If Jira seems disappointing to you and your team, in this quite lengthy article you’ll discover the best Jira alternatives.

Or if you are just browsing the web for a great project management tool, this guide will ease your final decision.

DISCLAIMER: This is not the typical biased “Jira sucks, instead check our tool; it’s better than Jira” article.

Our opinion is entirely based on facts, statistics, and reliable customer reviews from authority sites like Gartner Peer Insight, G2 Crowd, Capterra, and TrustRadius.

As much as we wouldn’t like to, we’ll avoid focusing on our Jira-like tool and try to be completely transparent throughout the article. We hope that our transparency and accurate information will help you decide whether you should look for Jira alternatives and which one to pick or you should better stick with Jira.

Let’s jump right into it.

Table of contents:

• What is Jira?

• Jira Core vs Jira Software

• What is Jira used for?

• Codegiant

• ClickUp

• Asana

• Monday

• Wrike

• Trello

• Pivotal Tracker

• Assembla

• Backlog

• Kanbanize

• VivifyScrum

• nTask

• Axosoft

• Proofhub

• Teamwork

• GanttPro

• ActiveCollab

• Bitrix24

• GitHub Issue Tracker

• Basecamp

• Workzone

• Mavenlink

• Paymo

• Airtable

• Hygger

• Teamdeck

• ProductBeat

• Binfire

• Redbooth

• Celoxis

• Planless

• Visor

What is Jira?

If you are new to it, Jira is basically used for project management, specifically for bug tracking. It’s an agile project management tool (from 2002) built for software developers and owned by Atlassian. It helps you keep track of your daily, weekly, monthly, and even yearly Jira tasks and projects.

Jira allows you to create tasks, write detailed descriptions and reports, and spread assignments across your team relatively quickly. Jira tasks and roadmaps are quite easy to digest, empowering you to see the direction your Jira project is moving toward.

Used by 65,000 teams, Jira definitely has the potential to ensure your project’s success.

The Atlassian project management tool comes in three versions — Jira Align, Jira Core, and Jira Software. It also has Jira Mobile. Jira Align is mainly suited for enterprises whereas Jira Core and Jira Software fit smaller businesses better.

Jira Core vs Jira Software

These two Jira versions are quite similar to each other but in order to help you pick the best one, here’s what each Jira version stands for:

Jira Software can be both used for business as well as for personal use. With Jira Software, you’ll have extra agile flexibility which enables you to fully plan your projects from project backlog to sprint.

Whereas Jira Core, which is better suited for business purposes, is easier to use, allows you to organize your Jira projects effortlessly and it’s task oriented. This would be a better option for you if you are more business-oriented.

Pricing plans for Jira Software start at $7/user a month whereas Jira Core starts at $5/user a month.

What is Jira used for?

• Customizable Jira workflows.
• Unlimited custom fields.
• Bugs and defect management.
• Jira swimlanes.
• Seamless source and issue integration.
• Search and filtering.
• User mentions.
• Multiple assignees.
• Project planning.
• Jira task management.
• Jira resource management.
• Jira resource planning.
• Advanced reporting.
• Customizable Jira boards and wallboards.
• Jira Kanban, Scrum and Scrumban boards.
• Advanced security and administration.
• Integration with flexible REST APIs.
• Jira hosting.
• The Jira support team is great.
• Easily import data from other systems.
• Mobile interface available for both Android and iOS users.
• OnDemand and OnPremise deployment.
• Jira supports the following platforms: Microsoft Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure.
• Jira’s latest version as of June 2020 is 8.9.
• Jira is free for students if you have the Atlassian Classroom License.
• Free for open source projects and for teams with up to 10 users.

Jira’s fascinating features, such as customizable Jira agile workflows, advanced reporting, and out-of-the-box scrum, kanban, and scrumban boards, will help you sync with your team easily. You can complete project milestones quicker than if you were using outdated spreadsheets that nobody on your team understands.

Jira swimlanes are absolutely awesome for better prioritising your issues.

Furthermore, Jira smoothly integrates with most of your favorite tools. It thus strives to ease your work life. And Jira task management is made simpler compared to average PM tools.

Yet, as with any other project management tool, Jira also comes with a couple of drawbacks… and according to some people, those drawbacks seem quite disadvantageous, to say the least.

We scoured Capterra for Jira reviews and found out that because of Jira’s initial bug-tracking design, it can be quite tricky for non-tech folks to get the whole picture right off the bat.

Jira’s agile UI can also be a bit cumbersome. You are bombarded with heaps of Jira features, most of which are buried in submenus. This can be an overwhelming experience, especially if you are new to Jira. Experienced, especially DevOps, teams though, wouldn’t have problems navigating through Jira’s UI.

Another con that ties closely to the setup is that Jira is mainly built for development teams. And it can be hard for non-tech folks to adapt to the software.

Jira also doesn’t provide you with built-in idea management tools to keep track of your future plans and ideas. However, it integrates fine with other great idea management tools like Jama.

Jira pricing plans are fair compared to other project management tools. You can find cheaper tools just as much as you can find pricey software as well. It all comes down to basic math. You can check the Jira subscriptions here. It offers cloud pricing and on premises too.

Here’s an interesting fact: If you Google “Jira alternatives” and click on some of the top results and read through, you’ll notice authors saying that Jira delivers awful… terrible… unbearable collaboration tools for your team. We even found statements like “No collaboration features to communicate with your team.”

And here’s the thing:

We can confidently say that this couldn’t be further from the truth. After reading close to 500 hundred reviews on Capterra, we had concluded that maybe 1 out of every 100 people have team collaboration issues. The majority of users seem to be highly delighted by Jira’s collaboration tools so far.

Interestingly enough, those articles are all written by Jira’s competitors.

All fraudy articles aside… we reached out to project managers, CTOs, CEOs, and founders to ask for their opinion on Jira. Here’s what some of them say:

“My biggest challenge with Jira was the steep learning curve. Jira requires you to be familiar with basic Jira agile management if you want to fully utilize its options.” — Dusan, Co-founder of DealsOnHealth.

“I am of the opinion that beyond tracking issues or bugs, JIRA as a team or enterprise backlog management and tracking tool should be resigned to the dustbin of software development history, preferably as quickly as possible.” — Chris “Deuce” Alexander, Enterprise Agile Coach.

“For small to medium projects, especially those which have only a small software-development part, it pays to stick to a more simple and intuitive tool. Trello, or the open-source alternative Wekan, are great options if you don’t need a full tool suite such as Jira.” — Peter Thaleikis, CEO at Bring Your Own Ideas.

“The biggest headache I have with JIRA is that it doesn’t work for people with disabilities who use assistive technology without having to buy a very expensive plug-in.” — Sheri, Head of Accessibility at VMware.

“In my experience, the biggest drawback with Jira is that there are too many Jira features, menus, sections etc. Thus, it can be intimidating for first-time users to get started.” — Andreas Pettersson, CTO at Onsiter.com and Right People Group.

“When managers are forced to use JIRA for hardware development, they find there’s not a lot of flexibility in JIRA to deal with their problems.” — William Pinson, Pinson Technical Consulting.

“The biggest issue we’ve had with JIRA is the overall complexity of the software. We find ourselves using 10% of the overall JIRA functionality. Creating projects/tickets is faster in Trello than in JIRA, as Trello requires less information upfront.” — Husam Machlovi, Founder of With Pulp.

“Looking at your sprint with five columns (To-do, In Progress, Blocked, Done, Closed) on a 13' laptop is a pain as it’s hard to have a clear overview of your sprint.” — Stéphane Turquay, Senior Product Manager at Smallpdf.

“The most common complaints we have about Jira are about its speed, complicated Jira workflows that add overhead to project management, API issues, and limited support.” — Austin, CEO at Capiche.

Here are the best JIRA alternatives for Agile project management teams:

Codegiant

Codegiant is a free Jira alternative that comes with a straightforward UI. You won’t feel like you’ve been dropped in the middle of an intergalactic Star Wars battle when using it.

Codegiant also brings tons of features to the table. You can easily create tasks, distribute them among your team members, and keep track of your team progress. And thus clearly see the next step you need to take to make sure that your team moves in the right direction.

What’s more, Codegiant offers both intuitive Kanban and Scrum boards.

Whether you are looking for a clear view over your projects or in a desperate hurry to meet all deadlines, Codegiant has enough flexibility to fit any of your workflows, accelerate the team efforts, and make your work more manageable.

Features:

• An agile project management software with a simplistic interface.
• The issue tracker features two board styles: Kanban and Scrum.
• Roadmaps.
• Sprints.
• Epics.
• Analyze your tasks’ performance.
• Tasks and subtasks.
• Tags, mentions, and comments.
• Time estimates.
• Import projects from Jira with our one-click Jira importer.
• Codegiant has a free plan for up to 5 users, then starts at $3/user a month.

What we like:

• We can quite frankly say that Codegiant ranks high among other PM tools because of its straightforwardness. It’s not clunky nor challenging to use. Spreading tasks across your team is more than easy.
• You’ll have the opportunity to bring your team on the same page with easy-to-use collaboration tools like comments, mentions, and assignees.
• Except for its unbelievably easy-to-use Issue Tracker, Codegiant boasts Git repositories, CI/CD, and publishable documentation. These features make it the perfect option for development teams that adhere to agile methods.
• With its free plan, you can explore Codegiant without paying a dime and see for yourself if it’s the perfect fit for you.

What we don’t like:

• We still haven’t introduced many integrations with other tools that will make your use of Codegiant easier. We currently have integrations with Slack and Intercom. However, as of the release of Codegiant 3.0, which will take place later this summer, we will be adding up to 8 new integrations every month.
• We also saw free users complaining about our customer support. And as much as we’d like to avoid saying that here, we prefer to speak the truth and learn from our mistakes. That’s why we’ve decided to dedicate an entire team to customer support in the upcoming month (August 2020).

If you are looking for a pleasant-to-the-eye Jira free alternative, you can’t go wrong with Codegiant. It’s simple. It’s straightforward. It’s effortless to work with. You’ll get used to it quickly. Feel free to check it out.

Here’s what people say about Codegiant: “The ease of use is incredible when you come from Atlassian Jira. Everything seems straightforward and intuitive. The fact that you have everything in one place is a big plus. And the free plan is really interesting!”

ClickUp

ClickUp is another fantastic free alternative to Jira for agile teams. “The one tool to replace them all” is how ClickUp describes itself.

Developers from ClickUp say that growing frustrations from average project management tools prompted them to build ClickUp to remove the chaos in the work-life of a typical project management user.

Let’s see.

ClickUp has an intuitive interface, and it is also rich in features. This puts it miles ahead of the average competition. With ClickUp, you can also manage your personal life through notes, digital scratchpads, reminders, and calendars, all beautifully designed.

Inside ClickUp, you can create and organize tasks quite easily. It has enough flexibility to ensure that you don’t feel limited when using ClickUp.

Features:

• You can create epics and use story points.
• Analyze your sprints’ performance.
• Use tags.
• Templates and custom statuses for process management.
• Multiple assignees.
• Goals.
• Boards, Lists, Gantt, and Calendar views.
• Time estimates.
• Start and due dates.
• Time tracking.
• Free plan. If you want to get the premium features, it’s $9 per month.

What we like:

• ClickUp is one of the BIG “talks” out there. With its simple UI, you can rest assured that there are no overwhelming features to halt your workflow.
• ClickUp is also rich in features. It provides your team with the necessary tools to manage your projects efficiently. And collaborate with your team effectively to boost your productivity.
• One of ClickUp’s most significant advantages is that it offers a free plan with unlimited users. You can thoroughly test the tool without risking a penny.

What we don’t like:

• ClickUp doesn’t allow you to export workspaces. In other words — you are stuck with ClickUp. But if you’ve made your mind that this is the tool that is going to be your lifetime partner, it wouldn’t be a problem for you.
• It also has a rather steep learning curve. So, arm yourself with extra patience when trying ClickUp for the first time.

On the whole, ClickUp is a fantastic and free Jira alternative. It can definitely ease your work.

Here’s what other people say about ClickUp: “I love ClickUp, and I use it daily. I’ve had my fair share of days in which all I’m doing is overseeing my team’s progress through ClickUp, managing and organising tasks for the present and for the future so everyone can be as productive as possible.”

Asana

Asana is undoubtedly one of the essential Jira project management competitors for agile methodologies out there.

If you didn’t know, Asana was founded by one of Facebook co-founders (Dustin Moskovitz) back in 2008. And it is currently evaluated at $1.5B (June 2020).

Ok, let’s get down to brass tacks.

Asana enables you to easily create and spread tasks across your team due to its straightforward UI/UX. Moreover, with Asana’s intuitive boards, you’ll have the chance to clearly visualize your work and make better future project plans.

With Asana Timelines, you can break down your project in pieces and thus ensure that you will rarely if ever, miss a deadline.

Offering more than 100 integrations, Asana brings everything you need in one place — emails, files, tickets, and many more.

One of Asana’s best and most entertaining features is the rainbow unicorns. Asana hits your screen with flying unicorns when you finish a task. This makes you absolutely fall in love with the tool. You have to give kudos to Asana for its innovation.

Features:

• Pleasant-to-the-eye interface.
• Document management.
• Gantt charts (Timelines).
• CRM.
• Reports.
• Get notifications and reminders.
• Collaboration features. Comment on tasks.
• Add assignees, attachments, and hearts to tasks.
• Time tracking.
• 100+ integrations.
• Portfolio management.
• It comes with a free plan for up to 15 users. It then starts at €13.49 billed monthly.

What we like:

• If you are looking for something simple that will keep you entertained with its out-of-the-box rainbow unicorns, then Asana is the top pick for you.
• Asana makes it ridiculously easy to create tasks and spread assignments across your team. You’ll clearly see what your team is working on and thus make accurate time and cost estimates for your future projects. And therefore meet your deadlines without much hassle.
• Asana offers a free trial with limited features, so you can see if it’s suitable for your team.

What we don’t like:

• Email notifications tend to be a bit annoying and hard to disable.
• Asana pricing plans can be quite costly, even for smaller teams. The premium plan is priced at $13.49/user per month. Asana’s pricing compared to Jira’s cost can be quite expensive.

Asana is an excellent tool built for the innovative people, for those who aren’t afraid of being different, and for those who are actually willing to test and try weird stuff that may actually change their lives. If you resonate with one of the types above, don’t hesitate to jump over to Asana. If we could give Asana a one-word description, that would be — fascinating.

Here’s what people say about Asana: “Asana is a beautiful and flexible tool for managing your project and for team collaboration.”

Monday

Monday is another outstanding alternative to Jira. No matter the size of your team, Monday definitely has something to offer to both small and big teams.

What makes Monday stand out from most of the complex project management tools is the simple UI it offers. It is straightforward. It is pleasant to the eye. And it’ll ease your work life significantly so that you don’t have to run around in circles when using Monday.

Monday enables you to create and organize your projects easily. The drag and drop feature will definitely make your user experience much smoother.

Moreover, Monday boasts incredible collaboration features that can bring your team on the same page. Everybody knows what other members of the team are working on. Managers have a clear-cut view of the team progress and can assist the team members when needed.

Monday is also widely used by freelancers. Say, if you are a freelancer, 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:

• Automated notifications.
• Task dependencies.
• Kanban boards.
• Time tracking.
• A visual display of progress.
• Integrations.
• Timeline views.
• Gantt charts.
• Collaboration tools.
• Email updates.
• Customizable templates.
• Great for freelancers.
• Milestone tracking.
• It offers a free trial. After the trial ends, the price starts at $39.00 per month for 5 users.

What we like:

• Monday offers plenty of features so that you can customize your projects abundantly. And always have a bird’s eye view over your projects.
• Monday also makes your team collaboration an effortless and pleasant experience. It huddles your team together so that you don’t miss a deadline ever again.
• Creating tasks and organizing your projects inside Monday feels like a breeze.

What we don’t like:

• A downside we’ve noticed here is that hyperlinks get lost when data is imported from a spreadsheet.
• We’ve read customer reviews on Capterra, where people tell that Monday’s UI can be laggy, especially in the rush hours. Users think that Monday has a vast customer base but without the servers to sustain it, which causes quite a discomfort.
• Also, the mac version can be a bit slow sometimes.

Overall, Monday is definitely a great Jira project management alternative brushing aside the slight bugs and lags of it.

Here’s what other people say about Monday: “The most valuable feature of Monday.com is flexibility. It offers several features and options for managing and using the tool but you have the option to utilize them as you see fit for your specific needs.”

Wrike

If you are overwhelmed with a myriad of tasks and Jira feels a bit frustrating, one of the best alternatives you can replace Jira with is Wrike.

Wrike is the tool to take care of all your project management needs. It comes with tons of simply-designed features — gantt charts, workload view for resource management, enterprise-level security, custom dashboards, auto-assignments, and more. It also delivers robust reports to monitor your team progress so you can receive valuable work-related insights.

Wrike gives you the chance to fully customize your workflow and empower your team to be more productive. And thus meet every deadline without any hassle whatsoever.

With Wrike’s interactive timelines, you’ll plan ahead, innovate, and monitor your team performance over time.

Features:

• Gantt charts.
• Enterprise security.
• Custom dashboards.
• Interactive timelines.
• Workload view of resource management.
• Time tracking.
• Collaboration tools.
• Milestone tracking.
• Jira-like kanban boards.
• Wrike also offers a free trial. Its PRO version starts at $9.80 a month. Still, due to the Coronavirus situation, they offer a 6-month free trial, which is fantastic.

What we like:

• Wrike is a top-notch Jira-like tool for mid-sized and enterprise-level teams. It is rich in features and allows you to customize your workflows easily. And thus move faster towards the goal line.
• Wrike comes with a pleasant UI, so you don’t have to slam your head against the hard-concrete walls in your office, prowling essential features buried in the submenus.
• Wrike can tie every team of your organization together and thus break any silos that may be hampering your company from thriving.
• It’s cool that Wrike offers a free trial. You can try it out, see how your team performs with it, and if you get a feel for it — continue using it.

What we don’t like:

• The learning curve is quite steep, and you may have a hard time initially getting the full picture.
• Another downside of Wrike is that the collaboration tools are hard to manage, and some users have trouble leaving comments on tasks.
• Support teams can also be unresponsive sometimes.

If you are ready to replace the sophisticated tools you’ve been using so far with something robust in features and fresh in looks, Wrike is one of your best picks, to be honest. Feel free to check it out if you still have hesitations.

Here’s what people say about Wrike: “Wrike is by far the most holistic, comprehensive task modeling, and team organizing tool we are happy to say allows our office to boost to new levels of productivity. We highly recommend its use.”

Trello

Jira’s brother, or sister, or kid, or whatever relative… Trello is another viral and free Jira alternative used in agile software development as well as for other purposes. Trello is also owned by Atlassian.

“Jira vs Trello” is one of the most searched keywords when it comes to free Jira competitors/alternatives. After all, Trello is as well one of the most popular PM tools today.

The uniqueness of Trello stems from the simplicity and visibility it provides. Trello allows you to add due dates to any card you create. And it also empowers you with weekly and monthly calendar views over your projects so you can clearly see the steps you need to take to finish your project fast and effortlessly.

Creating boards, tasks, mentioning teammates, commenting on issues, everything is simplified to the degree that you can’t even realize how easy it is to work with Trello. Trello basically has one of the most simple UIs from all of the gazillion project management tools out there.

Moreover, projects can be easily moved and adjusted with drag-and-drop clicks.

It helps you clearly see what’s on the table, the tasks your teammates are working on, and the next crucial step you need to take to move the project towards the goal line rather swiftly.

Features:

• Trello adheres to agile methodology.
• Gantt charts.
• Trello boards.
• Tags, labels, and categories.
• Drag and drop.
• Email notifications.
• Collaboration tools.
• Data filtering.
• Time tracking.
• Milestone tracking.
• Customizable templates.
• Free to use. Trello’s business class starts at $12.50 per month. Trello only comes with cloud pricing whereas Jira has cloud pricing and on-premises.

What we like:

• Trello is one of the best open source Jira alternatives when it comes down to simplicity. Navigating your way through Trello’s UI is as simple as ABC.
• The learning curve is as short and flat as it can ever be. Merely create a new board, card, or a list, give it a name, and use drag and drop to easily fit it into your workflow.
• You can now automate repetitive and tedious tasks with Butler directly inside Trello. Butler helps your team codify business rules and processes to automate manual tasks so that you can spend more time doing the actual work instead of wasting your time on repetitive tasks.
• And what’s even more, you can use Trello utterly free of risk. Feel free to explore it and see if it’s suitable for your workflows.

What we don’t like:

• The mobile version feels a bit clunky. You can lose track of your team messages and work updates in an instant. It can be annoying at times.

All in all, Trello is a fantastic agile project management tool and an excellent replacement for Jira (even though they are both owned by Atlassian). It has a flat learning curve. And Trello also gives you the ability to bring your team on the same page. Feel free to check it out.

Here’s what people say about Trello: “We use Trello because of its easy-to-use features where we can add tags, labels and categories. The drag-and-drop feature of cards makes task management a lot easier.” — Michael Hammelburger, CEO @ The Bottom Line Group.

Pivotal Tracker

Another powerful Jira alternative that is bulging with heaps of features is Pivotal Tracker.

Pivotal Tracker has the power to provide you with a bird’s eye view over your projects. You’ll have the chance to clearly see every phase of your project and ensure you meet all deadlines.

Pivotal Tracker helps you track your team progress so that you can identify potential issues in your workflow and take precautionary measures in time.

Also, Pivotal Tracker allows you to bring your team on the same page. Every single step taken towards the completion of a particular project can be documented easily. Your team will be able to sync effortlessly and thus accelerate the work process.

However, due to the heaps of features it offers, Pivotal Tracker might seem mind-boggling at first. You’ll need to invest some time in learning the tool initially to use it without any hassle further down the line.

Once you get the whole picture, you’ll realize how great Pivotal Tracker actually is.

Features:

• Effective collaboration tools.
• Story mapping.
• Prioritization.
• New iterations.
• Analytics & Reports.
• Search engine.
• Notifications.
• Labels.
• Integrations.
• Mentions and following.
• Search engine.
• File sharing.
• It has a free trial, then it’s $12.50 a month if you pay for the whole year.

What we like:

• Pivotal Tracker gives you a 50,000 feet view over your projects so that you can clearly see the next vital tasks to be completed. And thus accelerate the work process.
• It also brings a whole lot of powerful features to the table so that you can fully customize your workflow.
• Once you get used to it, you’ll start accelerating your work process significantly.

What we don’t like:

• The user interface can be a bit overwhelming. You’ll be bombarded with heaps of features that may flummox you at first.

On the whole, Pivotal Tracker is a great open source Jira alternative.

Yet, when it comes to the user experience, things can be improved. Hopefully, in the future, Pivotal Tracker’s interface will be made simpler.

Here’s what other people say about Pivotal Tracker: ”Pivotal Tracker is great for software development teams. Approvals are pretty sleek which allows for back and forth between developers and the QA process if there are bugs or the product isn’t being built up to specs.”

Assembla

Assembla is a more innovative alternative to Jira. It’s an excellent pick for developers.

It comes with heaps of smartly-designed features (like useful wikis, message boards, file-sharing, 24/7 support via phone, chat, and email) to help you customize your workflow the way you like it.

Managing your projects with Assembla is relatively easy once you get used to it. It’s basically a great software to use for source control on your projects.

However, sometimes you might find it a bit overwhelming to sift through Assembla’s not-so-intuitive interface when rummaging for features.

Features:

• Version control.
• Oodles of features.
• Great visibility.
• Code review.
• Collaboration tools.
• Repository management.
• 24/7 Multi-Channel Support.
• Wiki Tool.
• GDocs & Dropbox Integration.
• File Sharing.
• Custom Reporting.
• Offers a free trial. Then it starts at $10 a month for up to 5 users.

What we like:

• Assembla takes place on this list due to the innovative and smartly-designed features it brings to the table. If you are a tech(y) guy and like to tinker with a lot of tech, you’d definitely adore Assembla.
• With Assembla, you’ll clearly see the direction your project is moving towards and the next essential step your team needs to take.
• You’ll have the chance to bring your team on the same page with Assembla’s efficient and easy-to-use collaboration tools.
• Once you get used to Assembla, you’ll see your team productivity starting to increase.

What we don’t like:

• Due to its “innovative” features and solutions, Assembla can, honestly, be a bit frustrating at first. It has a steep learning curve. And it’ll require you to sacrifice more time than usual to figure it out altogether.

On the whole, Assembla is a great pick for tech(y) folks who want to bath in smartly-designed features. However, if you are just searching for a simpler alternative, you might want to pick one of the previous solutions.

Here’s what people have to say about Assembla: “I prefer my apps to be stupid simple. I felt this app was a little smarter than I wanted.”

Backlog

Backlog is an all-in-one agile tool like Jira (but with slight differences) that adheres to agile methodologies.

The difference between Backlog and Jira is that Backlog is relatively simple and easy to use.

You still get access to tons of features inside Backlog, yet without being overwhelmed by a hectic UI. Backlog’s clean interface removes all the clutter from your projects. It thus empowers you to focus only on the main tasks to move your project closer to the goal line.

You’ll also be able to break your tasks into subtasks and then spread them across your team.

Backlog really comes with amazing team collaboration features. Its tagging features are absolutely fantastic and fast to utilize. You can definitely bring your team on the same page when working with this software. Kudos to you Backlog.

On top of that, information pertaining to your projects can be stored in comprehensible docs and wikis that are incredibly easy to assemble.

Backlog also offers a bug tracker and code management system — a perfect pick for developers.

Features:

• Simple to use.
• Subtasking.
• Custom statuses.
• Kanban boards.
• Gantt charts.
• Git & SVN.
• Burndown charts.
• Customized templates.
• Collaboration tools.
• Free trial, then starts at $35 a month.

What we like:

• Backlog is definitely one of Jira’s simplest alternatives. Using Backlog feels like a breeze.
• What’s more, it comes with a bug tracker and a code management system, which makes it a good pick for developers.
• It also brings a free trial to the table to see for yourself if Backlog is as good as they say it is.

What we don’t like:

• We’ve noticed some bugs when creating an issue. Sometimes issues may show twice, which can cause a slight frustration.

All in all, Backlog can definitely deliver a pleasant user experience for you to work more productively. It’s worth the pick, especially if you are a developer.

Here’s what other people say about Backlog: “Overall excellent app for a great cost that your team has control over. You get to pay for the level your team will use without the burden of overwhelming excess features.”

Kanbanize

The ultimate Jira alternative for managing your Kanban projects much more effectively is called Kanbanize.

Kanbanize is merely great. With its intuitive interface, you won’t have to smash your head against the work desk, trying to navigate through the board. Kanbanize also allows you to design your boards the way you like it. The software is quite flexible, so you’ll have the chance to easily adjust it to your workflow.

It also brings incredible visibility to your projects. You’ll never second guess yourself when working towards the completion of a particular project.

Accelerating your work process by improving your team collaboration is a real possibility with Kanbanize.

Features:

• Effective collaboration tools.
• Customizable Kanban boards.
• Timelines.
• Swimlanes.
• KPI monitoring.
• Powerful analytics.
• Roadmapping.
• Milestone tracking.
• GDocs & Dropbox Integration.
• Prioritization.
• Free trial. Then it starts at $120 per month.

What we like:

• Kanbanize is simply great when it comes to effective team communication. That’s because it’s designed with easy-to-use collaboration tools — comments, tags, mentions, and more.
• With Kanbanize’s intuitive UI and easy-to-access features, you’ll rarely stumble upon hurdles when managing your projects. Your team will have the chance to confidently complete tasks fast without any hassle whatsoever.
• With project swimlanes, you can break your tasks into smaller chunks and thus clearly map out the entire process. And always see the next essential step you need to take to finish your projects successfully.
• Kanbanize offers a free trial, so you can see for yourself if it’s the right pick for you.

What we don’t like:

• According to some Kanbanize users, even though the UI is friendly and intuitive, the design by itself tends to be a bit ugly, which might cause some discomfort.
• Subtasks are also quite hard to insert compared to other tools on this list.
• It also doesn’t provide you with Gantt and Burndown charts.

All in all, Kanbanize is definitely a good (even great) alternative to Jira. It’s a feature-rich tool and has everything you need to effectively manage your team and thus accelerate the work process. Yet, its design can be improved further.

Here’s what people say about Kanbanize: “It is very easy to deal with this app. Kanbanize allows in a very practical way to work with agile methods for project development/implementation.”

VivifyScrum

If you love Jira’s features, but you feel quite overwhelmed because of its complex UI, a great alternative is VivifyScrum. This free scrum software brings a simple UI and tons of features to manage your entire workflow.

VivifyScrum is designed based on the traditional “Trello” interface, which actually makes it pretty easy to use. Its collaboration features are top-notch and will bring your team on the same page. And thus empower you to meet all your deadlines.

With VivifyScrum, you’ll have crystal clarity over your projects to clearly see the direction your plan is moving towards. If team members are falling behind, you can quickly notice that and provide further assistance.

Features:

• Jira-like Kanban and Scrum boards.
• Trello-like design.
• Rich Text Editing.
• Reporting.
• Drag-and-drop.
• Notifications.
• Collaboration tools.
• Time tracking.
• Adheres to agile methodologies.
• Integrations.
• It offers a free trial, and after that, it is $10.00 per month.

What we like:

• VivifyScrum is excellent for those keen on simplicity. You’ll rarely have trouble spreading tasks or managing your team when using VivifyScrum.
• It brings incredible collaboration tools to the table to enhance your team communication and thus ramp up more completed tasks in a shorter time.
• The support team is also fantastic. The folks from VivifyScrum know how to handle your support tickets professionally.

What we don’t like:

• Even though the UI is easy to comprehend, you’ll still have difficulty finding some secondary features buried in submenus.
• Kanban boards aren’t flexible nor customizable enough.

All in all, VivifyScrum can leave you satisfied by taming your appetite for simplicity and powerful features.

Here’s what other people say about VivifyScrum: “Also, the team behind VivifyScrum are responsive, personable and helpful, they listen to their customers and are always improving the product. Decent integrations with other platforms too.”

Process Street

Process Street is a little different to Jira in that it's much more oriented around process management rather than project management. That said, all these tools serve to help you understand and manage the workflows you follow and, in that way, Process Street is a big tool to mention. 

The platform is conceptually very simple; it's checklists. Process Street bills itself as being superpowered checklists - taking a common offline tool we all know and digitizing it to make it more powerful. 

While Process Street is great for the kind of checklists you might use in normal life, where it excels is in big collaborative checklists. You can assign users (and guests) to whole checklists or individual tasks and use streamlined approvals features to stop bottlenecks occurring. Plus, with if-this-then-that conditional logic and other advanced features to play with, you can shape complex workflows into easy to follow processes.

Process Street is also used by a lot of large companies to manage their procedures through approaches like ISO 9001 (https://www.process.st/iso-9001/) or ISO 14001 (https://www.process.st/iso-14001/) without having to fall back on old and outdated software.

Features:

• Simple checklist UX
• Drag and drop template builder
• Wide selection of form fields
• Task, checklist, and role assignments
• Include all forms of rich media
• Embed webpages directly into the checklist
• Stop tasks to enforce order
• Conditional logic
• Activity history
• Team wide reporting
  

What we like:

• Integrates with thousands of other apps and offers webhooks and API access.
• Simple to use and super fast to set up for small teams.
• Massive cumulative benefits as knowledge gets stored and iterated on. 
  

What we don't like:

• The reporting has improved but you still need to connect to third-party services if you want to generate graphs and easy-to-interpret data visuals. 
• We hear a mobile app is coming, but it's not here yet.
• The Variables feature allows you to pull information from one form field and display it later in the checklist, but this is configured through the name of the form field. So if you update the name of the field it breaks the connection. Little things like this need ironing out. 

Overall, Process Street is great for your documented recurring workflows. It won't have the agility of Jira for one-off tasks, but it offers a lot for those tasks you do more than twice. 

Here's what other people say: "As a long time entrepreneur (and business coach) I always wished there was a simple way to document and manage process and procedures inside my companies, and could never find a tool to do it. Until Process Street. The product itself is brilliant, and is incredible for developing an online employee manual, corporate processes and procedures, and managing regular activities that take place inside any business - hiring, managing, operations, maintenance, etc."

nTask

nTask is an all-in-one Jira alternative that adheres to agile methodologies. It’s a free agile software. nTask is perfect for smaller teams as it makes project management, team communication, and task distribution easier.

The uniqueness of nTask stems from its all-in-one design that strives to ease your work life with every feature you need from A to Z.

Unlike the average PM tools, nTask features a more straightforward interface. You won’t have to stare at a complex UI anxiously, trying to understand how to create your first task while silently swearing.

Features:

• Simplistic design.
• All-in-one.
• Good collaboration tools.
• Gantt/Timeline view.
• Subtasks are available.
• Time tracking.
• And what’s even more, you can use nTask for free forever. If you want to have premium features, it’s $2.99 per month per user.

What we like:

• What’s cool about nTask is that it is an all-in-one tool that strives to take care of your entire project management process and ease your workflows.
• With nTask, you don’t have to quizzically stare at multiple shocking bills at the end of each month, wondering which tool you should ditch first to cut off your expenditures.
• nTask is also pretty simple to use. Your team will have the chance to accelerate its work process instead of struggling to organize its projects.

What we don’t like:

• Attaching documents and photos to your projects can be a wearisome experience.

If you are scouring the web for an all-in-one simpler Jira alternative, nTask is the tool to consider.

Here’s what other people say about nTask: “I really enjoy using nTask. It helps me keep my team on task and it makes it easy for me to share documents. It also integrates with Slack, which I haven’t had time to utilize, but I love that it’s an option!”

Axosoft

Axosoft is another fantastic Jira alternative specifically designed for developers as well.

Axosoft delivers heaps of powerful features such as project planning, help desk, agile bug, and incident tracking.

Project management with Axosoft is made very easy. From planning the initial steps of a detailed project to its completion, you can go through the entire process without any hassle.

It enables you to manage your projects efficiently and plan releases and analyze your work progress effectively. So, your team can always be on top of the food chain.

Axosoft is as well capable of providing you with a bird’s eye view over your projects. You can structure all your tasks easily and distribute assignments across your team swiftly. You’ll know every essential step of the process to move your project forward. And make the necessary adjustments to your workflow when planning future projects.

What’s more, with Axosoft, you can build unlimited wiki pages and turn emails into support tickets.

Features:

• Project planning.
• Help desk.
• Bug tracker.
• Gantt charts.
• Kanban boards.
• Time tracking.
• Collaboration tools.
• Milestone tracking.
• Axosoft offers a free trial, but then it starts at $126 a month for 5 users.

What we like:

• Axosoft is another all-in-one development-solution for project management. It has every feature from A to Z to ensure effective project management. And save you from the tireless bouncing between various PM apps.
• The analytic reports are super robust. You can accurately assess the progress being made during project development.
• Axosoft also allows you to export tons of data to Excel sheets quite easily and rapidly.

What we don’t like:

• Axosoft lacks built-in source code management.
• Sometimes, when you assign a significant amount of tasks to your board, the interface can get a bit messy and overwhelm you to frustration.
• Pricing tiers tend to be a bit higher than the currently perceived. Compared to Jira’s cost, it can come as an expensive tool.

All in all, Axosoft is a great Jira alternative for developers that comes with heaps of powerful features. If Axosoft’s pricing tiers are not a problem for you, feel free to try it out.

Here’s what other people say about Axosoft: “We started with Axosoft when it was called OnTime. It worked great for us as a smaller organization for planning, tracking, and releasing software.”

Proofhub

If Jira isn’t able to sustain your team collaboration, Proofhub is an easy-to-use Jira alternative that can definitely bring your team on the same page.

It comes with integrated group chats and project discussions to make your team collaboration instant gratification instead of never-ending boredom.

Uploading, storing, and sharing files inside Proofhub feels like a breeze. You can say goodbye to the wearisome email rummaging.

With the 50,000 foot view that Proofhub brings to the table, your team can clearly see the battlefield and know every battle move it needs to take next to ensure the victory.

Proofhub can also be very well adjusted to your workflow. You can customize your workflows easily.

Features:

• Integrated group chats.
• Project discussions.
• Analysis reports.
• Gantt charts.
• To-do lists and tasks.
• Events & milestones.
• ChatFilesKanban boards.
• Time tracking.
• Customizable templates.
• Milestone tracking.
• Like all the previous tools, Proofhub also offers a free trial. Then it starts at $45 a month — unlimited users.

What we like:

• It has every collaboration feature to make your team communication productive.
• Proofhub also empowers you with useful reports and analysis so you can make better time and cost estimates.
• And it also makes it very easy to spread tasks across your team with its straightforward interface.
• With Proofhub, you’ll have the opportunity to easily adjust your workflows so your team can adapt to the changing circumstances quite easily.
• Proofhub also delivers great customer support. Their Twitter and Facebook pages are exceptionally responsive to inquiries.

What we don’t like:

• Proofhub comes with a steep learning curve that can be a bit wearisome. Even though the tool offers training modules, they are only fundamental. They won’t help you a lot when navigating through the interface.
• Slight interface disruptions may annoy you from time to time.

All in all, Proofhub is a fantastic agile Jira alternative, especially if you are looking to enhance your team collaboration. It can quickly bring your team on the same page so you can adapt to the changing environment.

Here’s what other people say about Proofhub: “For project management, it has all features that are expected for such endeavours, very fast, better to use as compared to other project management software, I would say it is also easy to handle.”

Teamwork

“Manage people, not tools.” — Teamwork’s motto.

If Jira cannot provide you with a simple and intuitive backlog that doesn’t scramble your brains 24/7, then Teamwork might be a reasonable Jira alternative.

Teamwork allows you to manage your projects, team, and schedules without any hassle at all. You’ll rarely, if ever, miss deadlines again. And your team is bound to increase its productivity once it gets used to Teamwork.

What’s more, it brings great clarity to your projects so that you don’t feel wholly disoriented, like in a lonely desert in North-East Africa, not knowing the next essential step you need to take.

Features:

• Gantt charts.
• Kanban boards.
• Portfolio management.
• Time tracking.
• Calendar.
• Task History.
• SMS Notifications.
• Customer satisfaction features.
• Mobile version for iOS and Android.
• Good Collaboration tools.Customizable templates.Milestone tracking.
• Teamwork comes with a free plan for up to 5 users. Then it starts at $9.00 a month.

What we like:

• Teamwork is an excellent option for the pissed off users tired of jumping between multiple tools to manage their projects. Teamwork brings everything in one place, so you don’t have to throw money down the drain for various tools.
• You’ll have the chance to significantly enhance your team communication. After all, the tool’s name (Teamwork) says it all.
• You’ll get access to thorough project reports and analytics. Thus, you’ll know how your team is performing over time and initiate adjustments if necessary.

What we don’t like:

• Even though the design is friendly and straightforward, some features are hidden in submenus, making them harder to find, and you might get easily annoyed.

Overall, Teamwork is a great all-in-one alternative to Jira. Once you get used to it, managing your team and projects feel like a breeze.

Here’s what other people say about Teamwork: “Love the logical layout, reliability of the tool, the ability to track time, set deadlines & reminders, and to have team task-based communication. This tool, put simply, works.”

GanttPro

GanttPro stands for simplicity. If you feel like Jira doesn’t have what’s necessary to ease your work life, you might want to turn your attention towards GanttPro.

If your backlog is bulging with clutter and you feel so overcome with frustration that you lean against the closed door of your office and silently scream, GanttPro can be your savior.

GanttPro is built to remove chaos from your projects. It provides you with simple project reports and analytics to easily assess your current work situation and make the best team decisions moving forward.

And GanttPro is quite famous too. It is used by more than 500,000 people, including project managers, CEOs, as well as managers from different departments.

Moreover, GanttPro comes with a 14-day free trial that allows you to fully explore the tool to see for yourself if it fits your needs.

Features:

• Gantt charts.
• Kanban boards.
• Time tracking.
• Budget management.
• Collaboration tools.
• Milestone tracking.
• Resource management.
• A 14-day free trial. It has an individual plan for $15 a month as well as a team plan for $8.90 per user per month.

What we like:

• Once you get the whole picture, project management becomes a pleasant experience instead of a wearisome work.
• Analytics and reports are quite robust. They enable you to accurately assess your team performance and make the necessary improvements to enhance it.
• Managing your team inside GanttPRO feels like a breeze. The tool comes with all the essential features you’ll ever need to bring a project from idea to reality in a record time without much hassle.

What we don’t like:

• The learning curve can be steeper than you might initially expect. Take your time with GanttPro so that you can fully understand how the tool works and have no issues further down the line.

On the whole, GanttPro is definitely a great Jira alternative for those teams looking for a simplistic solution that will enable them to move forward without any hassle.

Here’s what other people say about GanttPro: “It is an excellent tool that is helping me in my different matters of project management, and I strongly consider it as a professional tool when I graduate from my degree.”

ActiveCollab

If Jira doesn’t feel innovative enough and you struggle with managing your team efficiently, you may want to take a look at ActiveCollab, a fantastic Jira alternative.

Active Collab will give you the chance to bond your team together to be at the top of the food chain again, ramping up more and more finished tasks every week.

If you love powerful features, ActiveCollab can impress you with workload management, time tracking, project profitability, task dependencies, invoicing, collaborative options, and third-party integrations. You’ll be merely amazed.

With ActiveCollab, you’ll have the ability to break your projects into phases. And each stage into smaller chunks (assignments) so you can assign tasks to your teammates easily.

Whether you are a developer or not, ActiveCollab can ease your work life with its simple and intuitive interface. Spreading tasks and managing projects inside ActiveCollab feels like a breeze.

Features:

• Workload management.
• Task dependencies.
• Time tracking.
• Collaborative tools.
• Integrations.
• Gantt charts.
• Jira-like kanban boards.
• Customizable templates.
• Advanced reports.
• Quickbooks & Xero integration.
• Invoicing.
• Calendar.
• Milestone tracking.
• It brings a free trial to the table. After that, it is $7 per month per user.

What we like:

• When it comes to keeping everything organized, ActiveCollab tops the rankings.
• You can bring your team on the same page. Everybody will know what’s on the table and thus work at 100% towards the successful completion of your project.
• It has quite a beautifully-designed interface. You’ll never feel mind-boggled. On the contrary, it can help boost your productivity.

What we don’t like:

• You might experience some annoying bugs once in a blue moon, like being unable to upload files.
• Git integration is something ActiveCollab should add if they are serious about growing their user base.
• There’s also a bit of a learning curve due to the excessive amount of features Active Collab offers.

On the whole, Active Collab is a fantastic agile Jira alternative suited for everyone. It removes the chaos from your workspace. And helps you bring your team on the same page. However, the steep learning curve may scramble your brains initially.

Here’s what other people say about Active Collab: “ActiveCollab is one of the best, if not the best project management tool that I have ever used and I have jumped from one to another tool for different projects and project types.”

Bitrix24

Bitrix24 is another great and free alternative to Jira that offers something for everybody, regardless of your job title — developer, marketer, analyst, designer, or else.

Bitrix24 is brought to you with oodles of features, enabling you to manage your projects relatively easier. And thus accelerate the overall work process.

With Bitrix24, you get unlimited collaborators and unlimited projects for free.

The task creation process is relatively simple. You can create subtasks, insert templates, and manage task roles easily.

You’ll have the opportunity to bring your team on the same page with effective collaboration channels (chat or video) so that everybody knows what they should be working on.

Features:

• Kanban boards.
• Gantt charts.
• Subtasks.
• Customizable templates.
• Time tracking.
• Task roles.
• Task reports.
• Supervisor views.
• It does offer a free plan.

What we like:

• Bitrix24 is a strong Jira competitor designed with a whole lot of powerful features to ease your work life.
• You’ll have access to robust task reports to easily track your team progress. And to make accurate time and cost estimates in the future.
• Bitrix24 is an all-in-one software solution that saves you from subscribing to multiple various tools like — CRM software, PM tools, marketing software, and more.
• Bitrix24 comes with a feature called Company Pulse that easily identifies team members struggling to complete their particular tasks. Moreover, it delivers gamification tools to stimulate your team to work harder.

What we don’t like:

• We’ve noticed some Bitrix24 customers complaining about losing their data due to inactivity for a set period of time.
• There’s a steep learning curve, so you might encounter challenges initially.

Bitrix24 is a feature-rich Jira alternative for free that can, without a doubt, make your work life easier. It provides you with all the necessary reports to enhance your work methods and ensure every future project of yours ends with a 95%+ success rate.

Here’s what other people say about Bitrix24: “It is a unified platform that encourages collaborative use through the Activity Stream, wherein each member added in the team can track tasks, their progress and update any issues highlighted.”

GitHub Issue Tracker

Even though GitHub is a tool specifically built for developers, it comes with an issue tracker easier to comprehend than 90% of the tools in the PM market. GitHub and Jira are quite similar to each other with their serving market. Both agile tools are focused on software development teams.

A disclaimer: if you aren’t a developer nor have an interest in becoming one, feel free to skip this one. It’s mainly suited for issue and project tracking for software development.

OK, let’s get down to brass tacks.

What’s unique about GitHub is that you have all your repositories, CI/CD automation, and projects in one place. And unlike a lot of other dev tools, GitHub definitely brings quality and simplicity to its features.

Features:

• Kanban boards.
• Issue and project tracking for software development.
• Mentions.
• Labels.
• Subtasks.
• Issues and pull requests.
• GitHub offers a free plan for development teams with up to 3 users. Then the Team plan starts at $4 per month.

What we like:

• Because GitHub is currently the most popular development platform with more than 50 million users, you can rest assured that your projects are securely stored, and no data loss will occur.
• The GitHub project management tool is pleasant to the eye and pretty simple to use. In essence, you’ll be able to manage your team without any hassle whatsoever.
• It offers a free plan so that you can fully explore it without risking even a single penny. And you can use it with unlimited collaborators on board for free.

What we don’t like:

• Reviewing large pull requests can be quite wearisome.
• It is kinda limited in features.

GitHub is fantastic, and more than 50 million developers have made their way into it. Even though it’s not a feature-rich tool, it’ll definitely keep you away from chaos and clutter.

Here’s what other people say: “GitHub is incredibly reliable. I don’t remember the last time it was down for any significant time. This is essential for companies that rely on it for their daily operations.”

Basecamp

Basecamp is one of the biggest and strongest competitors among all other project management tools. It dates back to the early 2000s. And it’s a fantastic alternative to Jira.

What makes Basecamp unique is its ability to bring every feature you need in one place and thus allow you to manage your projects without having to jump from one tool to another, wasting your time & energy.

It boasts tons of incredible features such as to-do lists, message boards, schedules, documents & file storage, and group chat. All of them make your work life easier.

Basecamp can put your team on the same page so that everybody explicitly knows what to work on to move the project from its current unfinished state to being successfully completed.

Features:

• Collaboration tools.
• Idea management tools.
• Pre-built and customizable templates.
• Milestone tracking.
• To-do lists.
• Task History.
• Interactive Gantt Charts.
• To-Do List.
• Schedules.
• Message boards.
• Basecamp offers a 30-day free trial (longer than most tools). It also has a Personal plan for up to 20 users free forever.

What we like:

• Basecamp is like a Swiss army knife, the jack of all trades. It has everything you need from A to Z in one place. You don’t have to bounce between various 3rd party apps.
• Basecamp also comes with great collaboration tools to huddle your team together and ensure that everybody follows the same path.
• You can rest assured that your data is stored securely as Basecamp has been ruling over the PM market for two decades now.
• The customer support is simply outstanding. Your support tickets will be professionally handled no matter what time of the day you fire them off.

What we don’t like:

• It has a steep learning curve, so it may be hard to get the whole picture initially.
• It also lacks integrations with other great tools.
• We’ve noticed a lot of Basecamp users on Capterra being disappointed by Basemcap’s UI. They say it’s cumbersome and feel overwhelmed because of it.

On the whole, Basecamp has established its authority on the market long ago. It is used by more than 3.3 million users as of 2020. It’s definitely worth the try if you are looking for another powerful solution. But beware of the interface. If you are a fan of “less is more, “ Basecamp does not fit your needs.

Here’s what other people say about it: “I like the amazing options that Basecamp provides for an organization. It has lots of helpful features that help with organization and communication inside and outside the organization.”

Workzone

Workzone is a great Jira alternative that is specifically designed for marketing and operational teams with more than 5 users on board.

Workzone brings heaps of powerful features to the world to help you manage your projects efficiently. It also enables you to sync with your team through its incredible communication features.

What makes Workzone stand out is the project reports and analytics you can utilize to improve your work methods and make accurate future time and cost estimates.

Workzone is also quite easy to use as it comes with a relatively simple UI. You can create and distribute tasks across your team pretty much without any hassle. It’s trusted by big brands such as Wells Fargo and Verizon.

Features:

• Gantt charts.
• Time tracking.
• Expensive tracking.
• Notifications.
• Portfolio management.
• Collaboration tools.
• Customizable templates.
• Idea management tools.
• Milestone tracking.
• Its prices start at $24/user per month.

What we like:

• Workzone is one of the most powerful Jira alternatives out there that comes with amazing features to help you manage your team and projects better.
• It’s relatively simple to use as it comes with an easy-to-comprehend interface. You can get the whole picture in an instant.
• It’s perfect for the marketing and operations teams. It allows you to keep track of your projects directly on your calendar.
• Reports and analytics are super valuable when you are planning your future projects.

What we don’t like:

• Schedules may become difficult to decipher, especially if you have many tasks stacked on top of each other. So, even though it’s straightforward to use, make sure you don’t overwhelm yourself with the myriad of tasks on your board.

All in all, Workzone is a fantastic way to keep your team on track and manage your projects efficiently. Just remember not to overstack your backlog with a significant amount of tasks as it may get very frustrating.

Here’s what other people have to say about Workzone: “It’s great for a project management tool and useful for reviewing or routing projects that needs to be approved by different reviewers.”

Mavenlink

Mavenlink is a beast.

Whether you are a developer, a marketer, a designer, or an HR person, Mavenlink has something to offer to everyone.

It unites everything from resource management, project management, and collaboration to time tracking and project financials in one single place for better user experience.

With Mavenlink, you won’t have to bounce between multiple apps to manage your team effectively. Everything you need is huddled together in Mavenlink’s robust interface.

The tool is also known for its detailed reports and analysis that can help you make better time and cost estimates.

Features:

• Task management.
• Time tracking.
• Documentation.
• Campaign management.
• 24/7 support.
• Collaboration tools.
• File sharing.
• You can try it for free and see for yourself if it fits your team needs.

What we like:

• Mavenlink is simply unmatched when it comes to keeping track of your projects and managing your team. Because of its multitude of robust features, you can easily manage your projects from start to end.
• Mavenlink also features some of the most thorough project reports and analytics. It can help you plan your next projects better and thus ensure success.

What we like:

• The main disadvantage of Mavenlink is its clunky interface. Right. You’ll have a hard time organizing your projects and distributing tasks across your team if you haven’t used Mavenlink before.
• The learning curve is steep, and it’ll require some time to get used to Mavenlink.

Mavenlink is a powerful Jira alternative, and it definitely deserves a place on this list. With it, you have the chance to accelerate your work process significantly. However, if you are new to the tool, you may have some hard time getting used to it as it’s quite far from being user friendly.

Here’s what other people say about Mavenlink: “It’s a little clunky in that there are so many places to put information, and too many ways to do it that make things more disorganized than not.”

Paymo

Paymo is considered to be an innovative Jira alternative that can help you track your work progress to the smallest detail so that no issues slip through the cracks.

Paymo is a robust project management tool built with amazing features such as advanced task management, planning, scheduling, time tracking, collaboration, and invoicing.

You’ll have no trouble managing your tasks as well as your team inside Paymo. It’s quite flexible and empowers you with a clear view of your projects. You’ll always know the direction your projects are moving towards.

Paymo is best suited for small businesses and remote teams.

Features:

• Kanban boards.
• Gantt charts.
• Time tracking.
• Expense tracking.
• Collaboration tools.
• Budget management.
• Customizable templates.
• Milestone tracking with reminders.
• Paymo comes with a 15-day free trial on both his plans. The “Small Office“ which is also the least expensive one, starts at $11.95/user per month.

What we like:

• It’s one of the best options for tracking your work progress out there.
• It has every necessary feature you need to manage your projects and team without throwing money down the drain for 3rd party apps.
• It’s perfect for smaller businesses and remote teams that don’t work with a myriad of projects at a time. The UI is quite friendly, and it’ll definitely make you feel comfortable when using the software.
• It’s a great tool, especially for freelancers, as it allows them to easily communicate with clients and send invoices.

What we don’t like:

• There’s a steep learning curve which may require you to invest more time in Paymo initially to get the sense of it.
• The interface may get quite clunky if you stack your backlog with tens of tasks.

On the whole, Paymo is a fantastic Jira alternative that can remove the clutter from your projects. With Paymo, you can eliminate the guesswork and clearly see the next essential steps your team needs to take to complete the project successfully. Yet, keep in mind that burying your backlog with tasks may make Paymo quite un-intuitive.

Here’s what other people have to say about Paymo: “Paymo is a great app for the company of any size. One of the greatest features is that you are able to keep track of your projects, customers, and invoices.”

Airtable

An all-in-one Jira alternative for free, built with some of the most beautiful types of spreadsheets, Airtable can definitely meet your expectations for efficient project management.

Even though Airtable is primarily used to manage your spreadsheets (as its slogan suggests, “Looks like a spreadsheet. Acts as a database”), it also boasts incredibly well-designed project management boards. You’ll have the chance to create and spread tasks across your team quite easily.

Airtable comes with every feature you’d ever need to track your team progress from A to Z. What’s more, you’ll be able to readjust columns and rows in your spreadsheets easily with the drag and drop functionality.

And its UI is quite impressive. It won’t boggle you down, and you’ll be able to navigate your way through it.

Features:

• Kanban boards.
• Gantt charts.
• Time tracking.
• Expense tracking.
• Drag and drop.
• Customizable templates.
• Collaboration tools.
• Budget management.
• Idea management tools.
• Milestone tracking.
• Airtable offers a free plan for an unlimited number of collaborators.

What we like:

• Airtable is an easy-to-use all-in-one Jira alternative that boasts quite amazing spreadsheets so that you can easily track your progress.
• The Interface is very intuitive, and it won’t leave you frustrated as most average PM tools do.
• You’ll also have the opportunity to customize your own boards the way you like it. Feeling comfortable when working is one of the most important things one can do to ensure maximum efficiency.
• A lot of people seem to be happy with Airtable’s collaboration features. And that’s totally true. Airtable has incredible collaboration features to huddle your team together and allow everybody to see the tasks other team members are working on.

What we don’t like:

• Some advanced features like “blocks” are advertised in the basic plan, however, once you log in, you need to upgrade to get access to these.
• Some users on Capterra say that Airtable isn’t the perfect solution for accountants. It lacks accountant flexibility in terms of features.

Airtable is undoubtedly one of a kind PM tool. It can help you keep an accurate track of your team’s progress. And it also comes with every feature you’d ever need to manage your team and projects efficiently. Give it a shot.

Here’s what other people have to say about Airtable: “The combination of being able to create spreadsheets like you would in Excel, but attaching photos, documents, and videos like you would in a shared drive is perfect for our use.”

Hygger

Hygger is the tool to make your project management as easy as ABC. It’s a great Jira alternative for free that is very, very easy to use.

Hygger comes with heaps of fascinating features. And on top of that, it’s super flexible. Its Kanban boards include incredible features like WIP limits, swimlanes, time tracking, and multiple projects on one board.

Keeping track of your progress is the most natural thing you can do inside Hygger. The PM tool provides you with tons of thorough reports and analytics to easily see your projects’ direction.

Hygger also allows you to assess your current situation clearly so you can see the next essential tasks your team needs to complete.

Features:

• Kanban boards.
• Gantt charts.
• Time tracking.
• Expense tracking.
• Customizable templates.
• Collaboration tools.
• Budget management.
• Idea management tools.
• Milestone tracking.
• Hygger offers a free plan for an unlimited number of users.

What we like:

• Hygger is one of the best tools out there for managing your projects efficiently. It has an incredible amount of features that can definitely ease your work life.
• It features quite a simple UI. You don’t feel overwhelmed as you typically may do while using other un-intuitive PM tools.
• Hygger helps you set clear goals through roadmap-like features. You’ll thus be able to visualize your projects ahead of time so you can take the most optimal steps to complete any project with tremendous success.
• Hygger offers a free plan, including all the essential features you’d need to manage your team and projects.

What we don’t like:

• If you stack your backlogs with tons of tasks, the UI can get quite clunky. You’ll have a hard time navigating yourself through the software.
• Hygger’s mobile app tends to be quite limited in terms of features.
• Dragging cards on the boards still happens with a slight delay in time, which can be annoying.

All in all, Hygger is a fantastic Jira free alternative that allows you to keep all your eggs in one basket. It’s great to keep track of your progress and manage your team effectively.

Here’s what other people have to say about Hygger: “Rich features — allows for time tracking on top of prioritization, and most common techniques (like Kanban) are included. M definitely keeping this as my personal tracker for the foreseeable future.”

Teamdeck

If you are looking for a less-cluttered PM tool to help you accelerate your work process so that you can meet any deadline, Teamdeck is the right pick for you.

What makes Teamdeck stand out is its simple UI. You’ll be able to easily navigate your way through it. Creating and spreading tasks feels like a breeze inside Teamdeck.

With its straight-to-the-point features, Teamdeck gives you the chance to boost your productivity as well as accelerate your work process so that you can stay on top of the food chain.

Features:

• Drag & drop features.
• Search engine.
• Reports.
• Project tracking.
• Collaboration tools.
• Teamdeck comes with a free plan for up to 2 users.

What we like:

• With Teamdeck, you won’t have to run round in circles, stressing about the final deadline you are about to miss.
• Its interface is quite simple and easy to use. Getting used to Teamdeck can happen relatively quickly.
• It gives you excellent visibility over your projects. You can clearly see the tasks your teammates are currently working on.

What we don’t like:

• The interface might get quite overwhelming if you start filling your backlog with an enormous amount of tasks. You’ll have a hard time navigating your way through it.
• No email or slack notifications are available.

Teamdeck is definitely an excellent alternative for those searching for a simplistic solution to boost productivity. Give it a try.

Here’s what other people have to say about Teamdeck: “We’ve been using this software for as long as I’ve been at the company and it’s a fantastic tool to track hours spent with certain projects, which is key in my job role.”

ProductBeat

ProductBeat is a relatively new tool on the market, but it definitely grabbed our attention with its simplicity.

It brands itself as a “Jira alternative that just works.”

At a glance, ProductBeat looks quite neat and easy to use. You can easily create and distribute tasks across your team without any hassle whatsoever.

It also comes with a steady amount of features for a newly-created company: intuitive backlog flow, release timeline, lightning-fast search, native desktop apps.

ProductBeat is also one of the most upvoted products on ProductHunt, and it has a promising future.

Features:

• Intuitive, unified backlog view.
• Fully automated rolling release timeline.
• Subtasks.
• Simple cross-team navigation.
• Search engine.
• ProductBeat offers a free plan for up to 10 users. Its Pro plan starts at $10, and you can use it until you reach 40 users. After that it’s $99 a month for up to 150 users.

What we like:

• It’s neat. ProductBeat’s UI is simple to comprehend. You won’t have any trouble navigating your way through it.
• Managing your projects inside ProductBeat happens quite effortlessly.

What we don’t like:

• As it is a relatively new tool, a lot of features are still missing.
• Integrations need to be added.

ProductBeat looks great at a glance. Its simple UI can definitely save you from Jira’s chaos. Yet, as it’s only a year old tool, it needs more features to become a strong Jira competitor.

Here’s what other people have to say about ProductBeat: “ I really like using ProductBeat, it is really simple and intuitive to use. I don’t really compare it to Jira, due to the huge amount of features the latter can offer, but for a small team could do the work.”

Binfire

If you feel overwhelmed by Jira’s fairly complex UI, you might want to consider switching over to Binfire.

Binfire will definitely remove all the clutter from your backlog and thus boost your team productivity.

With Binfire, you can assign and prioritize tasks easily. Everybody sees the next vital step to be taken. And there is no second-guessing when working towards the completion of a project.

You can as well tag tasks and sort them easily. Moreover, assignments can be copied and moved across boards, making it easy for a project manager to organize the whole project.

Binfire’s interface is a bit similar to Trello’s, which means it’s very intuitive and friendly. However, Binfire is designed with more features that may make the software harder to grasp initially.

Features:

• Gantt charts.
• Portfolio management.
• Effective collaboration features.
• Milestone tracking.
• Task reordering, copy and move.
• Commenting on tasks.
• Project dashboard.
• Integrations with Google Drive, calendar, and Dropbox.
• Resource management.
• Binfire offers a free trial, and after that, it is $19 a month.

What we like:

• Binfire, like Jira, comes with heaps of features (but also with a more straightforward interface) so you can manage your projects from A to Z without any hassle whatsoever.
• The project board is super robust and comes with all kinds of features to make your work easier — it shows each member’s tasks for the day, deadlines, remaining assignments, and more.
• It also brings excellent collaboration features to the table to put your team on the same page.
• Unlike other apps, the same project can be viewed in multiple Kanban boards, list view, and calendar view.
• You can easily create tasks and prioritize them to speed up the team performance.

What we don’t like:

• Binfire has a steep learning curve. Initially, it may be challenging to get used to it.
• The UI may get quite clunky if you fill your backlog with tons of assignments.

In general, Binfire is a simpler alternative to Jira that comes with amazing features. With Binfire, you’ll rarely have trouble managing your projects or your team.

Here’s what people say about Binfire: “We are using Binfire to manage projects, collaborate and communicate. It is a great tool and I highly recommend it to new startups and those recently graduated from College.”

Redbooth

“Project management for modern teams” — this is how Redbooth describes itself.

It’s really an innovative free Jira alternative that features quite an impressive interface. With Redbooth, you’ll have no problem creating, spreading, and organizing your tasks. You’ll also have the chance to break down your assignments into smaller chunks so you can focus on a tiny task and keep your motivation steady.

With Redbooth, you can bring your team on the same page and thus accelerate the work process.

If we could give Redbooth a one-word description, that would be “simplicity.”

Features:

• Kanban boards.
• Gantt charts.
• Collaboration tools.
• Time tracking.
• Expense tracking.
• Customizable templates.
• Idea management tools.
• Milestone tracking.
• Redbooth offers a free plan for up to 2 users. It also brings a 14-day free trial to the table and, after that, starts at $12/user a month.

What we like:

• Simplicity is what makes Redbooth outstanding. You’ll have the ability to work in clear-cut backlogs where you don’t have to slam your head against the work desk in desperate attempts to navigate your way through the interface.
• Redbooth boasts excellent collaboration tools (HD video calls) that can easily increase the chemistry between your teammates and help you sync with one another. You’ll do more work in less time.
• With Redbooth Predict (a brand new AI technology), your work life will become much more manageable. Redbooth Predict offers project recommendations to the users and initiates automatic project status updates.

What we don’t like:

• The support team is slow in its responses. You may be annoyed and irritated after waiting for hours or even days to get a response to a simple issue.

Overall, Redbooth is definitely an excellent option for you if you are looking for a simpler alternative to Jira. Yet, keep in mind that their support team isn’t the most qualified one. Hopefully, they’ll fix that.

Here’s what other people have to say about Redbooth: “It handles the project management impressively, with the guarantee to increase team performance. Wonderful templates are available for use.”

Celoxis

Celoxis is an all-in-one robust alternative to Jira that comes with heaps of enterprise-level features, comprehensive boards, and thorough reports and analytics.

Celoxis has every single feature your team needs to avoid the bouncing between various 3rd party apps.

With Celoxis, you’ll have the chance to manage your projects and entire team easily without much hassle.

The thorough reports and analytics will give you insights on how to handle your future projects in order to ensure a 95%+ success rate.

Features:

• Kanban boards.
• Gantt charts.
• Collaboration tools.
• Customization templates.
• Time tracking.
• Expense tracking.
• Idea management tools.
• Milestone tracking.
• Celoxis brings a 30-day free trial to the table and, after that, starts at $25/user a month. And you need to have at least 5 team members on board.

What we like:

• Celoxis is an all-on-one PM tool that boasts tons of features capable of moving your project from an idea to reality.
• It brings crystal clarity into your projects. You can see your team’s tasks, report bugs, and manage tickets all inside one app easily.
• The robust reports and analytics give you valuable insights on how to handle future projects to ensure project success.
• Tracking your project happens effortlessly inside Celoxis because of its thorough reports.

What we don’t like:

• The UI is quite clunky and cluttered. The heaps of features may make it hard to get used to it, especially if you are trying it for the first time.

On the whole, Celoxis is definitely a great pick if you are searching for a robust alternative to Jira that can handle your project management process from A to Z. And on top of that, it’s relatively easy to use.

Here’s what other people have to say about Celoxis: “The reports in Celoxis are well structured and provide a good understanding of the status of a project.”

Planless

Planless is a young Portuguese project management startup, and it’s actually a great alternative to Jira.

That’s because it leverages AI technology to automate tasks such as work planning, resource assigning, and managing people’s workload.

Planless’s modern AI technology tells you which member of your team is best suited for a particular task. It also enables you to clearly see the project progress being made so you can identify team members struggling with their tasks and assist them.

This is a game-changer because, in most PM tools, planning, assigning tasks, and managing workloads can sometimes be wearisome.

“30% increase in productivity” — Even if you are currently using a great project management tool, users have experienced as much as a 30% increase in productivity, and Planless guarantees the same for you.

Features:

• Timeline view.
• List view.
• Kanban boards.
• Workload view.
• AI technology.
• Collaboration tools.
• Integrations.
• Task status.
• Subtasks.
• Events.
• Time tracking.
• Reports and analytics.
• Search.
• Planless offers a 15-day free trial. The basic plan starts at $6/user per month. On top of that, you get a 90-day money-back guarantee for peace of mind.

What we like:

• Planless’ AI technology is absolutely amazing. It’ll automate all the tedious and manual tasks to pump your productivity levels up and empower you to do more work in less time.
• It’s priced reasonably well. Actually, it’s one of the least expensive tools on this list.

What we don’t like:

• No free version.
• No budget management.
• No mobile app for now (planned to be released soon).

Planless is an innovative AI-based alternative to Jira. It’ll definitely make your work life easier by automating most of your tasks and increasing your productivity.

Here’s what other people have to say about Planless: “We’re only using it for some weeks and we already see amazing results. We’re around 30% more productive than before and that will probably increase with time.”

Visor

Visor is a fantastic Jira free alternative for teams of all sizes.

It provides a more collaborative and interactive environment than Jira. You can sync your Jira data with Visor to generate a fresher view over your database. Visor’s bidirectional syncing with Jira is direct, reliable, and honestly feels like a breeze. Your data will always be up-to-date (it only needs to be updated once, either in Jira or in Visor).

Visor also allows you to view and edit your data in two ways — Table and Timeline.

When you decide to create a table of projects, a timeline view will be generated automatically (and vice-versa).

With Visor, you’ll have the chance to label, color, and filter your projects the way you like it so you can feel comfortable when using it. And thus easily manage the files you share with your team members.

Features:

• Jira synchronization.
• Timeline views.
• Board views.
• Tables.
• Gantt charts.
• Visor offers a free plan for up to 50 users. After that, it starts at $18/user per month.

What we like:

• Visor has an intuitive interface that doesn’t necessarily overwhelm you with a myriad of features.
• Syncing your Jira data to Visor happens quite effortlessly. There is no shuffling through data in desperate attempts to transfer your database from one tool to another.
• Visor is as well very customizable. You can label, change colors, and filter your projects the way you like it. And thus keep your environment organized and free of clutter.

What we don’t like:

• The FAQs are still quite scarce.
• It’s primarily focused on product management, although it could be used in other departments as well.
• There is a steep learning curve.

Visor is definitely a worthy Jira competitor that you should give a shot if you are looking for a more straightforward interface where you can manage your data and projects effortlessly.

Here is what other people have to say about Visor: “Visor brings a level of transparency to our team that leads to fewer meetings: allowing us to build more, better and faster.”

Previously published on Code Giant Blog.