Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

IBM DOORS vs IBM DOORS Next comparison

IBM DOORS and IBM DOORS Next are both solutions in the Application Requirements Management category. IBM DOORS is ranked #1 with an average rating of 7.5, while IBM DOORS Next is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.3. IBM DOORS holds a 34.0% mindshare in ARM, compared to IBM DOORS Next’s 8.5% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of IBM DOORS users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of IBM DOORS Next users who would recommend it.
IBM DOORS
Read 55 IBM DOORS reviews
  • 7,625 Views
  • 5,215 Comparison Views
88% willing to recommend
IBM DOORS Next
Read 13 IBM DOORS Next reviews
  • 3,570 Views
  • 1,247 Comparison Views
91% willing to recommend
 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report
Executive Summary
We performed a comparison between IBM DOORS and IBM DOORS Next based on real PeerSpot user reviews.

Find out in this report how the two Application Requirements Management solutions compare in terms of features, pricing, service and support, easy of deployment, and ROI.

DOWNLOAD THE COMPLETE REPORT
To learn more, read our detailed IBM DOORS vs. IBM DOORS Next Report (Updated: March 2025).
Buyer's Guide
IBM DOORS vs. IBM DOORS Next
March 2025
Download the complete report
Helped 845,040 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM DOORS
Ranking in Application Requirements Management
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
IBM DOORS Next
Ranking in Application Requirements Management
5th
Average Rating
7.6
Reviews Sentiment
6.2
Number of Reviews
13
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Application Requirements Management category, the mindshare of IBM DOORS is 34.0%, down from 35.1% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of IBM DOORS Next is 8.5%, up from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Requirements Management
 

Featured Reviews

UweSeufert - PeerSpot reviewer
Old but capable of storing, organizing, and exchanging requirements
I use IBM DOORS because my customer wants it for managing their requirements IBM DOORS is a tool from the 20th century. It is very old but capable of storing, organizing, and exchanging requirements. It helps to manage requirements efficiently, which significantly improves the way requirements…
Read full review
Roger Trackwell - PeerSpot reviewer
An industry-leading tool to demonstrate traceability between requirements, with valuable features for tailoring modules and managing several thousand requirements
The biggest thing is that it shows cradle to grave traceability between the initial parent requirement and the lowest level, or what we call a CID, a critical item development spec. You can establish your verification plans in DOORS, and then as you get test results, you can put them in DOORS as a link or as a pointer to where that specific test resides on a company database. Then you can also write compliance rationale and add a column for coding, like pass, fail, green, yellow, red, meets, does not meet, partially meets, or whatever scoring criteria you want to use. Like I said, the best thing about it is that it provides you that visibility of your verification, allowing you to know how close you are to your pre-production activities, prototyping, go ahead, or whatever it is.
Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:
 

Pros

"Compared to other tools that I have used over the past 20 years, DOORS is the best of the best."
"It has the features of: traceability, configuration management, and user access."
"This product can help improve how your organization proceeds through solution development."
"Traceability on requirements for a huge project in an organization is a big gain."
"The platform's traceability capabilities are invaluable. They provide a solid foundation for certification processes and manage requirement changes across project lifecycles."
"IBM Rational DOORS keeps everything organized."
"The most valuable feature is the management verification and login."
"It's a very interesting tool. I like that it's simple. You have to create your document, add your templates, and have your headings and definitions, and it's done. You must attribute the discipline and fill out the comment field for requirements. It also provides you with unique IDs for each requirement. I like that it never duplicates IDs."
More IBM DOORS pros
"The "Link by Attribute" feature is useful for making links without needing to use the web interface manually."
"IBM Rational DOORS Next Generation is easier to expand to build a backend with several servers, so you can also use it to scale up to several hundreds of users without major problems."
"The most valuable features are the baselines and links."
"One of the most valuable features is how you can tailor the modules."
"My company contacts the solution's technical support, and they are good and responsive."
"It's web-based, so you don't have anything to install."
"There are many good features with DOORS. The solution has a concept of streams and baselines, as well as a concept of components. A component is a subproject inside a project."
"The tool's most valuable feature is displaying requirements in a tabular format. This means you can see everything laid out in columns and rows. It is more aesthetic compared to other tools. The traceability matrix helps to view things better. It comes with different linking rules."
More IBM DOORS Next pros
 

Cons

"One of the things that many people complain about is it's hard to manage attributes. For example, tables or figures. This is something that can be improved."
"The kind of dashboard is not very convenient."
"One thing that I would like to see is a lower-cost version of it that we could use for smaller projects. Sometimes, we do projects for commercial customers who would benefit from something like DOORS, but it's just so expensive. It's just a monster, so a lower-cost version would be the thing that we'd like to see."
"IBM DOORS should cover all engineering functions seamlessly, not just requirement engineering."
"The user interface for the Change Proposal System could be improved."
"The solution should be more compatible with thin clients"
"Not all Rational Team Concert operations are available from the web client. Certain operations, like creating streams or components, still require using the desktop application. They're not accessible through the web interface. And in my opinion, this limitation should be removed."
"The web application DOORS Web Access doesn't have the same functionality as the standard client, so it's not a real substitute. For example, web Access only provides writing requirements, but you can't do much more with it."
More IBM DOORS cons
"The only additional feature would be if it had dynamic linking to other MBSE tool sets or industry-leading tools."
"When you are in Jira or Confluence, you have some freedom in how you type in text. That's also a weakness of Confluence, however, as it opens the doors to sloppy work. In DOS Next Generation, the text is very rigorous, but it might be difficult for people who don't have the discipline. Having a way to quickly enter requirements could help. It might already be in there, but I don't know. I don't have enough experience with the tool yet."
"I have come to the conclusion that if you are considering migrating from DOORS to DNG, don't! Instead of spending 100's to 1000's of hours doing migrations, invest those hours in a DXL programmer to make DOORS do what it isn't doing for you now."
"Be very careful how you load your DNG server. There are limits to the number of artifacts a server can handle."
"When you are not working on it every day it is not very intuitive."
"IBM Rational DOORS Next Generation is not a very user-friendly product."
"Both the data storage and reporting for this solution need improvement."
"There is room for improvement in the APIs that they have exposed for integration."
More IBM DOORS Next cons
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I think it's expensive because you have to pay for the licenses to IBM and all that and maintain them."
"Licensing fees are billed annually and there is no support included with what I pay."
"IBM Rational DOORS is highly expensive."
"The licensing costs for the product are quite high."
"We have to pay for a license. I think it's a one-time payment as my company hasn't notified me about more charges. I don't think it's expensive for large corporations, but it will be costly for an average person."
"It is expensive to onboard additional users."
"It's expensive."
"IBM is a bit too expensive in terms of pricing. Customers are paying a lot for the license, and the price is quite high for this kind of environment. It is quite high as compared to what we can get today with other solutions."
More IBM DOORS pricing and cost advice
"Users can buy a three-year license for about 12,000 Euros."
"You are going to need a beefy server and a fat network pipe to it in order to make DNG and its companion tools work well for users."
"The price of this solution is very high, and it increases year after year."
"The cost of maintenance is €20,000 to €30,000 ($22,000 to $33,000 USD) and there are no additional fees."
"If the product price were not reasonable enough, our company would not use IBM Rational DOORS Next Generation."
report
See which vendors are best for you
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Requirements Management solutions are best for your needs.
See recommendations
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
27%
Computer Software Company
10%
Aerospace/Defense Firm
8%
Government
6%
Manufacturing Company
23%
Aerospace/Defense Firm
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Rational DOORS?
The traceability matrix in DOORS improved our project outcomes. It helps ensure coverage of requirements at different levels, from user requirements to software requirements to test requirements.
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Rational DOORS?
Over the years, the first version cost something around 5800 euros.
See all answers
What needs improvement with IBM Rational DOORS?
Compared to today, DOORS' competitors also excel in this discipline. Yet the price is too high. It's often not as generic as it used to be. IBM promised to find a way for a generic format that allo...
See all answers
What do you like most about IBM Rational DOORS Next Generation?
The tool's most valuable feature is displaying requirements in a tabular format. This means you can see everything laid out in columns and rows. It is more aesthetic compared to other tools. The tr...
See all answers
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Rational DOORS Next Generation?
The pricing is considered unreasonable, and there is speculation that IBM may not be putting much effort into further development, possibly treating it as a cash cow.
See all answers
What needs improvement with IBM Rational DOORS Next Generation?
There is a need for improvement in user experience, as the UI is too complex and outdated. Updates should be more frequent to ensure security and functionality, especially in addressing vulnerabili...
See all answers
 

Comparisons

Jira vs IBM DOORS Logo
Jira vs IBM DOORS
Compared 26% of the time
Polarion Requirements vs IBM DOORS Logo
Polarion Requirements vs IBM DOORS
Compared 25% of the time
Jama Connect vs IBM DOORS Logo
Jama Connect vs IBM DOORS
Compared 22% of the time
PTC Integrity Requirements Connector vs IBM DOORS Logo
PTC Integrity Requirements Connector vs IBM DOORS
Compared 6% of the time
Helix ALM vs IBM DOORS Logo
Helix ALM vs IBM DOORS
Compared 5% of the time
More IBM DOORS Competitors
Jama Connect vs IBM DOORS Next Logo
Jama Connect vs IBM DOORS Next
Compared 23% of the time
Polarion Requirements vs IBM DOORS Next Logo
Polarion Requirements vs IBM DOORS Next
Compared 17% of the time
Jira vs IBM DOORS Next Logo
Jira vs IBM DOORS Next
Compared 17% of the time
3SL Cradle vs IBM DOORS Next Logo
3SL Cradle vs IBM DOORS Next
Compared 5% of the time
Helix ALM vs IBM DOORS Next Logo
Helix ALM vs IBM DOORS Next
Compared 3% of the time
More IBM DOORS Next Competitors
 

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide
IBM DOORS
March 2025
IBM DOORS reportDownload IBM DOORS product report
Buyer's Guide
IBM DOORS Next
March 2025
IBM DOORS Next reportDownload IBM DOORS Next product report
 

Also Known As

Rational DOORS
Rational DOORS Next Generation, RDNG, Rational Requirements Composer and IBM RRC
 

Overview

IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS (DOORS) is a Requirements Management (RM) software designed to help organizations manage engineering project requirements throughout the development lifecycle. It provides a central location for capturing, defining, and organizing project requirements, facilitating communication and collaboration among stakeholders like engineers, system designers, and customers. Key features include requirements traceability, version control, and impact analysis, ensuring effective implementation and testing. DOORS improves efficiency, enhances communication, reduces risks, and supports better decision-making through clear visibility into requirements. Compared to its newer, web-based counterpart DOORS Next, the mature DOORS 9 offers a wider range of features with a traditional user interface but lacks web-based functionality and modern integration with IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) tools.

IBM


IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next (DOORS Next) is a requirements management (RM) software designed to help organizations manage engineering project requirements throughout the development lifecycle. It offers a central location for capturing, defining, and organizing project requirements, facilitating collaboration among stakeholders like engineers, system designers, and customers. Key features include requirements traceability, version control, and impact analysis. DOORS Next improves efficiency, enhances communication, reduces risks, and aids in better decision-making through clear traceability and version control. Compared to its predecessor, DOORS 9, DOORS Next is a web-based version with a modern interface that integrates with other IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) tools, while DOORS 9 offers a wider range of features in a non-web-based format.


IBM
 

Sample Customers

Infosys, Chevrolet Volt
Major health insurer
Buyer's Guide
IBM DOORS vs. IBM DOORS Next
March 2025
Free Report: IBM DOORS vs. IBM DOORS Next
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM DOORS vs. IBM DOORS Next and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
DOWNLOAD NOW
845,040 professionals have used our research since 2012.
See our IBM DOORS vs. IBM DOORS Next report.
See our list of best Application Requirements Management vendors.

We monitor all Application Requirements Management reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.