Jira Software Reviews

“Flexible workflows”

Pros

Flexibility around workflows and automation rules is something I really appreciate. It has allowed us to set up our IT environment in a way that fits how we manage the product development cycle here.

Cons

The pricing model isn't my favorite part. There are newer options in the market that seem to offer much more competitive pricing.

“Great sprint management”

Pros

The boards, sprint tracking, backlog management and user view are all really useful. It's a very nice way to manage and keep control of sprints.

Cons

Sometimes it can feel overwhelming because there are so many features and things can get a bit messy. It takes at least a month to really get used to the software.

“Easy to learn”

Pros

It's very easy to use and getting other people up to speed on it doesn't take much effort either.

Cons

Rollout process is tough and feels tough, mostly because of internal challenges and the coordination required with the team.

“Reliable issue tracking”

Pros

Using this platform has been very easy and it offers plenty of features that different stakeholders need to handle their work. It's one of the better applications I've used for tracking issues and keeping QA engineers updated on their assigned tasks.

Cons

Every now and then, a few glitches show up but we've been able to work around them by refreshing the browser page.

“Smart task management”

Pros

Task management felt really well thought out, from creating items quickly to splitting them into multiple subtickets for better prioritization. It made scheduling and assigning work to team members based on their expertise very practical and the sprint timeline gave a clear visual view of progress throughout. The Slack integrations were also a big help since updates came straight into Slack which meant we did not have to keep checking emails or the web app constantly.

Cons

Moving tickets around in sprint boards could be a little confusing at times because the selection border did not fully cover everything that was selected. There were also moments when I had to refresh the browser before updates made in one related part of the UI showed up properly in another. On top of that, the built-in preview for uploaded MS Word documents was not always accurate and sometimes displayed the files incorrectly.

“Flexible and powerful”

Pros

One thing that really stands out is its excellent reconciliation capabilities. The API is impressively extensible so you can create issues in a fully automated way. It's very simple to use and lets you work with multiple dashboards, including Kanban, Scrum and others. You can also set up workflows differently for each board without much trouble. Access provisioning is easy for administrators as well.

Cons

My only real complaint is the pricing especially when it comes to add-ons. Since the model is based on the number of users, it becomes frustratingly expensive for large organizations with thousands of employees.

“Built for easy work”

Pros

Getting started with it is pretty easy and day-to-day use feels simple once you're in it. The enterprise and cloud versions both work really well. If your organization follows agile practices, this is the go-to platform for collaboration and for helping teams stay aligned around delivering small, workable increments of a software product. Adding epics is simple and connecting those epics to user stories, then tying tasks back to those stories, is very efficient.

Cons

For someone completely new to it, the platform can feel a bit overwhelming at first. It's a powerful, serious tool and when it's used to its full potential, it can handle multiple products, teams, new development work and production bugs or issue tracking all in one place.

“Worth coming back to”

Pros

Everything about it feels carefully designed. I switched to another platform to cut costs but ended up coming back because the reporting is much stronger. Task management, including subtasks, works really well, the time tracking is great and the scrum-style daily task reporting fits exactly what I need.

Cons

Pricing does get a bit high once you go beyond 10 users although I still think it's worth the investment. The tool saves a lot of time thanks to the wide range of integrations available. That said, building workflows isn't very simple so at the beginning you may need to bring in someone to set it up properly as part of change management.

“Adapts to any workflow”

Pros

Across a variety of companies I've worked with over the years, I've seen this platform set up in very different and highly specific ways depending on the project and tasks it needed to support. I've watched it handle advertising project tracking and management just as well as large-scale shipping logistics work. That kind of flexibility is honestly one of its biggest strengths.

Cons

Downside of having a tool this flexible is that it takes a lot of upfront setup. You really have to think through how the system will be used as your team grows and expands. It also calls for fairly intensive training since employees need to understand the exact way your organization has configured the system and built its workflow.

“Keeps teams aligned”

Pros

Keeping everyone aligned is much simpler with this software, whether it's my own team or other departments. It gives a clear view of how a project moves from beginning to end and it's quick and easy to use.

Cons

Upgrade process can feel a little tedious at times but overall it's still worth it.

“Simple team management”

Pros

Coming from solo project tracking tools, this is my first time using software like this with a team so I don't have much to compare it against in terms of other collaboration apps. Even so, I've really enjoyed how many features and functions it offers. The part I value most is how quickly I can pass tasks along to other team members without needing to enter a bunch of information first. Some tools make task setup feel overly complicated but this one keeps it light and makes it simple to get something started. I also really value being able to assign priorities and timelines. With other systems, it was too easy to lose sight of long-term goals or smaller tasks that later became more important. I still need to explore it more and dig into the rest of the features but one thing I'd also love is the ability to connect it with my iCalendar so I can manage my personal schedule alongside project work a little better.

Cons

This is probably a minor and slightly silly complaint but I'd really like the option to change the app's color scheme. The blue-on-white look is starting to feel pretty tired to my designer eyes.

“Packed with collaboration tools”

Pros

It covers pretty much every solution and feature my team needs to work together especially with how much virtual collaboration we've been doing in 2021.

Cons

Getting up and running took a while and learning the system wasn't immediate. I really wish the onboarding were better so it was easier to understand the platform's structure and setup from the start.

“Outdated interface and dull design”

Pros

One thing it definitely has going for it is how simple it is to use. Even junior team members can pick it up without needing guidance from senior staff which takes a lot of pressure off when you're managing a large team. On top of that, the option to attach useful documents to a task or bug makes a team lead's job much more convenient.

Cons

Feature that disappoints me is the user interface because it doesn't look professional at all. The color scheme feels dull and the style of the web controls seems quite old-fashioned.

“Feature-packed and reliable”

Pros

There's a lot packed into this tool and that's what makes it worthwhile overall. It offers plenty of features to work with so it can handle a wide range of needs. At the same time, once you start using it regularly, the slower performance becomes noticeable in certain moments. Even with those rough spots, I'd still rate it as a good product, just not quite at a very good level.

Cons

Biggest problem is the speed because it can feel slow and really needs improvement. The UI/UX also looks dated which makes the whole experience feel behind the times. On top of that, working with the newer functionalities has become fairly difficult so there's definitely room for usability updates.

“Bloated queues and extra steps”

Pros

At its core, the software can be pretty easy to use but in the three different company implementations I've seen, that really hasn't happened in practice. In theory, it should be simple for teams to send in tasks and report issues by email yet more often than not it doesn't actually work out that way.

Cons

With the standard setup most companies use, it tends to turn into a bloated tool that gets in the way of real IT support or development work. Tasks often get buried deep in a queue and end up forgotten by everyone. On top of that, you can spend five minutes creating a task only to have to explain the whole thing again in an email anyway.

“Excellent workload planning”

Pros

It's been really useful for planning the team's workload and keeping track of progress on tasks and assigned work.

Cons

Everything I use has actually gone beyond what I expected so I don't have any improvements to suggest for those features.

“Flexible boards for teams”

Pros

One thing I really appreciate is how much you can do with this tool. That flexibility can be both a benefit and a drawback but there's no denying it's powerful and gives teams a real advantage. Being able to build custom board and backlog views for different needs is a big plus. It also works well for supporting different workflows and frameworks which is especially helpful when multiple departments are operating on different cadences.

Cons

Built-in reports never seem to line up exactly with what I need especially the burndown reports. An icebox or staging area would also be really helpful for creating new backlog items or reorganizing older ones. At times, the setup feels like more work than the results you get back from it.

“customizable dashboards that fit”

Pros

Its real strength is the flexibility. We were able to bring over the way we worked in our old ticketing system using only dashboards and ticket filters which made the transition feel very natural.

Cons

Not every feature is available out of the box and quite a few things need to be covered with marketplace apps.

“great teamwork that works”

Pros

Working in an agile, native setup has been really valuable especially with how well it supports collaboration across different teams. It also helps a lot when planning upcoming features, keeping track of what's ahead and organizing future sprints.

Cons

The way our setup was configured makes it harder than it should be to track the work we're actually doing. On top of that, logging time on tasks while they're in progress isn't as easy as it is in some other products.

“Helpful task tracking but buggy”

Pros

Getting around the product is fairly simple and it makes it convenient to keep track of the open tasks assigned to you.

Cons

Sometimes the software becomes quite buggy and slows down a lot while trying to use it.