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Jira vs Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Rally Software comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

Review summaries and opinions

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

ROI

Sentiment score
7.3
Jira enhances efficiency and productivity, offering quick ROI and integration, though opinions on updates and support are mixed.
Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Azure DevOps offers positive ROI, enhancing productivity and integration, especially within larger organizations using Microsoft infrastructure.
Sentiment score
7.9
Rally Software improves efficiency and ROI, simplifies processes, offers valuable insights, and outperforms Quality Center in cost-effectiveness.
On a scale of one to ten, where ten is the best, I would say ROI is an eight.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Atlassian's documentation and forums often suffice, but customer support has mixed reviews on responsiveness and problem-solving effectiveness.
Sentiment score
7.0
Microsoft Azure DevOps support is generally prompt and effective, though some users note delays and deployment support gaps.
Sentiment score
6.9
Rally Software's customer service is knowledgeable and responsive, but response times can be slower for complex issues.
Resolving issues took time since understanding our unique problems was not always straightforward for support teams.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Jira is scalable with planning, though some face performance issues and integration concerns as demands grow.
Sentiment score
7.6
Microsoft Azure DevOps offers excellent scalability, efficiently managing numerous users and projects across various organization sizes without performance issues.
Sentiment score
7.2
Rally Software is known for scalability and agile integration, with minor slow-downs but no major data handling issues.
The scalability has left me pleased, not just for our teams in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, but as we expanded into North America, Africa, and even Australia.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Jira is praised for its stability and performance, with occasional issues mostly related to server setups or customizations.
Sentiment score
8.0
Microsoft Azure DevOps is praised for its stability, with minor issues quickly resolved, receiving high ratings from users.
Sentiment score
7.3
Rally Software is stable with reliable uptime, but users face occasional performance issues, needing improvement in reporting and speed.
The solution is stable, and we did not encounter any stability issues.
 

Room For Improvement

Jira's complex interface, limited features, and high costs hinder usability, requiring improvements in performance, integration, and customization.
Users seek improved integration, customization, reporting, and pricing in Azure DevOps, highlighting challenges with setup, updates, and project management.
Users seek improved navigation, performance, reporting, Kanban support, integration, and customization in Rally Software for better user satisfaction.
Those processes are a bit difficult for some customers who may not have technical knowledge and don't go through the entire documentation.
Enhanced system guidance highlighting best practices would be beneficial, especially if experienced personnel are not available for support.
 

Setup Cost

Jira offers flexible, moderately priced licensing with subscription options, but costs can rise with plugins and large deployments.
Microsoft Azure DevOps provides flexible, competitive pricing from $5 to $15 per user monthly, with discounts for partners and free options.
Rally Software is costly compared to competitors, but offers value for agile scaling and negotiable professional services for large users.
They don't even provide a POC where you can have a sandbox or stuff that you can go through and see how exactly it's costing.
I find it to be expensive.
 

Valuable Features

Jira provides robust project management, Agile support, and integrations, enhancing team collaboration with customizable workflows and a user-friendly interface.
Azure DevOps offers comprehensive features enhancing productivity with CI/CD pipelines, user-friendly tools, and seamless team collaboration.
Our company organized a training session with a certified Azure expert, which was extremely beneficial for adopting best practices during the initial three months.
I can't approve my own request and move the code around without a review.
 

Mindshare comparison

As of April 2025, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of Jira is 21.9%, down from 23.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure DevOps is 17.5%, down from 24.3% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rally Software is 6.8%, up from 5.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
 

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.
Ivan Angelov - PeerSpot reviewer
Facilitates agile transformation with potential for enhanced intuitiveness
What I liked about the solution is that it offers numerous features that are not available by default unless you are agile. Transitioning from the traditional Waterfall model to an agile methodology was challenging for us. Until 2020, our team predominantly worked with the Waterfall approach, using local tools like ServiceNow. We had a few team members who were familiar with Agile ISO, but none had experience with Azure. Therefore, we pursued Azure certification at the AZ-900 level. Our company organized a training session with a certified Azure expert, which was extremely beneficial for adopting best practices during the initial three months. This preparation helped us get accustomed to the new tool, as transitioning to a new system invariably requires time. Managing a pipeline of deliverables became significantly easier with this solution. We utilized it for stories and integrated change management with Azure DevOps. Eventually, everything related to the environment was organized there, enabling us to follow up and track progress with our technical engineers on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis. Reports were automatically generated and sent to management, offering them insights into our progress concerning the predefined roadmap.
Deep Maini - PeerSpot reviewer
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.
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Comparison Review

it_user355629 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 19, 2015
JIRA can do incident management, work configuration, and a lot of other different things. But we haven't found anything as compelling as CA Agile.
The tools are not overly complex for Agile. It appears that CA has recognized that. They're not just building the connector for Rally, but they are also allowing other groups to build connectors from JIRA into CA PPM and from other tools to CA PPM. If you are looking at open source products, why…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Educational Organization
50%
Manufacturing Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
7%
Computer Software Company
6%
Manufacturing Company
13%
Computer Software Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
12%
Government
9%
Educational Organization
75%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Insurance Company
3%
 

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 d...
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 a...
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 lic...
Which is better - TFS or Azure DevOps?
TFS and Azure DevOps are different in many ways. TFS was designed for admins, and only offers incremental improvement...
What do you like most about Microsoft Azure DevOps?
Valuable features for project management and tracking in Azure DevOps include a portal displaying test results, check...
Microsoft Azure DevOps: what is your experience regarding pricing and costs ?
Regarding the costs involved, I am not heavily involved in the financial operations side. I do know that we spent a c...
What do you like most about Rally Software?
Rally offers many features that help the management of activities, coordination, alignment and reports, which applies...
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,...
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 inappropr...
 

Also Known As

Jira Software
Azure DevOps, VSTS, Visual Studio Team Services, MS Azure DevOps
CA Agile Central, Rally Enterprise, CA Agile Training, CA Agile Coaching, CA Agile Academy, CA Agile Management , CA ALM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Square, Nasa, eBay, Cisco, SalesForce, Adobe, BNP Paribas, BMW and LinkedIn, Pfizer, Citi.
Alaska Airlines, Iberia Airlines, Columbia, Skype
Physicians Mutual, Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare, Editora Abril, Tata Communications, Level 3 Communications, Seagate, TomTom, Philips, Hiscox, Physicians Mutual, MYOB
Find out what your peers are saying about Atlassian, Microsoft, Nutanix and others in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites. Updated: April 2025.
848,989 professionals have used our research since 2012.