Wondering the differences between Tuleap and Jira? Have a look there. To be short, Tuleap is complete, Jira only covers part of teams’ needs. Tuleap is an all-in-one solution for agile and devops, Jira for project and issue tracking only. Let’s focus on Tuleap Trackers module and Jira to better understand the differences.
Jira can’t do it alone. Tuleap does.
In short, Jira simply cannot do everything Tuleap can on its own.
If you want to empower your teams with a complete agile development platform, consider it carefully. Extension of the native functionality of Jira is done through additional plugins. Plugins are expensive to maintain, secure, and upgrade. With Jira, you will probably need Bitbucket, Confluence, and Bamboo as well…and the costs quickly add up.
In contrast, Tuleap comes with everything you need in one package! Tuleap provides all of the tools you need to create smart software: issue tracking, agile, Git, Subversion, Jenkins integration, and a document area. You can start reaping the benefits of greater efficiency right away. All in a single product. As you can see, Tuleap is the alternative to Jira plus other Atlassian tools.
Features comparaison of Tuleap Trackers and Tuleap Agile tools vs Jira Software
As we have seen, Tuleap is an all-in-one solution that provides much more capabilities than Jira software. The following comparison focuses only on Tuleap Tracker and Tuleap Agile tools (in green and orange in the diagram above) versus Jira Software. Remember to look at all other native modules included in Tuleap. Also, check out our complementary article to see the different concepts of Tuleap and Jira or to discover other tools comparisons to Tuleap.
Issue tracking
| Basics | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Track any type of issue: tasks, bugs, requirements, stories |  | |
| Unlimited trackers per project | | |
| Pre-configured trackers templates | | |
| Change history | | |
| Mass update | | |
| TRACABILITY | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Link issue backward-forward to other issues (ex: link an incident to a task) | | |
| Link issues backward-forward to software development items (ex: link a requirements to a wiki page, a bug to a revision and a job, a release to a file…) | |  Additional product needed |
| Link issues back to third party tools (ex: link a Tuleap task to a CRM activity) | | |
| Define artifact link nature (ex: resolved in, satisfied by) | | |
| TRACKER CUSTOMIZATION | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Create corporate tracker template | | |
| Ability to customize trackers afterward | |  Limited. Only by platform admin |
| Ability for project leads to create new trackers from scratch | | |
| PER TRACKER FIELD CUSTOMIZATION | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Ability to modify trackers’ fields | Both at platform and project level | At platform level only |
| Ability to choose the layout of the tracker form | | |
| Project lead can modify fields according to a predefined list | | |
| Project lead can add any type of new fields | | |
| Project lead can add new values in fields | | |
| PER TRACKER WORKFLOW | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Ability to modify tracker workflow | Both at platform level and per project level | At platform level only |
| Define field dependencies (ex: if the resolution field gets the value “fixed”, then the status field is set to ” closed” | | |
| Define authorized transitions | | In advanced workflow only. By platform admin only |
| Project lead can define their own user groups to be used in the workflow | | |
| Project lead can define authorized user groups to make some specific transitions (ex: only group A can move a status from “to do” to “on going”) | | |
| Project lead can define post functions after transitions (ex: when a task moves from “on goin” to “done”, then the remaining effort is set to “0” | | |
| Set cross-tracker triggers (ex: when all sub-tasks are “done” then the parent task is automatically set to automatiquement à “completed”) | | |
| Define triggers on developments tools at updates (ex: launch a jenkins job when the issue status is set to “under review”) | | Additional product needed |
Agile project management
| SCRUM | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Scrum to get started | | |
| Advanced Scrum (explicit backlog, fine-grained configurations) | | Limited. By admin platform only |
| Release planification, versions, sprints | | |
| Backlog management | | |
| Drag’n drop | | |
| Selection of one or multiple issues | | |
| Effort and capacity monitoring | | |
| Scrum taskboard/cardwall | | |
| Fine-grained permissions | | Limited. By admin platform only |
| Burndown chart | | |
| Link Scrum issues (stories, epics…) to source code source source, pull request, documents, deliveries | | Additional product needed |
| Customize planning hierarchy level (ex: release + sprints, or product + versions + weeks…) | | |
| Scrum at scale | | |
| KANBAN | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Boards with visual cards | | |
| Drag ‘n drop | | |
| Real time update | | |
| Kanban multi-issues (ex: 1 single Kanban with issue of type “tasks” + type “bug”) | | |
| Several Kanban by project (ex: two Kanban : one for tasks, one for bugs | | |
| Kanban multi-projects | | |
| WIP limit configuration per column | | |
| Swim lanes | | |
| Workflow application in the Kanban columns (ex: restriction to directly move a card from “to do” to “achieved”) | | |
| Link Kanban issues (stories, epics…) to source code source source, pull request, documents, deliveries | | Additional product needed |
| Customize columns name and numbers | | Only by platform admin |
| Customize information displayed on cards | | |
| Filter cards by searches | | |
| Cumulative flowchart | | |
| HYBRID APPROACHES | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Scrumban, Kanplan, homemade processes | |
|
Dashboards
| REPORTING | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Charts : pies, bars, cumulative flow | | |
| Cardwalls | | |
| Personal dashboards with widgets | | |
| Team shared dashboards with widgets | | |
| Multi-dashboards by project (ex: tab “Dev”, tab PO, tab QA) | |  |
| SEARCH IN TRACKERS | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Advanced Tracker Query Language | | |
| Search for multiple issue tracker | | |
| Search issues for multiple projects | | |
| Charts updated in real-time to searches | | |
| TIME TRACKING | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Fields for time tracking (estimated effort, real effort, hours, …) | | |
| Time Tracking per issue | | |
| Timer button | | |
| Time Tracking on multiple project | | |
| Time Tracking on a team | | |
| Time Tracking per people | | |
| PERMISSIONS | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| On tracker | | |
| On tracker field | | |
| Create generic user groups | | |
| Create specific user groups per project | | |
| NOTIFICATIONS | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Define generic notifications per tracker | | |
| Define notifications on each tracker of your project | | |
| Per tracker canned responses | | |
| Per tracker date reminders | | |
Available with strong capabilities, Limited, 
Not available
| IMPORT-EXPORT | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Import/Export issues including attachements en history | | |
| Import/Export issues in CSV | | |
| | | |
| Import/Export issues with APIs | | |
| Import/Export trackers’configurations in xml | | |
Software Development
| Tuleap | Jira software | |
|---|---|---|
| Git code management at scale | | Additional Atlassian product |
| Online code review (simple to advanced workflow) | | |
| Continuous Integration with Jenkins | | |
Test Management-QA
| Tuleap | Jira software | |
|---|---|---|
| Centralized Test Management for manual and automated campaigns (real-time monitoring, test steps, dashboards, … | | |
Document collaboration
| Tuleap | Jira software | |
|---|---|---|
| Collaborative document management (wiki, folders, search, validation workflow…) | | |
By the way, Tuleap is Open Source. Jira is proprietary
This is all about freedom. While we are on the topic of freedom, it is important to consider whether or not a tool that you will populate with your organization’s knowledge will let you soar or clip your wings. What will happen to your organization’s data when your paid license ends, for example?
With proprietary tools, if you don’t pay, you can’t build software. With Tuleap, as it’s an open source tool, your freedom is guaranteed.
Standardizing software processes across the organization is something everyone agrees on. However, to be really efficient, project teams need to be able to tailor their workspace to the way they work…not the other way around!
With Tuleap, the top open source Jira alternative, project teams gain independence and efficiency. Tuleap lets project teams make simple changes that transform the way they work. They can create their own project user groups, add new values to trackers and configure their workflow transitions and development triggers.