Windshift

Move beyond Jira Data Center without moving to the cloud

Self-hosting without the license or the infrastructure weight.

Windshift keeps Jira-style work management on your infrastructure, without a Data Center subscription or the same application stack. Here is what changes, what stays familiar, and what you still need to operate.

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The Jira Data Center dates to plan around

Dates from Atlassian's official Data Center end-of-life announcement, last verified June 2026: new Data Center license sales ended on March 30, 2026. Existing customers can renew until March 30, 2028. On March 28, 2029, Data Center instances switch to read-only mode and security updates end.

The February 2026 price increase moved the Jira 500-user tier to $59,000 per year. Data Center becomes read-only in March 2029. If you want to keep running your work platform yourself, the Jira import guide explains what Windshift brings across.

What changes with Windshift

  • No annual license invoice, no seat counting exercises at renewal
  • Run one binary with SQLite or connect PostgreSQL; Docker is also supported
  • Your team can read and modify the source if something does not fit
  • Keep familiar boards, fields, statuses, workflows, sprints, and milestones

The operating work is smaller, not gone

Jira Data Center combines an annual subscription with infrastructure, database, search, clustering, and Marketplace app decisions. Windshift runs as one application binary or official Docker image with embedded SQLite or PostgreSQL. Current releases run as a single node; multi-node support is scheduled for 2027. Your organization still owns backups, HTTPS, monitoring, identity, and upgrade testing, but the application footprint is smaller.

Start with a project your team knows

Start with a representative Jira project rather than an empty evaluation. Windshift can import projects, issues, comments, attachments, worklogs, boards, sprints, custom fields, and field values. Validate the result with the team that owns the workflow, then document any Jira apps or automations that require separate treatment.