How to Choose Bug Tracking Software: Jira and Its Alternatives

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Bug tracking software helps to streamline the defect fixing process, making development, in general, more efficient. While the ‘why’ question is rather easy to answer, the ‘what’ can give you a real headache. In this article, we’ll share some tips on how to choose a bug tracker. You’ll also find reviews of several tools QA companies frequently use.

What is Bug Tracking Software?

Let’s start with the basics, in case we’ve got managers that don’t have much technical expertise. Bug tracking tools are designed for the systematic recording of defects and convenient management of a bug life cycle.

The core features of an average bug tracking system include the following:

• Creation of tickets with a detailed description of bugs.
• Their categorization and prioritization.
• Assigning tickets for particular specialists.
• Tracking defect status at the different stages.
• Easy search, sorting and reporting.
• Analytics and automatically generated reports.

Why You Need a Bug Tracking System

Bug tracking tools make it easier to backtrace, categorize, and prioritize defects. It also helps to access useful analytics and gain insights that help to boost overall team efficiency and potentially optimize the development costs. As a result, bug tracking software streamlines communication and collaboration between QA engineers and developers.

Below, you will find some of the benefits a bug tracking system can provide.

• Visibility and transparency. All team members can track the status of the defects and plan their work accordingly.
• Clear workflow. A particular specialist is assigned to a task at every stage. Everyone knows at what stage they are to join and around when it will happen.
• Efficient communication. The software makes it easier to work towards the same goal without requesting status clarifications and constant interruptions.
• Smart use of data. An overview of bugs and advanced analytics provide insights that help to predict problematic areas in the future.
• Easier management. The ability to generate automatic reports of various kinds makes it possible to spot the patterns. Knowing how much time it takes to resolve a particular problem helps with efficient time management. Learning about the types of bugs and their ratio helps to find defects in products from the same industry in the future.
• Better products. Add up the abovementioned benefits, and you’ll get an improvement in the processes that ultimately leads to better performance and releasing products of better quality within a shorter cycle.

Essentially, a bug tracking system provides you with a searchable database of bugs, an opportunity to track, pace, and estimate the defect-related tasks and communication inside the system. Though it may sound pretty much ordinary, this set of features lets the team derive significant benefits from using such a tool.

Overview of Popular Bug Tracking Systems

So how do you choose the best bug tracking system out of all the available options? Obviously, we haven’t tried them all. So, in addition to comments by our QA engineers, we decided to do a little digging – or rather quite a lot of research. We’ve learned what’s available on the market and carefully studied user feedback on reliable review platforms. All the findings are below. Hopefully, they’ll be useful for you.

Jira

The Jira bug tracking tool was launched in 2003. With time, it turned into the project management system widely used in agile development. In particular, it has Scrum and Kanban boards, roadmaps, and more. As for the bug-tracking, it provides the complete set of essential features: defect capturing, reporting, prioritization, search, and fixing. Manageable and transparent visual workflow and a bunch of add-ons probably make Jira a more powerful and widely-used tool than its competitors.

Pros:

• Users can create custom filters and customize the workflows.
• There is a convenient ticketing system that makes it easy to monitor task progress.
• You can access real-time reports with actionable insights.
• Integration with over 3,000 apps enables visibility of the development pipeline.
• The tool scales easily and is suitable for businesses of all sizes.
• It is perfect for big and distant teams – a combination that supports remote work.
• Jira offers a mobile app, making it possible to access the system whenever needed.

Cons:

• Users admit that UI is confusing and difficult to understand in some cases.
• The reporting features don’t consider all parameters that would be useful to track.
• Small teams may find Jira expensive if they need access to the full functionality.
• Onboarding, configuration, and troubleshooting are complicated.

Price:

Jira offers three paid user plans with flexible pricing. The more users you have, the lower will be the monthly price offered. Also, when choosing annual billing, you can expect an extra discount.

• Standard – up to $7 per user.
• Premium –up to $14 per user.
• Enterprise – negotiated.

Free version: for up to 10 users.

Verdict: Jira suits perfectly for agile project management and is valued for its functionality. However, a variety of features and extensions come at a price: it is not the easiest tool to configure. Still, it is quite predictable.

Trello

Like Jira, Trello is a product by Atlassian that works well for bug tracking and product management in general. The highlight of Trello is its emphasis on visualization. Users can create boards devoted to particular projects. Inside those boards, they create lists – with tasks, statuses, etc. Every list features cards devoted to smaller tasks or, as it can be in our case, bugs. At its core, Trello is a way of organizing sticky notes on a wall in a digital space.

Pros:

• An intuitive interface makes it easy to set up the tool for a team’s purposes.
• It is convenient for all team members to track the progress using board visualization.
• Every card can contain a variety of information, including detailed bug descriptions, multimedia files, comments and discussions, etc.
• Users can assign and re-assign tasks and manage deadlines for their completion.
• You can also track performance metrics, view history and activity for each card.
• Trello supports over 100 integrations with other tools, including Confluence, Slack, Google Drive, and Dropbox.
• Mobile application is available.

Cons:

• Sometimes it is impossible to upload high-resolution images to Trello.
• The desktop apps work only when connected to the internet.
• Technical documentation is not clear, so many find the setup process complicated.
• When used for large projects, a board tends to get messy and difficult to navigate.

Price:

Trello offers two commercial plans that differ by functionality and overall positioning. The Business Class plan is intended for teams with up to 100 members that need to track multiple projects. Meanwhile, Enterprise works better for cross-team collaboration and 100+ users.

• Business Class – $10/month if billed annually; $12/month if billed monthly.
• Enterprise – negotiated.

Free version: available; comes with basic functionality.

Verdict: Trello is a simple solution for small projects that can lose its value when used for large-scale projects with an abundance of information. Keep in mind that it is primarily a project management tool, not issue tracking software, so it makes sense to go easier on it.

Axosoft

Axosoft is a tool for agile defect management. Its highlights are the Scrum planning board and burndown chart, requirement management, and Wiki pages for collecting product knowledge and insights. In addition to tracking bugs, users can see sprint capacity and team, manage the priority of tasks, and estimate the timing precisely.

Pros:

• Axosoft is easy to use and pretty much self-explanatory.
• Users can turn emails into support tickets automatically.
• Project folders help organize information and make it easy to find.
• There is an opportunity to create custom fields and rules.
• You can track the progress of the bug fixing process in real-time.
• It is easy to switch between the two available view modes, Kanban and list.
• The time-tracking feature is useful for sprint planning and team management.
• Users can create Wiki pages for test cases and documentation.
• An API that allows integrating Axosoft with test management software and other management tools.

Cons:

• UI may seem confusing and cluttered, therefore a bit difficult to navigate for beginners.
• The learning curve often gets longer than expected due to UI peculiarities.
• Users admit to having issues with filtering, building reports, and lost tasks.
• A user community is small, while support is often inefficient and slow to respond.

Price:

Axosoft allows for 5 to 2,000 users. If you decide to go with this tool, you can expect to pay $21/month per user. It is possible to install Axosoft on your server instead of paying for the monthly subscription. In this case, you will need to renew the license each year for 35% of its configuration cost. If you purchase the license for 25+ people, the provider offers a discount that increases based on the number of users.

• From $105/month if hosted by Axosoft.
• From $1,250/year if installed on your server.

There is also a 30-day money-back guarantee for users that aren’t satisfied with the product.

Free version: 14-day free trial.

Verdict: We’ve got a bug tracking and sprint tracking tool here that will suit agile teams. It offers insights that are useful for sprint planning and allows building an internal knowledge base. Make sure to use a free trial period wisely, weighing the pros and cons on your own.

Backlog

Backlog is an all-in-one project management software with bug-tracking functionality. You can also use it for task, client, and workflow management, version control, team collaboration, and more. As for the online bug tracking system, it is easy to report defects and track their life cycle using Backlog. Drag-and-drop functionality makes it convenient to manage tasks and statuses, while Watchlist and Activity sections make the process transparent and easy to track.

Pros:

• The tool is easy to use, with a clean intuitive interface, so the learning curve is minimal.
• Users can add detailed descriptions and attachments in tickets, which are essential for resolving bugs.
• In addition to priorities and team members, users can assign and edit deadlines.
• It is easy to manage tasks by keeping them grouped or creating a personalized watchlist.
• Comment threads allow keeping track of discussions, changes, and decisions.
• Team members receive notifications about all additions, status changes, comments, etc.
• It is possible to include users in notifications about bug resolution even when you aren’t a creator or assignee.
• Like in Axosoft, there’s an opportunity to create Wiki pages for knowledge sharing.
• Backlog offers pre-built integrations with a variety of communication and dev tools.
• Users can build APIs to connect Backlog to other tools if there’s no default integration.
• The tool is developer-friendly in general. A team can use it for version tracking, code comparison, sprint management, creation of new Git branches, and more.

Cons:

• Users admit that Git integration isn’t seamless, and functionality lags sometimes.
• Filtering is a bit messy, so users don’t always get relevant results.
• There are many page reloads where fetching and displaying data would work better.
• It is impossible to assign an issue to more than one user. An alternative solution is creating subtasks, and that affects efficiency.
• You need to set up notifications about status updates over again for each change.
• The simplicity is valued by new users, but with time, they tend to run into limitations.

Price:

There are several user plans and a custom Enterprise plan with a private server, unlimited projects & storage, and individual price. When choosing annual billing, a user saves 16%, paying for 10 instead of 12 months.

• Starter – $35/month; 30 users, 5 projects, 1 GB of storage.
• Standard – $100/month; unlimited users, 100 projects, 30 GB of storage, charts.
• Premium – $175/month; unlimited & projects, 100 GB of storage, charts & custom fields.

Free version: one project with up to ten users and 100 MB of storage.

Verdict: Backlog is a feature-rich tool that suits well for software development teams. It is an easy-to-use platform, but this simplicity is a two-sided coin. The name may seem confusing for some, as both pending and fixed issues remain in a backlog 🙂 With time, users can find the functionality limited. Still, it is certainly worth a try.

ReQtest

Again, ReQtest isn’t just a cloud-based problem tracking system but also a requirements management software with a dedicated bug reporting module. The highlight of this tool is the full traceability of requirements, including matching bugs, tests, and fixes with product specifications. Advanced opportunities for collaboration, transparency and convenient reporting are also among the features users enjoy.

Pros:

• The application is intuitive and logical, thus, easy to install, configure, and use.
• The requirement management module allows sorting specifications hierarchy, making it easier to set bug priority, and linking the requirements directly to tickets.
• There are modules that allow users to instantly write test cases.
• Users can customize the settings and flow, creating the necessary categories and fields.
• Users can copy unfinished tasks from the current sprint to the next one.
• ReQtest also offers a desktop app for capturing bugs with images and video.
• Visual bug reports and audit trails provide a full overview of the testing process.
• The tool integrates with Jira, making collaboration between teams even easier.
• It is easy to activate and deactivate users on a monthly basis.

Cons:

• The opportunities for customization are limited in terms of user levels and permissions.
• It is difficult to organize test cases under test runs.
• There are too few integrations with other tools.
• There’s still room for design and UX improvements.
• The prices are a bit higher compared to other tools in this category.

Price:

ReQtest offers two paid plans. A professional plan with monthly billing is intended for large teams and multiple departments. The prices range from $6 to $45 per user. An enterprise plan with annual billing is intended for enterprises that value scalability. To get the price, you are to contact sales and discuss the details. As for the monthly user-based rates, they are quoted in USD, EUR, and SEK but are a bit confusing.

• Up to 50 users – $45/user/month.
• For more than 50 users – $12/user/month.
• For more than 100 users – $6/user/month.

If you do the maths, it is cheaper to go with the 50+ user plan after 14 people start using the software, unless there is no such option, and the provider monitors a number of active monthly users.

Free version: Free 10-day trial version grants access to all the features.

Verdict: ReQtest may be an ideal software solution for the requirements-oriented teams. The bug tracking module seems to be functional, and the bug capturing app is a huge bonus. ReQtest will cost you a bit more than most other bug tracking systems, but users assure the functionality is worth it.

MantisBT

MantisBT is an open-source tool written in PHP under GNU protocol. Despite its pretty basic exterior, it is functional enough and offers all the necessary features for bug tracking. The provider assures that you can use MantisBT to manage software development projects of different scales. It works with different databases, integrates with chats and time-tracking tools, and can be customized by adding custom code.

Pros:

• Being open-source software, MantisBT allows you to change anything you don’t like and add the features the team will find useful and make it fit any business logic.
• You can track multiple projects using the basic version, without paying for the upgrade.
• It’s easy to create new projects and add new users in bulk, as well as track bug life cycle.
• It is possible to add very detailed bug descriptions, attach screenshots and documents.
• Visualization is good, and you can see a clear picture with priority and status of defects.
• The workflows and accesses to projects are highly customizable.
• Users can view tickets assigned to a particular assignee to track their performance.
• The filters are well-thought-through and highly practical.
• Email notifications keep all team members informed about the progress of work.

Cons:

• UI and design are outdated, heavy, and often confusing, resulting in a long learning curve and frequent complaints from users, especially those with non-technical backgrounds.
• Users are often stuck with the setup and find the configuration complicated.
• Users report obnoxious time-out issues that require reloading the page and result in losing the data already entered.
• Some tabs don’t have filters, making it difficult to access the necessary information.
• There are no notifications about tickets with upcoming deadlines, you need to check that manually.
• Integrations with other systems usually lag or are complicated to set up.

Price:

MantisBT is a free bug tracking system, but the provider also offers MantisHub – a SaaS with more features and several payment plans. The bug tracker is one of the elements of its functionality.

• Starter – $4.95/month (paid annually), 1 project, up to 5 users.
• Gold – from $22.95/month, unlimited projects, up to 15 users.
• Platinum – from $42.95/month, unlimited projects, up to 30 users.
• Volume Licensing – unlimited projects, up to 1,000 users, price depends on the number of users with discounts coming after 120 users.
• Enterprise – 1,000 and more users, price discussed individually.

The diversity of payment options is good but a little bit confusing for a user that lands on the page for the first time. Besides the total price, you can notice remarks like ‘$10 per month for 5 users’ or ‘$2.25 per month per GB.’ It is not clear whether these prices are included in the package or come as an extra charge for ordering more spots and storage space.

As always, choosing an annual billing plan lets you pay less. Unlike ReQtest, MantisBT’s pricing calculator suggests the most cost-efficient solution. For example, the cost of 800 users would be higher for an enterprise license, and the system suggests discussing the latter.

Free version: MantisBT is an open-source free to download tool that offers additional features at an extra price. There’s also a free trial for MantisHub, though its duration is not specified.

Verdict: MantisBT is a widely-known and used open-source solution. It comes with some shortcomings, but, on the one hand, provides flexibility and opportunities for customization. You can use MantisBT for project management, too. So there are two options: to discover the potential of a free tool and accept its flaws or update to MantisHub without any data loss.

Bugzilla

Bugzilla is one of the best-known open-source bug trackers introduced by Mozilla back in 1998. It focuses strictly on bug tracking and offers all the tools and features necessary for this process. Bugzilla is widely used by small companies and corporations thanks to its convenience and an opportunity to customize the tool.

Pros:

• The system is highly customizable, easy to install and maintain.
• The reporting form has all the necessary features and fields for a detailed bug description.
• It is easy to keep track of the fixing progress and defect life cycle in general.
• Users can view issue history and receive email notifications upon any status changes.
• The search functionality allows you to find issues using keywords.
• It is convenient to manage the bug cycle – from reporting to assigning, updating, sorting, and arranging bugs.
• Users can leave comments in individual threads under every defect.
• The tool automatically detects and reports duplicate bugs.
• It is possible to customize bug reports based on various factors.

Cons:

• The app gets too slow at times.
• It is difficult to migrate to new versions.
• There’s no agile development support.
• The interface is outdated, thus not visually appealing or very user-friendly.
• The abundance of information is overwhelming, so you can get lost since all the data isn’t organized well.
• The learning curve is steep, and users with non-technical backgrounds may face difficulties.
• Attachments support only images (one in a go), not videos.
• The customization may be difficult, because the code base is old, and Bugzilla may not be ready to merge with some systems a company uses at the time.

Price:

Bugzilla is available free of charge. Users can also get free support. If you need higher-level support, it is provided by the contractors listed on Bugzilla’s website. This list, however, needs an update since some of the provided links aren’t working. The prices for support vary based on the contractor.

Free version: Bugzilla is free to use and comes with free support.

Verdict: Bugzilla is a good open-source solution that offers all the essential features a bug tracking system should have. But as it often happens with such solutions, users should be ready to deal with an outdated interface and some difficulties customizing the tool. In general, it is a decent bug tracking system, and proper implementation makes it possible to overcome the shortcomings.

BugHerd

BugHerd is a simple bug tracking system applied mainly in website testing. The highlight of this tool is its advanced visualization that reminds users of a board with sticky notes. Installed through an extension or one-line JavaScript tag, BugHerd sits on top of a website as a virtual layer. Users can pin comments with their feedback on web pages, making it easy to locate and investigate defects. It also helps to keep a consistent workflow and efficiently communicate with team members.

Pros:

• The interface is intuitive, simple, and clean. Users don’t get overwhelmed with the number of tickets as it increases.
• The reporting is also very simple. The tool captures information a team needs to replicate and fix bugs (browser, OS, CSS selector data, etc.) and automatically makes screenshots of a pinpointed area that features a defect.
• Users manage defects through the Kanban-style task board from logging to resolving.
• It is easy to keep the tickets organized while working on multiple projects.
• The tool enables effective collaboration regardless of the team size.
• BugHerd integrates with a variety of existing project management and dev tools.

Cons:

• The Kanban-style boards lack customizable columns.
• Integration with mobile devices is too slow.
• There is no user-based column sorting option, only a project-based one.
• The tool is frequently updated, and there may be occasional hiccups.
• Account package upgrade implies adding 25 users at a time, and it’s not always convenient.

Price:

There are several pricing options. Each offers a different number of users and slightly varying functionality.

• Standard – $39/month, unlimited projects, unlimited guests, 10 GB storage, up to 5 users.
• Studio – $59/month, unlimited projects, unlimited guests, 20 GB storage, up to 10 users.
• Premium – $109/month, unlimited projects, unlimited guests, 50 GB storage, up to 25 users.
• Enterprise – discussed individually.

For larger teams that aren’t at the enterprise level, there is an opportunity to upgrade to 50, 75, 100, or 200-user plans. If you choose annual billing, you get two months for free.

Free version: 14-day free trial, no credit card needed upfront.

Verdict: BugHerd has outstanding visual reporting features that make it a great tool for collaboration and feedback during website testing. With its help, reporting defects is easier than ever. Though there are no serious complaints or negative feedback regarding BugHerd, some users may notice limitations in the functionality it offers.

zipBoard

zipBoard is a collaborating and bug tracking tool for all your project management needs. It is a web-based visual feedback and issue tracking tool that specializes in collaboration with all, be it, team members, clients or other stakeholders. It lets you annotate static and live URLs, images, videos, PDFs and zip files. Simplifying your bug tracking process for web developers and reviewers. With zipBoard, you can review all your online proofs on a centralized platform regardless of the digital content and get rid of the endless email chains and screen-sharing meetings.

Pros:

• Easy to use, simple UI, especially for non-technical people with multiple views such as Kanban and Table view.
• Visualize your efforts in the way you want them. With multiple filters for reports, track your effort and plan your resources accordingly.
• With the traceability of all versions and changes and clear designation of roles, zipBoard helps ensure confusion-free collaboration.
• zipBoard offers unlimited projects and collaborators to its users right from the starter plan.
• Integrate seamlessly with your ERP and create features based on your unique needs.
• With visual bug tracking, there is never any question of confusion among the developers. The reviewer can directly annotate on their screen, giving contextual feedback with the multiple review tools at their disposal.
• Get feedback on your files from your stakeholders based on your needs. Guest reviewers need not log in and can start providing feedback right away, without an account.
• Integrate with Slack, Jira, Microsoft Teams, Lambda Test, Wrike.

Cons:

• Can lack some project management features present in the advanced tools.
• The user community is small, however, the support is efficient and quick to respond.
• You can only assign an issue to one user at a time, however, you can add others as watchers and change later as required.
• While printing large pdfs with annotations on them, sometimes users find that it takes a bit longer to process the file. It often has to do with the net speed and the processing power at the user’s end.

Price:

There are two types of pricing in zipBoard. Annual and monthly. You will get the best value out of annual packs. The plans are divided into four categories. Starter, team, business and enterprise.

• Starter – $39/month, 5 Review Files/URLs, Unlimited Projects/Collaborators.
• Team – $89/month, 20 Review files / URLs, Unlimited Projects/Collaborators, more features than Business.
• Business – $129/month, 20 Review files / URLs, Unlimited Projects/Collaborators, more features than Team.
• Enterprise – Custom pricing, customer Review files / URLs, exclusive features.

Verdict: zipBoard is the go-to tool if you aim to get contextual visual feedback on web pages and other creative content. This suits well for creative teams and web developers. It is an easy-to-use platform, especially when collaborating with non-technical stakeholders. And what it may lack in terms of advanced project management features, it more than makes up for it by letting you create custom features on-demand.

How to Choose Bug Tracking Software

Hopefully, you’ve found some new names on the list and got a better understanding of the pricing and opportunities that come with different tools. So how to choose the one that will work best for you? Start with the following criteria.

Functionality

Does the tool offer all features the team needs?

There is a set of basic features that every bug tracking tool should have. For example, there should be:

• reporting facility with fields to provide information on bug environment, severity, etc.;
• issue status, as well as an ability to set and change it;
• storage, search, and organization of defect data;
• opportunity to assign tasks to different team members;
• notifications about assigned tasks, issue status updates, etc.;
• transparent workflow with bug life cycle stages displayed;
• history, worklogs, and overview of issues with statuses;
• easy report generation with visual data representation;
• communication with an opportunity to leave messages and attach files.

These are the main features necessary for an average bug tracking tool. Of course, some tools are ready to offer more highlights, like automatic prioritization logic, advanced analytics, voting, etc. Before you are overwhelmed with those, make sure that the essential features are offered as well.

Adaptability

Is it possible to integrate the tool into the existing dev system?

There’s rarely a solution that fits a company perfectly in a default version and doesn’t need any adjustments. It’s okay if you plan to add the necessary extensions. Just make sure a tool you are considering offers such an opportunity. The same goes for integrations. It may be essential to connect a bug tracking tool to project or test case management software, export data into documents, etc. Make sure it will be possible before buying a license.

Suitability

Does it cover the team’s needs?

Another issue is suitability – in other words, the ‘expectations vs reality’ thing. Think about the purpose of the software product. Is it just a bug tracking system you need or would the team prefer a more functional solution they can also use for project management? How many people will be able to access and use this new software product? Should it be a cloud solution or software installed on your local server? Consider all the requirements before making a decision. Make sure to consult with QA engineers, developers, and stakeholders who might be using the system.

Usability

Is it simple to learn and convenient to use?

We are talking about tech specialists who should be well-versed with technologies. Still, it does not replace the need for an intuitive and user-friendly interface and functionality. The easier it is to use a tool, the faster a team will work. Older tools that haven’t been updated for a while can seem like they lack internal logic and make a user puzzled. Therefore, a learning cycle tends to get much longer affecting overall efficiency.

Pricing

Are there pricing options for different needs?

Last but not least, the cost plays an important role in making a decision. If a free tool can cover your needs, there is no reason to choose a paid solution. If it doesn’t, try to find a budget for a defect tracking tool that will benefit your team and processes. Otherwise, you risk adding an extra tool to the system that actually doesn’t bring any value. Remember that good tool providers offer transparent and usually flexible pricing (based on a number of users, for example).

To Sum Up

So what’s the best issue tracking system? Which one will help to improve the way you deliver software testing services? We wish we could answer that by naming one title and rest assured. However, users’ demands are as numerous and varying as bug tracking tools.

Users tend to complain about the outdated or cluttered interfaces a lot! Maybe it happens because we’ve got used to neat apps and minimalistic websites. But is it possible to redesign a bug tracking tool like that, packing all the features into a minimalistic design? Or will it be inevitable to cut something off just to fit in the design? Whether impossible or of low priority, companies seem to focus on the feature set to keep up with the competitors.

Another issue is personal preferences. While some praise the simplicity, others complain about how difficult it was to learn and use the tool. The same goes for search, filtering, customer support – pretty much everything. Most likely, the feedback depends a lot on what a client has been using before and is using when leaving a review.

When choosing a bug tracking tool, you can rely only on yourself (and, probably, on a free trial period). What works just fine for your partners or competitors can be a headache for your team. So write down your requirements, set the priorities, and pick what matches them the most.