Gantt chart is one of the most desirable add-ons for Jira. What’s the rationale behind this? People tend to internalize pictures easier than text. And this is exactly what the Gantt chart is all about – to visualize the workflow of your project. Nevertheless, Gantt charts are not a standard feature of Jira. So how to obtain Gantt diagrams for Jira free of charge?
Free Gantt chart for a blink-of-an-eye project
Perhaps your project is not going to last long. Some Gantt plug-ins are available free for an evaluation period. Just research “gantt chart” key phrase on Atlassian Marketplace. Our BigGantt is available free of charge for 30 days straight1. And for some, it turns out forever free – read on.
1 Beyond the “30 days” boundary, with no license having been purchased, BigGantt add-on will still function, in semi-read-only mode. While drag&drop operations will be disabled, the Gantt chart will be visible on your screen. Moreover reflecting changes made to the project in your core Jira.
Free Gantt chart for certain ‘industries’
Indeed Henry Gantt’s (bar chart’s creator, 1861-1919) descendants do not charge copyright fees. Your money goes to programmers instead. Some Gantt chart solutions are free, including those for Jira.
We give out our Gantt chart add-on for free to those who have acquired Atlassian’s Academic and Community Licence (registered non-profit charitable organizations) and are on Server or Data Center. To those who are on Cloud, we offer the same discounts as Atlassian currently does. Simply google ‘atlassian community pricing’. If Atlassian says you get a 75% discount on Cloud, then the same rate applies to BigGantt Cloud.
Charities, as well as selected hospitals, libraries, and churches (those who were granted Atlassian’s Community License), have received free licenses of our Gantt chart. Some 15% of BigGantt licenses have been given away for free. Are the below institutions similar to your organization?
- Hospital Italiano de Buenos Aires, Argentina
- Cancer Council Victoria, Australia
- Samaritan’s Purse, U.S.A.
- British Council, U.K.
- United Nations Office, Geneva, Switzerland
- UN Environment Programme, Kenya
- University of Applied Sciences, Augsburg, Germany
Request a free Gantt license at support@softwareplant.com.
Free Gantt diagram for Small businesses
Yes, if you only need up to 10 users, then you might be eligible for free BigGantt. Follow these steps:
- evaluate our Gantt chart plug-in for Jira for 30 days,
- anytime during the evaluation period e-mail your ‘case study’ to support@softwareplant.com. See our Success stories section for inspiration,
- the majority of those who did, received an infinitely free BigGantt add-on license.
Note that the free license opportunity only applies to BigGantt Server and Data Center, and not to the Cloud Edition.
Over 10 users?
Even with more than 10 users, you are still eligible for a discounted licence2. Check BigGantt’s pricing. Then e-mail us your case study – as described under the ‘Small business’ header above. You’ll get a rebate of 5%. Our support team will assist you in the case study authoring. Posting a review on Atlassian Marketplace might amplify your voice ;)
2 The discounted license opportunity only applies to BigGantt Server and Data Center, and not to the Cloud Edition.
BigGantt vs. other “Gantts” for Jira
As far as UX (user experience) is concerned we believe no one is matching BigGantt. And Gantt charts are all about visualization. Obviously, competition does exist and some Gantt chart add-ons are obviously better than others.
BigGantt’s/BigPicture’s Gantt chart module facilitates both top-down and bottom-up planning.
OK, do any “unconditionally” free Jira Gantt chart add-ons exist?
None we are aware of. We’ve been developing ours since late 2013. Initially, two programmers were involved, the team gradually grew to 4, and later 7 programmers. We’ve recorded over 400 fixed bugs up until now and made approx. 800 amendments to the app. Indeed, it’s quite a job to develop a working Gantt chart plugin for Jira.
Still, some free options do exist:
(a) Standalone Gantt chart modules. These are not Jira add-ons – therefore might not be Project Portfolio Management tools per se.
(b) Trello Gantt chart modules. Trello is small- & medium-size business-oriented PPM platform, having been recently acquired by Atlassian. We have developed a Gantt chart add-on for Trello and the license is free.
(c) Excel-based Gantt charts – some are certainly free but be warned – while Excel used to be a project management device in the early aughts, it proved not dependable with large projects. Excel sheets and formulas tend to get erased or damaged all too easily by an inexperienced team member, and MS Excel had not been devised for collaborative working in mind.
Which leads us to dedicated project management apps like Jira and Trello – with free Gantt charts for those who do their best.
Gantt chart for Trello by SoftwarePlant. Licenses are free of charge – check BigPicture for Trello.
See also: Discount policy
