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Crew vs Jira: which one fits a team that works with AI agents?
Crew and Jira both run tasks, boards and planning. Jira is the more mature and more configurable tool, with a huge app ecosystem. Crew is built for teams where people and AI agents work on the same board, with approval gates, a client portal, time tracking and documents in one product, run by a Swiss company on servers in Germany.
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Feature comparison
| Topic | Crew | Jira |
|---|---|---|
| AI agents with approval gates | Agent runs are part of the task. Each stage can stop at a gate where a person approves, approves with changes or requests changes. | Atlassian offers AI features and agents (Rovo, availability depends on plan at time of writing). Check how work is handed back to people for approval. |
| Client portal | Built in. Per client and per user you decide what clients see and can do: tasks, comments, planning, documents, hours, approvals. | No client portal in Jira itself. Clients get a Jira account, or you add Jira Service Management, which has a portal for requests. |
| Time tracking | Worklogs, weekly and monthly timesheets, team timesheets, billing review with PDF reports. Two-way Tempo sync for teams that still use it. | Basic work logging is built in. Timesheets and time reports usually come from Marketplace apps such as Tempo. |
| Planning and timeline | Gantt timeline with milestones and releases, roadmap, resource planner with allocations per person and day, planning meetings. | Timeline in all plans. Cross-team planning (Plans) in higher tiers at time of writing. |
| Documents | Documents and files per project, task attachments with preview, notes with live editing, structured checklists. | Confluence is the documentation product. It is separate and licensed separately. |
| Hosting and data location | Public instance at Hetzner in Germany (Nuremberg, files in Falkenstein). Hosted in Germany or Switzerland, your choice; on-premise on request. Company in Zürich. | Atlassian Cloud, with data residency options on paid plans at time of writing. Atlassian has announced the phase-out of the self-managed Data Center edition. |
| AI models | Own models possible, for example Swiss-hosted open models such as Qwen, Mistral AI or Apertus on Infomaniak. Email can use your own SMTP server. | Jira AI features are provided and run by the vendor; you do not bring your own models at time of writing. |
| Jira import | Built in: connect, map types, statuses and users, dry run, import. Then optional two-way sync per project. | Not applicable. |
| MCP and API | REST API (v1, documented with OpenAPI) and an MCP server at /mcp. Tokens act as their owner and never see more than that person. | Large REST API. Atlassian offers an official MCP server at time of writing. |
| Setup effort | Opinionated defaults: preset workflow schemes, task types, one portal per client. Less to configure, fewer knobs. | Very configurable. Larger instances usually have someone who looks after schemes, fields and permissions. |
| Licensing model | No public price list yet (invite-only beta). Quote on request. | Per user per month, in tiers (Free, Standard, Premium, Enterprise at time of writing). Marketplace apps are billed on the user count of the whole site. |
Short verdict
Pick Crew if you run client projects, work with AI agents and want tasks, time, planning, documents and the client view in one place. Pick Jira if you need its depth of configuration, its app ecosystem or other Atlassian products around it.
Many teams do not switch in one step. Crew can import a Jira project and keep it in sync both ways, so you can move one project at a time.
When Jira is still the better choice
- You depend on specific Marketplace apps that have no equivalent in Crew.
- You run large, heavily customised Jira setups with many schemes, custom fields and automation rules that other teams rely on.
- Your company has standardised on Atlassian (Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management) and the integration between them matters more than anything else.
- You need a product with a long track record and a published price today. Crew is in beta.
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Frequently asked questions
Can Crew replace Jira?
For many project and agency teams, yes: Crew covers tasks, boards, workflows, epics and sub-tasks, releases, timeline, time tracking and a client portal. If you rely on specific Jira Marketplace apps or deep customisation, check those first.
Can we keep using Jira while we try Crew?
Yes. Crew imports a Jira project and can sync it both ways: descriptions, comments, attachments, statuses and worklogs. People can work in either tool during the switch.
Do clients need a Jira licence to see their project in Crew?
No. The client portal is part of Crew and has nothing to do with Jira. Clients sign in to the Crew portal with an email link or a one-time code.
What does Crew cost compared with Jira?
Crew has no public price list yet; it is in invite-only beta and we give quotes on request. Jira is billed per user per month; see atlassian.com for current prices.
Where is Crew data stored?
You choose: Germany or Switzerland, or on your own servers. The public instance runs on servers of Hetzner Online GmbH in Germany.
Try Crew with one of your Jira projects
Crew is in invite-only beta. Tell us about your team and the Jira projects you want to move, and we will get in touch.
Request beta access