Bugzilla alternatives: where to go and how to move without losing history
Eight destinations, one for each reason to leave, and an eight-step migration plan.
The short answer: YouTrack if you want to bring your whole history along, since it's the only current tool with a built-in Bugzilla import. GitLab or GitHub Issues if your code already lives there and you're fine running a community script. Jira if your company is already on Atlassian, knowing its Bugzilla importer dates back to the Server era. Redmine, MantisBT or OpenProject if you want to stay open source and self-hosted. Linear if a small product team is starting fresh. We compared all eight on the question most "best alternatives" lists skip: what actually survives the trip out of a Bugzilla database in 2026, and what gets lost.
Rankings are editorial: a sponsored slot is always labeled on its card, and no affiliate link changes a score.
Why teams leave Bugzilla, and what they give up
Is Bugzilla still maintained? Yes, technically. It's free, lightweight, and its advanced search is still one of the sharpest around. But teams that keep it often do so out of inertia, and teams that leave give the same reasons again and again. Here are six, checked in 2026.
Releases have slowed to a crawl
The latest stable releases (5.2, 5.0.4.1 and 4.4.14) shipped in 2024, and the lead developer works on it as a volunteer. Bugzilla 6 was promised for "end of summer or early fall" back in 2019, then for the end of 2023. Both dates slipped. In 2026 the Harmony branch became the primary development branch, but there's still no date for the next major release.
You own a Perl server forever
Bugzilla runs on Perl with MySQL, MariaDB or PostgreSQL, installed through checksetup.pl and a pile of CPAN modules. Every security patch and every OS or Perl upgrade lands on your desk. On the Linux kernel mailing list, a Fedora maintainer pointed out that only two people kept their instance running. The FieldTrip project shut its Bugzilla server down in 2024, citing resources and security.
The UI shows its age
Editing one field can take several page loads, and there's no native Kanban board. Public reviews keep circling the same complaints: dated interface, awkward title search, painful spreadsheet export. Fedora folks described it as a terrible experience for end users, cluttered with legacy Red Hat fields.
The big users are moving out
Red Hat moved RHEL tracking from Bugzilla to Jira. You can no longer file new Bugzilla bugs for RHEL 6 through 9, and migrated entries are closed as "MIGRATED". Open source projects like Wireshark, Coq and ACE/TAO went to GitLab or GitHub. Fewer users means fewer maintained extensions and fewer answers when you get stuck.
No real link to your code
Bugzilla knows nothing about your pull requests, your CI pipeline or your branches. The link is a bug number you type into a commit message by hand. Modern trackers close the ticket automatically when the fix is merged.
Leaving takes real work
What you lose matters as much as what you gain. Bugzilla has very precise saved searches, review flags, a QA contact field, and it handles databases with hundreds of thousands of bugs without blinking. Check your destination has an equivalent before you commit: Atlassian's legacy Bugzilla importer, for instance, doesn't bring over the QA contact.
You're leaving because… go to…
The right Bugzilla replacement depends on what's pushing you out. Usually one row fits. Each card jumps to the full write-up below.
The only maintained built-in Bugzilla import: bugs, comments, attachments, dependencies.
Your code already lives on GitLab or GitHubGitLab or GitHub IssuesIssues next to the code, closed when the fix merges.
Your company already runs on JiraJiraThe route Red Hat took for RHEL, with a hands-on migration.
You want to stay open source and self-hostedRedmine or MantisBTFree, GPL-licensed, on your own server like Bugzilla.
You want Gantt, wiki and bugs in one placeOpenProjectOpen source, self-hosted or EU cloud.
A small product team starting freshLinearFast and modern, but no Bugzilla import.
Bugzilla alternatives, tool by tool
For each tool: why move there, who it's for, its catch, how to get your data in from Bugzilla, and what it costs. We traced each import path from a Bugzilla database, and prices are the ones listed in 2026.
YouTrack: the only one that imports Bugzilla on its own
Most complete importWhy move to YouTrack. It's the only current destination with a documented, built-in Bugzilla import. Point it at your instance and YouTrack turns each product into a project, each bug into an issue with its history, and each dependency into a "Depend" link. Custom fields, comments, attachments, users, groups and even logged hours (as work items) come across. No other tool on this list does that without a script.
Who it's for. Engineering teams sitting on years of Bugzilla history who want it searchable, plus agile boards, time tracking and a knowledge base.
Who it's not for. Non-technical teams. The UI is dense, and the power features (query language, scripted workflows) take time to learn.
The catch. You need Bugzilla 5.0.4 or later, the JSON Perl modules (JSON::RPC and JSON::XS) on the Bugzilla side, an admin account, and the two servers able to reach each other. The importer doesn't support external authentication modules, so if your team logs in through SSO, set up a password or token account for the import.
How to migrate. If you're on 4.4, upgrade to 5.0.4 or 5.2 first, then run the import into a test project. A source project that's already been mapped can't be selected again, which prevents duplicates but means you should time the final run carefully.
What needs tuning. History and issue links only come across if the import script supports them; flipping the toggle isn't always enough. If your Bugzilla products use custom fields, you may need to edit that script. The YouTrack account running the import must be able to create every imported entity, and JetBrains recommends a System Admin.
Pricing. The free plan covers up to 10 users with 30 GB of storage. Beyond that, annual pricing starts at $4.50 per user per month ($5.40 billed monthly) for 11 users and drops to $1.53 at 10,000 users. Example: 25 users cost $112.50 a month, or $1,350 a year. The free trial runs 14 days for 100 users, no credit card required, which is enough to import a pilot project before paying.
- Free
- 10 users, 30 GB
- Paid
- from $4.50/user/mo, yearly
- Migration
- built-in Bugzilla import
- Catch
- needs Bugzilla 5.0.4+
Jira: Red Hat's pick, with a legacy importer
Enterprise defaultWhy move to Jira. It's where Red Hat took RHEL, chasing a single source of truth, better dashboards and a modern REST API. If the rest of your company already lives in Jira, pulling bugs into the same place makes the handoff between support, product and engineering much simpler.
Who it's for. Companies already on Atlassian, and teams that want tightly controlled workflows.
Who it's not for. Teams leaving Bugzilla because it's heavy. One kernel developer described Jira as "fundamentally the same kind of thing". If you're running from complexity, look at Linear or GitHub Issues.
The catch. Atlassian's Bugzilla importer was built for Jira Server and Data Center: it connects straight to the MySQL, PostgreSQL or SQL Server database, and was supported up to Bugzilla 4.4.4. Jira Cloud has no direct Bugzilla import, so you go through CSV or an intermediate Server instance. Users also report you can't pick which products to import, the QA contact field doesn't come across, and some attachments go missing.
How to migrate. Run Bugzilla's Sanity Check before any import; Atlassian recommends it. A bug becomes a Bug issue, and an "Enhancement" becomes an "Improvement" with Major priority. Importing into a non-UTF-8 Jira isn't supported. Our Jira alternatives page lists what teams dislike about it, worth a read before you sign.
Pricing. Jira is free for up to 10 users. Standard is $8.48 per user per month (400 automation steps per user per month, up to 100,000 users per site), and Premium is $15.56.
- Free
- up to 10 users
- Paid
- Standard $8.48/user/mo
- Migration
- CSV for Cloud
- Catch
- QA contact dropped
GitLab: issues next to the code, no official importer
For code on GitLabWhy move to GitLab. Code, CI and bugs in one place. An issue closes when the fix is merged, and a merge request links to its bug in one line. It's the route Wireshark took, and GitLab can be self-hosted just like Bugzilla.
Who it's for. Open source projects and dev teams whose repositories already live on GitLab.
Who it's not for. A support or QA team that never opens the repo. GitLab issues are built for developers first.
The catch. There's no native Bugzilla importer, and the feature request has been open for years. The community script bugzilla2gitlab copies bugs, comments and attachments from Bugzilla's XML export, but it needs a GitLab sudo token, and every mapped user must already exist; unknown commenters get attached to a generic "bugzilla" account. After its migration, Wireshark found "RESOLVED FIXED" bugs still open and comments missing.
How to migrate. Turn off email notifications before running the script, because every imported comment fires one. Do a dry run on a throwaway project and compare statuses and comment counts. Xfce chose to move only open bugs with its bztogl tool. Our GitLab alternatives page covers its neighbors.
Pricing. Free is $0 (5 users per private top-level group, 400 compute minutes a month, 10 GiB storage). Premium is $29 per user per month, billed yearly. Ultimate is quote-only.
- Free
- 5 users per private group
- Paid
- Premium $29/user/mo
- Migration
- bugzilla2gitlab script
- Catch
- admin sudo token
GitHub Issues: the simplest move if your code is there
CheapestWhy move to GitHub Issues. It's the lightest tool on this list and often the cheapest: if your repo is on GitHub, issues are already included. Coq moved roughly 4,900 bugs there in 2017, and ACE/TAO announced its move from Bugzilla to GitHub in 2026.
Who it's for. Open source projects and dev teams that want simple tracking with labels, milestones and project boards.
Who it's not for. QA teams that live in advanced queries and dozens of custom fields. You'll lose some of Bugzilla's precision.
The catch. There's no official Bugzilla import. The community script bugzilla2github reads the XML export and talks to the GitHub REST API. It creates placeholder issues to keep numbering aligned when bug IDs were deleted, and it warns plainly: "no backups or undo". The D language project described how hard it was to match Bugzilla accounts with GitHub accounts; people had to resubscribe to bugs by hand.
How to migrate. Build an email-to-GitHub-username mapping before anything else, and test on a throwaway private repo. Our GitHub alternatives page helps if you're still weighing the forge itself.
Pricing. Free is $0 (2,000 Actions minutes, 500 MB of packages), Team is $4 per user per month, Enterprise is $21.
- Free
- repos and issues included
- Paid
- Team $4/user/mo
- Migration
- bugzilla2github script
- Catch
- no backups or undo
Redmine: the closest open source successor
Open source, self-hostedWhy move to Redmine. You keep what you like about Bugzilla (free, on your own box, GPL v2) and gain a Gantt chart, a wiki, time tracking, custom fields, LDAP login and issue creation by email. The project is active: version 7.0.3 shipped in 2026.
Who it's for. Teams that want to own their data and their server, with a tool that also covers project management.
Who it's not for. Teams leaving Bugzilla precisely to stop running servers. Redmine is a Ruby on Rails app and needs the same care.
The catch. Migration. The only Bugzilla import is a community rake task written for Bugzilla 2.22.1. It wipes existing Redmine data and skips bug relations and attachments, and its own author admits having "no idea how much has changed since".
How to migrate. Run it on an empty Redmine instance, never on production. For a modern Bugzilla, a CSV export followed by Redmine's CSV import is usually safer, even if attachments stay behind in a read-only Bugzilla.
Pricing. Free. You pay for hosting and admin time only.
- Free
- yes, GPL v2
- Paid
- none, you host it
- Best for
- keeping your own server
- Catch
- outdated Bugzilla import
MantisBT: pure bug tracking, self-hosted or managed
Pure bug trackerWhy move to MantisBT. It's the closest to Bugzilla in spirit: a bug tracker, not a project management suite, released under the GPL. The difference is that MantisHub can host it for you, so you never touch a server again.
Who it's for. QA and support teams that want straightforward bug tracking, and teams that want out of server admin without changing how they work.
Who it's not for. Agile teams that want sprints, roadmaps and tight code integration.
The catch. The Bugzilla import scripts (bugzilla2mantis) are old. The path suggested on the MantisBT forum goes through Mantis 1.2 or 1.3.3, then an upgrade to 2.x. A company running Bugzilla 5.1.2 asked there for an up-to-date script and didn't find one.
How to migrate. Spin up a temporary 1.3.3 instance, import, check, then upgrade to the latest release before you cut over.
Pricing. MantisBT is free. MantisHub offers a free trial with no card, then Gold at $27.50/month for 15 users and Platinum at $55/month for 30 users, billed yearly; 5 extra users cost $132 a year.
- Free
- MantisBT, GPL
- Paid
- MantisHub Gold $27.50/mo, 15 users
- Migration
- via Mantis 1.3.3
- Catch
- aging scripts
OpenProject: full project management, open source
Projects and bugs togetherWhy move to OpenProject. The vendor pitches itself directly as a Bugzilla alternative: open source, on-premises, with a modern UI. You get bug tracking plus Gantt charts, agile boards and budgets, in an actively maintained product.
Who it's for. Organizations that want bug tracking and project planning together, hosted on-prem or in an EU cloud.
Who it's not for. Teams that only want a bug tracker. OpenProject does a lot more, and you'll configure it accordingly.
The catch. No Bugzilla migration tool; the vendor only ships one for Jira. You go through CSV and some manual work.
How to migrate. Use the 14-day trial to import a CSV sample and check status mapping. Keep Bugzilla read-only for the full history.
Pricing. Community edition is free. Enterprise cloud starts at €5.95 per user per month with a 5-user minimum, so €29.75 a month (the vendor lists it in euros). On-premises, the minimum rises to 25 users.
- Free
- Community, self-hosted
- Paid
- cloud from €5.95/user/mo, 5 min.
- Data
- on-prem or EU cloud
- Catch
- no Bugzilla migrator
Linear: start over, fast
Most modernWhy move to Linear. It's everything Bugzilla isn't: fast, keyboard-driven, built for short cycles, wired into GitHub. If your Bugzilla database is mostly a graveyard of stale bugs, starting fresh is a legitimate choice.
Who it's for. Small product teams and startups that want a tool people enjoy using, and are fine leaving old history in Bugzilla.
Who it's not for. Teams that need decades of history searchable in one place, or that need self-hosting.
The catch. Linear's import assistants cover Asana, Jira, Shortcut and GitHub, not Bugzilla. What's left is the command-line importer (CSV), admin-only, which doesn't bring comments or projects.
How to migrate. Import open bugs only, via CSV, with a link back to the old read-only Bugzilla bug in each description. Our Linear alternatives page lays out its limits too.
Pricing. Free is $0 (unlimited members, 2 teams, 250 issues), Basic $10 and Business $16 per user per month billed yearly, Enterprise on quote.
- Free
- 250 issues, 2 teams
- Paid
- Basic $10/user/mo, yearly
- Migration
- CSV, no comments
- Catch
- no Bugzilla import
All 8 alternatives side by side
Our default pick: YouTrack if you want to carry your history over, GitLab or GitHub Issues if your code is already there. What really separates them isn't price, it's the right-hand column: how your bugs get out of Bugzilla. For a 10-developer team, GitHub Team runs $40 a month and GitLab Premium $290 a month, while Redmine and MantisBT cost only your server.
| Free plan | Entry paid plan and Bugzilla migration path | |
|---|---|---|
| BugzillaWhere you start | Free, MPL 2.0, self-hosted | No paid plan; a Perl server to maintain |
| YouTrackFull history | 10 users, 30 GB | From $4.50/user/mo yearly; built-in Bugzilla import (5.0.4+) |
| JiraEnterprise | Up to 10 users | Standard $8.48, Premium $15.56 per user/mo; legacy Server importer, CSV for Cloud |
| GitLabCode on GitLab | 5 users per private group, 400 compute minutes | Premium $29/user/mo; bugzilla2gitlab script |
| GitHub IssuesCode on GitHub | Repos and issues included | Team $4/user/mo; bugzilla2github script |
| RedmineOpen source, self-hosted | Free, GPL v2 | No paid plan; rake task written for Bugzilla 2.22.1, or CSV |
| MantisBTPure bug tracker | Free, GPL; MantisHub trial | MantisHub Gold $27.50/mo (15 users); via Mantis 1.3.3 |
| OpenProjectFull project suite | Free Community edition | Cloud from €5.95/user/mo, 5-user minimum (€29.75), 25 on-prem; CSV only |
| LinearFresh start | 250 issues, 2 teams | Basic $10/user/mo yearly; CSV without comments |
Entry prices before tax, subject to change. Always check against your real team size.
Migrating off Bugzilla in eight steps
Order matters. Each step protects something: your history, links between bugs, the numbers referenced in your code, and your users' patience.
Inventory what your database really holds
Day 1Write down your exact Bugzilla version, the number of products, components and bugs, custom fields, flags, the saved searches your team runs daily, and installed extensions. Count open bugs too: they're often under 10% of the database.
Why? The version decides which tools you can use (YouTrack needs 5.0.4, the old Redmine and Mantis scripts target 2.x), and the open-bug count tells you whether migrating everything is worth it.
- Time
- half a day
- If you skip it
- incompatible tool
Run Bugzilla's Sanity Check
Day 1In Bugzilla's admin panel, run Sanity Check. It finds broken dependencies, inconsistent accounts and wrong counters. Fix what it flags before exporting: importers tend to choke on the first inconsistency, halfway through a multi-hour run.
- Recommended by
- Atlassian's import docs
- Time
- minutes to an hour
Upgrade Bugzilla if your tool needs it
Before exportFor YouTrack, a 4.4 install has to move to 5.0.4 or 5.2, with the JSON Perl modules. For MantisBT it's the other way round: import into an old Mantis, then upgrade Mantis. Always upgrade a copy of the database, never production.
- YouTrack
- 5.0.4 minimum
- Jira Server
- up to 4.4.4
Map user accounts
Hard partBuild a table: Bugzilla email, destination account. This was the most painful part for the D project, which had to resubscribe people to bugs by hand. With bugzilla2gitlab, every account must exist before the import; unknown users land on a generic account.
- Format
- one row per user
- If you skip it
- lost authorship
Turn off notifications before importing
Cutover dayAn import recreates every comment, and every comment can fire an email. On a few thousand bugs, that's tens of thousands of messages. Disable outgoing mail on the destination during the import and switch it back on afterward.
- Applies to
- GitLab, GitHub, Jira
Import a pilot project and count
CheckImport a single product into a test space. Then compare a sample bug by bug: status, resolution, comment count, attachments, dependencies. That check would have saved Wireshark its "RESOLVED FIXED" bugs that stayed open.
- Sample
- 20 to 50 bugs
- Check
- counts before and after
Decide: everything, or open bugs only
DecisionMoving only open bugs (Xfce's choice) cuts the work and the errors. The rest stays searchable in a read-only Bugzilla. If you move everything, keep an old-number to new-number table: your commit messages have been citing Bugzilla IDs for years.
- Mapping table
- old ID to new ID
Cut over, then freeze Bugzilla read-only
FinishOn cutover day, close bug creation in Bugzilla, as Red Hat did for RHEL. Add a link on each migrated bug to its new ticket and move it to a clear status (Red Hat used "MIGRATED"). Keep the server read-only for at least one release cycle, then archive the database.
- Keep Bugzilla
- at least one release cycle
- If you skip it
- dead links in code
Is your tool missing from this page? Email us: hello@hackceleration.com
What makes a Bugzilla migration fail
The same mistakes show up on the mailing lists of every project that made the jump. None of them are dramatic. Each one costs weeks of cleanup.
Trusting a script to handle everything
bugzilla2github says it outright: no backups, no undo. Snapshot the database and the destination before every run.
Importing straight into production
Redmine's rake task wipes existing data. A botched GitLab import leaves hundreds of issues to delete one by one. Always a test space first.
Forgetting about accounts
Authors replaced by a generic "bugzilla" account make your history unreadable. Do the mapping before, not after.
Losing the bug numbers
Your commits, wiki and release notes cite Bugzilla IDs. Without a mapping table or a read-only server, those links die.
Emailing the whole team
An import with notifications on sends one email per recreated comment. Switch them off first.
Comparing price tags, not import paths
Per-seat price matters less than days of migration. Our best bug tracking software ranking covers tools that don't come from Bugzilla, and our project management software ranking helps if you want bugs and projects together.
- Bugzilla version and open-bug count recorded
- Sanity Check run and fixed
- Database snapshot before every trial
- Upgrade done if the tool needs it
- Account mapping ready
- Notifications off on the destination
- Pilot project imported and counted
- Scope decided: everything or open bugs
- Old ID to new ID table kept
- Bugzilla frozen read-only, linking to each new ticket
Bugzilla alternatives: frequently asked questions
Is Bugzilla still maintained in 2026?
Yes, slowly. The latest stable releases came out in 2024, development relies on volunteers, and in 2026 the Harmony branch became the primary branch with no date for Bugzilla 6. If you're still on 4.4, plan the move to 5.2 anyway: the 5.2 release started the countdown to retiring the 4.4 branch.
What's the best self-hosted open source Bugzilla alternative?
Redmine if you also want Gantt and a wiki, MantisBT for pure bug tracking, OpenProject for full project management, GitLab if you want code in the same place. All four install on your own server. None has a modern Bugzilla importer, so count on CSV or a script.
Bugzilla vs Jira: which should you pick?
Jira if your company already uses it and you want dashboards and a modern API, as Red Hat did. Bugzilla if you want a free self-hosted tool and the UI doesn't bother you. Jira is free up to 10 users, then Standard runs $8.48 per user per month. Our Jira alternatives page lists what teams complain about.
How do I migrate Bugzilla to Jira Cloud?
Export CSV from Bugzilla and use Jira's CSV import. The direct Bugzilla importer only exists for Jira Server and Data Center, and was only supported up to Bugzilla 4.4.4. Attachments and the QA contact field need separate handling.
How do I migrate Bugzilla to GitLab or GitHub?
With a community script: bugzilla2gitlab or bugzilla2github. Both read Bugzilla's XML export. Build the account mapping, turn off notifications, and do a dry run on a throwaway project before the real one.
Can I keep my Bugzilla bug numbers?
Rarely as-is. bugzilla2github creates placeholder issues to keep numbering, other tools renumber. What works everywhere: a mapping table plus a read-only Bugzilla where each old bug links to its new ticket.
How long does a Bugzilla migration take?
Our estimate for a mid-sized database is one to two weeks: a day of prep (inventory, Sanity Check, accounts), a few days of pilot runs, then the final import and cutover. Add time if you have to upgrade from 4.4 first.
Is there a free Bugzilla alternative?
Several. Redmine, MantisBT and OpenProject Community are free and open source like Bugzilla (MPL 2.0). GitHub Free, GitLab Free, Linear Free and Jira Free work for small teams. Our bug tracking ranking details the free plans.
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