# We Replaced JIRA With Our Own Tool Planora: Built by AI Agents > URL: https://4eck-media.de/en/blog/we-replaced-jira-with-our-own-tool-planora-built-by-ai-agents/ > Language: en > Description: We built a project management tool to replace JIRA. Development time: four weeks alongside day-to-day agency work, thanks to Claude Code. The result is remarkably good. In this ca… --- We built a project management tool to replace JIRA. Development time: four weeks alongside day-to-day agency work, thanks to Claude Code. The result is remarkably good. In this case study, we show how we already build entire systems with AI agents. ## Planora: Plan. Track. Ship. You and your team know it: you pay every month for a tool you only use half of, that you’re not allowed to modify, and that – at least in our setup – doesn’t even keep your data on your own infrastructure. That’s exactly where we stood with JIRA. JIRA is a project management and ticketing tool from Atlassian. Alternatives include Trello, Monday.com, or Asana. Today we work with Planora, our own in-house build, which we host ourselves, extend ourselves, and tailor exactly to our workflows. This post explains why we took this step and what Planora can already do today. ![Jira ersetzt durch Planora: die Case Study](https://4eck-media.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/jira-alternative-planora-ai-agent-entwicklung.avif "Jira ersetzt durch Planora: die Case Study") ### The trigger JIRA was our standard for years, as it is for many other agencies. It worked. But working isn’t the same as being the optimal fit. In the end, three things gave us the final push: - The running costs scaled with our growth. Every new team member, every extra feature, every add-on made it more expensive. Anyone who has ever seen the annual invoice for a mid-sized Atlassian setup knows exactly what I mean. - The limitations could no longer be ignored. Certain workflows we wanted were either not possible at all, or only available through plugins that cost extra money and tied us further into the ecosystem. Customizing the interface was only allowed within a narrow scope. Some extra, unnecessary clicks when creating tickets were simply annoying. - And then there was the complexity. JIRA is a tool for everyone, and therefore not quite right for anyone. We probably used maybe thirty percent of its features. The rest was unnecessary and made agile project management confusing. What really bothered us about JIRA: we wanted a tool that serves us, not one we have to submit to. We wanted our data on our own servers. We wanted to paste screenshots straight into a ticket with Ctrl+V, without three extra clicks. We wanted clear boards, a timeline without bloated roadmap logic, a clean backlog. And we wanted the freedom to seamlessly add new modules, such as a CRM or a per-project revenue forecast, as soon as we needed them. ## How we built it Perhaps the most surprising part of this case study: Planora came together in about a month. The project ran alongside our ongoing client work and would have been unthinkable within this timeframe just two years ago. We built the product with Claude Code and a team of AI agents. Instead of a single AI handling everything at once, we split the work across nine specialized agents that collaborate like a real software team. A team lead coordinates the whole thing, a product owner writes requirements and acceptance criteria, a UX/UI designer defines screens and interactions, a backend architect designs the data model and API, a frontend architect plans components and state, a full-stack developer implements the features, a QA agent reviews the work and writes test plans, a DevOps agent takes care of Docker, CI/CD, and deployment, and a technical writer keeps the documentation up to date. Every story follows the same process: the product owner formulates the requirement, the team lead breaks it down and assigns it, designers and architects clarify behavior and interfaces, the developer builds it on a feature branch, QA reviews it, the writer documents it, DevOps checks the infrastructure, and in the end the team lead decides on the merge. When agents disagree, the lead refers back to the central project specification and makes a documented decision. The result: consistent architecture, clean code, tested features, and complete documentation, all at a pace we could never have achieved with a classic approach. Planora is therefore not just a new tool for us, but also proof of what serious software development with well-orchestrated AI agents looks like today. Here’s a view of the dashboard showing the personal tickets that were either created by me or assigned to me: ![My Issues Dashboard in Planora](https://4eck-media.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/planora-my-issues.avif "My Issues Dashboard in Planora") ## What Planora can do today Planora is a self-hosted project and task management tool designed for teams of roughly eleven to fifty people. Its feature set covers everything we knew from JIRA, while remaining leaner and clearer. At a glance: - Kanban board with drag-and-drop and real-time updates - Gantt-style timeline with zoom levels from days to quarters - Backlog with multi-select and bulk actions - Full sprint management with burndown and velocity - Issue tracking with stories, tasks, bugs, epics, and subtasks - Rich text editor with screenshot paste via Ctrl+V - Own query language PQL, plus saved and shareable filters - Reports broken down by priority, status, type, and assignee - Granular role and permission system with more than twenty permissions - Real-time notifications in the app, via email, and in Slack - Slack integration with link previews for Planora tickets - Time tracking per issue - Linked issues with relationships such as blocks, duplicates, and relates_to - File attachments up to twenty-five megabytes via MinIO - JIRA import with mapping of projects and statuses - CSV export for analysis outside the system - API tokens and a built-in MCP server for Claude and other AI tools - Cleanup function for old, completed tasks including their files - Fully self-hosted on your own infrastructure The foundation is a modern architecture built on FastAPI for the backend, React with TypeScript for the frontend, PostgreSQL as the database, Redis for real-time events, and MinIO for files. Everything runs in Docker containers and can be operated entirely on your own infrastructure. At the start of the project, Claude Code had recommended a different architecture and wanted to build Planora on NodeJS. From our own experience, we know that this could become problematic later on. And this is exactly where the difference lies compared to the websites you know from all those *I built my website in 5 hours with AI* posts on LinkedIn and elsewhere. Those websites often look good but are purely JavaScript-based and run into problems with SEO and AI visibility. When a real tech agency or competent developers don’t blindly trust the AI, but instead tell the AI how projects should be implemented, using Claude Code for development becomes a genuine game changer. For authentication, we rely on JWT tokens with refresh rotation, a full email-based password reset, and our own account management with customizable avatar colors. Workspace admins manage users, roles, and permissions through a granular RBAC system with more than two dozen permissions, ranging from project creation to automation. Projects have the typical default statuses such as Backlog, Todo, In Progress, For Approval, Done, and Cancelled, as well as the typical issue types Story, Task, Bug, Epic, and Subtask. These are the small improvements we can now decide for ourselves: when a ticket is created, the creator is automatically set as the assignee by default unless someone else is assigned. In JIRA, this field stayed unassigned until a responsible person was set. This helps because you often create a series of tasks just for yourself. And if a task is meant for someone else, you won’t overlook it, because as the ticket creator you remain responsible until you assign someone else. It’s a small thing, but it genuinely helps us. This screenshot shows the timeline view of a project and how a panel opens when a ticket is created: ![Timeline-Ansicht in Planora: Tickets direkt im Projektkontext anlegen und planen](https://4eck-media.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/create-issue-planora.avif "Ticketerstellung in Planora") Every issue gets a project-specific key such as PLN-1 and supports all the fields you’d expect from professional tracking: title, rich text description, priority, assignee, reporter, parent, epic, sprint, story points, date fields, time estimates, labels, attachments, watchers, and linked issues. The Kanban board updates in real time via WebSockets. Cards can be moved via drag-and-drop, status transitions are validated, and WIP limits are respected. The timeline displays tasks in a Gantt-like view with zoom levels from days to quarters, complete with filters, inline editing, and hierarchical rows for epics and their children. Here’s the Kanban board view for our own agency website project. Also worth noting in the screenshot is the small number next to the projects in the left-hand column. It shows only the still-open tasks, giving a quick overview right where you need it: ![Kanban-Board in Planora: klare Projektübersicht mit offenen Aufgaben pro Projekt](https://4eck-media.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/planora-kanban.avif "Kanban-Board von Planora") For Scrum teams, there’s full sprint management with the states Planned, Active, and Completed. When closing a sprint, open tasks can be moved to the next sprint or back into the backlog. Story points are summed automatically, and burndown and velocity are available as reports. The backlog is a sortable table with multi-select and bulk actions. Tasks can be assigned, prioritized, moved, or labeled all at once. This saves time during sprint planning. Search works on two levels: simple full-text search for quick access, and a custom query language called PQL for complex filters. Anyone familiar with JIRA’s JQL will feel right at home. A query like assignee = currentUser() AND priority IN (“Critical”, “High”) AND status != “Done” delivers exactly what it promises. Frequently used filters can be saved and shared with the team. Reports cover the most important views: a per-project summary broken down by priority, status, type, and assignee, a filterable task report, plus velocity and burndown for sprints. Notifications reach the team in real time via WebSockets, with the option of also receiving them by email or Slack. Slack messages are triggered at configurable priority thresholds, and Planora links are resolved directly in Slack with a preview. File management runs on MinIO with signed URLs. Attachments up to twenty-five megabytes are standard. Especially useful is the Ctrl+V function in the rich text editor: screenshots from the clipboard land directly in the ticket without any detour. This noticeably speeds up bug reports, design reviews, and QA notes. For migrating from JIRA, there’s a built-in import feature: configure the connection, map projects and statuses, review the preview, and import. Already imported tickets are skipped, so the process can be repeated safely. Anyone who wants to integrate AI tools can use API tokens and the built-in MCP server. Claude Code or Claude Desktop can then access projects, issues, and comments directly, read tickets, create new ones, change statuses, and add comments. For the workspace admin, there are also cleanup functions that permanently delete old, completed tasks along with their attachments and MinIO files. Storage stays under control, and sensitive data reliably disappears. | Criterion | Jira | Planora | | --- | --- | --- | | Hosting | Cloud or own infrastructure, depending on the plan | Self-hosting | | Customizability | strong, but often complex | tailored to your own workflows and easy to extend | | Cost model | ongoing license fees | Lifetime license planned | | AI integration | depends on setup | API tokens and MCP server | | Target audience | very broad target audience | Teams of about 4 to 50 people | ## What comes next The decisive advantage of building it ourselves is the freedom to keep building. We have concrete plans to gradually extend Planora with features that no standard solution solves efficiently and cleanly: An integrated CRM that links customers, contacts, and communication directly with projects. A per-project revenue forecast that makes planned and actual revenue visible across sprints and milestones. Extended automations, custom fields, and deeper analytics as soon as we need them in practice. We keep building Planora wherever it benefits us most, and nobody decides that for us except our own needs. ## Lifetime license for other companies and agencies The switch from JIRA to Planora was seamless. No complaints, if anything just feedback from the team about how smooth everything feels. Planora has proven itself for us from day one. We know from conversations that many other teams have exactly the same problems with JIRA and comparable tools. That’s why we’ll soon be offering Planora outside the agency too. The dashboard for license management and creating activation keys was finished just yesterday. Here it is in the screenshot in dark mode … Planora runs in light or dark mode, depending on the user’s preference. ![Dashboard für Lizenz-Verwaltung](https://4eck-media.de/wp-content/uploads/2026/06/planora-seller.avif "Dashboard für Lizenz-Verwaltung") Anyone who purchases a lifetime license gets the complete product for self-hosting, with no recurring license fees. The data stays on your own server, the tool scales with the team, and new versions are included. Do you want to replace Jira, Trello, Asana, or Monday with a self-hosted tool? Then talk to us about Planora. We’ll show you what installation, migration, and licensing can look like for your team. ## Conclusion We replaced JIRA with Planora because we put control, clarity, and customizability above convenience. The result is a tool that fits our team exactly, that we can extend at any time, and that no longer sends us monthly invoices. Anyone with similar needs can become part of it starting now. ## Questions and answers about Planora What is Planora? Planora is a self-hosted project and task management tool that we developed at 4eck Media to replace JIRA in our day-to-day agency work. It combines Kanban boards, backlog, timeline, sprint management, issue tracking, reports, permission management, Slack integration, and AI connectivity in one lean solution for teams. Why did we replace JIRA with Planora? We wanted a tool that fits our own workflows better. JIRA was functional for us, but too complex, not customizable enough, and came with ongoing costs. We also wanted to host our project data on our own infrastructure and map certain workflows faster, more clearly, and without unnecessary clicks. Which teams is Planora suitable for? Planora is especially suited for agencies, software teams, and companies with about four to fifty people who want to centrally manage projects, tasks, sprints, and internal workflows. The focus is on teams that need professional project management but don’t want to use a bloated standard solution. Can Planora be self-hosted? Yes. Planora is fully designed for self-hosting, and therefore ideal for GDPR compliance and data sovereignty. This means the application runs on your own infrastructure, the data stays on your own server, and the company retains control over projects, users, permissions, files, and integrations. What features does Planora offer? Planora offers Kanban boards with drag-and-drop, a Gantt-style timeline, backlog management, sprint management, issue tracking, rich text descriptions, screenshot paste via Ctrl+V, role and permission management, reports, Slack notifications, file attachments, time tracking, Jira import, CSV export, API tokens, and an MCP server for AI tools. What sets Planora apart from JIRA, Trello, Asana, or Monday? Planora wasn’t created as a general tool for as many target groups as possible, but grew out of a concrete agency need. As a result, it’s leaner, more focused on operational project work, and can be developed further in a targeted way. The biggest difference lies in the combination of self-hosting, lifetime license, customizability, and direct AI integration. How was Planora developed? Planora was developed in about four weeks alongside ongoing agency operations. Claude Code and a team of specialized AI agents were used in the process. The agents worked together in roles such as product owner, UX/UI designer, backend architect, frontend architect, full-stack developer, QA agent, DevOps agent, and technical writer. What role does AI play in Planora? AI played a central role in developing Planora. Claude Code and several specialized AI agents supported requirements, architecture, implementation, testing, documentation, and deployment. Planora itself also offers API tokens and an MCP server, so AI tools can access projects, issues, and comments. Can existing JIRA projects be migrated to Planora? Yes. Planora includes a JIRA import that lets you migrate projects, statuses, and tickets. Projects and statuses can be mapped before the import is carried out. Already imported tickets are recognized and skipped, so the process can be repeated. Is there a lifetime license for Planora? Yes, Planora is planned to be offered as a lifetime license for other companies and agencies. That means companies receive the complete product for self-hosting with no recurring license fees. New versions are included, while your own data stays on your own server. What advantages does Planora offer agencies? Agencies particularly benefit from clear project structures, fast ticket workflows, direct screenshot capture, sprint planning, real-time boards, Slack notifications, and a tool that adapts to their own workflows. This makes project work clearer, coordination easier, and reduces dependency on external SaaS solutions. What's next for Planora? Planora will be extended step by step. Planned additions include an integrated CRM, linking customers and projects, a per-project revenue forecast, extended automations, custom fields, and deeper analytics. The advantage of building it ourselves is that new features emerge exactly where they bring real value in everyday work.