2 of them
- being useful before you configure it
- linking pull requests to the work
Side by side
| What it does | GitHub Projects | Jira | UnaTask |
|---|---|---|---|
| Time blocking on a calendar | No | No | Core |
| A plan for today and this week | No | No | Core |
| Two way calendar sync | No | Partly | Yes |
| It is the task manager itself | Core | Core | Core |
| Dependencies and a timeline | Partly | Core | Yes. Dependencies with a timeline that shows what is waiting on what. |
| See who has room | Partly | Yes | Core |
| Booking links | No | No | Yes |
| Meetings become tasks | No | No | Yes |
| Email and chat become tasks | No | Partly | Yes |
| Pull requests linked to work | Core. Issues and pull requests are the items. Nothing to link. | Yes | Yes |
| Docs and wiki inside | Partly. The repo wiki and markdown in the repo, not a workspace. | Partly. Confluence does this, and it is a separate product with its own bill. | Partly. Docs live on a project, they are not a wiki you would run a company from. |
| Portfolio or agile reporting | Yes | Core | Partly. Team workload and project progress, not portfolios that roll up to a board. |
| Rules that fire on their own | Yes | Core | Yes |
| AI that does the work, not just the scheduling | Partly | Partly | Yes. AI teammates you assign a task to. The work comes back on the task for review. |
| Useful before you configure it | Yes | No. It usually wants a dedicated admin before it fits your team. | Core |
| A free plan | Yes | Yes | Yes |
What should not decide it
They answer the same on 8: time blocking on a calendar, having a plan for today, being the place the tasks actually live, booking links, turning meetings into tasks, docs and a wiki inside, AI that does the work rather than the scheduling and having a free plan.
And where UnaTask sits
UnaTask is not competing for this slot. It is the calendar around it: link the pull request to the task, block the hours for the review, include the people without a GitHub login.
It does more than both of them on time blocking on a calendar, having a plan for today, two way calendar sync, showing who has room, booking links, turning meetings into tasks, turning email and chat into tasks, AI that does the work rather than the scheduling and being useful before you configure it.
Common questions
GitHub Projects vs Jira: which should I pick?
Pick GitHub Projects if every piece of work is an issue, it never leaves the repo, and everybody has a GitHub login. Pick Jira if more than a handful of engineers ship on it and you need reporting that satisfies an audit.
What is the biggest difference between GitHub Projects and Jira?
The clearest gap is dependencies and a timeline, where Jira does more than GitHub Projects. Underneath that, GitHub Projects is a system of record for software work, built around issues and cycles, and Jira is a system of record for software work, built around issues and cycles.
Is GitHub Projects or Jira cheaper?
For a team of 5, billed yearly: GitHub Projects does not publish a per seat price we can put in this sum, Jira is about $480 a year, and UnaTask is €480 plus VAT.
What do GitHub Projects and Jira have in common?
They answer the same on 8 of our 16 axes, among them time blocking on a calendar, having a plan for today and being the place the tasks actually live. Those are the things that should not decide it for you.
Where does UnaTask fit against GitHub Projects and Jira?
UnaTask does more than both on time blocking on a calendar, having a plan for today and two way calendar sync. It is free on your own and €10 per seat for a team, with every feature included. Where it does less: it is not an issue tracker with sprints and burndown, and it is not a documentation workspace.
Details checked June 2026 and 2 August 2026.