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JIRA Portfolio vs Jira Align comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

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

Jira Align
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (9th), Value Stream Management Software (1st)
JIRA Portfolio
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of February 2025, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of Jira Align is 4.9%, down from 5.8% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of JIRA Portfolio is 1.1%, down from 2.3% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
 

Featured Reviews

ShyiamaKishun - PeerSpot reviewer
Has a straightforward setup process and efficient project management features .
Jira Align supports program increment planning by facilitating the planning aspect, including team setup, dependency management, and defining the layout for each step or stage in a project. The platform aids in breaking down targets into parts, aligning with Agile principles, and ensuring a structured layout. The most impactful feature of Jira Align for project management lies in its capabilities related to planning and setting up projects. The platform visually understands targets, offering a clear and detailed layout. We can determine when to speed up the process or access the project. We can address the issues related to planning and development efficiently. It is a great product to use, aiding in project planning and alignment. I recommend it to others and rate it a ten out of ten.
Gary Craven - PeerSpot reviewer
Powerful, flexible solution with a bit of a learning curve
The weakness of the solution is that the interface is a little nonstandard, meaning it's very flexible. It's got a lot of power and gives the user the ability to combine different projects into the portfolio and move user stories between projects and link them. What I have found in a couple of organizations that I've used it with, is that the uptake tends to be a little slow because it's got a bit of a learning curve. It can dump data out to Excel and those programs, but it also has a big ecosystem of plugins and add-ons that you can get. I guess it has some strength in that regard, but if you're going to run it on-prem, you have to have people that are pretty well-versed in the program and have the time and capabilities to handle integration and make sure they're adding those modules correctly. Their interface is a little unique and I think that's partly because the core of the product has morphed into several sub-products, but the underlying architecture has stayed the same on all of them in that it was originally a help desk ticketing system. Now they are moving into these new use cases, including systems development, business projects, business processes, and redevelopment projects, but there is a problem with the nomenclature that they use, and some of the documentation is a little techy for moving it into those more business-focused use cases. It's a very tech-focused product and that's fair given its origins, but if they really want to expand their community of users, then they're going to have to move beyond that a little bit and polish it up.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"In my previous experience, the Portfolio and Structure feature in Jira is really valuable because it assists with forecasting for projects."
"Jira Align helps us manage communication and tasks for a variety of teams without overlap."
"Jira Align has been quite a helpful tool for us because, without it, we would be juggling with all our story points or our backlog items, which would be difficult to manage."
"It's easy to set up."
"Jira Align is an intuitive tool that features a roadmap view...The initial setup was straightforward...Jira Align is definitely worth the money."
"The product has good visualization capabilities and helps to see the different dimensions of a plan."
"Jira Align's most valuable feature is the view of strategic control reports for high-level directors."
"The reporting structure is great."
"The most valuable feature for me is the visualization and organizing of the tasks. We can have a pick, and then we can stick the multiple issues under that, and then we can again have a sort of hierarchical installation, and that's very useful."
"The integration is very good. We've more or less integrated with everything including reporting and registering."
"Version management is the most valuable feature of JIRA Portfolio."
"The initial setup is simple."
"The most valuable feature of the JIRA Portfolio is for managing teams of 10 or more. It can track the program level and portfolio. There are plenty of beneficial features, such as the hierarchy-level view, customization, and structure plugin."
"What I like about the product is its extensive features, particularly the wide set of attributes for tracking issues. Jira Portfolio allows us to track not only the overall project but also specific components within it. This is beneficial for all stakeholders, including developers and business owners. For example, business stakeholders can track all issues, regardless of status."
"The documentation is very well done."
"The most valuable feature is that it fits very well into an agile framework, and it is especially helpful with the planning aspects."
 

Cons

"Someone who is new to Jira or doesn't have many years of working experience in Jira Align gets easily lost because everything looks the same in the product."
"It would be helpful if they had something for capacity planning that was simpler to understand."
"One feature that needs improvement is the tool's ability to change schedules automatically. Users can't simply drag and drop tasks to reschedule them without notifying the entire team. This lack of functionality can hinder project management control, as changes should be communicated transparently to all team members."
"Lacks sufficient reporting capabilities."
"It should just have the integration with Jira. We haven't looked at it since Atlassian bought the product."
"For future releases of Jira Align, I would suggest making workflows simpler and more user-friendly."
"The tool's corporate pricing is expensive."
"The framework could be better."
"Our major team does not control or manage JIRA server well since sometimes there is trouble using the solution, which is a problem. The solution's speed needs to be improved."
"JIRA Portfolio could improve new implementation because if I want integration for the complete wide frame tools it cannot provide any wide frame tools."
"If you want to generate a report for individual usage, it's difficult."
"If I get a feature but there is not a user story, and I want to know which epic it belongs to, it is really hard to figure out."
"It's got kind of a steep learning curve."
"JIRA Portfolio's configuration management could be improved."
"n the next version I would like to see better reporting and safer plugins, as well as easier scalability."
"Requires some effort to insert functionalities and that could be simplified."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Jira Align is an expensive solution."
"The license for Jira Align is priced fairly."
"Our customers buy licenses. We are not involved in its purchase."
"At our company, we were concerned about the cost of Jira Align, which is expensive"
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate Jira Align a seven out of ten."
"Jira Align was reasonably priced then, especially for a bundle license that accommodated around 50 monthly users."
"Jira Align has price packages for different purposes."
"The tool is moderately expensive."
"I use the free version for personal use."
"The pricing of the solution is expensive."
"The price is reasonable"
"The product is really not very expensive."
"Portfolio is very expensive, costing on average $2000-3000 per user per month."
"This solution has a comparable pricing in comparison to other similar products on the market."
"When we first got the tool, it cost 3,000 euros a year for unlimited users, which was a great deal. But the prices kept going up over the years. I'm not involved with pricing anymore, but I heard they increased a lot, so we decided to stop using it."
"Portfolio is well-priced - a license for ten users costs $100 or $150 a month."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
28%
Computer Software Company
13%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Insurance Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
21%
Computer Software Company
16%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Jira Align?
I joined the company because they had a large project, and as a startup company, they needed to scale up efficiently. My task was to review the current baseline, assess the team's capabilities, and...
What needs improvement with Jira Align?
The platform's communication features could be more robust for better team integration.
What is your primary use case for Jira Align?
We use Jira Align for business strategies, collaboration, and reporting. The solution allows us to manage the various products and features delivered on that platform.
What do you like most about JIRA Portfolio?
The solution's tracking capabilities helped ensure we had full visibility into planned work and scheduled work.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for JIRA Portfolio?
I am part of the delivery team and am not exposed to the commercial information. However, from what I understand, JIRA is competitively priced. It is not considered expensive in the market.
What needs improvement with JIRA Portfolio?
User experience should be more intuitive. Currently, it's not that intuitive. Additionally, a lot of querying and customization is needed for reporting. If there could be some templates out of the ...
 

Also Known As

AgileCraft
Portfolio for JIRA
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Anthem, nielsen, Homeland Security, NCR, dimension data
Rosetta Stone, Sprint, UBS, Workday, Expedia, J.P. Morgan
Find out what your peers are saying about JIRA Portfolio vs. Jira Align and other solutions. Updated: January 2025.
837,501 professionals have used our research since 2012.