Taiga

What Is Taiga?

Most teams evaluating project management software end up in the same place: Jira is powerful but bloated, Monday.com is slick but expensive at scale, and ClickUp tries to do everything at once. All three are American, which means your sprint data, client names, and internal workflows sit on US-controlled infrastructure — a growing concern for European organisations navigating GDPR and data sovereignty requirements.

Taiga offers a different path. Built by Kaleidos, a Madrid-based open-source company, it has quietly grown to over one million users since launching in 2014. The pitch is straightforward: proper Scrum and Kanban support, a genuinely attractive interface, and the option to self-host everything on your own servers. No per-seat pricing traps. No vendor lock-in. Full source code under AGPL-3.0.

What makes Taiga worth a serious look in 2026 is the combination of these elements. Open-source project management tools have historically suffered from ugly interfaces and half-baked workflows. Taiga breaks that pattern. The UI is clean enough to put in front of non-technical stakeholders without apology, and the agile tooling is deep enough that experienced Scrum teams do not feel constrained. The cloud version runs on EU infrastructure in Madrid, and the self-hosted option removes any data residency questions entirely.

Key Features

Native Scrum and Kanban — Without the Bloat

Taiga does not try to be a general-purpose work management platform. It is purpose-built for agile teams, and that focus shows. Scrum projects come with a proper backlog, sprint planning, user stories with estimation points, a sprint board with swimlanes per story, and a burndown chart that updates in real time. Kanban projects get customizable columns, WIP limits, and flexible card layouts.

The key differentiator is that both methodologies live as first-class citizens within the same platform. You can run a Scrum project and a Kanban project side by side, or blend approaches within a single project. This is something Jira technically supports but makes unnecessarily complex through its layers of schemes and configurations. In Taiga, you pick your methodology when creating a project and start working immediately.

Epics and Cross-Project Tracking

For teams managing multiple workstreams, Taiga's Epics feature allows you to group user stories across projects under a single umbrella. This is essential for organisations running several squads against a shared roadmap. Each epic tracks progress across its constituent stories, giving product managers visibility without requiring a separate portfolio tool.

Built-In Wiki and Issue Tracker

Every Taiga project includes a wiki for documentation and a dedicated issue tracker that operates independently from the backlog. Issues can be classified by type, severity, and priority, then assigned and tracked through custom workflows. The wiki supports rich formatting and file attachments — enough for sprint documentation and team knowledge bases, though teams with heavy documentation needs may still reach for a dedicated tool.

Import From Anywhere

Switching project management tools is painful, and Taiga addresses this head-on with importers for Jira, Trello, GitHub Issues, and Asana. The Jira importer is particularly relevant for teams making the EU sovereignty switch — it maps Jira's projects, issues, and workflows to Taiga's structure, preserving history and attachments. It is not flawless (custom fields and complex automation rules require manual cleanup), but it removes the biggest barrier to migration.

Self-Hosting With Docker

The self-hosted option is Taiga's strategic trump card. The entire stack — frontend, backend, and async workers — ships as Docker containers with a well-documented docker-compose setup. For organisations that cannot or will not send project data to a third-party cloud, this changes the equation entirely. You get unlimited projects, unlimited users, and zero licensing cost. The trade-off is that you own the infrastructure, backups, and updates — but for teams with DevOps capability, that is a trade-off worth making.

Pricing

Taiga's pricing stands out for what it does not do: there are no per-seat charges on any plan. The free cloud tier includes one public project, one private project, unlimited users, and 10 MB of storage. It is genuinely usable for small teams or for evaluating the platform, though the storage limit constrains teams with heavy file attachment habits.

The Premium plan at $7 per month unlocks unlimited private projects and expanded storage — remarkably affordable compared to Jira's $7.75 per user per month or Monday.com's $9 per seat per month. For a ten-person team, Taiga costs $7 total where Jira costs $77.50. That pricing gap widens dramatically at scale.

For organisations that need dedicated support and SLA guarantees, the Premium Support tier at $70 per month adds priority assistance and onboarding help. And the self-hosted option remains entirely free — unlimited everything, no licensing fees, just your own infrastructure costs.

A 30-day free trial is available for the cloud plans, no credit card required.

EU Compliance & Privacy

Taiga's compliance story rests on two pillars: EU-hosted infrastructure and open-source transparency. The cloud service runs on AITIRE CLOUD infrastructure in Digitalrealty's Interxion MAD3 datacenter in Madrid, Spain. All data in transit is encrypted via SSL, and off-site backups are encrypted and stored within EU boundaries.

Kaleidos — operating as both KALEIDOS INC SUCURSAL EN ESPANA S.L. and TAIGA CLOUD SERVICES S.L. — acts as joint data controller and offers a formal Data Processing Addendum for organisations that require one. No Taiga team member or third party can access private project data without explicit user consent, and the company commits to cooperating on data subject access requests.

For teams where even EU-hosted cloud is insufficient, self-hosting eliminates third-party data processing entirely. Your data stays on your servers, under your jurisdiction, with full audit control. This is the strongest data sovereignty guarantee available in the project management category — matched only by other self-hostable open-source tools like OpenProject.

Taiga does not currently hold SOC 2 or ISO 27001 certifications, which may matter for heavily regulated industries. But for most European SMEs and mid-market teams, the combination of EU hosting, GDPR compliance, DPA availability, and self-hosting option covers the practical requirements.

Who It's Best For

Agile teams migrating from Jira who want a cleaner experience without American data processing. The Jira importer eases the transition, and the pricing savings are substantial.

Startups and SMEs that need proper Scrum or Kanban without per-seat costs eating into runway. At $7 per month flat, Taiga is one of the most cost-effective options available.

DevOps-capable organisations that prefer self-hosting for data sovereignty. The Docker deployment is well-documented and the community is active.

Cross-functional teams where designers and developers collaborate. Taiga's sibling product Penpot (also by Kaleidos) shares the same design philosophy, and teams already in the Kaleidos ecosystem will find the transition natural.

Teams that need advanced reporting, resource management, Gantt charts, or deep enterprise integrations should look elsewhere. Taiga's strength is focused agile execution, not full-suite project portfolio management.

The Verdict

Taiga occupies a distinctive position in the project management landscape: it is the only open-source tool that combines serious agile methodology support with an interface good enough to compete with commercial SaaS products. The EU hosting, flat pricing, and self-hosting option make it especially compelling for European teams weighing the data sovereignty implications of their tool choices. It will not replace Jira for enterprises with complex plugin dependencies, but for agile teams that value clarity, affordability, and control over their data, Taiga deserves to be on the shortlist.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is Taiga suitable for non-agile teams?

Taiga is purpose-built for Scrum and Kanban workflows. Teams that do not follow agile methodologies will find the interface oriented around concepts like sprints, backlogs, and user stories. For general task management or waterfall-style projects, tools like OpenProject or Teamwork may be a better fit.

Can I migrate my Jira projects to Taiga?

Yes. Taiga includes a built-in Jira importer that transfers projects, issues, user stories, and attachments. Complex custom fields and automation rules may require manual adjustment after import, but the core project structure transfers cleanly.

How does Taiga's free tier compare to competitors?

Taiga's free tier is limited to one public and one private project with 10 MB storage, but crucially includes unlimited users. Jira's free tier supports up to ten users but allows more projects. Monday.com's free tier is limited to two seats. For small teams prioritizing user access over project count, Taiga's free tier is more generous.

Is Taiga actively maintained?

Yes. Taiga is actively developed by Kaleidos, which raised a 2.2 million euro seed round in 2022 to focus full-time on Taiga and its sibling product Penpot. The GitHub repository shows regular commits, and the community forum is active with feature discussions and bug reports.

What happens to my data if Taiga's cloud service shuts down?

Because Taiga is fully open-source under AGPL-3.0, you can export your data and migrate to a self-hosted instance at any time. The source code is publicly available on GitHub, so even if the company ceased operations, the software would remain usable. This is a structural advantage over proprietary SaaS tools where service discontinuation means data migration to an entirely different platform.