Jira Align vs Rally Software comparison

Atlassian and Broadcom are both solutions in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category. Atlassian is ranked #8 with an average rating of 8.0, while Broadcom is ranked #10 with an average rating of 6.8. Atlassian holds a 1.6% mindshare in ALM, compared to Broadcom’s 6.4% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Atlassian users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Broadcom users who would recommend it.

Jira Align

Read 41 Jira Align reviews

3,429 Views
926 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Rally Software

Read 119 Rally Software reviews

4,485 Views
4,216 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Jira Align

Rally Software

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Rally Software and Jira Align compete in the project management and Agile tools category, both catering to enterprise-level planning. Rally Software holds an advantage in ease of use and detailed progress tracking, while Jira Align excels in integration capabilities and portfolio management efficiency.

Features: Rally Software offers detailed progress tracking, customizable reporting, and an intuitive interface for agile methodologies. It supports release management and Kanban, although it is more focused on scrum features. Jira Align is known for strong portfolio management and integration with Jira, providing program-level reporting and a scalable structure that supports enterprise agile practices.

Room for Improvement: Rally Software can enhance its defect management cycle, Kanban functionalities, and tool integration for better analytics. Users find its interface could be more intuitive. Jira Align users face challenges with navigation, Jira integration, and customization, especially within portfolio management. The synchronization speed between Jira and Jira Align also needs improvement.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Both platforms offer deployment in public and private clouds, with Rally also providing hybrid solutions. Rally Software's technical support is praised for responsiveness and knowledgeable service. Jira Align's support is generally reliable, although training and documentation could be enhanced to help users maximize features.

Pricing and ROI: Rally Software is priced higher, with significant ROI when agile practices are well executed, although cost might be prohibitive for small organizations. Jira Align is also costly, particularly for smaller businesses, but larger enterprises find value in its integration with Jira and comprehensive features, contributing to a positive ROI despite the upfront expense.

To learn more, read our detailed Jira Align vs. Rally Software Report (Updated: July 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Jira Align vs. Rally Software

July 2025

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Helped 861,524 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

Jira Align

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

8th

Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

4th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Value Stream Management Software (1st)

Rally Software

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

10th

Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

6.9

Number of Reviews

119

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Mindshare comparison

As of July 2025, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of Jira Align is 1.6%, down from 1.6% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rally Software is 6.4%, down from 6.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

Featured Reviews

ShyiamaKishun

Senior Manager, Technology & Delivery at S&R TECHNOLOGY

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.

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Deep Maini

Agile CSM - Sr. Scrum Master at Alliant Energy Corporation

Helps you collaborate on various effects and solutions from the top to the bottom of the organization

We use Rally Software extensively in our agile development processes. We have program boards set up where we write and break down stories. We assign story points and map dependencies between different stories, showing how stories from one team may depend on stories from another team. It integrates these functions well, especially compared to Jira, which has some limitations in this area. The tool keeps improving based on how teams actually work in Scaled Agile, continually upgrading their software versions to meet our needs. I find the whole Rally Software tool integrated very nicely. In Jira, we often go to Confluence for documentation using two separate tools. But in the product, it's not like that. The documentation is tightly integrated. I don't feel like switching to another tool, like going from Jira to Confluence. The tool is designed for collaboration. It shows your organization's view, showing different teams and verticals. It helps you collaborate on various effects and solutions from the top to the bottom of the organization. It has an ecosystem that supports this. All the dependencies between different teams can be easily mapped in Rally Software. They have a program board for that purpose.

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

"The technical support team responds quickly and resolves issues effectively."

"Velocity and reporting provide good visibility, burndown charts, and particularly velocity measurement."

"The OKR experience is great."

"In our workflow, we utilize a dashboard. Our product development backbone relies on two-week sprints. At the beginning of each sprint, we conduct a planning meeting to discuss and challenge the backlogs. Throughout the sprint, we conduct daily sessions to review code, ensure alignment with coding standards, and address any issues. Once all tasks are completed, we proceed with the deployment process."

"I like Jira's structured project plan, with tasks and subtasks. Jira can use various external plugins. Third-party providers can add new features to the solution. If I need some functionality, I can usually find an app for it. They have thousands."

"The initial setup is very straightforward."

"The reporting structure is great."

"I like the way the UI functions."

More Jira Align pros

"The most valuable feature of this solution is the Kanban board."

"The most valuable features are in-line editing, easy custom view setup, intuitive and helpful visuals (e.g., contextual formatting) and the collaboration features."

"The most valuable feature is actually creating a field within there for architectural review. So when teams are struggling or have questions on the architecture or strategy that they take, they can actually flag that particular story, release, or project. Those can then be reviewed by the architecture team and the teams actually get additional information on how to course-correct, build on the architecture that we're trying to build throughout the organization, and get over road blocks much quicker."

"Helps me determine how fast I can launch, go to production."

"With this product, searching for historical information or the evolution of the requirement, detecting conflict between projects has helped a lot."

"It is very stable. It has been on the market a long time."

"The metrics - collecting metrics. It's because we've used several other tools in the past, and they don't give you a full indication of how well your teams are performing, at a portfolio level, at a product level, and at the team level."

"We can work better and at a higher quality, than we were able to before."

More Rally Software pros

Cons

"Jira Align can improve the visibility of executive teams."

"The initial setup was a little bit complex."

"AI is utilized worldwide; they could implement the functionality for notifications and other organizational operations in the product."

"It should just have the integration with Jira. We haven't looked at it since Atlassian bought the product."

"One area where Jira Align could be improved is mobile accessibility."

"Other companies that are competitors of Jira and Confluence, they are able to create their active directories for the vendors that don't come in internally."

"The tool must provide better bulk editing features."

"The product should improve its communication. My English proficiency is not high, but writing in English is another skill that you need. Maybe AI can help here. Because I can see in some other applications, they have AI helpers. So when you write something and you want to do something, it can help. For example, Google Cloud Platform has it. They have a helpdesk for it. When you want to create a cluster, it can help you."

More Jira Align cons

"We would like more meaningful, customizable dashboards."

"I think there is a missing link with the development activity. Some developers are pushing in new versions of the code, but you cannot make the link from the user story to a specific application version."

"We did submit an enhancement request. I think a lot of teams that do very large scale products have the same issue. They just do not realize it would help them."

"It could improve by being self-organizing: user stories, different hierarchies, and different perspectives. Not just as a single hierarchical structure, but something that can be multidimensional."

"I'd like the ability to customize reports without having to incur Professional Services, or having to write my own code GitHub and then implement that as a custom report. That's untenable. It's not sustainable."

"The Reporting feature can improve, especially around executive summaries and dependency mapping."

"One problem I see is that if there is a dependent user story - for example, if my team is working on one thing and there is a dependent user story from another team - we can have a dependency created but we don't know if there is a change of status from the other team. That is something which is very important for Agile Central to look into so that if the other team makes any changes we will be notified as well."

"What I don't like about it is that it is really hard to find old work to reference information and use the reporting section of the application in terms of trying to analyze trends. If I am trying to find out which interfaces took this long and I want to compare and measure improvement from one quarter to another quarter, the reporting mechanism within Rally is very troublesome. They have an Excel plugin that you're supposed to use, but you literally have to pull the raw data out before you can do the analysis. You can't do it within Rally, and if you can, it is a secret, and I don't know how to do it. It should have better, easier, and user-friendly reporting without having to use the Excel add-in. It is very clunky. There is a lot of data in there, but it is not organized in such a way that makes it intuitive. You really have to kind of look for where do you put your documentation or dates. Some customization is available, but it is not plug-and-play like Jira. When I switched from TFS to Jira, I just went and started using Jira, whereas with Rally, you kind of have to really get in and figure out what you need to do before you set stuff up, or you're going to get yourself stuck. You can just start using Jira and be successful."

More Rally Software cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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 has price packages for different purposes."

"The license for Jira Align is priced fairly."

"Jira Align is quite expensive for small-to-medium companies, but it's quite reasonable for larger ones."

"At our company, we were concerned about the cost of Jira Align, which is expensive"

"Jira Align's pricing is reasonable."

"Our customers buy licenses. We are not involved in its purchase."

"Jira Align is an expensive solution."

More Jira Align pricing and cost advice

"Rally Software costs $50 a month, and for a base account, that price is acceptable."

"I understand it's a little more expensive. That is why many people prefer Jira."

"It is expensive and may not be worthwhile for a small company."

"We are always looking for a discount, if the solution was less expensive it would be a benefit."

"Frankly, pricing is expensive and needs to be carefully planned for when budgeting."

"I don't know the exact pricing, but I think the tool is priced high. They provide quality workmanship, good software, regular upgrades, and they're always attentive and listen to users. Everything comes with a price. I think it's an expensive solution compared to Jira or other competitors, but it's a complete package."

"From a price point, it's a cost effective solution for our needs."

"The license costs are fairly high as compared to some of the other solutions out there."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

21%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Insurance Company

Educational Organization

24%

Manufacturing Company

12%

Financial Services Firm

Insurance Company

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...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Jira Align?

The platform's communication features could be more robust for better team integration.

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What do you like most about Rally Software?

Rally offers many features that help the management of activities, coordination, alignment and reports, which applies agility across the organization. If I were to highlight a particular feature, i...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rally Software?

I don't know the exact pricing, but I think the tool is priced high. They provide quality workmanship, good software, regular upgrades, and they're always attentive and listen to users. Everything ...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Rally Software?

The product itself seems to have a lot of bugs. One issue is that it sometimes allows people to modify data inappropriately. For example, team members can change numbers at will. While we have a me...

See all answers

Comparisons

OpenText Core Software Delivery Platform vs Jira Align

Compared 33% of the time

ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management vs Jira Align

Compared 27% of the time

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Jira Align

Compared 7% of the time

Jira vs Jira Align

Compared 6% of the time

Broadcom Clarity vs Jira Align

Compared 5% of the time

More Jira Align Competitors

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Rally Software

Compared 31% of the time

Jira vs Rally Software

Compared 30% of the time

TFS vs Rally Software

Compared 6% of the time

OpenText Application Quality Management vs Rally Software

Compared 5% of the time

Smartsheet vs Rally Software

Compared 4% of the time

More Rally Software Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Jira Align

July 2025

Download Jira Align product report

Buyer's Guide

Rally Software

June 2025

Download Rally Software product report

Also Known As

AgileCraft

CA Agile Central, Rally Enterprise, CA Agile Training, CA Agile Coaching, CA Agile Academy, CA Agile Management , CA ALM

Overview

Jira Align is a cloud-based agile planning tool designed to help enterprises visualize, manage, and carry out large-scale software and IT projects. Jira Align’s features are designed to align the activities of your company’s development team with the overall goals of the organization by helping you achieve the following results:

Connect and coordinate enterprise-level business teams.
Make your entire enterprise’s work visible to drive and improve business outcomes.
Improve product quality with a fully aligned organization.
Shorten delivery cycles by increasing operational efficiency.

With Jira Align’s integration with Jira Software, businesses can simplify governing large-scale software development efforts by translating their strategy and goals into the technical execution and delivery of work.

Jira Align uses the aggregated data from Jira Software to produce reports on every aspect of the development process. Product stakeholders are granted immediate visibility into the progress that has been made and can easily identify delays and their causes.

The solution also assists in budget planning by assigning expenses to various work items and giving management real-time insights into ongoing expenditures and performance against set budgets.

Jira Align Features

Some of the top features and benefits of using Jira Align include:

Strategy management: Jira Align provides a clear visualization of where your enterprise is holding via strategic snapshots. The snapshot helps guide teams throughout the product. With the snapshot in view, it becomes easier to see and track the goals your company wants to carry out.

Progress monitoring: View a progress bar that provides indication of the level of completeness of your projects. The interface is populated with live data, which assists with planning and execution reporting.

Reporting and metrics: Jira Align creates valuable insights using the aggregated data it collects, ensuring that changes are tracked across teams and results are made visible early on in the process. These metrics allow managers to quickly determine what actions need to be taken.

Scalability: Jira Align is designed to work within organizations with hundreds of technical staff members and it can scale to support tens of thousands of users.

Backlogs and workflows: Effectively manage your work utilizing backlogs and workflow boards.

Customizable dashboard: Lay out key data points to help management keep tabs on important items. Easily make decisions based on active live consolidated data along with forecasting, risk tracking reports, and more. To help lower risks, Jira Align provides you with a visualization of program cross dependencies. It also displays a comprehensive view of resource utilization across projects, and highlights inefficiencies so that they can be resolved quickly.

Reviews from Real Users

Jira Align stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its program-level planning options and its reporting capabilities.

A project manager at a consultancy notes, “I like how things can be sorted out, and it shows the different objectives one can do. You could also create a team view that would allow your team to see work outcomes. Jira Align also helps with the reporting, because we can export data to Excel or another format.”

Atlassian

With Rally Software, you can plan, prioritize, manage, track, and continuously improve your work so that you can deliver the value that your customers need with speed, quality, and efficiency. Our enterprise-class Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) SaaS platform provides visibility into progress, roadblocks, and dependencies across multiple teams, projects, and programs. This allows you to align to your strategic goals and create better business results, and to do it all in a single system of record.

Broadcom

Sample Customers

Anthem, nielsen, Homeland Security, NCR, dimension data

Physicians Mutual, Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare, Editora Abril, Tata Communications, Level 3 Communications, Seagate, TomTom, Philips, Hiscox, Physicians Mutual, MYOB

Buyer's Guide

Jira Align vs. Rally Software

July 2025

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