Jira vs Polarion ALM comparison

Atlassian and Siemens are both solutions in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category. Atlassian is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4, while Siemens is ranked #6 with an average rating of 8.3. Atlassian holds a 21.9% mindshare in ALM, compared to Siemens’s 8.1% mindshare. Additionally, 91% of Atlassian users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 86% of Siemens users who would recommend it.

Jira

Read 274 Jira reviews

15,002 Views
10,262 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

Polarion ALM

Read 21 Polarion ALM reviews

4,114 Views
2,819 Comparison Views

86% willing to recommend

Jira

Polarion ALM

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Jan 12, 2025

Jira and Polarion ALM are both strong contenders in the project management and application lifecycle management space, catering to different user needs and industries. Jira seems to have the upper hand with its flexibility and integration options, while Polarion ALM stands out for industries requiring stringent compliance.

Features: Jira offers customization of workflows, manages sprint planning, and provides an adaptable Kanban board for both technical and non-technical users. It integrates well with other tools and offers easy deployment and robust reporting options. Polarion ALM excels in traceability across requirements, development, and testing, making it ideal for industries needing compliance. It integrates work management, source code management, and test automation while offering document control features.

Room for Improvement: Jira requires better requirement management integration without third-party plugins, improved report customization, and enhanced viewing and management of attachments. Polarion ALM needs to improve its ease of use and integration with external tools, with users pointing out challenges with editing capabilities, reporting, and task management complexity.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Jira offers various deployment options, including public, private, and hybrid clouds, as well as on-premises. It benefits from a strong community and detailed documentation, but direct support is sometimes inconsistent. Polarion ALM is mainly available on-premises and private cloud, with mixed customer support experiences, particularly in response times and support scope.

Pricing and ROI: Jira's competitive pricing appeals to small to medium enterprises with lower initial costs and flexible subscription models, though costs can rise with add-ons. Polarion ALM is considered more expensive, posing a barrier for small enterprises, but offers significant ROI for industries with specialized compliance needs.

To learn more, read our detailed Jira vs. Polarion ALM Report (Updated: March 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Jira vs. Polarion ALM

March 2025

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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)

Polarion ALM

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

6th

Average Rating

7.8

Reviews Sentiment

6.5

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (6th)

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 Polarion ALM is 8.1%, up from 5.5% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

Featured Reviews

Saroj Ekka

Technical Delivery Lead at Applied Materials

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.

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Dina Bindi

Information and Communication technology at CNH Industrial

Provides traceability and compliance with high flexibility

It's extremely flexible. Configuring items is straightforward and doesn't require involving the supplier each time. We find the requirement management, test management, documentation, and dashboards very effective. However, we don't use DevOps-related features, such as integration with tools like SVN or Git, because we use Azure DevOps. The aspects related to requirements, testing, changes, tasks, and agile methodology are excellent, which is why we've been using it for a long time.

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 roadmap feature and the ability to integrate with Power BI are probably the most valuable features in it. It is a great solution. I absolutely love it. It is a tool that was designed for project management, and it has been awesome to work with it so far. I also love Confluence."

"It includes by default all the necessary tools for a project manager to work and make their work more efficient."

"This product provides you a good view of the status of your projects."

"The most valuable feature of Jira is that it's a well-known tool that many people are familiar with."

"Being able to automatize the deployment of the solution has been great."

"The product's initial setup phase was straightforward."

"It's very flexible. I can define workflows and custom fields and dependencies between issues and projects. And every project can have a custom configuration with my fields, my names for fields, my validations, and my workflows. It's very customizable."

"The most valuable feature is the feature of assigning. Whenever I have an issue, Jira doesn't stop at just letting me describe the issue. I can also assign the issue to a developer, and the developer gets notified about it. After he is able to work on it, he can update the status and revert back to me through the same platform. It really avoids a lot of communication over email and phone. This the feature that I really like about Jira. I always use Jira with my team."

More Jira pros

"It's extremely flexible. Configuring items is straightforward and doesn't require involving the supplier each time. We find the requirement management, test management, documentation, and dashboards very effective."

"The solution offers good integration."

"Polarion ALM's integration is very good and easy to use."

"The tool helped us to more effectively and efficiently gather and structure the information (requirements, test plans, project management data, etc.), and share it with the involved stakeholders in a safe and change-controlled manner."

"Polarion ALM helps us better structure our customer requirements, and we can also validate the specs of our products against those. If anything changes on our side, we see the impact, and we can see the effect If a customer changes requirements."

"The initial setup of this solution was straightforward, and there were not too many problems with it."

"The technical support is quite good."

"The software is stable."

More Polarion ALM pros

Cons

"The help desk and services management features are in need of improvement."

"There needs to be an easier way to capture a few metrics. I wish there was an easy way for Jira to explain to me what has been added after the sprint has been done. Currently, it is a bit difficult for me to tell. In addition, when rolling over stories from one sprint to another, it is kind of difficult for me to find out how many story points were actually rolled over without going into Jira and doing an analysis. I wish Jira would somehow aggregate that information for me so I can easily report about it."

"It is not user-friendly."

"I would love to have more features to make nice documents, like Release Notes or a feature overview, right from JIRA."

"Sometimes the screens can be a bit too busy. There's often a lot of information on the screen. I think paring things down and applying some UX improvements might enhance the look and feel of the interface."

"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."

"Reporting is something Jira could work on. The reporting capabilities should have the same flexibility we see in Excel, including the ability to manipulate data and create graphs. They need to have that, so we don't need to export to a spreadsheet."

"Adding applications is very expensive."

More Jira cons

"The interface for this solution needs to be made more user-friendly to provide a better user experience."

"The solution's editing capabilities need improvement."

"The solution can be improved by making it more user-friendly, and a server-based application rather than client based."

"Integration requires a lot of effort. You typically need to work with an implementation partner to get it done. Most connectors available for Polarion ALM are paid. Unlike other vendors offering several standard connectors for free, integrating third-party software with Polarion ALM involves discussing and coordinating with the third-party software providers, which requires effort."

"Test management lacks an automated process."

"Based on my understanding, the tool's integration capabilities with multiple tools is an area of concern that Polarion needs to focus on more."

"I also recently suggested that CMS consider incorporating generative artificial intelligence into the system."

"The weak point of Polarion ALM software is about reporting and time for extraction of the data...The quality of reporting needs to improve."

More Polarion ALM cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The licensing model is annoying. They nickel and dime you."

"We are on an annual license and could be less expensive."

"There are other solutions that are free making this solution seem expensive in comparison."

"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."

"The price is quite competitive."

"The pricing for Jira is reasonable, although I think they can bring it down because the plugins cost extra."

"The price of Jira could be lower."

"It is an affordable tool."

More Jira pricing and cost advice

"You have to pay around 50-60 euros per user."

"Our license for Polarion ALM is yearly. And it's not the cheapest tool that we've looked at. So if we had made our decision purely based on the licensing cost, we wouldn't have selected Polarion."

"If the pricing would come down and it was more affordable then we wouldn't have to switch."

"The solution is expensive."

"Software for medical devices is always expensive."

"The license model is okay for large companies but would be quite expensive for smaller enterprises."

"It is an expensive product."

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

53%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

Computer Software Company

Manufacturing Company

26%

Computer Software Company

15%

Healthcare Company

Financial Services Firm

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

What do you like most about Polarion ALM?

It is a very stable solution.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Polarion ALM?

Polarion ALM ( /categories/application-lifecycle-management-alm-suites ) could see improvements in performance and scalability. The system’s technology is not the most current, leading to missing f...

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Polarion ALM?

Polarion ALM ( /products/polarion-alm-reviews ) is a tool that delivers both document views and table views simultaneously. It organizes configurations according to norms and standards, making it s...

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Jira

Compared 16% of the time

IBM DOORS vs Jira

Compared 11% of the time

OpenText ALM Octane vs Jira

Compared 9% of the time

Rally Software vs Jira

Compared 6% of the time

Codebeamer vs Jira

Compared 4% of the time

More Jira Competitors

Codebeamer vs Polarion ALM

Compared 28% of the time

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Polarion ALM

Compared 16% of the time

Jama Connect vs Polarion ALM

Compared 8% of the time

PTC Integrity vs Polarion ALM

Compared 6% of the time

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs Polarion ALM

Compared 4% of the time

More Polarion ALM Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Jira

March 2025

Download Jira product report

Buyer's Guide

Polarion ALM

March 2025

Download Polarion ALM product report

Also Known As

Jira Software

No data available

Overview

Jira is a powerful cloud- and subscription-based application lifecycle and issue management solution. It is designed to aid users both in project management and in resolving any issues that arise at any point in the software development process. It is especially concerned with easing the ability of developers to collaborate.

Jira Benefits

Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy Jira include:

DevOps lifecycle visibility and planning. Jira provides application developers with tools that enable them to track and visualize where they are in the development process. This means that a DevOps team can measure their progress at all times. Jira’s roadmapping feature also enables a DevOps team to work more efficiently by setting goals for their projects, keeping them on track. Additionally, they are able to track whether they are meeting the goals that they set for their projects.

Regular product updates. Atlassian is constantly updating Jira so that it is continuously evolving into an ever more powerful and user-friendly solution. Users can be sure that the product that they are using is always being tweaked so as to provide them with the best possible project management solution.

Flexibility. Jira enables users to customize their workflows and dashboard so that the solution is operating in a way that best matches their needs. Jira can also integrate with more than 3,000 other applications and integrations. Organizations can use it to expand their project management and DevOps capabilities in many different ways.

Jira Features

Security capabilities. Jira is equipped with a number of useful security features. It gives administrators the ability to restrict access to certain tools so that only users who are authorized to complete certain tasks have access to the tools related to the completion of that task. Users can also set default permissions so that only particular users can work on new projects or particular projects.

Real-time notification feature. Users can set Jira so that it offers them notifications that contain critical information in real time. It can send users email notifications when pressing issues have been updated. They can also set it to notify them about tasks that may be due, or other similar events.
Activity log. Jira has the ability to track any and all changes that are taking place within the software framework. Users can keep a close eye on everything that is going on. This promotes a high level of visibility and can be leveraged to aid developers in their collaboration efforts.

Reviews from Real Users

Jira is a powerful solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are its workflow engine and its highly customizable dashboard.

Bharath R., the tool implementation and project management lead at a financial services firm, writes, “I feel the strongest feature of Jira is its workflow engine. It empowers us to automate our workflows within our organization. It's the one characteristic of Jira which I think can help any organization, be it in any domain.”

Uday J., a staff engineer at a computer company, says, “Another thing that I like a lot about Jira is that in the dashboard, you can plug the modules that you want. You can enable certain sections. For example, you can show trend history, open Jira tickets, etc. Some of the managers have created a dashboard for each engineer.”

Atlassian

The world’s first 100% browser-based ALM enterprise solution, which enables seamless collaboration across disparate teams, multi-directionally linked work items, full traceability, accelerated productivity and automated proof of compliance.

Siemens

Sample Customers

Square, Nasa, eBay, Cisco, SalesForce, Adobe, BNP Paribas, BMW and LinkedIn, Pfizer, Citi.

Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, IBS AG, Zumtobel Group

Buyer's Guide

Jira vs. Polarion ALM

March 2025

Free Report: Jira vs. Polarion ALM

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