Project management software plays a crucial role in helping your organization manage projects and track key your campaigns from start to finish.
Many project management tools also include features like resource management solutions — features that allow project managers to assign users to projects based on specific criteria.
Organizations that use such software in combination with proven project management practices waste 28x less than money their counterparts.
Yet only 22% of organizations use some type of resource management software, and 55% do not have access to real-time project KPIs.
If your business is looking to optimize your project organization, a great project management tool is crucial.
You may already be familiar with Jira — A software development tool that enables software teams to plan and track their projects using agile project management.
But is it the right choice for your business? It has a steep learning curve and some features are only available via the Marketplace app.
Are there any Jira alternatives?
In this guide we’ll take a comprehensive look at the leading Jira alternatives, giving you everything you need to make an informed choice.
Jira Alternatives:
Introduction to Jira
What the Vendor Says: “The #1 software development tool used by agile teams.”
About Jira
Jira is a project management tool that enables software teams to manage each step of the application development process from initial concept to launch.
What’s Offered by Jira?
Jira offers an intuitive interface that allows teams to plan, track and release new software. The platform provides support for scrum and kanban boards. Each is fully customizable and provides organizations with a way to manage their tasks.
Integrated roadmaps enable teams to visualize their projects over some time and communicate those plans with stakeholders. Software teams can add additional functionality to their boards with over 3,000 apps and extensions. Teams also have access to over a dozen reports with real-time, actionable insights.
Jira dashboard at a glance:
How Much Does Jira Cost?
Jira can be deployed in the cloud or on-premise. Here are the pricing details for each option:
- Cloud-based deployments: There’s a free plan for teams up to 10 users. The Standard plan is priced at $8.15 per user each month for over 11 users, and the Premium plan is priced at $16 per user each month.
- On-premise deployment: The Data Center licensing plan is priced at $42,000 per year for 500 users and also incrementally goes up depending on the number of users.
There is a 30-day free trial available.
Pros and Cons of Jira
Pros: Intuitive user interface and support for Kanban and Scrum boards. Flexible pricing plans available.
Cons: Software teams can extend the functionality of their boards via Marketplace apps, but have to pay additional fees.
Check out this comprehensive review of Jira for more information.
Jira Alternative #1: Project Insight
What the Vendor Says: “Automate Your Work. Unify Your Data. Make Your Life Easier.”
Introduction to Project Insight
Project Insight is a cloud-based project management software that enables businesses to manage their projects from start to finish.
What’s Offered by Project Insight?
Project Insight offers a centralized hub where teams can streamline their work management processes and collaborate in one platform. Businesses can add their custom branding, fields and items to fit their needs. Users can also easily arrange their dashboards according to their specifications.
Project Insight offers centralized collaboration and resource allocation, allowing teams to keep all their documents in one place and visualize workloads across departments. Organizations can also maintain accountability for their projects by tracking milestones and pulling in-depth reports.
Additional key features include:
- Personalized dashboards
- Advanced resource allocation
- Intelligent scheduling
- Workflows and approvals
- Social collaboration
- In-depth reports
Project Insight dashboard at a glance:
How Much Does Project Insight Cost?
This solution has a free plan for small teams that includes basic features such as task management, collaboration and portfolio management. Then, there are three plans. The Pro plan costs $9 per user, per month, the Business plan (for companies with multiple teams) costs $19 per user, per month, and the Enterprise plan (organizations with many teams and locations) requires a custom quote.
Pros and Cons of Project Insight
Pros: Personalized dashboards with abundant customization options. Centralized collaboration in one platform.
Cons: Doesn’t offer multi-currency functionality. Some users note that reports with a lot of data can take a long time to download.
Read this comprehensive Project Insight review for more information.
Jira Alternative #2: Easy Projects
What the Vendor Says: “Work Management with Measurable Success.”
Introduction to Easy Projects
Easy Projects is a cloud-based project management platform that provides end-to-end work management for teams and departments across an organization.
What’s Offered by Easy Projects?
Easy Projects offers an Activity Center that enables teams to visualize their projects and view critical details, such as project status, assignee, duration and priority. The resource planning feature helps managers monitor each user’s workloads and assign matches for specific projects.
With time tracking and budgeting features, project managers can monitor ongoing expenses and determine profitability. Teams can duplicate existing projects into templates and save a lot of time in the process. The Business Intelligence suite enables managers and executives to analyze large volumes of data and gather actionable insight.
Key features include:
- Agile, Kanban and Waterfall methodologies
- Support for unlimited hierarchy
- Custom project templates
- Resource allocation
- Financial management
- Resource management
- Unlimited projects
Easy Projects dashboard at a glance:
How Much Does Easy Projects Cost?
This hosted solution comes in three pricing packages: Lite, Team and Enterprise. The Lite plan starts at $27 per user, per month (billed annually) and includes 100 GB of storage space, a built-in calendar, Gantt charts, native mobile apps and other features. The Team plan starts at $41 per user, per month and adds on billing, cross-project dependencies and advanced analytics. The Enterprise plan (pricing only available by quote) has additional features, such as 1 TB of storage, AI forecast and advanced security.
Pros and Cons of Easy Projects
Pros: Customizable dashboards, instant file sharing and in-depth reporting. Ability to pay only for the required modules.
Cons: Integrated media purchasing module not included. Some users note that email notifications can be overwhelming.
Check out this in-depth review of Easy Projects to learn more.
Jira Alternative #3: NetSuite SRP
What the Vendor Says: “Support Your Services Organization End-to-End with a Powerful, Cloud-Based Suite.”
Introduction to NetSuite SRP
NetSuite SRP is a complete end-to-end Services Resource Planning (SRP) platform that includes modules to streamline tasks related to project management, resource planning, invoicing and more.
What’s Offered by NetSuite SRP?
NetSuite SRP offers robust project management tools that enable team members to manage their projects from start to finish. Managers can utilize the Gantt charts to view an entire project plan and track all financial metrics, including budgets, invoices and more.
NetSuite’s Resource Management allows project managers to streamline and automate resource management requests with customizable workflows. Project Accounting connects projects with financial data for more accurate billing.
The timesheet feature enables users to track and update time spent on their projects. Netsuite’s reporting and analytics tools make it simple to monitor, report and analyze a project’s performance over time.
Additional features include:
- Project progress monitoring
- Automated resource allocation
- Project revenue recognition
- Time tracking and submitting
- Consolidated expense reports
- Personalized dashboards
- Collaborative reporting
NetSuite SRP dashboard at a glance:
How Much Does NetSuite SRP Cost?
Pricing information isn’t publicly displayed on the website. Interested businesses will need to reach out to NetSuite’s sales team to request a quote.
Pros and Cons of NetSuite SRP
Pros: Robust project management platform with modules for resource management, expense management, analytics and more.
Cons: Some users have noted a steep learning curve and problems when uploading large volumes of data via CSV.
For more information, check out the comprehensive review of NetSuite SRP.
Jira Alternative #4: Mavenlink
What the Vendor Says: “Mavenlink is the modern collaborative platform you need to elevate the operational and financial performance of your services business.”
Introduction to Mavenlink
Mavenlink is a cloud-based project management platform that enables teams to manage their projects and easily collaborate with other members.
What’s Offered by Mavenlink?
Mavenlink offers an all-in-one platform for project management, project accounting, resource management, business intelligence and collaboration. Personalized dashboards allow users to view key details about their projects, including tasks, deadlines and durations.
Project accounting enables teams to control the finances of their projects and invoice clients accordingly. The team collaboration feature makes it easy for managers to assign tasks, monitor activities and communicate with team members.
Mavenlink offers seamless integration with Customer Relationship Management (CRM) and development applications like Salesforce, Intacct, Google Drive and more. Customers can also build their own custom integrations via Mavenlink’s Application Program Interface (API).
Additional features include:
- Dedicated online workspaces
- File sharing via Google Drive
- Project schedule management
- Gantt charts with task dependencies
- Business Intelligence functionality
Mavenlink dashboard at a glance:
How Much Does Mavenlink Cost?
Mavenlink offers four pricing plans: Teams, Professional, Premier and Enterprise.
The Teams plan is priced at $19 per user each month and includes features like task management, project workspaces, file sharing and more.
The Premier plan is priced at $39 per user each month and includes features like schedule management, project plan templates, time tracking and more.
The Professional plan includes features like resource allocation, project costing, real-time analytics and more. The Enterprise plan offers features like invoicing and online payments, data visualization, audit logging and more.
Interested businesses will need to contact Mavenlink’s sales team to request a quote for the Premier and Enterprise plans.
Here’s a snapshot of Mavenlink’s pricing:
Pros and Cons of Mavenlink
Pros: Drag-and-drop functionality, flexible pricing plans and seamless integrations with third-party CRM applications.
Cons: Advanced reporting features are only available with Premier and Enterprise plans. Some users note a steep learning curve with the software.
Read this comprehensive Mavenlink review for more details.
Jira Alternative #5: Wrike
What the Vendor Says: “Cloud-based collaboration and project management software that scales across teams in any business.”
Introduction to Wrike
Wrike is a cloud-based collaboration and project management solution that simplifies planning and enables collaboration.
What’s Offered by Wrike?
Wrike offers an intuitive platform that enables users to plan and manage their projects in one place. Wrike Dashboards allow managers to get an overview of all current tasks and dive deeper as needed.
Wrike provides a centralized location that enables teams to update task descriptions, make comments and mention other users. Workflows can be customized to eliminate time-consuming tasks and automatically assign work to the right person.
Another power feature is the enterprise-grade audit reports, allowing managers to track group activities and prevent data breaches or other malicious activities. Wrike offers integrations with other third-party applications, including WordPress, Google Drive, Zendesk and more.
Key features include:
- Task management
- File sharing
- Gantt charts
- Time tracking
- Custom calendars
- Real-time activity stream
- Reporting and analytics
Wrike dashboard at a glance:
How Much Does Wrike Cost?
Wrike has a free plan for up to five users that includes Wrike’s basic features, such as task management and a mobile app. In addition, there are four paid plans. The Team plan starts at $9.80 per user, per month and the Business plan costs $24.80 per user, per month. Pricing for the Enterprise and Enterprise Pinnacle plans are not available, so please contact the vendor directly for a quote.
Pros and Cons of Wrike
Pros: Robust platform that can be used for different job roles. Seamless integration with many third-party applications.
Cons: No on-premise deployment option. Steep learning curve for non-technical users.
To learn more, check out this comprehensive Wrike review.
Jira Alternative #6: WorkOtter
What the Vendor Says: “WorkOtter is the #1 ranked SaaS project, resource, and portfolio management solution. We are a simple, sensible, and supportable alternative to the complex EPMs and the toy-like task managers. WorkOtter is disrupting PPM with features, world class support, and visual dashboards that make running a PMO EASY and FUN.”
Introduction to WorkOtter
WorkOtter is a cloud-based project and portfolio management solution that allows organizations to streamline core processes and maximum output.
What’s Offered by WorkOtter?
WorkOtter offers a fully-featured platform that enables managers to manage and track multiple projects at once. It also includes drag-and-drop functionality for “What If?” scenario planning, allowing managers to evaluate potential outcomes and make informed decisions.
The resource management feature gives project managers a top-down and bottom-up visibility to ensure that resources are used effectively. WorkOtter also offers agile project management functionality to enable teams to better plan and deliver projects.
Project managers can personalize reports and dashboards by company, department, or user, and distribute them to the right stakeholders. With over 100 pre-configured dashboards and reports, companies can discover new insights.
Key features include:
- Portfolio management
- Resource management
- Workflow management
- Financial management
- Reports and dashboards
WorkOtter dashboard at a glance:
How Much Does WorkOtter Cost?
WorkOtter has three scalable pricing plans: Member ($10 per user, per month), Team ($20 per user, per month) and Manager ($35 per user, per month). The Member plan targets individual users and includes timesheets, as well as the ability to send notes to other users and adjust project completion estimates. The Team plan adds on the My Home dashboard, expense management and chat functionality. The Manager plan, intended for project managers and executives, includes resource management, workflow management and project and portfolio management.
Pros and Cons of WorkOtter
Pros: Robust platform with powerful features that enable managers to streamline tasks and track milestones. Flexible pricing plans available.
Cons: Multiple languages and currencies are currently not supported. Some users note an initial learning curve with the software in the beginning.
Check out the comprehensive WorkOtter review for more information.
The Right Jira Alternative for your Business
Finding the right project management software can be difficult.
Here are some Jira alternatives that we recommend for different types of businesses:
The Right Jira Alternative for Small Businesses
We recommend small businesses check out:
The Right Jira Alternative for SaaS Companies
We recommend SaaS companies check out:
The Right Jira Alternative for Enterprises
We recommend enterprises check out:
Conclusion
Project management software allows companies of all sizes to manage their projects, delegate tasks, track their budgets and facilitate collaboration between all users.
Jira is a popular project management software that enables software teams to manage the entire application development process from start to finish.
But it’s not the only option. There are plenty of Jira alternatives that may be better suited for your business. Use this guide to help you find the right project management software.