Adobe Workfront vs. Jira Software

Overview
ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price
Adobe Workfront
Score 7.5 out of 10
N/A
Adobe Workfront, acquired by Adobe in late 2020, is a web-based project-management tool. It is designed for both IT and marketing teams, but can be implemented for any kind of project. Workfront offers all the features standard to project management platforms, as well as resource allocation, automation, and agile workflow.N/A
Jira Software
Score 8.0 out of 10
N/A
Jira Software is a project management tool from Atlassian, featuring an interactive timeline for mapping work items, dependencies, and releases, Scrum boards for agile teams, and out-of-the-box reports and dashboards.
$81.85
per month 10 users
Pricing
Adobe WorkfrontJira Software
Editions & Modules
No answers on this topic
Standard
$8.15
per month per user (minimum 10)
Premium
$16
per month per user (minimum 10)
Data Center
$44,000
per year 500 users
Enterprise
Contact Sales
per year
Offerings
Pricing Offerings
Adobe WorkfrontJira Software
Free Trial
YesYes
Free/Freemium Version
NoYes
Premium Consulting/Integration Services
YesNo
Entry-level Setup FeeRequiredNo setup fee
Additional Details
More Pricing Information
Community Pulse
Adobe WorkfrontJira Software
Considered Both Products
Adobe Workfront
Chose Adobe Workfront
For agile, I prefer the Atlassian suite, but for waterfall projects, Workfront was the right choice. In choosing Workfront (then AtTask), I made a weighted grid of features and benefits of a number of project management tools, including WorkZone, Asana, Celoxis, MS Project, …
Chose Adobe Workfront
It stacks up well, but I would like Workfront to be more customizable like JIRA and allow for scripting to meet very unique business need.

Chose Adobe Workfront
I haven't been involved in the process to evaluate JIRA, but a demo looked promising.
Chose Adobe Workfront
JIRA is more like issue tracking tool that provides the complete workflow. Workfront does effective project management with Gantt chart and effort tracking.
Chose Adobe Workfront
JIRA has a bit more of a GUI interface which is more conducive for the agile methodology. It provides much more information in a lateral space which is easier for the user to consume. We are actually in the process of moving away from Work Front and using JIRA solely.
Chose Adobe Workfront
Workfront does a better job of showing timelines and project schedules, but the performance is not good when you get beyond a certain number of tasks.

JIRA has a knowledge base (Confluence) which I like. It also is faster and has better search and more flexible dashboard features.
Chose Adobe Workfront
JIRA and Clarizen were too complicated and did not offer an integrated document review and proofing system.
Microsoft Project did not handle multiple small projects and resource allocation as well.
Smartsheet was too limited for large teams and required too much manual work.
Chose Adobe Workfront
Compared to JIRA, Workfront is a lot more user-friendly and less focused on IT/technical tasks. If you're looking for a resource tool that is for creative departments, I highly recommend Workfont.
Chose Adobe Workfront
Jira is mostly used as a bug locking tool or to track any new development for any specific region/EPIC. But Workfront has a lot of other features which are beneficial in project management. I still consider Jira and Workfront my top two options for project management and …
Chose Adobe Workfront
To manage the organization's work from project to project, the organization uses multiple project management solutions. In comparison to Jira, however, the only useful feature I found is the Gantt chart, which helps give a clear overview for multiple projects at once. Moreover, …
Chose Adobe Workfront
Workfront destroys Trello in my opinion for large, multifaceted projects, however, is not compatible with the more intimate projects that perhaps involve 2-5 people. The free Trello option, though limited, is better suited for this.
Chose Adobe Workfront
I am a consumer of Workfront for a couple of years now and am a major defender of this venture and the board apparatus for a few reasons. 1) I think that it's exceptionally natural for clients to utilize. 2) It is effectively tweaked dependent on the requirements of your …
Chose Adobe Workfront
Project Insight: straight project planner, no collaboration
Rally: too expensive for what we needed
JIRA: too many modules to integrate
Chose Adobe Workfront
I've used Jira and Jira seems to cater better to the developers. It doesn't seem to cater as well to the PMO side of things. If we could combine the PMO friendly Workfront with the dev friendly Jira, that would be a win-win. Besides Jira, I haven't used any other systems that …
Chose Adobe Workfront
I was not part of the selection process, but I am fairly sure that it was chosen because there is no cost for user accounts for our customers. That is nice, price-wise, but not a great criterion for picking a customer service application.
Chose Adobe Workfront
We really thought that Workfront had the best capability match based on our desires. It was a broad toolset that seemed to address many facets of functionality we were looking for. It mostly came down to capability and price when making our decision.
Chose Adobe Workfront
Against JIRA - I was not involved in the decision making process.
Chose Adobe Workfront
Workfront provides an extensible feature set that can be added/removed to tickets in a dynamic manner that makes tickets/workloads into data for analysis, trend reports, dashboards. Other tools require plugins or code to get this working correctly.

Workfront also makes it very …
Chose Adobe Workfront
It's not up to par with these other products.
Chose Adobe Workfront
The reason we ended up picking Workfront was:
- most all in one
- most flexibility for billing/finances/reporting
Chose Adobe Workfront

Mavenlink: Mavenlink had a great user interface and is really simple to use. On that side, Mavenlink was better than Workfront. Its lack of addressing country-specific needs (ex: currencies and work week hours) made us select workfront. We could not modify the 40 hour week …

Chose Adobe Workfront
The ProofHQ tool stands above other project management systems, especially in a marketing environment. Workfront is a valuable tool for our marketing processes and projects. The reporting and customization features allow us to configure Workfront around our specific business …
Chose Adobe Workfront
I have used Jira, Trello, Microsoft Project, Excel, many task list mgmt. apps (Todoist, RTM, etc.), podio, wrike, and paper. I have never found a project management tool that can accomplish bringing corporate people all into the same system as well as workfront (for large …
Chose Adobe Workfront
I used Clairty and Microsoft Project. Project is simply easier to use. Clarity was rubbish so AtTask wins that battle
Jira Software
Chose Jira Software
Although Slack is used a bit differently, we use Slack when it comes to quick fixes and issues that don't need to go through the Jira process. Jira is best used for larger-scale issues and projects where we need to keep track in a neater way and do more than just communicate …
Chose Jira Software
We remain with JIRA even though our umbrella company is fully invested with ServiceNow(SNOW) as SNOW has just a portion of the utility of JIRA when it comes to agile development. SNOW also requires advanced technicians and an entire support team to maintain, whereas JIRA's …
Top Pros
Top Cons
Features
Adobe WorkfrontJira Software
Project Management
Comparison of Project Management features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Workfront
6.5
303 Ratings
14% below category average
Jira Software
-
Ratings
Task Management7.6302 Ratings00 Ratings
Resource Management6.8274 Ratings00 Ratings
Gantt Charts7.2242 Ratings00 Ratings
Scheduling7.3270 Ratings00 Ratings
Workflow Automation6.7272 Ratings00 Ratings
Team Collaboration6.1292 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Agile Methodology6.2185 Ratings00 Ratings
Support for Waterfall Methodology6.3199 Ratings00 Ratings
Document Management6.6275 Ratings00 Ratings
Email integration4.8230 Ratings00 Ratings
Mobile Access6.1233 Ratings00 Ratings
Timesheet Tracking6.4219 Ratings00 Ratings
Change request and Case Management6.6210 Ratings00 Ratings
Budget and Expense Management6.3188 Ratings00 Ratings
Professional Services Automation
Comparison of Professional Services Automation features of Product A and Product B
Adobe Workfront
5.4
173 Ratings
31% below category average
Jira Software
-
Ratings
Quotes/estimates5.381 Ratings00 Ratings
Invoicing5.371 Ratings00 Ratings
Project & financial reporting5.7171 Ratings00 Ratings
Integration with accounting software5.462 Ratings00 Ratings
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User Ratings
Adobe WorkfrontJira Software
Likelihood to Recommend
6.0
(354 ratings)
8.7
(187 ratings)
Likelihood to Renew
9.0
(60 ratings)
9.0
(35 ratings)
Usability
9.0
(18 ratings)
7.2
(28 ratings)
Availability
9.1
(9 ratings)
5.3
(3 ratings)
Performance
9.1
(4 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Support Rating
10.0
(12 ratings)
8.8
(23 ratings)
In-Person Training
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Online Training
8.9
(4 ratings)
8.0
(1 ratings)
Implementation Rating
8.3
(10 ratings)
9.0
(1 ratings)
Configurability
5.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
10.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Ease of integration
1.0
(1 ratings)
7.7
(8 ratings)
Product Scalability
8.2
(3 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor post-sale
1.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
Vendor pre-sale
1.0
(1 ratings)
-
(0 ratings)
User Testimonials
Adobe WorkfrontJira Software
Likelihood to Recommend
Adobe
I write music and sound design for multiple projects at the same time, all within the same company, sometimes as much as 8-10. It can be hard to keep track of and stay on top of notes and changes, but Adobe Workfront is great at keeping everything organized, and informing you of deadline changes as they occur.
Read full review
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
Pros
Adobe
  • Fosters communication between team members.
  • Serves as a virtual "to do list" for me personally - I can track where I am with projects and what there is left to do, and when it's completed.
  • Sharing documents between team members that can be updated.
Read full review
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
Cons
Adobe
  • Notifications (sometimes I am emailed when I am tagged, other times I am not)
  • Certain file formats do not render correctly in Workfront Proof (eg, .XLS files)
  • It can be difficult to manage projects if you have not been assigned the correct permissions.
Read full review
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
Likelihood to Renew
Adobe
All that I've said already is why. I suppose the clearest way to say it is that at this point? I cannot imagine running the 300+ active projects in eMarketing without AtTask; it simply wouldn't be possible and even more; I wouldn't imagine why we'd try to find an alternative tool when we have one meeting our needs.
Read full review
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
Usability
Adobe
I gave a rating of 10 on overall usability because Workfront is cloud based and very easy to use. Workfront also provides collaboration on projects which is critical to a projects success. The tool gives everyone high level visibility in their projects down to the smallest detail. Wonderful project management system, allows you to cut down on emails, meetings and no more spreadsheets for tracking your projects.
Read full review
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
Reliability and Availability
Adobe
Maintenance is required, but usually after work hours, Some days the proofing tool function is not operational, but this is a new function of the tool that WF is working out. the kinks on. Chrome is the best browser to use the system in and we find Firefox and Explorer lose some view functionality - Gantt Chart, Resource Grid
Read full review
Atlassian
No answers on this topic
Performance
Adobe
Workfront's performance has been very good. Everything always feels very fast and snappy in my experience. We have integrated it with custom scripts to create folder structure for media managing our projects. It works very well.
Read full review
Atlassian
No answers on this topic
Support Rating
Adobe
It would be nice if the support forms were more dynamic so you could add more information to the support ticket when you enter it to reduce back and forth with the support team member. Also communication on escalated tickets isn't always great. It's gotten better over the years but still needs improvement. Other than that, initial response on support tickets is really quick and the people I've dealt with have always been very professional.
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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.
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In-Person Training
Adobe
It was from my boss, not a rep from AtTask.
Read full review
Atlassian
No answers on this topic
Online Training
Adobe
The training is very easy to use and you can simply choose the topics included in the course(s) that are most important to your training needs. After each training course, you are tested on what you have learned. If you need a refresher course, they provide Course Catalogs as well as instructor-led courses & workshops.
Read full review
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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Implementation Rating
Adobe
Most people learn as you go, a lot of this stuff requires trial and error throughout so my suggestion is to provide as much information in the upfront and keep it as simple as possible. You can add other tools and features as you go but everyone should have the basics down so no bad habits can start to develop. Be persistent with everyone, and don't be afraid to correct and talk through steps again so everyone is on the same page
Read full review
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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Alternatives Considered
Adobe
Jira is mostly used as a bug locking tool or to track any new development for any specific region/EPIC. But Workfront has a lot of other features which are beneficial in project management. I still consider Jira and Workfront my top two options for project management and believe both have some of the other useful features which are required to manage any team.
Read full review
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
Contract Terms and Pricing Model
Adobe
As I stated earlier, I didn't have to pay for Workfront myself- I'm a user under a large organization. I know it's not cheap to implement, I don't know how the price scales for a small-business, but I do like the product enough that I'm going to look into it in the future for my own company.
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Atlassian
No answers on this topic
Scalability
Adobe
Our organization has thousands of users that use Workfront and it seems to hold up very well. I have not encountered any issues using it and I think it makes it very easy for multiple people to be involved in a project and keep things organized and clear for everyone involved.
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Atlassian
No answers on this topic
Return on Investment
Adobe
  • Workfront allowed our company to have multiple offices and work remote and still have projects continually move through the agency
  • The platform allowed streamlined project management needs so PMs could look at a higher level of timing for resourcing needs for a given team
  • Workfront's ease of integration with other tech allowed for a lot of flexibility to meet the needs of individual wants/needs so that each person could do their best work
Read full review
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
ScreenShots

Adobe Workfront Screenshots

Screenshot of Agile StoryboardScreenshot of Assignment RecommendationsScreenshot of Custom DashboardsScreenshot of Gantt PortfolioScreenshot of My Work QueueScreenshot of PM Portfolio Milestones