Migrating from Jira to GitHub
Jira supports 3,000+ integrations — 2,000 more than GitHub. If integration breadth is a factor in your switch from Jira to GitHub, this guide covers how to reconnect your stack after migrating.
At a Glance
- Industry standard for software development teams — most PMs will encounter Jira in their career
- Deepest configurability of any project management tool with custom fields, workflows, and screens
- 3,000+ marketplace integrations covering virtually every tool in the product stack
- Dominant platform for source control and collaboration — used by 100M+ developers, making it the de facto standard for open-source and most commercial software teams
- GitHub Copilot is the leading AI coding assistant, deeply integrated into the platform with code completion, PR summaries, chat, and workspace planning
- GitHub Actions provides powerful, flexible CI/CD built directly into the repository with a massive ecosystem of community-authored actions
You leave behind
- −time tracking
Migration Steps
Audit and export your current workspace
Before touching GitHub, document what lives in Jira: issues, epics, and sprints, custom fields, automations, integrations, and team permissions. Export a full CSV backup — most tools support this from Settings → Export. Pay particular attention to any custom fields and workflow automations that your team relies on daily.
Set up your GitHub workspace
Create your GitHub workspace and replicate your project structure using epics, stories, and sprints. GitHub starts at $4/user/mo/user/mo with a free tier available — $3.91/user/mo less than your current Jira spend. Run with a single pilot team before migrating everyone.
Map your workflow equivalents
Find the closest GitHub equivalent for each Jira feature your team relies on. issues, epics, and sprints in Jira maps to epics, stories, and sprints in GitHub. GitHub supports custom fields — recreate your Jira field schema here first. Prioritise the critical path: task creation, status tracking, and assignment.
Import your data
GitHub supports CSV import for tasks and projects and has 20+ native integrations. After importing, rebuild your key automations — GitHub's automation engine can replicate most rules you had in Jira. Start with your most active project rather than importing everything at once.
Onboard your team
Run a 30-minute walkthrough covering the daily workflow: how to create epics, stories, and sprints, update status, and find your board. Expect a moderate ramp — most engineers and PMs hit their stride within a week. The biggest adjustment is usually the sprint ceremony workflow.
Run Jira in parallel for two weeks
Keep Jira read-only while your team works primarily in GitHub. This reduces risk and lets people reference historical context — old decisions, archived tickets, past sprint data — without slowing the migration. After two weeks with no new work going into Jira, archive the workspace and make GitHub the official home.
Ready to switch?
Read the full GitHub review for pricing, integrations, and team fit details.