21 Best Jira- Alternatives for Agile Project Management in 2019

One of the best selling product — JIRA is a bug tracking and project management tool for Agile teams. If you are into a research for a project management tool for your business, you would have probably come across the name, with JIRA being on your shortlist.

Developed by Atlassian, JIRA is used in 122 countries, with more than 75,000 customers. It is designed to support Agile teams to plan, build, track progress, has a fully featured task management, reporting, and team collaboration. With JIRA you can manage a variety of different project, Jira has some disadvantages which make many of the customers look for alternatives to Jira.

Users using Jira are mostly confused while using the tool and have found that the interface becomes clunky most of the time. Small businesses also have a problem with JIRA’s plans, which can cost up to $12,000 per year for a team of 500 users. This makes them look for Jira alternatives. Find out which of Jira alternatives suits best to your needs.

Why You Should Look For Jira Alternatives?

Jira is certainly a power-packed tool. It almost seems like a perfect project management software solution for your business—but ultimately you understand that the tool is too complicated for your team and your projects. Sure, the platform indeed eases communication  for your group and even enables you to establish a highly customized system that works exactly the way you aim.

But, overall, Jira is hard to learn. And to be honest—it’s outdated.

If you’ve been using Jira for quite a long time, here are a few things that you might be able to relate to. Take a moment to carefully evaluate these factors in your mind and then ask yourself: Is Jira worth it?

• Jira takes too much effort. It takes longer than a moment to learn how the project management software works. The learning curve is steeper than you expect. The software is clunky and using it on a daily basis is somewhat frustrating.
• Jira’s interface is disappointing. The program still has a number of inefficiencies which makes it an overly-complex tool to work with. The customization options are often cumbersome. If you expect to boost your productivity using Jira, be ready to invest considerable time and effort to figure out how to use the interface in a productive manner.
• Jira is not for everybody. Jira was originally built with development teams in mind. It works well for small, medium, and large organizations, but when it comes to freelancers, Jira proved to be ineffective. And in the fact that it is quite pricey and it certainly doesn’t fit everyone’s budget.
• Jira still doesn’t support multiple assignees. When it comes to assigning tasks to more than one person, JIRA’s weaknesses really stand out. What happens is that when many people are required to work on a single task, they only get to chip in their comments while the assigned person works on it. 

Top 21 Jira Alternatives for Your Growing Business: 

1. ProofHub—One place for all your projects, teams, and communication.

ProofHub is a project management and project planning software that offers a majority of features and integrations that Jira offers yet there is absolutely no cost at all. But that’s not all. There are several other reasons for you to consider making the transition from Jira to ProofHub. Here are a few that might change your mind quickly. 

Jira Vs ProofHub:

• Jira has an outdated interface but ProofHub’s interface is intuitively beautiful. With ProofHub, you don’t need to limit a project/task to only basic text and board. 
• Jira eases communication via comments but it doesn’t have any specific features for team collaboration, whereas ProofHub has a whole bunch of tools/features dedicated to efficient team collaboration during project management. 
• In ProofHub, there can be more than one assignee on a particular task. But that doesn’t happen in Jira. 
• Unlike Jira, ProofHub offers an open API system that allows you to virtually connect to any third-party app of your choice. 
• Jira’s price goes up as the number of users increases. On the contrary, ProofHub simply offers two SMB and enterprise pricing plans with no per-user fees. 

Features:

• Chats—Send direct messages, get quick replies, and use emojis to make workplace conversations fun. 
• Discussions—Create discussion topics and collaborate on them with teams and clients in one place. 
• Announcements—One place where you can recognize team achievements, project success, and celebrate other important events.
• Gantt Charts—Set dependencies, due dates, identify the critical path, and plan projects/tasks effectively.
• Kanban Boards—Divide projects into tasks/subtasks within workflow stages of your choice and get notified when each task moves from one stage to another.
• Multiple Assignees—Assign tasks to one or as many team members and prioritize tasks with clear deadlines. 
• Recurring—Set tasks to repeat at specified intervals.
• Calendar View—Get an overview of your events, tasks, and milestones in one place.
• Custom Roles—Define custom roles and provide access to what according to the organizational workflow. 
• Notes—The perfect place to store ideas, suggestions, project details minutes of the meeting, etc.
• Files—Store, organize, share, and retrieve all your files and documents without wasting a second.
• Proofing—Streamline the review/approval process with inline comments and advanced markup tools. 
• Timesheets—Track billable/nonbillable hours both manually and using timers and save all your time data safely. 
• Reports—Get detailed insights about your resource and project in a single click.
• Request Forms—Manage your support queries and work requests without deadline with messy email boxes.
• Advanced Search—Find what you’re looking for in ProofHub just by typing in the relevant keywords or search phrases.
• Integrations—Seamlessly access Freshbooks, Google Calendar, iCal, Box, Dropbox, Google Drive, and OneDrivek within one software.
• Security—Restrict your account access to only selected IP addresses.
• Mobile App—Manage your projects and collaborate with teams even on the go using an intuitive mobile application. 

Pricing:

Ultimate Control: $89 per month billed annually for unlimited projects and unlimited users.

Essential: $45 per month billed annually for unlimited users.

*Special discounts for nonprofits.

Need more convincing? Go ahead and try ProofHub for FREE. Sign up now!

2. Backlog – Everything you need for a development workflow

Backlog is an online project management tool built for developers. As compared to Jira, it has a simpler and intuitive interface. Development teams use this project tracking software to work with other teams for enhanced team collaboration.

Features:

• Push notifications for new issues
• History thread of issue updates
• Drag and drop file attachments
• Create, assign, and update tasks
• Set due dates to keep work on schedule
• Breakdown tasks into subtasks and checklists
• Pull requests, merge requests, and branches
• Keep all files in a central location
• Invite clients, vendors, and freelancers to projects with guest roles
• Create wikis for all project members

3. Assembla – Enterprise software development platform

Assembla’s products are used by more than 1,000,000 people in over half of the world’s countries. It offers a broader range of functionality in its core product. You can have those out-of-the-box features that JIRA requires as an add-on.

Features:

• Unlimited SVN and Git Repositories
• Wiki Tool / Knowledgebase
• Subversion and git hosting
• Built-in time tracking
• Code deployment manually or automatically
• Social-style collaboration
• Manage projects visually with card walls and tasks boards
• Git workflows (fork, merge, peer review)

4. Target Process – Visual project management software

TargetProcess easily adapts to your management approach. It is a popular commercial agile project management tool in the market. An ideal alternative to JIRA, it allows following a Scrum, Kanban or customized Agile approach.

Features:

• Create various boards
• Backlog story map view
• It offers custom views, cards, reports, and dashboards
• Distraction-free overview of your project
• Custom reports
• High-level tracking across the entire portfolio
• QA, bug tracking, test case management
• Integrations for both SaaS and On-Premise
• Helps to evaluate the progress of multiple projects and teams
• Visualization of project data

5. VersionOne – All-in-one agile project management

VersionOne is an all-in-one agile project management tool that can quickly adapt to any agile software development methodology. It gives you an overview of the major features of product planning, release planning, sprint planning, and sprint track. VersionOne is a versatile tool for an agile project with various size and scope. It is one of the best alternatives to JIRA present in the market.

Features:

• End-to-end agile platform to plan all of your stories
• Simple to use and it easily engages all teams
• Improves visibility, shares information, and manage projects effectively
• Plans, tracks, reports on all projects and portfolio
• Improves end to end continuous delivery
• Powerful portfolio management, reporting, metrics, and dashboard structure
• Keeps updated project progress in real-time

6. Pivotal Tracker – Product planning and management tool

Pivotal Tracker is an agile project management tool. This tool fosters collaboration in software development teams. It provides a shared view of team priorities to analyze progress.

Features:

• One view of the entire Project
• Powerful search syntax supports nested Boolean expressions
• Focused collaboration, release management
• Agile, Iterative Management Workflow
• Third party tools & built-in integrations
• Increase project visibility
• Create plans based on realistic estimates

7. Bugzilla – Open source tracking system

JIRA and Bugzilla are the two bug tracking tools that are widely being used by several organizations. Bugzilla is an open source tool for managing the software development process. It was originally created by the Mozilla foundation to track bugs. Unlike JIRA, Bugzilla makes it possible to find the initial status of new issues and then allows the admin to configure which transitions need comments.

Features:

• Keeps track of both bugs and changes in code
• Powerful search facility which is lacking in JIRA
• Create workflows of bugs
• Security patches published on a frequent basis
• Submits and reviews patches
• Supports various operating systems such as Windows, Unix, etc.
• Available in multiple languages
• Integrated email capabilities and reports
• Link different defects for tracking purpose
• Customizable user interface

8. Crocagile – Flexible agile software

Crocagile gives a much-needed boost to agile practices with cutting-edge technology. It is a clean and easy-to-use agile project management platform that offers collaboration through a modern, social dashboard, smart cards, chat, file sharing, and ticketing features.

Features:

• Keep track of cards on your plate, organized by workspace
• Update card status without deep-diving into a workspace
• View the list of achievements you’ve earned
• Track your achievements and practices
• Quickly manage your personal settings

Want to know why ProofHub is the best alternative to Jira? Click here

9. ClickUp – Rated productivity software

ClickUp eliminates all the frustration that other tools cause because of it’s simple, intuitive interface. It is one of the newest Jira alternatives.

Features:

• Assign Comments when a task is too much
• Stay on the same page with collaboration detection
• Select multiple tasks
• Sort tasks by multiple attributes
• Integrations include Slack and GitHub
• Support is offered over the phone and via email

10. Wrike – Leading work management solution to gain visibility

Wrike is another JIRA alternative on our list. It is a cloud-based project management and collaboration software that scales across teams in any business. Whether you’re looking for a JIRA alternative to simplify planning or fostering better collaboration among team members, Wrike is everything you need to complete your projects in one place. It is customizable enough for each person on the team to easily see the bigger picture and get things done.   Connect your essential business such as Google, Microsoft, Adobe® Creative Cloud®, Box, GitHub, JIRA tools to Wrike and make it your project control center.

Features:

• View real-time reports and status for your team’s projects
• Centralize communication with stakeholders while maintaining full context
• Discuss project and task details with the full context of the work
• Tag images and videos to provide specific feedback
• Share interactive reports, and schedule notifications on a regular basis

Recommended reading: Looking For A Wrike Alternative? Here Is The List Of Tools You Can Try In 2019

11. LiquidPlanner – Online project management software for your business

LiquidPlanner is a project management software that provides a better way to plan and execute work. It is a great alternative to JIRA due to its responsive approach to project management that is grounded in reality. It makes managing projects dynamic by putting people and priorities at the core. It also helps you with resource management by frequent reports that show how much work is on each team member’s plate, when they’re working on it, and if they need help or not.

Features:

• Instant insight into progress, risks, and budgets
• Set expectations and share relevant information with the right audience
• Easily customize and share dashboards with stakeholders and external clients
• Track billable and non-billable costs with line-item expenses

12. nTask – Smart task management software

nTask is a free task management platform smart teams use to do and accomplish more. It is the only online project management software that provides every tool you need to plan. nTask isn’t just limited to effective task management but it is also quite robust as a meeting management tool as well. Whether you are a student, professional, or executive, nTask works just fine as per your needs and requirements. Thus, nTask emerges as a perfect JIRA alternative without having to sacrifice good design and responsiveness.

Features:

• Leverage Gantt charts for a holistic view to your entire project schedule
• Monitor time spent on each task for each member through timesheets
• Assess probable risks and their frequency through risk matrix and pie charts
• Easily share information and checklists with outside parties via public links

13. Mingle – Agile project management software

If you’re working with agile projects, Mingle is a project management software used to handle and manage agile projects with a digital card wall. It is designed in such a way that it can effortlessly integrate with your team’s current workflow. As a JIRA alternative, Mingle comes with an intuitive interface and enables teams to implement agile practices. It has versions available in different languages, including English, Chinese, Dutch, Portuguese, and Spanish so that one can collaborate seamlessly without letting language become a barrier.

Features:

• Define objectives, track a plan’s progress, and receive alerts
• Whether you use Kanban, Agile, Scrum – customize your workflow the way you want to
• Drag and drop your team members to assign them onto cards
• Quickly create charts and data visualizations
• Have more efficient conversations with your team

14. Asana – Effective work management platform

Asana is a popular JIRA alternative teams use to stay focused on the goals, projects, and daily tasks that grow business. Whether it’s about getting organized, staying on track, or hitting deadlines, it can do it all for you. In work management software Asana, you can monitor the status of all your projects in real time, so you can keep strategic initiatives on track and easily report on progress. It also lets you easily organize and plan workflows, projects, and more, so that you can keep up with your team’s work.

Features:

• Set priorities, deadlines and assign tasks and share details in one place
• Create visual project plans to see how every step maps out over time
• Address risks and report updates to stakeholders
• Offers 100+ Asana integrations

Also read: 11 Powerful Asana Alternatives for Project Management in 2019

15. Hygger – Product management software for IT teams

Hygger is a simple JIRA alternative with powerful features such as time-tracking, kanban boards, roadmap planning so that you can stay focused on tasks that help your business grow. It allows you to break your goals into an actionable plan so that you can visualize it into beautiful roadmaps that your team and stakeholders will love.

Features:

• Break down your project plan into individual tasks
• See exactly what should be done and promptly detect the bottlenecks
• Manage all your conversations, checklists, and files in one place
• Prioritize intelligently using Value/Effort Matrix
• Create comprehensive and accurate timelines
• Visualize your custom workflows using Kanban boards
• Use swimlanes to highlight the most important tasks

16. Eylean – Simplest alternative to Kanban board

As an alternative to JIRA, Eylean is an intuitive Scrum and Kanban desktop solution that integrates into the Office tools and Team Foundation Server. It lets you visualize work items for intuitive project management that allows you to manage workflow and track progress in automated workflows. All you have to do is to choose the configuration, use time boxing and limit the WIP to make the task board work for you.

Features:

• Make the task board work for you and enjoy easy process control
• Manage tasks and monitor the workload of your team members
• Improve your TFS task management with a two -way integration
• Use Kanban templates and WIP limits to manage the Agile process easily
• Run your sprints smoothly with automated tools and burndown chart

17. QuickBase – Low-code app creation software

With this application-building platform, anyone can create the tools they need to collect, track and analyze information easily without getting immersed in complicated coding. In this JIRA alternative, you can build apps by selecting a template, uploading an existing spreadsheet and building out tables with quick actions. Quick Base offers integrations with several other cloud solutions, including Salesforce, NetSuite, Gmail, and Box.

Features:

• Manage projects, service requests, supply chain, documents
• powerful, scalable, secure platform that eliminates manual processes
• Gain real-time visibility into projects and data
• Save time by automating manual tasks
• Configure rich and interactive dashboards to visualize data

18. Mavenlink – A platform designed for services organizations

Mavenlink is a perfect software that brings project management, time tracking, resource planning and more into one place.  It is a tool specifically designed for services organizations that enables them to connect with people, create projects, and make profits. All in all, Mavenlink is a perfect mix of collaborative resource planning and project management software that helps you see and manage every resource across every project at a centralized place. Great companies like Genpact, Salesforce, Navigant, Acquia use this JIRA alternative to deliver projects.

Features:

• Role-based estimating and business intelligence
• Advanced analytics to view performance
• Project accounting and team collaboration
• Efficient task and time tracking

Further reading:

19. Redmine – Open-source web application

Redmine is a flexible project management web application that is cross-platform and cross-database. The one thing that makes it stand out from other JIRA alternatives is the fact that it comes with a wide range of plug-ins making things easier and faster than before. It is also quite effective in collaboration, issue-tracking, budgeting, and resource management. Other than this, there are Gantt charts, reports, calendar, and other features that make it a great replacement for JIRA.

Features:

• Flexible role-based access control
• Custom fields for issues, time entries, projects, and users
• SCM integration (SVN, CVS, Git, Mercurial and Bazaar)
• Easily customizable
• Can be implemented as an online or intranet source for your project management

Further reading: 12 Best Redmine Alternative for Productive Teams

20. Donedone – The simple bug and issue tracker

From planning to coding, testing to customer support, DoneDone is the straightforward bug and issue tracker.  The unique thing about this application is its approach that effortlessly mixes issue tracking with customer support. It eliminates the need to use spreadsheets, sticky notes, and email to keep track of bugs, ideas, and requests and acts as a central hub to take care of everything at a single place. It is loved by many small and large companies Honda, Discovery, Patagonia and many more.

Features:

• Create a project, invite your team, and start logging issues
• Simple workflow and easy filtering
• View a list of issues, see individual activities, and gather quick reports
• Works great on mobile and tablet devices including the iPhone, iPad, and Android
• Integrates with Harvest, GitHub, HipChat, Slack and many more

21. Bitrix24 – A collaborative project management tool

Bitrix24 is a social enterprise platform that brings tasks and projects, CRM, communication at one place. Whether yours is a small team or a large one, it makes collaborative task management a breeze for team members. For CRM, it covers every necessary feature such as sales funnel, pipeline management, sales report, 36–degree customer view, sales automation and what not.

Features:

• Intranet, chat, video conferencing, calendars, workspaces, documents, tasks and internal communication tools in one place
• Manage system with attendance management, work reports, workflow automation
• Unlimited cloud storage and advanced document management system
• Choose from dozens of totally free responsive templates

Managing multiple projects can’t get any easier! Start using ProofHub.

Vartika Kashyap

Vartika Kashyap is the Marketing Manager at ProofHub and has been one of the LinkedIn Top Voices in 2018. Her articles are inspired by office situations and work-related events. She likes to write about productivity, team building, work culture, leadership, entrepreneurship among others and contributing to a better workplace is what makes her click.

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