Migrating from Trello to Jira
Jira fits startup and scaleup teams best and has a steep learning curve. If you're moving from Trello, the first week is the hardest — new UI, different terminology, rebuilt automations. This guide compresses that learning curve with a step-by-step migration plan.
At a Glance
- Extremely intuitive drag-and-drop Kanban interface — virtually zero learning curve, new users productive within minutes
- Generous free tier with unlimited cards, unlimited Power-Ups, and up to 10 boards per Workspace
- Butler automation engine is powerful and accessible, allowing no-code workflow automation with rule-based, calendar, and due date triggers
- 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
- +roadmapping
- +sprint planning
- +backlog management
- +time tracking
Migration Steps
Audit and export your current workspace
Before touching Jira, document what lives in Trello: 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 $1.9100000000000001/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 Trello feature your team relies on. projects and tasks in Trello maps to epics, stories, and sprints in Jira. Jira supports custom fields — recreate your Trello 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 Trello. 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 Trello in parallel for two weeks
Keep Trello 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 Trello, archive the workspace and make Jira the official home.
Ready to switch?
Read the full Jira review for pricing, integrations, and team fit details.