Migrating from Notion to Jira: A Practical Guide for Teams Scaling Their Work Management

[#1]

Many teams start in Notion. It’s flexible, fast, and great for early-stage planning, right?
But as teams grow, workflows become more complex, and delivery tracking starts to matter more, Notion often reaches its limits.

That’s usually when Jira becomes a strong alternative.

In this guide, I’ll walk through when and why teams migrate from Notion to Jira, common challenges during migration, and practical ways to move data without losing context. I’ll also briefly touch on scenarios where integration (instead of full migration) might make more sense.

Why Teams Eventually Move from Notion to Jira

Notion works well as a lightweight workspace, but it wasn’t designed as a dedicated issue‑tracking system. Teams often hit friction when they need:

• Clear ownership and accountability for work items

• Advanced workflows and statuses

• Sprint planning and backlog management

• Dependencies, reporting, and historical tracking

• Tight integration with development and IT tools

As delivery complexity increases, Jira provides structure that Notion simply doesn’t aim to replace.

Migration usually isn’t about “Notion vs Jira” — it’s about matching the tool to the maturity of the team and its processes.

Common Challenges When Migrating from Notion to Jira

Migration sounds simple until you try it. The most common pain points that can be seen are:

1. Data Structure Mismatch

Notion databases are flexible; Jira is more opinionated.

Fields, relations, and rollups don’t always map 1:1 to Jira work item types and fields.

2. Loss of Context

Notion pages often contain rich descriptions, links, comments, and embedded knowledge.

If migration is done poorly, teams lose critical context around why work existed in the first place.

3. User Ownership & Permissions

Notion users don’t always map cleanly to Jira users, especially across teams, vendors, or contractors.

4. Ongoing Changes During Migration

Teams rarely “freeze” work. Changes keep happening in Notion while Jira is being set up, which can lead to drift between the two tools.

Preparing for a Successful Notion → Jira Migration

Before moving anything, it’s worth slowing down and planning. A bit of preparation saves a lot of cleanup.

Key preparation steps:

• Audit your Notion databases
  Identify which databases actually need to move (tasks, bugs, roadmap items — not everything).
  You can often leave reference docs and purely informational pages behind.

• Define your Jira structure first
  Decide on:

  • Projects

  • Work item types

  • Required fields

  • Workflows and statuses

• Map fields intentionally
  Not every Notion property needs a Jira equivalent. Focus on what drives delivery, reporting, and ownership.

• Decide what “done” means
  Are you migrating historical data, or only active work?
  Good migrations are intentional: you don’t need to move everything to get value.

Migration Approaches: Manual, Scripted, and No‑Code

There are a few common ways teams migrate from Notion to Jira:

Manual Migration

• Copy/paste from Notion into Jira

• Works for very small datasets or one‑off projects

• Doesn’t scale and is error‑prone

Scripted Migration

• Export from Notion, then write scripts or use APIs to push into Jira

• Offers maximum flexibility and can be customized heavily

• Requires engineering effort, ongoing maintenance, and deep knowledge of both APIs

No‑Code Migration with Getint

For teams looking to migrate without custom scripts, Getint provides a no‑code approach to Notion Jira migration.
Using Getint, teams can:

• Migrate Notion database items into Jira work items

• Map fields, statuses, and ownership

• Preserve descriptions and key context

• Run migrations iteratively instead of all at once (e.g., by project, by status, or by time range)

This approach is especially useful for teams that want predictable results without building and maintaining custom tooling.

When Integration Makes Sense Alongside (or Instead of) Migration

In some cases, full migration isn’t the right first step.

Common scenarios:

• Product or engineering moves to Jira, but leadership still plans at a high level in Notion

• Notion remains a documentation and planning hub, while Jira handles execution and delivery tracking

• Teams want a phased migration instead of a “big bang” cut‑over

Integrating Notion and Jira with Getint 

Alongside migration, some teams choose to integrate Notion and Jira to keep selected data in sync during transition or long-term coexistence.

With tools like Getint, teams can:

• Sync Jira work items into Notion databases for visibility

• Keep key fields aligned without duplicating work

• Reduce manual updates during phased migrations

Integration doesn’t replace migration — but it can de-risk it, especially for larger or distributed teams.

Final Thoughts: Migration as a Process, Not an Event

Migrating from Notion to Jira isn’t just a technical task — it’s a workflow and ownership shift.

Teams that succeed usually:

• Migrate deliberately, in phases if needed

• Accept that tools serve different purposes (documentation vs execution)

• Use integration where it adds clarity, not complexity

Whether you migrate all at once or step by step, the goal is the same:

clear ownership, reliable delivery tracking, and fewer tools fighting each other.