Jira Software vs. Rally Software

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Jira Software
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
JIRA Software is an application lifecycle management solution for software development teams. It allows users to create, prioritize and track the progress of tasks across multiple team members, and offers a wide range of integrations. It is offered via the cloud and local servers.
$10
per month
Rally Software
Score 7.7 out of 10
N/A
Rally Software headquartered in Boulder, Colorado developed the Rally agile software development / ALM platform which was acquired by CA Technologies and rebranded as CA Agile Central. After CA's acquisition by Broadcom the software was once again rebranded as Rally.N/A
Pricing
Jira SoftwareRally Software
Editions & Modules
Standard
$7
Per User Per Month
Premium
$14
Per User Per Month
Free
Free
Enterprise
Contact Sales
No answers on this topic
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Jira SoftwareRally Software
Free Trial
YesNo
Free/Freemium Version
YesNo
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
NoNo
Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Jira SoftwareRally Software
Considered Both Products
Jira Software
Chose Jira Software
Jira is simple, easy to understand, has less learning curve, highly descriptive features. All these features make it easy to work and manage and track our day-to-day work for better progress. All these features make Jira give an upper hand over other tools.
Chose Jira Software
Jira is the "default" do-everything software project management platform. It literally does everything, but consequently does nothing particularly well. That said, it is robust enough to compete with enterprise heavyweights like Rally, and (usually) easy and light enough to …
Chose Jira Software
Jira Software is considered perfect when it comes to handling a software team which might need an advanced agile functionality as well as structured workflow wherein Trello could be quick in terms of capturing or sharing the ideas or lists or to-do's. Jira has a better UI and …
Chose Jira Software
I personally use Trello to keep track of personal stuff and used it as a task management tool for very small development teams/projects, but Jira is a million miles ahead of it regarding a number of options and customizations. I also used Rally on a previous company and …
Chose Jira Software
Previously I have used TFS and Rally. JIRA is very simple to use and has lots of features compared to these two and other tools available in the market. The ability to integrate other tools is much easier in JIRA. It is also robust, scalable and has a good number of add-ons to …
Chose Jira Software
JIRA was already in place; there wasn't a good reason to switch to something else. We just needed to work on refining our processes and clean up the existing structure so that we could make progress on our SDLC while getting our MVP out the door. If you are really starting …
Chose Jira Software
Liked JIRA because of its tight knit integration with other Altasin products. Also, email notification is just spot on.
Rally Software
Chose Rally Software
I've also evaluated the following agile solutions: ActiveCollab, Agile Bench, Agilo for Scrum, Atlassian JIRA, Pivotal Tracker, SpringGround, Targetprocess. Telerik Teamprocess, VersionOne, ZebraPlan etc.
If it’s time to transition to software that’s specific to your Agile …
Chose Rally Software
We started exploring new tools, and found better adaptation of our team toward JIRA. JIRA provided engineers with simpler interfaces and more reliable service, even though less unnecessary features. Also the managers found in JIRA better ability to eliminate noise and focus on …
Chose Rally Software
We used CA Agile Central (formerly Rally) before but recently switched to JIRA. I used JIRA before Rally too, and I think it was easier to manage defects in JIRA. Also, I think JIRA is better for teams and companies that want to implement agile/scrum life cycles. It's easier to …
Chose Rally Software
It was a close race between Jama, JIRA and Rally. We decided to go for Jama as a requirements management tool and use Rally for Agile projects. The cost was another factor that made us select Rally.
Chose Rally Software
Overall, Rally Software is a better and more powerful tool than Jira for the same exact purposes. Jira cannot function as a requirements repository so it needs plugins or separate tools to do the same thing. There is no space or option to see all defects or user stories or …
Chose Rally Software
Rally and Asana have comparable features and are both valuable project management tools, but Asana's user interface is well-organized and highly intuitive. It's easy to add tasks and collaborators, edit due dates, indicate progress on tasks, close out projects, etc. However, …
Chose Rally Software
Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe) & through Test Management were two critical factors that lead to selection of CA Agile Central (formerly Rally).

Executives want to maintain trace-ability & detailed test management options like we get in ALM along with SAFe implementation support. …
Top Pros
Top Cons
TrustRadius Insights
Jira SoftwareRally Software
Highlights

TrustRadius
Research Team Insight
Published

Jira Software and Rally Software are both project management software focused on agile projects. Rally Software is specialized, focusing on agile software development. Jira Software was also designed primarily with agile software development in mind but is a little more flexible when used to manage other projects.

Jira Software is often used by businesses that benefit from its flexibility. Though it is optimized for software development, it can also be used to manage other projects, such as procurement. Jira is most popular with mid-sized to large businesses.

Rally Software specializes in software development using agile methodology. For this reason, it is ideal for businesses that primarily want to use the software to manage software development. Rally Software is used by businesses of all sizes.

Features

Jira Software and Rally Software both include essential agile project management features, but they have a few standout features as well.

Jira Software is more versatile compared to Rally Software. Because Jira is highly customizable, it can be used in different industries with different needs. Jira is also more user-friendly, with a simple to use and navigate interface.

Rally Software has robust sprint management. Additionally, Rally Software has more automation features and integrates with other project management programs. Rally Software also offers strong customer support and a variety of detailed training videos for its users.

Limitations

Jira Software and Rally Software offer strong project management features, but they also have some limitations that are important to consider.

Jira Software can be difficult to implement, initial setup is complex without support. Additionally, Jira Software has some powerful integrations but doesn’t have as many integrations as other options. Lastly, Jira has a limited file size for uploaded material.

Rally Software is inflexible compared to Jira Software. It can be unwieldy to use for anything other than agile software development. Jira Software can also be difficult to use for newer project managers as it assumes a working understanding of agile methodology. Rally Software also utilizes multiple levels of nesting that can result in confusing projects.

Pricing

Jira Software offers a free version that can be used by up to ten users and has a storage capacity of 250 GB. The Standard pricing tier starts at $7.00 per user per month and can be used by up to 5,000 users. This tier includes 250 GB of storage and 9-5 support. The Premium pricing tier starts at $14.00 per user per month and includes unlimited storage and 24/7 support.

Rally Software offers a free version for up to 10 users and 5 projects. The Enterprise package includes unlimited users and can be deployed on-premises or through the cloud. The Unlimited package includes portfolio management and analytics tools. Pricing for Rally Software packages is dependent on the business.

Best Alternatives
Jira SoftwareRally Software
Small Businesses
Polarion ALM
Polarion ALM
Score 9.2 out of 10
GitLab
GitLab
Score 8.9 out of 10
Medium-sized Companies
Polarion ALM
Polarion ALM
Score 9.2 out of 10
GitLab
GitLab
Score 8.9 out of 10
Enterprises
Polarion ALM
Polarion ALM
Score 9.2 out of 10
GitLab
GitLab
Score 8.9 out of 10
All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
User Ratings
Jira SoftwareRally Software
Likelihood to Recommend
8.7
(187 ratings)
7.0
(17 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(35 ratings)
9.0
(4 ratings)
Usability
7.0
(28 ratings)
7.6
(5 ratings)
Availability
5.3
(3 ratings)
10.0
(1 ratings)
Performance
8.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
8.8
(23 ratings)
5.7
(5 ratings)
Online Training
8.0
(1 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
9.0
(1 ratings)
8.0
(2 ratings)
Configurability
-
(0 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
Ease of integration
7.7
(8 ratings)
7.0
(1 ratings)
User Testimonials
Jira SoftwareRally Software
Likelihood to Recommend
Atlassian
The Jira software works well for managing scrum boards and allocating resources to a task. When your Epics and Issues are set up properly, it can give you a good idea of where your team stands and the trajectory of your project. It is not the ideal solution if you need to provide documentation and support to people outside of your product teams or organization. It would benefit from having a public documentation or repository feature.
Read full review
Broadcom
Rally is well suited to help outline the specific tasks of a project, create timelines, indicate progress/status of tasks and provide views of team members' workloads. My team used it for our weekly stand up meetings in order to update one another on our progress, and our manager used it as a way to determine who had capacity for additional tasks. It facilitated our transition to a more agile work environment and we used it to implement 2 week "sprints".
Read full review
Pros
Atlassian
  • Running sprints and tracking progress of roadmap, epics, story, task and subtask
  • The user interface is great. It allows tables inside details, have common shortcuts and clean design.
  • Can create custom dashboards and can view data in multiple ways
  • Advanced access rights based on role
Read full review
Broadcom
  • There are dashboards that provide friendly and useful metrics at the team, program and portfolio levels which help get an easy and quick visual representation of what's going on.
  • Story management made easier, It offers a quick way of quickly entering a number of user stories without losing the overview, by just typing the title and selecting a few attributes directly in the overview screen.
  • Sprint management is seamless in CA Agile Central . It allows you to drag stories from the backlog to the sprints and back again. When a story is dragged into an sprint, it automatically checks the velocity for that sprint and indicates how many more story points can be chipped in. No more manual checking needed by scrum master with respect to allocation and team velocity.
  • Though CA Agile Central has many inbuilt apps, but it also has an App-SDK that allows you to build free app extensions using JavaScript and HTML. So, as per their needs, teams can customize & build various apps & dashboards.
  • Dashboard is an awesome feature which allows you to select and drag panels with all kinds of graphical information about the current sprints and releases.
  • It offers tremendous support for scaled Agile & almost all scaling frameworks are supported specifically tuned to SAFe .
  • CA Agile Central includes several applications but it also integrates well with Jira, Confluence, Jenkins, Eclipse, Subversion, IBM, HP, Salesforce.com and many other products to allow users to organize projects to their specifications. So you can still use Jira at a team level & CA Agile Central at the program & portfolio level for efficient tracking & management.
  • The custom tags are very helpful in segregating the user stories based on the project needs. Even though it's a very small feature, it is very effective ( you will realize why specifically if you are using Jira).
  • CA Central Agile enables agile delivery with ease and provides comprehensive features to track time-boxes, Work In Progress items of the forecast increments.
  • Backlog management is hassle free since you can either drag and drop your user stories to the desired position on the backlog, or change a setting and manually enter priorities as a number.
Read full review
Cons
Atlassian
  • Management of the software is very difficult at times, although has improved.
  • Ability to manage resources is really non-existent, there are some plugins but they are ALL buggy (I've tested them all).
  • Better integration with Trello, would love to see this happen. Right now it's very clumsy.
Read full review
Broadcom
  • User management is pretty basic and could be better. For example more filters and reports and more ability to do mass updates.
  • The report generator is very, very basic and is not WYSIWYG. It has limited filters to generate reports. Often a Scrum master will need to export data to Excel or a tool like Crystal Reports to get enhanced reporting capability.
Read full review
Likelihood to Renew
Atlassian
This is because Jira Software generates a huge profit for an affordable price. Having a tool that makes team management transparent and effective is very valuable.
In addition, the renewal of Jira Software and all Atlassian tools is predictable and clear, as the prices are published on the Atlassian website and there is no pyramid of intermediaries.
Read full review
Broadcom
  • To keep connecting my people, platform, and process for faster, smarter, better results.
  • Making the right contribution to the community. Use Agile and Lean processes to manage the work of your team.
  • Once you have tasted the positive result with Rally Software, you don't want to give up and come back to the old school of development pain any more.
Read full review
Usability
Atlassian
JIRA Software is a pretty complex tool. We have a project manager for JIRA who onboarded us, created our board, and taught us the basics. I think it would have been pretty overwhelming to learn without her. JIRA offers so much functionality that I'm not aware of -- I constantly need to Google or ask others about existing features. Also, although they are all under the Atlassian umbrella, I find it difficult to switch between JIRA Software and Confluence.
Read full review
Broadcom
Great UI, recent refresh was terrific. Great graphs and metrics, inline editing for updates, and a multitude of views on sprint progress make for a great team collaboration experience. There is also an active community and forums so that if you do need help, it is readily available
Read full review
Reliability and Availability
Atlassian
No answers on this topic
Broadcom
Don’t recall ever being unavailable.
Read full review
Performance
Atlassian
No answers on this topic
Broadcom
The screens render relatively quickly but many actions that you would expect to require a single click require multiple clicks and pop-up windows. The extra windows and clicks make the product feel ponderous.
Read full review
Support Rating
Atlassian
Our JIRA support is handled internally by members of our Product Support team. It is not supported by a 3rd party. Our internal support will always sent out notifications for downtime which is usually done on the weekend unless it is required to fix a bug/issue that is affecting the entire company. Downtime is typically 3-4 hours and then once the maintenance is complete, another broadcast email is sent out informing the user community that the system is now available for use.
Read full review
Broadcom
I've had to use support only one time and my issue was eventually resolved but not because of my ticket--because others complained about the functionality taken away so they brought it back. My ticket was never answered or addressed. So I can't really say much for the support factor for Rally.
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Online Training
Atlassian
One of their strong points i stheir documentation. Almost all of the basic set up needed within JIRA is available online through atlassian and its easy to find and very precise. The more critical issues need to be addressed as well and hence the rating of 8 instead of a 9.
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Broadcom
It more or less confirmed that we are using it the way they had in mind. We were hoping for a epiphany in terms of how we could use it better.

They also want to be a go to source for agile processes and have an online resource center. It’s not that great but had a couple of nuggets. It hasn’t really helped us too much and we are not too far off from the classical interpretation of agile.

I would recommend training, in particular for organizations that multiple on-going projects. The product seems optimized for larger, more complex teams and getting proper training on how to configure, administer and use the system would be beneficial
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Implementation Rating
Atlassian
Take your time implementing Jira. Make sure you understand how you want to handle your projects and workflows. Investing more time in the implementation can pay off in a long run. It basically took us 5 days to define and implement correctly, but that meant smooth sailing later on.
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Broadcom
Implementation of RALLY services and program satisfaction among various group,... 1) Dev Outcomes: How were our resiliencies, development, learning & practitioners “make them do the work,” but that they ask you to do it “in a way like before. 2) The Ops group: Just wish to make sure any change won't break current production envirements All the stake holders has to be on the same page
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Alternatives Considered
Atlassian
Jira Software has more integrations and has more features than many of its competitors. While some of its competitors do have better UI/UX than Jira Software, they have improved this greatly over time. Atlassian also acquired Trello years ago, so that adds better user interfaces to the system. They do also offer a pretty in-depth library of how to customize the platform that others don't.
Read full review
Broadcom
It was a close race between Jama, JIRA and Rally. We decided to go for Jama as a requirements management tool and use Rally for Agile projects. The cost was another factor that made us select Rally.
Read full review
Return on Investment
Atlassian
  • Jira has positively made our company's daily activities much better organized
  • With Jira we can track progress and follow up on tasks
  • Jira has great reporting tools which aggregate various data and give us a good overview of our teams capacity
Read full review
Broadcom
  • it helped organizing many of the processes management use to communicate tasks with engineers, and provided detailed charts on the speed/blockage during any iteration
  • with time Rally became the main tool we used to track and report tasks/defects in our projects, but frequent service outages made it very hard to continue consider as a reliable solution
  • too much features is good, but for engineers a few features (User Stories section, iterations, defects, and Kanban boards) are necessary and the rest is just noise
  • Kanban board support is lacking
Read full review
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