Top 20 Jira Alternatives & Competitors

In agile teams, DevOps teams, bug tracking teams, and software development teams, Jira is a popular project management tool used to track, build and release top-quality software. It allows teams to keep tabs on various issues, manage multiple projects and automate workflows.

Whether managing simple projects or handling DevOps practices, Jira makes it easy to stay aligned. More than 65000 organizations globally use Jira due to its flexibility to support several types of projects and ability to integrate with thousands of apps.

Overview of Jira Alternatives

Jira is known for supporting agile project management frameworks like Kanban and Scrum. It comes with features like sprints, boards, agile reporting, and backlogs to promote incremental and iterative project management. Moreover, Jira also allows teams to define or customize the workflows as per unique requirements. Plus, it also offers visual representation of multiple issues and tasks, allowing real time collaboration and progress tracking.

Although Jira is a powerful tool, it has some disadvantages due to which users search for similar tools like Jira. This software has extensive features and customization options, which can sometimes lead to a steep learning curve, primarily for new users. Creating custom fields, configuring workflows and managing permissions can be time-consuming and complex. The second limitation is its time tracking capabilities that are not as intuitive and robust as standalone project tracking tools. Advanced time tracking functionalities like calculating resource allocations and capturing billable hours require additional integrations or add on.

Why are People Looking for Software Like Jira?

Some people seek Jira like apps due to cluttered user interface, high licensing costs and the lack of team collaboration tools.

• Lacks team collaboration tools

In app collaboration attributes can be beneficial for teams working on multiple projects and larger teams. While Jira allows complete visibility across different workflows and projects, it comes with limited collaboration features. Owing to this, users look for other tools like Jira.

• High licensing cost

As Jira is commercial software, its licensing cost can be expensive, mainly for startups and small businesses. Moreover, some advanced attributes, integrations or add-ons might come with additional costs.

• Cluttered user interface

Some people find its user interface a little complicated and cluttered, plus its filtering tools are not very user-friendly. Some users also find its configuration a bit confusing, as they must navigate through a wide variety of options to find exactly what they want to configure.

What To Consider When Looking for an Alternative to Jira?

If you are looking for similar tools to Jira, then you must look for the below mentioned features:

• Customization: As Jira is highly customizable, it lets users define their custom fields, customise workflows and create issue types to match specific project requirements. Likewise, your programs like Jira should also offer customization facilities and add-ons to enhance functionalities and integration with other tools.
• Scalability: Jira can easily accommodate small startups to large organizations. It facilitates the growth and scaling of projects and teams, ensuring that the software remains effective even as your company expands. This is a must-have feature in any Jira equivalent software.
• Cross-Functional Use: Tools similar to Jira are widely used in software development, but their flexibility is a concern across multiple industries and teams. You should be able to adapt it for IT service management, project management, content management, and many more.

Must-Have Features in All Agile Tools like Jira

Jira software alternatives should come with several noticeable features like a mobile application, agile development, Gantt charts & project planning and security.

• Agile Development

Agile is Jira's core application, which offers seamless utilization of all attributes of Kanban boards and scrum boards. This approach can also be utilized for Kanban, scrum and scrumban (hybrid of scrum and kanban). Similarly, your replacement for Jira should also come with this unique feature.

• Mobile Application

Thanks to a mobile application, Jira software supports remote teams working from diverse locations. The native mobile application is compatible with both iOS and Android smartphones. Similarly, the competitors of Jira should have a mobile application and allow users to stay online from anywhere.

• Security

The software similar to Jira should restrict the access of bugs to only those who are authorized to work on it or team members with given access. It must allow you to set your bug's security level at the time of creation and editing. Likewise, you should also get a default permission scheme and all new projects must be assigned under it by default.

• Gantt Charts and Project Planning

Project management tools like Jira must come with project planning features and the ability to create milestones, dependencies, and project roadmaps. It should also support Gantt charts & scheduling for visualizing dependencies and project timelines.

• Integration Capabilities

Jira has the ability to integrate with a wide variety of tools and services, mainly used in project management and software development. Agile tools like Jira should also offer this facility and allow you to seamlessly connect with version control systems, development tools, collaboration platforms and testing frameworks.

Comparison of Jira Competitors

Here is the comparison of Jira like apps in terms of task management, reporting capabilities, pricing, user interface and integrations.

• Asana
• Trello
• Monday.com

What Type of Businesses are Looking for Jira Similar Tools?

Systems like Jira are mainly used by software development companies, IT departments, creative agencies and product development agencies.

• Software development companies: Software development organizations of all sizes, be it a startup or large enterprises, often use tools like Jira to manage their projects, effective collaboration and track issues. They look for alternatives because Jira's pricing structure might not meet their budgetary requirements. Moreover, they also find its user interface and experience to be less intuitive as compared to other software.
• IT departments: IT departments frequently use software like Jira to handle their projects, support tickets and track tasks. The software helps IT teams in streamlining their workflow, prioritizing urgent tasks, and ensuring prompt completion of projects.
• Creative agencies: Creative and marketing agencies often handle multiple projects, and deadlines as well as collaborate with several clients simultaneously. Products like Jira provide them with a centralized platform for task tracking, project management, communication, etc. They look for alternatives to Jira for several reasons, such as its language structure or terminology does not align with their workflows and its extensive features make it overly complex for creative teams.
• Product development companies: Whether it's software or hardware product development companies, they can reap the benefits of using powerful Jira alternatives. These tools help them in managing product backlogs, gathering customer feedback, tracking development progress and aligning cross functional teams. They look for Jira like tools for several reasons, like limited or rigid adaptability of the tool, scalability issues and poor collaboration capabilities.

Techjockey’s Verdict

Jira is a widely used and respected tool that offers a range of features and functionalities which makes it a preferred choice for both small and large-scale organizations. This highly versatile tool is used in various industries because of its robust issue-tracking and management capabilities. Built-in reporting and analytics features allow you to track team performance and check project metrics. Additionally, it also provides robust support for agile frameworks like Kanban and Scrum.

There are, however, some notable drawbacks such as high licensing costs, cluttered user interfaces, and steep learning curves, which lead users to seek out alternatives. If you too are looking for other tools like Jira, then you must keep your requirements and budget in mind. You can opt for different options like Wrike, Trello, Pronnel, Orangescrum, Asana, Monday.com, and more.