JIRA is one of the best tools for agile project management. It’s more than just a bug tracking and team management program. If you’ve done a little research on the best project management tools for agile teams, you’ve probably come across the name JIRA.

It is designed to assist Agile teams in planning, deploying, and tracking progress. It also has the features you need to efficiently manage, report, and collaborate as a team.

JIRA allows you to manage a variety of projects. However, like any tool, Jira has some drawbacks that make many customers look for alternatives to JIRA.

Users of Jira are usually confused when using the tool and in most cases the interface is clunky. Small businesses also have problems with JIRA plans. This forces them to look for alternatives to Jira. Find the Jira alternative that best suits your needs.

Why You Should Look For Jira Alternatives?

Jira is definitely a powerful tool. It looks like an almost complete project management software solution for your business, but you eventually realise that this tool is too complex for your team and project.

Undoubtedly, the platform makes it easy for groups to communicate and even lets you create highly customisable systems that work exactly the way you want them to.

But, in general, Jira is hard to learn and its a bit out–dated.

Also, teams using Jira are most often confused by the complex interface and, in most cases, unmanageable. Growing companies also have problems with JIRA plans, which can increase qulickly if you have a large and growning teams.

If you have experience with this project management software, there are a few things that might be of interest to you. And, after reading this point, you will be asking yourself. Is Jira worth it?

Too much effort: It takes more than a minute to learn how project management software works. Jira learning curve is steeper than you expect. It’s clunky and somewhat frustrating in everyday use.

Still, the interface is disappointing. You will notice that it has flaws that make it too difficult to work with. Installation is often unmanageable. So, if you want to be more productive with Jira, be prepared to invest in it heavily.

Simply, Jira is not for everyone. As Jira was originally built for development teams. While Jira works well for small, medium and large organisations, it has proven to be counterproductive for freelancers. Match with the fact that it’s expensive and certainly not everyone can afford especially for the past few years.

It still doesn’t support multiple assignees. When it comes to assigning tasks to more than one person, this weaknesses stand out. So what you notice is that when many people are required to work on a single task, they only get to add their comments while the assigned person works on it.

1. nTask

nTask is a versatile alternative to Jira that sticks to an agile methodology. It’s a flexible bit of software. It is ideally for small teams, as it simplifies project management, team communication, and task distribution.

But what makes nTask unique, is its versatile design, which aims to make your work easier with all the features you need from A to Z.

Unlike traditional project management tools, nTask has a simpler interface. No need to stare anxiously at complex interfaces, figure out how to create your first task, and swear quietly.

Features

• Use Gantt charts to provide a holistic view of your entire project schedule
• Timesheets to track time spent on each task for each member
• Evaluate probable risks and their frequency via risk matrix and pie charts
• Share information and checklists easily with outside parties through public links

Pricing

Try nTask for free for 14 days, there’s two different plans starting at $3.00 per month, then for the enterprise plan you’ll need to contact them.

2. VivifyScrum

If you like Jira’s features but are completely overwhelmed by its complex user interface. Then, VivifyScrum is a great alternative. This Scrum tool offers a simple user interface, and many features to manage your entire workflow.

It is designed around the traditional Trello interface and is very easy to use. The collaboration features are top-notch and take your team to the same page. This allows you to meet deadlines.

VivifyScrum gives you a clear view of your project so you can see clearly where your plans are headed. If your teammates are lagging behind, you can quickly notice and provide additional support.

Features

• Task and issue template creation
• Burndown chart, Scrum metrics and sprint goals
• Assigned comments and multiple assignees per task
• Invoicing and internal documentation
• Time tracking for each task within the app
• Team management and report generation

Pricing

Pricing of $10.00 per month for up to 10 users. The price increases as you increase the number of users.

3. Pivotal Tracker

Another powerful Jira alternative with tons of features is Pivotal Tracker.

This tool can provide a bird’s eye view of your project. You can clearly see each phase of the project and ensure that all deadlines are met. Pivotal Tracker helps you track your team’s progress. So you can identify potential issues in your workflow and take corrective action. Also, it lets you connect your team all on one page.

You can easily document every step you take to complete a specific project. And teams can easily sync to speed up workflows.

Nonetheless, with the many features that Pivotal Tracker has to offer, it can be overwhelming at first. You’ll need to spend some time learning the tool the first time to make it hassle-free later on.

Features

• One view of the entire Project
• Powerful search syntax supports nested Boolean expressions
• Focused collaboration, release management
• Third-party tools and built-in integrations
• Improve project visibility
• Create plans based on real estimates

Pricing

There are various paid plan, first one starts at $10 per month for up to 10 collaborators. However, there is a free plan offer up to 5 collaborators but you only have a 5 project limit.

4. ClickUp

ClickUp is another wonderful alternative to Jira for agile teams. They describe themselves as “The one tool to replace them all”.

It has an intuitive interface, and it is also pleny of features. This tool puts miles ahead of the competition. With ClickUp, you can also manage your personal life through notes. Digital scratchpads, reminders, and calendars, everything been designed beautifully .

So, easily create and organise tasks within ClickUp. It’s flexible enough that you won’t feel limited when using ClickUp.

Features

• Select multiple tasks
• Support is offered over the phone and via email
• Integrations include Slack and GitHub
• Sort tasks by multiple attributes
• Assign Comments when a task is too much

Pricing

There a free plan but it only with only 100MB of storage. So, if you’re looking for unlimited storage, you need to pay $5.00 per month/user billed yearly.

5. Asana

Asana is absolutely one of Jira’s main competitors in agile project management.  It makes it easy to create and deploy tasks across your team with a simple user interface/UX. In addition, its intuitive whiteboard allows you to visualise your work and better plan for future projects.

Asana Timeline allows you to divide your project into parts, so you rarely miss deadlines.  With over 100 integrations. It gives you everything you need: email, files, tickets and more.

One of the best and most interesting features of Asana is the rainbow unicorn. Asana hits the screen with a flying unicorn whenever you’ve finished a task.

Features

• Set priorities, deadlines, assign tasks and share details all in one place
• Create visual project plans, so you can see how every step maps out over time
• Address risks and report updates to stakeholders

Pricing

Asana has a basic plan for free. There are two paid plans, the first Premium plan starts from $10.99 per user per month, and the next one is Business plan will cost you $24.99 per user per month billed annually.

6. Monday

Another outstanding alternative to Jira, is Monday. It doesn’t matter the size of your team. This tool definitely has something to offer to any sized team.

What stands out with Monday is the simple UI it offers. It is straightforward. it will ease your work life significantly. So that you don’t have to run around in circles.

It enables you to create and organise your projects efficiently. You’ll will find the drag and drop feature make your user experience much smoother.

If you are a freelancer you can set up a board you can set up a board, give access to your client, and whenever board changes occur, your client will be notified via slack or email.

Features

• Each member knows what everyone else is working on
• Clear-cut view of the team’s progress
• Integrate all of your favourite tools seamlessly inside the tool
• Leave repetitive work behind and save time with automation’s

Pricing

You can start free for up two seats, but for more seats it starts at $8.00 per a seat/month.

7. Wrike

Wrike is here for all your project management needs. It has heaps of easily designed features like Gantt charts, and workload view for resource management. With enterprise-level security, custom dashboards, and auto-assignments. It delivers robust reports to monitor the progress of your team. So you can receive valuable work-related insights.

It gives you the chance to fully customise your workflow and delegate your team to be more productive. Thus meet your deadline without any hassle.

It has interactive timelines, you will plan, innovate, and monitor your team’s performance over time.

Features

• View real-time reports, and status for your team’s projects
• Centralise communication with stakeholders, while maintaining full context
• Tag images & videos to provide specific feedback
• Share interactive reports, and schedule notifications regularly

Pricing

Wrike is free which is suitable for 1–5 users. The paid version of Wrike is available from $9.80 per user/month.

8. Backlog

Backlog is an all-in-one agile tool that sticks to agile methodologies. It’s simple and easy to use.

Inside of Backlog, it has heaps of features, yet you will not get overwhelmed by a wild UI. Backlog’s has a clean interface that removes all the chaos from your projects. In which it gets you to focus only on the main tasks.

You will also be able to break your tasks into sub-tasks, and then spread them across your team.

It has some amazing team collaboration features. Including its tagging features which are excellent and fast to utilise. You can bring your team on the same page when working with this alternative.

Features

• Create wikis for all project members
• Bug tracker and code management system
• Drag and drop file attachments
• History thread of issue updates
• Push notifications for new issues

Pricing

Free plan that has limited features. Then paid plans starts from $35.99 per month.

9. Mavenlink

Mavenlink is an amazing tool whether you are a developer, marketer, designer or anything else. This tool has something for everyone.

Integrates everything from resource management, project management and collaboration to project time and financial tracking in one place for a better user experience.

Effective management of teams eliminates the need to switch between multiple applications. Everything you need is gathered in the powerful interface.

It is also known for its detailed reports and analyses that help you better estimate time and money.

Features

• Role-based estimating, and business intelligence
• Analytics to view performance
• Accounting and team collaboration
• Efficient task & time tracking

Pricing

You have to request for a quote.

10. ProductBeat

ProductBeat is the latest Jira alternative for lean product teams. It looks pretty neat and easy to use. Easily create and distribute tasks to your team, hassle-free.

It comes with a certain number of features such as an intuitive backlog flow, release schedule, lightning-fast search, and native desktop application.

Features

• Insanely fast search across all your boards.
• Desktop app for Mac, Windows or Linux
• iOS and Android App
• See what everyone’s working on at a glance.

Pricing

Free for Up to 10 users, then it’s paid plans start at$10.00 per month which is a flat fee for the entire team.