While Jira is undoubtedly a great bug-tracking and project management tool, it has some drawbacks that mean it isn’t always the ideal solution. For instance, it isn’t cheap, can be clunky, and could be considered overkill for small projects.
That being the case, you may be considering alternatives but not sure where to start.
So, to give you a helping hand, in this article, we’ll look at eleven other project management tools that could be an even better solution than Jira.
And finally, if you can’t bring yourself to let go of Jira, we’ll discuss how Jira can be integrated with Lark to provide one super-powered project management tool with all the benefits of both.
What is Jira?
Jira is a project management tool mainly used by software developers and IT project management teams for issue tracking, bug tracking, and agile project management. It supports a range of project management methodologies and includes fully customizable Scrum and Kanban boards. It also provides extensive customization options through add-ons and integrations in the Atlassian Marketplace.
Jira helps teams plan, track, and manage agile software development projects (or other non-IT projects) using features such as:
Backlogs — a list of tasks or work items that need to be completed
Boards — visual representations of work items and their progress through different stages
Roadmaps — visual summaries that map out the vision, direction, priorities, and progress of a project over time
Sprints — a set period during which specific work has to be completed
Reports — providing insights into aspects of the project, such as progress, resource allocation, and performance
Jira integrates well with other developer tools and can be adapted to other situations, such as IT service management, marketing, or human resources.
What Jira does right and what it lacks
What Jira does right
Agile project management: Jira supports various Agile methodologies, including Scrum and Kanban.
Bug and issue tracking: Jira tracks and manages bugs and issues, giving the team a clear view of project problems and their status.
Customization: It’s highly customizable and adaptable to different teams and project needs.
DevOps tool integration: Jira integrates well with a range of DevOps tools.
Task management and collaboration: It provides task management and collaborative tools, helping teams to organize, assign, and track work together.
Scalability: Jira can handle both small-scale and large, complex projects, meaning it can easily adapt as your organization grows.
Where Jira falls short
Complexity: Jira is a complex tool with a steep learning curve to overcome before you can use it to its full potential.
Cost: It can be expensive for small teams or startups, especially when considering add-ons or premium features.
Performance: In certain circumstances, such as during heavy usage, with many users, complex workflows, or when integrated with multiple tools, Jira can have performance issues.
Add-ons: Many features require add-ons, which can increase Jira’s complexity and costs.
Documentation and storage: Jira has limited in-built project documentation features.
Integration: Although it integrates easily with other Atlassian products, integration with other tools can be complex.
Resource-intensive: It can require significant server resources.
Better suited to large projects: It can be cumbersome for managing straightforward or small-scale projects.
Cluttered interface: With so many features and options, the interface can be overwhelming, especially for new users.
Basic reporting tools: You need additional plugins for detailed reporting.
Expert-Dependent: You may require technical expertise to customize Jira, which makes it less accessible to users without those skills.
Limiting default templates: Jira's templates are basic and may not suit all project types without customization.
Dependency management limitations: Managing complex dependencies between tasks may require additional plugins.
Top 11 Jira alternatives
While Jira offers some great features for project management, it may not be perfect for your team's needs or preferences. So here are 11 Jira alternatives that cater to a variety of requirements and may be a better fit for your project management style.
1. Lark - Best overall alternative
Lark Suite is a productivity super app that combines chat, meetings, document editing, project management, and automation tools in one platform. It’s a superb tool for simplifying your workflow and streamlining collaboration within your team.
Key features
Lark Suite uniquely provides many natively integrated apps with many features and capabilities.
For instance, Lark Base is a tool within Lark Suite you can use for data management, automation, and project management. It enables you to create automated workflows, write content with AI prompts, build dashboards, and view data in various formats. These include List, Kanban, Gantt, and Gallery views.
Lark Meegle is another tool within Lark Suite for project management. It provides an end-to-end view of your entire workflow all in one place and gives real-time insights into progress, risks, and opportunities. Lark Meegle is fully customizable and integrates with multiple third-party tools.
Besides this, Lark Suite includes tools for messaging, video conferencing, schedule management, collaborative documents, cloud storage, email, and workflow applications.
Pros
Although it has many functions and built-in tools, Lark is easy to set up and use.
One of its strongest features is its provision of multiple deeply integrated business tools.
The free tier gives you access to all the tools for up to 50 users.
Cons
There are a lot of features and functions, so although you can get up and running with it straight away, there is a learning curve involved if you want to make full use of its functionality.
Integrations
Because Lark has so many natively integrated business tools, there’s far less need to integrate with third-party apps. However, Lark provides robust APIs to help you integrate it with your system and seamlessly integrate with Jira, Trello, Asana, and Linear.
Pricing
Lark’s Starter plan is free and offers:
Unlimited chats with a full message history
A custom business email
Automatic language translation
100 GB storage
Up to 60 minutes meeting duration
Up to 50 users
The Pro plan is $12 per user per month. It provides all the features of the Starter plan, plus:
Unlimited Wiki knowledge base
1 TB storage
500 meeting participants
24-hour meeting duration
Advanced permission controls
Advanced video conferencing capabilities
Up to 500 users
The Enterprise plan is priced according to your team’s needs and preferences. It provides everything in the Pro plan, plus:
Large group collaboration (up to 50,000 users)
10 TB storage
Unlimited email storage
Single sign-on (SSO)
Advanced security
Unlimited users
2. ClickUp - Best for customization
ClickUp is a flexible platform with customizable views, workflows, and tasks. This means you can easily tailor the software to your project management needs.
Key features
ClickUp provides multiple task management tools like Kanban boards, Gantt charts, calendars, and timelines.
Shared tasks, real-time editing, comments, and notifications improve team communication and collaboration.
ClickUp automates routine actions, such as providing status updates and assigning tasks.
It provides comprehensive reporting tools and time tracking, which give you detailed performance analysis and insights into your team’s productivity.
ClickUp includes team and project management administrative features, with security options like two-factor authentication.
It’s available as a desktop and mobile application across various operating systems.
Pros
There’s a feature-rich free plan.
ClickUp provides a variety of task management tools suited to different situations and preferences.
It provides robust collaboration tools, including real-time document editing and chat.
Cons
There’s a steep learning curve involved if you want to make full use of its capabilities.
Users sometimes complain of minor bugs and general slowness.
Integrations
ClickUp integrates with multiple third-party apps, including Slack, Google Drive, HubSpot, Dropbox, and Zoom.
Pricing
The free plan is best for personal use and provides all of ClickUp’s basic features. The paid plans offer more storage and features, with prices starting at $7 per month.
3. ProofHub - Best for integrated project management and collaboration
ProofHub is a comprehensive project management and team collaboration tool that combines task management, file sharing, and real-time communication tools.
Key features
ProofHub can be used for task, project, and Agile project management.
It provides various views, including a Gantt chart, board view, table view, activity logs, and calendar view.
You can create discussion topics to share ideas and have one-to-one chats with teams and clients.
It allows you to upload, organize, and share files with your team.
You can track time and create time reports.
There are robust reporting and analytics features.
You can create custom admin roles and permissions.
Pros
It’s an all-in-one platform, providing a comprehensive suite of tools for task management, document sharing, time tracking, discussions, and more in one centralized platform.
It’s easy to use with an intuitive interface.
ProofHub provides strong collaboration features, including discussion boards, chat, and real-time document editing.
Cons
There’s no free version, although there is a free trial.
It provides limited integrations compared to other project management tools.
Integrations
ProofHub integrates with Slack, Box, Dropbox, Google Calendar, Google Drive, OneDrive, FreshBooks, and QuickBooks.
Pricing
ProofHub’s Essential plan provides 40 projects, unlimited users, and 15 GB of storage. It costs $50 a month billed monthly and $45 a month billed annually.
The Ultimate Control plan provides unlimited projects, unlimited users, 100 GB of storage, and more features. It costs $99 a month billed monthly and $89 a month billed annually.
There’s no free plan, but a 14-day trial with no credit card required.
4. Hive - Best for data-focused companies
Hive is a project management tool with strong analytics and reporting capabilities.
Key features
Hive provides multiple features, such as task, project, and Agile project management.
It provides Kanban, Gantt, table, portfolio, and calendar views.
It lets you connect with your teammates in real-time chat, share files, and collaborate on notes.
You can automatically track team time or individual time on any action or project.
Hive automates repetitive tasks and workflows.
Hive is particularly strong for analytics and reporting. For instance, you can build up to three dashboards to track KPIs.
Pros
Its analytics feature tracks KPIs like workspace productivity.
Hive provides many useful features on one platform.
Cons
Not all features are included in the subscription price but are purchased as add-ons.
There’s a steep learning curve for new users.
Integrations
Hive has built-in apps for work management, task management, collaboration, organization, reporting, and control. Its native integrations include Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, and Zoom, and integration with Zapier facilitates integration with over 1,000 more.
Pricing
The free plan includes 200MB of storage, up to 10 workspace members, unlimited tasks, and native chat messaging.
The Starter plan costs $5 per month per user. It includes everything in the free plan: unlimited storage, the AI assistant, and other features.
The Teams plan costs $12 per month per user and includes extra features.
The Enterprise plan is priced according to your specific needs and preferences.
5. Aha! - Best for product and tech startups
Aha! is a product roadmap software that offers a range of tools for product strategy, roadmapping, and idea management to help businesses plan and execute their product.
Key features
Aha! provides product road mapping to plan product strategy and progress over time.
It offers idea management tools to collect, organize, and prioritize ideas from team members or customers.
The features board tracks and manages product features.
Aha! allows for detailed planning of product releases, including setting timelines and phases.
It includes robust analytics and reporting tools for tracking product performance.
It offers flexible workflow customization to match the specific processes of different teams.
Aha! improves team collaboration with features like shared workspaces, comments, and real-time updates.
Pros
It provides flexible tools for creating detailed product roadmaps and strategy plans.
There are multiple features, and Aha! is highly configurable.
There’s good customer support and documentation.
Cons
Its complexity could be overwhelming for new users.
Some important features only come with higher-priced plans, which could be expensive for small businesses.
Integrations
Aha! integrates with over 30 popular apps, including GitHub, Slack, Azure DevOps, Salesforce, and Zendesk.
Pricing
Several pricing plans offer varied features:
Aha! Develop and Aha! Notebooks are $9 per user per month.
Aha! Ideas is $39 per user per month.
Aha! Roadmaps is $59 per user per month.
There’s no free plan, but there is a free 30-day trial, with no credit card required.
6. Trello - Best for small business organization
Trello is a task management tool with a simple, intuitive interface and visual task management system, which makes it easy for smaller teams to collaborate and stay organized.
Key features
Trello is primarily a Kanban board app, but various view options include Board, Timeline, Table, Calendar, Dashboard, Map, and Workspace.
The drag-and-drop interface is intuitive and easy to use.
Trello’s “Power Ups” lets you add many more features and functions.
You can automate your workflow with “Butler,” Trello’s built-in automation.
Templates give you a blueprint you can customize for your own needs.
Trello makes it easy to collaborate with internal and external teams.
Pros
The interface is intuitive and easy to use.
It offers plenty of flexibility and customization.
Trello has strong collaboration features.
Cons
There are limited reporting tools.
Task management features are basic, and many features, such as time-tracking and billing, require add-ons.
Integrations
Trello integrates with multiple third-party apps such as Slack, Miro, Dropbox, Gmail, Freshdesk, and Mailchimp.
Pricing
The free plan includes many of Trello’s essential features but has limitations.
Paid plans range from $6 per user per month to $17 per month for additional features and flexibility.
7. Smartsheet - Best for teams using spreadsheets
Smartsheet is a project management tool with a spreadsheet-like interface. It blends the familiarity of traditional spreadsheets with advanced project management and collaboration features.
Key features
Smartsheet is a project and task management tool.
You can choose between Grid, Gantt, Card, and Calendar views.
Collaboration tools allow you to share and collaborate both internally and externally.
No-code automated workflows help you save time and eliminate repetitive, manual tasks.
Dashboards allow you to organize and present information on a customizable canvas.
Smartsheet helps you manage resources by allowing you to track the availability and workload of team members and allocate tasks.
Pros
Smartsheet is a versatile and highly customizable project management tool.
It offers advanced reporting capabilities.
There are multiple integration options.
Cons
It’s a complex tool with a steep learning curve.
Time-tracking and resource management require add-ons.
Integrations
Smartsheet integrates with numerous In-built and third-party apps such as Slack, Microsoft Teams, Tableau, Brandfolder, and Adobe Creative Cloud.
Pricing
Smartsheet’s free plan provides many useful features, including dashboards and reports and 500 MB of storage. Paid plans offer more features and flexibility.
The Pro plan is $9 per user per month, the Business plan is $32 per month, and the Enterprise plan is priced according to your team’s needs and preferences.
8. Asana - Best for creative and marketing agencies
Asana is a project management tool that provides flexible task management, robust collaboration features, and the ability to streamline workflows. It’s a good fit for creative and marketing agencies' dynamic and project-driven nature.
Key features
Asana is a feature-rich project and task management tool.
It provides Kanban board, list, timeline, calendar, or Gantt chart views.
It enables resource and workload management and tracks resourcing over time.
You can create dashboards to visualize your data.
It’s easy to build workflows with Asana’s AI tool, Asana Intelligence, to improve team productivity.
Asana allows you to track time and keep a record of your time-tracking data.
You can use Asana to automate repetitive tasks.
Pros
It’s flexible and fast with lots of features.
The interface is intuitive and easy to use.
It provides robust collaboration features.
Cons
Some useful features like time tracking aren't available in the basic plan.
It could be unnecessarily complex for small teams.
Integrations
Asana integrates with multiple apps such as Microsoft Teams, Splunk, Adobe Creative Cloud, Okta, Tableau, Google Drive, and Looker.
Pricing
Asana’s free plan includes many useful features. These include collaboration with up to 10 teammates and unlimited tasks, projects, messages, and file storage.
Paid plans offer more features and flexibility. The Starter plan is $13.49 per user per month, and the Advance plan costs $30.49 per user per month.
9. ProductPlan - Best for product management
ProductPlan is a cloud-based roadmap planning tool designed to help teams collaborate on their product strategy.
Key features
ProductPlan lets you easily build and share product roadmaps.
It has a simple drag-and-drop interface.
You can customize your roadmaps with legends, timeframes, milestones, tags, and filters to help visualize and track the project.
You can set up notifications for when updates are made.
You can choose between timeline, list, or table layouts.
There’s a wide range of templates for different needs and preferences.
Collaboration and sharing are easy, with flexible permission options available.
Its advanced security features are robust enough to support large, security-sensitive organizations.
Pros
Creating a roadmap is intuitive and straightforward.
ProductPlan is highly customizable.
Its sharing features make collaboration easy.
Cons
The project management features are limited compared to some project management tools.
It’s more expensive than some other project management tools.
Integrations
ProductPlan integrates with Vimeo, Zapier, Microsoft Teams, Confluence, GitHub, Trello, Azure DevOps, Slack, and others.
Pricing
ProductPlan’s Basic plan is $39 per user per month, billed yearly, and the Professional plan is $79 per user per month.
The Enterprise plan is available with custom pricing, tailored to meet the needs of your team.
There’s no free plan for ProductPlan, but there is a free 14-day trial.
10. Confluence - Best for large teams with documentation needs
Confluence is a project management and team workspace software designed to help teams organize, share knowledge, brainstorm, and manage projects.
Key features
Pages, whiteboards, and spaces let you create and edit documents and visualize and organize work.
You can edit together in real time and collaborate with comments, likes, images, GIFs, and emojis.
You can tag teammates and assign tasks.
There’s a wide range of templates for different situations and preferences.
Page versioning lets you track and view the history of changes to each page.
The advanced search function makes it easy to find any document.
Pros
It’s great for collaboration, with real-time editing and commenting.
The advanced search and content tree make it easy to keep documents well-organized.
The interface is simple and user-friendly, making creating and sharing content easy.
Cons
Some useful features are only available at extra cost.
If you need a lot of extra features, it can get expensive.
Integrations
Confluence integrates seamlessly with other apps in the Atlassian Marketplace. It also integrates with third-party apps such as Google Drive, Draw.io, Presenter, Miro, and Slack.
Pricing
The free plan allows up to 10 users with 2 GB of storage and unlimited spaces and pages.
The Standard plan is $6.05 per user per month, and the Premium plan is $11.55 per month, each offering more features and flexibility.
The Enterprise plan is priced according to your organization’s needs and preferences.
11. Wrike - Best for teams with complex projects
Wrike is a project management and collaboration tool with advanced project planning features, customizable workflows, and detailed reporting capabilities. This makes it well-suited for managing complex and large projects.
Key features
Wrike has comprehensive project management, task management, and collaboration features.
View options include List, Kanban board, Table, and interactive Gantt Chart.
Time tracking is available for higher-tier paid plans.
It provides customizable dashboards and reports.
Real-time collaboration and communication are straightforward.
You can set up automation to automatically assign a task to a team member when certain conditions are met.
Pros
It’s a powerful and flexible project management tool with many useful features.
It provides advanced reporting capabilities.
There are comprehensive options for integration.
Cons
It’s a complex tool with a steep learning curve.
You have to pay higher prices for advanced features.
Integrations
Wrike integrates with over 400 popular apps, including Google Drive, Dropbox, GitHub, Gmail, HubSpot, and Mailchimp.
Pricing
There’s a free plan which includes some basic features, such as:
Web, desktop, and mobile apps
Project and task management
AI content generation
Board and table views
The Team plan is $9.80 per user per month, and the Business plan is $24.80 per user per month.
Enterprise and Pinnacle plans are available with custom pricing, depending on the needs of your team.
Using Lark and Jira simultaneously
If, after weighing up the pros and cons of other project management software, you still haven’t found a suitable alternative to Jira, there is another solution you might not have considered. That is, integrating Jira with Lark. This way, you can get the full range of Lark’s business tools and combine them with Jira to get the best of both worlds.
It’s easy to integrate Lark and Jira using Lark’s specially developed Jira Master. You can configure Jira Master to connect to Jira Software Cloud or Jira Software Server. Your team can then directly view, create, and manage Jira projects on Lark. This makes it so much easier to follow and manage the development process.
First, you’ll need to install and configure Jira Master and authorize it to access your Jira account. Then, without leaving Lark, you’ll be able to:
View your Jira issues list and browse by issue types.
Create, edit, and share Jira issues.
Track project dynamics.
Set up customized notifications to receive alerts and Jira updates when your issues change.
Add the Jira Master bot to group chats to update yourself with request changes, version releases, and other notifications.
Check tasks whenever you need them on both desktop and mobile.
Lark, or Lark plus Jira — the perfect alternatives
If you’re disillusioned with Jira, one of these 11 great alternatives might fit the bill.
Among those we’ve discussed, with its full range of business tools, Lark is undoubtedly one of the most versatile. With so many tools included, Lark Suite offers everything you’ll likely need for effective project management.
But if none of these solutions are right, you don’t have to let go of Jira. You can integrate it with Lark and combine all of Lark’s super app capabilities with Jira for a powerful project management solution that’ll be hard to beat.
