Two dates, two different mechanisms
On October 13, 2026, the increase is straightforward: all Cloud Standard and Premium plans — Jira Software, Confluence, Jira Service Management — see list prices rise by 7 to 10% depending on the product and seat tier. This is a predictable list-price increase you can calculate today by multiplying your current invoice by the appropriate coefficient.
December 3, 2026 introduces a different mechanism, and potentially a more disruptive one for teams that have automated their processes. Atlassian removes the free allowance on automation steps (Jira Automation) and starts billing Rovo AI credits. Every automation rule trigger and every Rovo call in Confluence or Jira will consume billable units beyond a monthly threshold defined per plan.
These two increases stack: an agency that changes nothing will see its bill rise in October, then again in December if its teams use automations or Rovo — which is enabled by default on Premium plans.
What this double move means in practice for an agency
- Predictability lost: per-seat pricing was readable; the automation-steps counter varies with each client's activity, making the monthly bill variable and hard to recharge.
- Multiplied impact across client portfolios: an agency managing 8 teams on Jira sees the October increase repeat as many times as it has accounts, before December 3 even arrives.
- Rovo enabled by default on Premium: teams that have not explicitly disabled Rovo are accumulating consumed credits without having deliberately chosen to pay for AI.
- No announced cap on automation steps: unlike a flat-rate plan, an activity spike (migration, product launch, audit) can overflow the counter without prior notice.
- Seven-week window: between now and December 3, there is enough time to quantify the real impact, export usage history, and compare with a self-hosted alternative.
Cost simulation: before and after for a typical agency
The table below compares the current cost of an Atlassian Cloud deployment with a self-managed VPS hosting Plane Community Edition or OpenProject Community. Atlassian prices are expressed as relative indices (base 100 = current rate) to avoid fixing figures that vary by seat tier and billing region. VPS pricing reflects ServOrbit's current rates.
Monthly cost comparison — agency managing 3 teams (50 users each)
Scroll the table
| Item | Atlassian Cloud (before Oct. 2026) | Atlassian Cloud (after Dec. 2026) | Self-hosted VPS (Plane / OpenProject) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Jira Software Premium × 3 teams | Base 100 | Base 107–110 + steps counter | Included in VPS |
| Confluence Premium × 3 teams | Base 100 | Base 107–110 + Rovo credits | Included in VPS (native wiki or Outline) |
| VPS infrastructure | Included (Atlassian cloud) | Included (Atlassian cloud) | From 99 DH/month — VPS Start plan |
| Open-source automations | Free allowance | Billed beyond threshold | No usage cap (local logic, no counter) |
| Server administration | Not applicable | Not applicable | VPS administration add-on available |
| Indicative total / month | Reference | +7–10% on seats + variable usage | Fixed, predictable, no end-of-month surprises |
How to quantify your real impact before October 13
Before making any decision, spend two hours extracting your usage data. Any Jira administrator can do this without support access.
Assess the impact in six steps
Export your current Atlassian invoice by product and by team
From the
admin.atlassian.comconsole, go to Billing → Subscriptions. Note the amount per product (Jira Software, Confluence, JSM) and per organization. This is your calculation base — multiply by 1.07 for the low estimate, 1.10 for the high estimate.Identify the number of automation steps consumed per month
In Jira Cloud, go to Project settings → Automation → Usage. Note the number of triggers over the last 30 days. If you are approaching or exceeding your plan's allowance, December 3 billing will affect you from the very first month.
Calculate the post-increase total over 12 months
Add up: (current invoice × increase coefficient × 12) + (estimated automation-steps overages × Atlassian unit rate). This figure is your comparison baseline against a self-hosted solution.
Compare against the total cost of ownership of a VPS
A VPS Power at 299 DH/month comfortably supports Plane Community or OpenProject for 50 to 150 users with Docker. Add the VPS administration option if you do not want to manage updates yourself. The annual cost is fixed — no usage counter, no surprises.
Make a decision before October 13
If the simulation shows a significant saving, the migration window is short but sufficient. A Jira → Plane or OpenProject migration can be planned in two to four weeks for a medium-sized team. See the article Migrating from Jira Data Center to OpenProject or Plane on VPS for the step-by-step procedure.
Who manages the server — and why this objection is surmountable
The objection comes up every time: "self-hosting is an administration burden no one wants." It is legitimate, and it deserves a precise answer rather than a dismissal.
What self-hosting actually requires. Plane Community Edition and OpenProject Community are distributed as Docker Compose stacks. Initial installation takes one to two hours on a clean VPS. Monthly updates take fifteen to twenty minutes — a docker compose pull && docker compose up -d, followed by a quick check. Automated backups are configured with a single command.
The VPS administration option. If your agency does not want to handle this internally, the VPS administration option delegates OS updates, security patches, and monitoring to the ServOrbit team. You retain control over the application; we manage the infrastructure. This is exactly the division of responsibility you have today with managed hosting — without Atlassian's usage counter.
What you control in self-hosted that you cannot control in cloud. Your data does not transit through Atlassian servers. Your automations do not consume credits. Your invoice does not vary with your teams' activity. And if Atlassian announces a third price increase in six months, it no longer affects you.
Frequently asked questions from agencies
Does the October 13 increase apply to annual contracts already in progress?
Atlassian applies the increase at your next renewal date. If your annual contract renews after October 13, 2026, the new pricing applies. Check your renewal date in admin.atlassian.com → Billing.
Do Free and Standard plans face automation-steps billing?
Yes. The free allowance varies by plan, but overage billing applies to all Cloud plans from December 3. Free plans have a lower monthly allowance, so the overage risk is higher for active teams.
Can Jira projects be exported to Plane or OpenProject without data loss?
Plane imports Jira projects via its native import tool (CSV + JSON). OpenProject provides a Jira import module via API. Complex workflows and custom fields require manual adaptation. A well-documented migration project takes two to four weeks for a team of 30 to 50 people.
Can Rovo be disabled without affecting Jira and Confluence core features?
Yes. Rovo is an AI layer. Disabling it does not affect Jira's native features (boards, sprints, backlogs) or Confluence's (pages, spaces, comments). Disabling is done product by product from the admin console.
Is Plane Community truly free long-term?
Plane CE is licensed under AGPL v3. The source code is public, with no commercial-use restriction. OpenProject Community is licensed under GPLv3. These licenses ensure the community edition remains available without software cost, regardless of the editor's commercial future.
Recommended hardening for a Plane or OpenProject instance in production
A few settings to apply on deployment day, before inviting your clients.
Reverse proxy with TLS. Place Nginx or Caddy in front of your instance. Let's Encrypt renews the certificate automatically. Without TLS, session tokens travel in plaintext.
Daily backups to external storage. A local Docker volume is not enough: it disappears with the VPS. Configure a dump script to an S3-compatible bucket (Garage, MinIO, or any S3 provider) with 30-day retention.
Application firewall. On a ServOrbit VPS, ufw is available. Expose only ports 80 and 443. Restrict SSH access to your management IP only.
Updates without downtime. With Docker Compose, an update takes less than two minutes. Schedule it on a Tuesday or Wednesday evening (not weekends, not Monday mornings). Test first on a staging instance if your team is mission-critical.
Self-hosted tools to consider for your needs
Plane Community Edition — agile project management (sprints, cycles, modules). Interface close to Linear. Native Jira import. Suited for product and development teams. Recommended resources: 2 vCPU, 4 GB RAM.
OpenProject Community — classical and agile project management, with Gantt charts, portfolios, and risk management. Well suited for agencies managing fixed-scope client projects. Recommended resources: 4 vCPU, 8 GB RAM for 50+ users.
Gitea — for teams that primarily use Jira as an issue-tracking layer linked to a repository. Gitea includes a full issue tracker, wikis, and CI/CD via Gitea Actions. Recommended resources: 1 vCPU, 1 GB RAM.
All three tools are available as VPS templates in the ServOrbit catalogue. A pre-configured Docker environment can be launched from the ServOrbit catalogue, ready to import your Atlassian data.
Taking back control of your tooling costs
The October 13 price increase is a list-price adjustment: it can be quantified, planned around, and avoided. The December 3 usage billing is more insidious: it turns a fixed line item into a variable one, and it can grow without your team changing any of its habits.
The window that remains — seven weeks — is short but sufficient to evaluate the alternative. A VPS running Plane or OpenProject does not replace Atlassian at feature parity for every team. But for agencies managing multiple teams on predictable budgets, the combination of fixed cost and delegated administration is worth a serious evaluation.
The two related articles below cover the full list of alternatives and the step-by-step migration procedure.
