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Jira vs Jira Align comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 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
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
274
Ranking in other categories
Application Requirements Management (2nd), Project Management Software (2nd)
Jira Align
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (3rd), Value Stream Management Software (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2025, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of Jira is 22.2%, down from 23.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Jira Align is 1.4%, down from 1.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
 

Q&A Highlights

Miriam Tover - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 02, 2019
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Tonia Spight-Sokoya - PeerSpot reviewer
User-friendly with good documentation and the ability to integrate with other third arty vendors
I am really focused on identity access management and getting access to the vendors. Right now, I'm setting up vendor access through Azure. You can do that or with the IAM. Sometimes we have to create several different types of access because we have vaulted databases. We have the Unix databases, I have MySQL, and we have Mongo, where I get access to those user classes or to the databases in the host group. Those are all different access scenario forms that I submit after I do the configuration in the form with the security team. I need clarity on the IAM. I'm not clear on PAM eighter. Is there a form that they have to submit to get access to the internal cyber-risk teams to get their access for people to be able to use the tool on the Confluence side? Do they have to send some kind of form to the operation's security or enterprise security? To be able to get the access for privileged access, do they need to be working on projects that have vaulted databases? I still need to figure out how that works. Other companies that are competitors of Jira and Confluence, are able to create their active directories for the vendors that don't come in internally. They only do access through the cloud and through third-party, two-factor identification. That's something I was wondering if that was already implemented in the packages, the package for Confluence. It would be nice to have that right in the solution.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The level of stability is quite good."
"It is a complete solution. It has more features as compared to other tools, especially the open-source one that we use. It is also easy to administer."
"The burndown charts help track projects."
"The board has been a very valuable feature because it can be very simple for teams that are not technical. It can also be highly technical and have lots of data for teams that are technical. So we use it for both instances."
"I can use Jira Query Language (JQL) to write queries to see the stories that are there for the current sprint. I can also sort them by assignment. I also use Jira is for burndown charts, which give an indication of how efficiently the squad is performing. I also use the Active Sprints function and a feature called Planning Poker."
"Some of the features that are most important to me of JIRA Agile are the sprint planning, being able to write user stories and being able to use task management."
"The most valuable feature is that it has different APIs available, with good services, and it is completely by the books."
"Jira improved our team collaboration by providing visual visibility and transparency. Everyone could see what tasks were being worked on and the progress made. The development team updated task statuses, making tracking progress and planning sprints easy. If there were any impediments or challenges, we addressed them. This process helped us track our progress."
"The initial setup is very straightforward."
"Jira Align is an intuitive tool that features a roadmap view...The initial setup was straightforward...Jira Align is definitely worth the money."
"The reporting structure is great."
"The most valuable features in Jira Align are the dashboard and the reporting feature."
"The product's most valuable feature is CMDB for services desk management and backlog projects."
"The linking of PI Objectives with different features was one of the cool things. It had features, epics, and stories out of the box."
"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 most valuable feature of Jira Align is the overall team vision."
 

Cons

"The reporting capabilities, specifically customized reports, should be improved. The out-of-box reports don't meet our needs. We are big into customizing our reports, and being able to do ad hoc reporting would be good."
"What could be improved is the migration between the testing and production environments. This could be automated somehow as the manual transfer of certain workflows and functionalities is very time consuming right now."
"​I would like integrated requirements management, so we do not have to buy plug-ins for JIRA, since it was hard to get requirements management for it.​"
"For a non-technical person to use, Jira is not intuitive."
"I'm mostly focusing on the requirements traceability with my thesis, the integration could improve for other tools. The companies are not only using Jira. For example, for the test cases or for the documents templates, we are using Polarion and we have been having some integration issues."
"I am unable to query based on the subtask and link by issue."
"I wish the whole workflow process was easier to set up. You put the requirements in and then you send it to the developer. They get a notification. Then they go into Jira."
"Grid: It is really strange that there is no possibility to edit an item in the grid. You need to go inside, and even then, not all items are editable, so you need to switch to edit mode. That's too many clicks and switches."
"The initial setup was a little bit complex."
"I would like to see Jira Align merge and integrate better with Jira as a whole. A lot of the time, the data from Jira won't map very well into Jira Align."
"There is no linkage between the Jira records and the overarching schedule. We maintain the overarching schedule in Microsoft Project, and there is no linkage back and forth with the Jira tasks. They are independent of each other."
"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."
"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."
"We have experienced errors with the internal server that occurs frequently."
"The solution’s stability could be improved."
"Deployment was very complex."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a monthly license required for this solution and it is expensive."
"The price of Jira is reasonable."
"There are other solutions that are free making this solution seem expensive in comparison."
"I don't feel that price is an issue."
"The price of the solution could be lower."
"I am not sure if the client is using a commercial version. I think it is on a per-user basis, and it is around 15 Canadian dollars for a user, but I'm not sure. It also has a free version."
"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."
"We feel that the product is a good value for the cost."
"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."
"The license for Jira Align is priced fairly."
"Jira Align has price packages for different purposes."
"My company pays approximately 399 USD per month for the solution."
"Jira Align was reasonably priced then, especially for a bundle license that accommodated around 50 monthly users."
"Jira Align is an expensive solution."
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Answers from the Community

Miriam Tover - PeerSpot reviewer
Apr 2, 2019
Apr 2, 2019
Some of the fundamental difference between AgileCraft & Jira are 1) Jira was originally a bug tracking tool that has been modified to try and support Agile projects. AgileCraft was developed out of the box with Agile in mind. 2) Jira data structure is flat which means creating a hierarchy for rolled up reporting is problematic even with the 3rd party plugins. 3) AgileCraft was designed...
2 out of 6 answers
MS
Apr 1, 2019
From: Nick Regan from IT Central Station Sent: Monday, April 1, 2019 11:09 AM To: Sternberger, Mark Subject: Seeking expertise in AgileCraft Hi Mark, Can you help out a colleague with the following question about AgileCraft: ----- What Is The Biggest Difference Between AgileCraft And JIRA? One of the most popular comparisons on IT Central Station is AgileCraft vs JIRA. People like you are trying to decide which one is best for their company. Can you help them out? What is the biggest difference between AgileCraft and JIRA? Which of these two solutions would you recommend to a colleague evaluating application lifecycle management suites and why? Thanks for helping your peers make the best decision! ----- Please reply to this email with your response or post your answer here. You've been a member of IT Central Station since March 2019. In a market full of vendor hype, we provide free connections between real users of AgileCraft to share advice and make better buying decisions. Thanks for being part of the community. Nick Regan Community Director, IT Central Station IT Central Station 244 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10001 (646) 328-1944 um-nqn 342024 To change notifications, please visit your subscription page or unsubscribe completely. gitbdelWHFUOFUyYk1sbkN2bzRLUUQyV1pibk1IeHJQRnRwUEFVSm5DYmFvVG0rNTdnQmE0YjY5T1NBS2tlQlNGa3A5SS0tdzNKeGVNUUsxK1JWdVRjblo0b1RQQT09--acfde43e76e9c3b13be36f6090940095bb440d60gitbdel Disclaimer: This email and any attachments are sent in strictest confidence for the sole use of the addressee and may contain legally privileged, confidential, and proprietary data. If you are not the intended recipient, please advise the sender by replying promptly to this email and then delete and destroy this email and any attachments without any further use, copying or forwarding.
KF
Apr 1, 2019
Hi Nick. Considering the two are now the same company, I would defer any answer to the team at Atlassian. https://investors.atlassian.com/financials-and-filings/news/news-details/2019/Atlassian-to-Acquire-AgileCraft-to-Help-Executives-Align-Strategy-to-Execution/default.aspx
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
53%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
6%
Computer Software Company
5%
Financial Services Firm
25%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Insurance Company
6%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

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.
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.
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Jira Software
AgileCraft
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Square, Nasa, eBay, Cisco, SalesForce, Adobe, BNP Paribas, BMW and LinkedIn, Pfizer, Citi.
Anthem, nielsen, Homeland Security, NCR, dimension data
Find out what your peers are saying about Jira vs. Jira Align and other solutions. Updated: March 2025.
842,296 professionals have used our research since 2012.