With agile project management, the first tool that pops into our heads is Jira.
If you are a project manager, designer, or developer, raising, tracking, and managing tickets on Jira has been a staple in our diet. Multiple integration options make assigning issues and managing tickets more cohesive across channels.
It is a vast software with all the features you will need, such as Kanban boards for a quick overview, adaptable scrub boards, multiple API integrations, and real-time assigning and reporting.
As we build more complex products, the complexity of tools increases with a demand for convenient features, and Jira might need more ease of use.
In the SaaS industry, recent tools are becoming competitive to stay above the rest by offering unique selling points like freemium models, cross-team collaborations, a knowledge base, and others.
Now is the time to analyze your business needs and determine the exact combination and proportion of features your organization requires.
Let’s look at Jira and its alternatives explored in this article.
Jira So Far#
With teams working remotely and clashing time zones, it’s challenging to manage, assign, or keep track of the work done without a management tool. Jira, being a pioneer in this space, is well-equipped. Some of its sought-after features are:
- Agile boards - Scrum and Kanban boards quickly overview completed and in-progress tasks for maximizing efficiency.
- Sprint-wise road maps - Keep teams aligned with the bigger picture while allowing for minor tweaks to stay on track.
- Reports and insights — Check and track progress through the dashboard
- Project flexibility — Customizable workflows allow for app integrations with autonomy and structure.
- Open DevOps — An open and diverse toolchain enabling you to plan instantly, code, and deploy solutions.
A project management tool keeps all stakeholders on board with even the tiniest tweaks made in the roadmap or plan, share chunks of relevant data across teams, and be resourceful when buying multiple tools.
But if the tool has a deep learning curve, it altogether defeats the purpose of time management. Onboarding would then require a separate training period of its own.
Let’s say you spend a month or two to get your organization’s flow set on one tool. Meanwhile, the industry requirements shift, and you notice a competitive tool in the market serves your use case better. It’s a waste of time, resources, and money.
Attractive features aren’t the only determining factor in settling for a tool. Here is a list of alternatives before locking down a management tool.
Top 10 Alternatives#
DevRev#
Let’s start by telling you what we do. We are a product-led support tool that helps consumers of your product directly reach out to the product makers.
Cutting out the mediators in the process of an issue reaching a developer helps speed up working out a glitch, leading to higher customer satisfaction.
Features:
- Converged SoR The teams, leads, and customers keep each other up-to-date alike with tickets, feature requests, and development priority.
- Airdrop Migrate and sync DevRev bi-directionally to developers and consumers across legacy applications to build and support your teams.
- Trails A system of records that helps you visually connect features used by customers to their services to track customer interaction and build roadmaps.
Get started with the starter plan of US $9.99/MAU and move to a pro plan of US $24.99 or the ultimate plan for complex organizations.
Basecamp#
It is a very quirky and easy-on-the-eyes management tool that allows you to grasp an overview with a look.
The board view and a timeline view of all the events help you catch up on missed conversations and collaboration in just one scroll.
Features:
- Card Tables - Create projects and categorize each card on the x and y axis against different metrics. For example, you can use color coding for teams across and status along the line for projects.
- Doors - Integrate external apps in your Basecamp workflow with one click from the comprehensive list of apps.
- Hill Charts - Review tasks in progress from the uphill inclination on the line chart and features in production from downhill when they are updated daily.
Pricing:
A freemium model of US$0 and US $11/month/user for all features.
Asana#
This work management tool lets you have transparency and high productivity in teams by allowing users to view their co-worker’s tasks and collaborate at a convenient schedule for all.
There is significantly less requirement to jump to third-party software since you can keep all communications within the same tool through integrations, attachments, project workspaces, task syncing, tracking, and reports.
Features:
- Workload — Give team members a quick task load analysis by assigning estimated task count, work hours, and points.
- Timeline — It’s easy to import spreadsheets and convert them to timelines that you can change and link to one another.
- Workflow Builder — Customize a workflow and create templates to reuse within a project of a similar task structure.
Pricing:
US$ 0 freemium model, a business model of US$10.99, and a premium model of US$24.99 billed annually.
Trello#
Trello and Jira, both part of the Atlassian suite, are powerful yet lightweight task-organizing tools. You can divide projects into boards and you can detail tasks within projects using cards - making staying organized easier than ever!
Even though you might not switch between a preferred view other than cards, its scope for categorization, drag-and-drop feature, plus status updates make it a suitable alternative.
Features:
- Views — Like Notion, give cards a unique display image to sort and switch between the board, timeline, calendar, spreadsheet, and maps.
- Butler — Create commands for the butler to automate tasks triggered by an action and reduce repetitive work. For example, trigger an action when the task approaches the due date, customize a button on cards, etc.
- Templates — Create or pick one from the library across project management, marketing, design, engineering, and more.
Pricing:
Starting from a freemium of US $0, a standard of US $5, a premium of US $10, to an enterprise package of US $17.50 per month per user.
Notion#
Notion is a simplistic black-and-white tool that lets you focus on the content. It is a note-taking app that enables you to collaborate with various teams and manage project access.
It works on a page-to-page basis where you nest one page inside another, link pages across projects, create a table, modify formulas to match your team's needs, and integrate with external apps.
Features:
Text Editor — Jumpstart your workflow with a handy selection of visual bookmarks for links, tables and other integrations - just click the forward slash!
Hosting — You can make a page public by hosting it on the web. And you can control viewing and edit access for teams and external users.
Customization — It allows for heavy personalization of every management feature to match brand identity and organization needs
Pricing:
Easy on the pocket with a freemium version of US $0, a personal pro of US $4, and a team plan of US $8 per user per month.
Linear
A product-building tool that helps developers with issue tracking, running sprints, and aligning with product roadmaps in a single tool.
Like DevRev, you have an extensive issue-tracking dashboard that gives your teams a quick method to create, handle, track, delegate, and communicate around tickets.
Features:
Plan — With roadmaps to predict the future, you can plan visuals for large projects with precision. Bolster your workflow and get on track faster by establishing tasks and cycles.
Progress — Advanced filters, git integration, and automated workflows work together to help you update and close issues faster.
Collaborate — Engineers, designers, PMs, and teams can use triage to build a workflow around bug reports and stay aligned across projects.
Pricing:
A freemium model of US $0, a standard US $8 per user per month model, and a plus model annually billed at US $14 per user.
GitLab#
GitLab is a DevOps and management tool that increases developer productivity, reduces cycle time, manages costs, and tracks issues.
It is an open-source code repository and collaborative software development platform allowing continuous integration and delivery.
Features:
Portfolio Plan — It allows you to maintain end-to-end visibility and traceability of issues throughout the delivery lifecycle, from idea to production.
Automation — You can create and manage through custom views, advanced filters, and powerful branching tools.
Metrics — Get insights on overall business performance with metrics and value stream insight to help teams manage and optimize the software delivery lifecycle.
Pricing:
A freemium model of US $0, a premium of US $19/month or $228/annum, and the ultimate model of US $99/month or US $1188/annum.
Monday#
Monday is a powerful platform that helps teams streamline their workflows and manage projects efficiently. Its vibrant interface offers an inviting introduction for new users, while integrations with popular services like Slack and HubSpot CRM make it easy to keep up-to-date.
With its extensive in-app knowledge base, existing customers can easily access the latest feature updates.
Features:
Dashboards — Create a custom dashboard, track budgets, define resource capacity, assign and prioritize tasks and get the whole team synced to the same flow.
Products — Subscribe only to the products you need under the Monday tray, such as work management, marketing, sales CRM, and development.
Direct access — Integrate and connect Monday to your editing software to review briefs, update status, and upload assets while staying on the app.
Pricing:
Switch between the basic, standard, and pro levels at standard pricing of US $8, US $10, and US $16 per month, billed annually.
Hive#
Hive is a project management tool with extensive use cases ranging from business operations to education. Its comprehensive workflow covers resource management, client engagement, company goal-tracking, and project planning.
One exciting feature is its native email, which can keep conversations within the tool and convert any email into a task to pick up.
Features:
Hierarchy — Switch between six views of project layouts to create parent projects with child projects, tasks, and sub-actions.
Links — You can visually link cards within a flow to show a relationship between two independent actions through Gantt charts.
Autopilot — Use templates from a library of workflows to initiate any chain of tasks with a click of a pre-formulated button.
Pricing:
A free forever solo plan of US $0, a team plan of US $12 per month and an enterprise plan with flexible charges.
nTask#
It is an intuitive task management tool that has a place for people in the education field. Its robust meeting features and integrations allow for seamless conversations on any medium.
It allows for to-do lists to track tasks as a checklist keeping the interface simple for teams of all industries.
Features:
Two Clicks — Streamline a procedure for resource allocation and budget and financial summaries to access it within two clicks.
Public Links — You can easily share information and checklists with outside parties and restrict access when needed through the tool.
Risk Matrix — Analyze risk impact and probability through customizable matrices with any grid formation and visualize progress through graphs.
Pricing:
Starting at a meager price of US $3, you have the premium plan, a business plan of US $8, and a negotiable enterprise plan.
Takeaways#
To ensure that you are making the right investment in software tools for your organization, take some time to become familiar with their features.
This process involves evaluating which of these capabilities would be most suitable and beneficial while also taking into account your existing workflows and available budget.
A comparative analysis can help identify any differences between them before testing out a free version of the one selected.
Finally, consider its cost relative to that of other alternatives as well as how it will add value over time – then make an informed decision!
