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

IBM DOORS vs Jira comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Apr 20, 2025

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
7.0
Number of Reviews
55
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Jira
Ranking in Application Requirements Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
274
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (1st), Project Management Software (2nd)
 

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 Jira is 15.7%, down from 16.4% 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…
Saroj Ekka - PeerSpot reviewer
Offers good repository integration, sprint board and easy to set up
There are some features and reports we need that are not there. For example, if I have to find out the capacity of the current sprint by user and compare it with the previous sprint, that visibility isn't there. We can know the capacity and what happened with the whole sprint, but not for an individual person to see where it's falling and how it's tracking. Report and analytics capabilities are important for a product manager. That visibility is important, so we use Jira. Some of the features are there, and I use my own Excels or other data things to compensate for that.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"When you install DOORS locally, you have the flexibility to do what you want with the solution. You can add functionality and do many things that you can't do with other tools or do well enough to satisfy your users' requirements."
"The data logs are ver conveneint."
"I really like the customization that can be done using the DOORS Extension Language (DXL)."
"The most valuable feature is the management verification and login."
"It has the features of: traceability, configuration management, and user access."
"Very customizable and can be as powerful as you want it to be."
"What I like about DOORS is baselines, it's easy and I use the capability of multiple users. The traceability or links between different levels are very nice. Additionally, it is used by all of our suppliers, which brings us commonality."
"The most valuable feature of this solution is traceability. We can track every requirement, including what the stakeholder must do and component-level requirements."
"Jira is user-friendly and offers many features."
"No other platform can compete on speed or search."
"You can record your unit testing, regression testing, UATs, et cetera."
"One of the most valuable features is querying because the jQuery function is very good. Additionally, we can create good designs very easily."
"The customization and tailoring of the workflows have proven to be very useful."
"I think one of the most powerful features in Jira is the customization of fields and workflow."
"In our organization, we use Jira for project management and usually use the Scrum project type. We might adjust the workflows and stages to better suit our needs, but we mostly use the default functionalities it offers to manage our projects."
"A stable solution with no unplanned downtime."
 

Cons

"It's difficult to set the code on the solution."
"The user interface for the Change Proposal System could be improved."
"I think there is probably room to improve by offering free training."
"It would be nice if it could be scaled-down so that it could be installed and implemented without much learning or training."
"The low performance of the solution is probably because it is quite an old tool."
"It is complicated sometimes, such as the logic about updating, moving from one server version to another, and the communication between restricted and non-restricted servers."
"The performance could be improved. It doesn't run as smoothly as it could."
"They need to provide users with information on what options would be best for their setup."
"The user interface is very detailed right now. It could be simplified if they consider targeting the user experience."
"They are not supporting in-house servers anymore and I think I've got until January to port this to something else."
"The part when it comes to the testing area is a bit hard to handle. The screen is too small, you can't really read what you're typing in, and it's only for the testing area. It looks like they have pressed in more than the UI system could handle to display it properly."
"Test case management could be more user-friendly. When we add or update test cases, there should be a better way to organize them within the dashboard."
"End-to-end management from product backlog to test completion could be improved."
"It should be connected to ServiceNow."
"It should have Behavior Driven Development (BDD). There should be an option to add macros to help with that. A lot of people are using it now, and it would be nice if there was a way in there to be able to generate the BDD of commands whenever you're creating a story."
"My main concern is the administration of projects, especially user groups, and this requires root access rights but there is no concept of layered admin rights."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"I am not sure why it is so expensive, but one license will cost approximately $15,000 in US dollars."
"Pricing can vary depending on the size of the organization and how contracts are negotiated."
"IBM Rational DOORS is highly expensive."
"It is expensive to onboard additional users."
"The licensing costs for the product are quite high."
"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."
"The licensing cost is too high."
"It's expensive."
"For very small companies, if you have less than 10 individuals, it is $10 a year for each of the products. When we were a part of the enterprise and had more than 10 people using it, or before they came up with this solution for small companies, it was $2,500 a year for the license for Jira and Confluence, and I believe something like $600 a year to perpetuate the license. I can't remember if it was $600 or $2,500 annually. It was for up to 25 people at the time, and this was in the early 2000s and mid 2000s."
"If you are using just Jira, it is cheap, but if you start to use it and you feel you need some more services or more functions, then you have to buy add-ons, which can make it expensive."
"The tool's pricing is reasonable."
"It is not too expensive. It is just comparative to other tools like Microsoft Teams."
"When you get larger, the pricing becomes very, very steep."
"There are no additional costs to the standard licensing."
"We are a regional research and education institute. We're using the free license provided for educational institutes."
"Compared to the value Jira provides, it’s not that expensive. It has an yearly licensing cost."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Requirements Management solutions are best for your needs.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
26%
Computer Software Company
9%
Aerospace/Defense Firm
8%
Government
6%
Educational Organization
50%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
 

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.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Rational DOORS?
Over the years, the first version cost something around 5800 euros.
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...
Is Jira better or would you go with Micro Focus ALM Octane?
Hi Netanya, Basically , it all depends on the use cases for your environment and the business needs. Hope the below data may be relevant to you for identifying your needs and deciding on the approp...
Which is better - Jira or Microsoft Azure DevOps?
Jira is a great centralized tool for just about everything, from local team management to keeping track of products and work logs. It is easy to implement and navigate, and it is stable and scalabl...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Jira?
We operate under a nonlimited license with Jira, allowing a number of users to access it with a single enterprise license.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Rational DOORS
Jira Software
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Infosys, Chevrolet Volt
Square, Nasa, eBay, Cisco, SalesForce, Adobe, BNP Paribas, BMW and LinkedIn, Pfizer, Citi.
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM DOORS vs. Jira and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
848,716 professionals have used our research since 2012.