Migrating from GitHub to Jira
GitHub scores 4.7/5 on G2 — 0.4 points ahead of Jira (4.3/5). If you're making the switch, here's how to migrate your team from GitHub to Jira step by step.
At a Glance
- 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
- 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
You gain with Jira
- +time tracking
Migration Steps
Audit and export your current workspace
Before touching Jira, document what lives in GitHub: projects and tasks, 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 Jira workspace
Create your Jira workspace and replicate your project structure using epics, stories, and sprints. Jira starts at $7.91/user/mo/user/mo with a free tier available — budget $3.91/user/mo more per user. Run with a single pilot team before migrating everyone.
Map your workflow equivalents
Find the closest Jira equivalent for each GitHub feature your team relies on. projects and tasks in GitHub maps to epics, stories, and sprints in Jira. Jira supports custom fields — recreate your GitHub field schema here first. Prioritise the critical path: task creation, status tracking, and assignment.
Import your data
Jira supports CSV import for tasks and projects and has 20+ native integrations. After importing, rebuild your key automations — Jira's automation engine can replicate most rules you had in GitHub. 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. Jira has a steeper learning curve. Budget 2–3 weeks for full adoption and schedule follow-up sessions after week one.
Run GitHub in parallel for two weeks
Keep GitHub read-only while your team works primarily in Jira. 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 GitHub, archive the workspace and make Jira the official home.
Ready to switch?
Read the full Jira review for pricing, integrations, and team fit details.