{
  "title": "Self-hosting cost per year for open-source issue trackers",
  "page": "https://radial.build/blog/free-and-open-source-issue-trackers",
  "verified_on": "2026-11-02",
  "currency": "USD",
  "assumptions": {
    "server_source_url": "https://www.digitalocean.com/pricing/droplets",
    "backups": "weekly, 20% of Droplet cost",
    "hourly_rate_usd": 47.66,
    "hourly_rate_source_url": "https://www.bls.gov/ooh/computer-and-information-technology/network-and-computer-systems-administrators.htm",
    "admin_hours": {
      "low": { "year_one": 14, "year_two_on": 12 },
      "base": { "year_one": 28, "year_two_on": 24 },
      "high": { "year_one": 56, "year_two_on": 48 }
    },
    "note": "Admin hours are our assumption, not a vendor figure. Formula: server_month x 1.2 x 12 + hours x hourly_rate.",
    "not_included": ["bad upgrades or restores", "staging server", "SSO", "email delivery", "tax"]
  },
  "rows": [
    {
      "tracker": "Gitea",
      "published_minimum_hardware": "2 CPU cores and 1GB RAM is typically sufficient for small teams",
      "hardware_source_url": "https://docs.gitea.com/",
      "server_priced": "2 GB Droplet, 2 vCPUs",
      "server_usd_per_month": 18,
      "server_and_backups_usd_per_year": 259.2,
      "year_one_usd": { "low": 926.44, "base": 1593.68, "high": 2928.16 },
      "year_two_on_usd": { "low": 831.12, "base": 1403.04, "high": 2546.88 }
    },
    {
      "tracker": "Forgejo",
      "published_minimum_hardware": "not published",
      "hardware_source_url": "https://forgejo.org/faq/",
      "server_priced": "2 GB Droplet, 1 vCPU",
      "server_usd_per_month": 12,
      "server_and_backups_usd_per_year": 172.8,
      "year_one_usd": { "low": 840.04, "base": 1507.28, "high": 2841.76 },
      "year_two_on_usd": { "low": 744.72, "base": 1316.64, "high": 2460.48 }
    },
    {
      "tracker": "Redmine",
      "published_minimum_hardware": "not published; needs Ruby, Rails 8.1 and a database",
      "hardware_source_url": "https://www.redmine.org/projects/redmine/wiki/RedmineInstall",
      "server_priced": "2 GB Droplet, 1 vCPU",
      "server_usd_per_month": 12,
      "server_and_backups_usd_per_year": 172.8,
      "year_one_usd": { "low": 840.04, "base": 1507.28, "high": 2841.76 },
      "year_two_on_usd": { "low": 744.72, "base": 1316.64, "high": 2460.48 }
    },
    {
      "tracker": "Taiga",
      "published_minimum_hardware": "At least 1GB RAM for a source install",
      "hardware_source_url": "https://docs.taiga.io/setup-production.html",
      "server_priced": "2 GB Droplet, 1 vCPU",
      "server_usd_per_month": 12,
      "server_and_backups_usd_per_year": 172.8,
      "year_one_usd": { "low": 840.04, "base": 1507.28, "high": 2841.76 },
      "year_two_on_usd": { "low": 744.72, "base": 1316.64, "high": 2460.48 }
    },
    {
      "tracker": "Plane",
      "published_minimum_hardware": "2 cores, 4GB (8GB recommended for production)",
      "hardware_source_url": "https://developers.plane.so/self-hosting/methods/docker-compose",
      "server_priced": "4 GB Droplet",
      "server_usd_per_month": 24,
      "server_and_backups_usd_per_year": 345.6,
      "year_one_usd": { "low": 1012.84, "base": 1680.08, "high": 3014.56 },
      "year_two_on_usd": { "low": 917.52, "base": 1489.44, "high": 2633.28 }
    },
    {
      "tracker": "OpenProject",
      "published_minimum_hardware": "Quad-core CPU, 4096 MB RAM, 20 GB disk",
      "hardware_source_url": "https://www.openproject.org/docs/installation-and-operations/system-requirements/",
      "server_priced": "8 GB Droplet, 4 vCPUs",
      "server_usd_per_month": 48,
      "server_and_backups_usd_per_year": 691.2,
      "year_one_usd": { "low": 1358.44, "base": 2025.68, "high": 3360.16 },
      "year_two_on_usd": { "low": 1263.12, "base": 1835.04, "high": 2978.88 }
    }
  ],
  "radial_comparison": {
    "price_usd_per_user_per_year": 50,
    "self_hostable": false,
    "radial_admin_time": "not measured; counted as 0 in the comparison, which flatters Radial",
    "source_url": "https://radial.build/pricing"
  }
}