TrackStudio Enterprise 3.5 vs. Atlassian JIRA 3.12
Potential and existing customers often ask us to compare TrackStudio and JIRA. As the results of any such a comparison depend heavily on the chosen criteria we have decided, for the purpose of this exercise, to use the criteria that the Atlassian itself uses to compare the various versions of the JIRA product: Standard, Professional and Enterprise. Obviously, a comparison of this kind, based as it is on the feature-set of the alternative product, will show JIRA in its best light and will not do as much as we might to highlight the advantages of TrackStudio. Despite this we are confident that comparative strength of TrackStudio will show through.
Another thing of which to be aware of is that, whatever license you chose for your TrackStudio product, you are buying the right to use the complete feature-set. You will not be faced with the situation where, having used the product for a little while, you realize that there is a key feature that's missing for which you will have to upgrade your license.
| Feature | JIRA Std | JIRA Pro | JIRA Ent | TrackStudio |
| Brilliant web interface |  |
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You decide |
| Superb issue organization | |
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| Issue Navigator | |
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| The Dashboard | |
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Using KlipFolio |
| Customizable workflow | |
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| Available workflows | Fixed | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Workflow editor | |
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| Saved filters | |
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| Subscribable filters | |
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| Shared filters | |
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| Multiple dashboards | |
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Using KlipFolio | |
| Custom fields | |
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| Field Configurations | 1 | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Field Screens | Global | By project | By project & issue type | By project, issue type, user group, user role |
| Field Screen Tabs | |
Tab-based interface | ||
| Global & user column ordering | |
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| Per filter column ordering | |
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| Permission schemes | |
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| Project permissions | |
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| Dynamic role-specific permissions | |
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| Issue security levels | |
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| LDAP configurator | |
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| Sub-tasks | |
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| Task sequencing | |
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| E-mail integration | |
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| RSS integration | |
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| MS Excel integration | |
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| Remote APIs | |
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| Install JIRA plugins | |
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No, use scripts instead |
| CVS repositories per project | 1 | Unlimited | Unlimited | Unlimited |
| Project categories | |
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| Component leads | |
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| Project e-mail addressing | |
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| Legendary Service | |
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You decide |
| Unlimited users | |
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| Unlimited projects | |
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| Unlimited issues | |
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| Upgrades | |
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| E-mail support | |
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| Priority E-mail and Phone support | |
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| Our famous free JIRA t-shirt | |
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| Source code | |
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Unlike JIRA, not required for extensive customization. Available for an additional fee. |
| Commercial License | $1200 | $2400 | $4800 | $1000 |
| Support & Updates (every year) | $600 | $1200 | $2400 | $300 |
As you can see from the table, the functionality of TrackStudio Enterprise is similar to that of JIRA Enterprise - the features of both products considerably surpass the features of JIRA Standard and JIRA Professional.
To further extend the comparison of the two products it is instructive to see how TrackStudio measures up against prospective future developments of JIRA. To do this we will use the JIRA Popular Issues page to find out which are the most popular requests for features that JIRA users currently lacks (as at September 4, 2008) and see whether and how these features may already be implemented in TrackStudio.
The "Why is this feature so important?" links will take you to the JIRA users' explanation of why the feature is being requested while the links under the Solution Description column will take you to a more detailed explanation of how the issue is addressed within TrackStudio.
Present in TrackStudio Enterprise, but not available in JIRA Enterprise:
| Feature | Submit Date | Won't fix Date | Solution Description |
| Field level security permissions Why is this feature so important? |
Feb 2003 | Oct 2007 | Hiding Unused Fields |
| Import / Export (backup / restore) individual projects Why is this feature so important? |
Apr 2003 | Not required. The underlying problem has been solved. | |
| Project Group Administrator Why is this feature so important? |
Dec 2004 | The underlying problem has been solved. Learn more about User Management concepts (PDF). | |
| Better support for logical operation (and/or/not) type of filters. Why is this feature so important? |
Apr 2004 | Partially solved. Learn more about implementing complex filtering conditions. | |
| Assign issues to multiple users or a group Why is this feature so important? |
Mar 2003 | Learn how to enable group handler assignment. | |
| Support for subcomponents Why is this feature so important? |
Sep 2002 | The underlying problem has been solved. Learn Task Concepts. | |
| Priorities, Resolutions and Statuses per project / issue type Why is this feature so important? |
May 2004 | Learn more about TrackStudio workflow. | |
| Permissions per workflow step / state Why is this feature so important? |
Apr 2005 | Learn more about TrackStudio workflow. | |
| Sub-issues should be able to contain their own sub-issues Why is this feature so important? |
Sep 2004 | The underlying problem has been solved. Learn Task Concepts. | |
| Make field required only for one state transition Why is this feature so important? |
Jan 2005 | Can be solved using a simple trigger. Learn more about triggers. | |
| Support for build labels within versions Why is this feature so important? |
Jul 2002 | The underlying problem has been solved. Learn more about Adding a Custom Field. | |
| Ability to rename a user Why is this feature so important? |
Sep 2003 | You can change user name or login. | |
| Hide Time Tracking estimates from certain users (e.g. customers) Why is this feature so important? |
Sep 2003 | Hiding Unused Fields | |
| Resolve & Time spent Why is this feature so important? |
Oct 2002 | The underlying problem has been solved - you can change task state, assign a task, log time spent, and add a comment in a single action. Learn Message Concepts. | |
| Filter on Versions and Components across Projects Why is this feature so important? |
Apr 2003 | The underlying problem has been solved. Learn Task Concepts. | |
| User Preference: User Time Zones Why is this feature so important? |
Feb 2002 | The dates displayed to a user are always contiguous with their local time zone, rather than the server's time zone. | |
| Custom fields for Projects Why is this feature so important? |
Jul 2003 | The underlying problem has been solved. Learn Task Concepts. | |
| Renaming groups after creation Why is this feature so important? |
Mar 2003 | You can rename groups anytime. | |
| Search the change history Why is this feature so important? |
Dec 2004 | You can search tasks by message history. | |
| Sub-tasks should inherit component and version of parent task Why is this feature so important? |
Nov 2004 | The underlying problem has been (mostly) solved by using subtasking. Learn Task Concepts. | |
| Ability to add watchers during issue creation Why is this feature so important? |
Dec 2004 | Can be solved using a simple trigger. Learn more about triggers. | |
| "Log work done" as a MANDATORY field when resolving issues Why is this feature so important? |
Apr 2003 | Can be solved using a simple trigger. Learn more about triggers. | |
| Can't filter by Security Level Why is this feature so important? |
Jan 2004 | You can filter tasks this way. | |
| Allow administrators to manage filters owned by other users Why is this feature so important? |
Apr 2006 | Manager can manage filters, created by subordinate users. | |
| Customize mail subject line Why is this feature so important? |
Apr 2004 | Users can customize subject line for each e-mail template. | |
| Allow permission schemes to be configured per issue type Why is this feature so important? |
Feb 2005 | Users can configure permissions per issue type. | |
| Allow filtering by project category Why is this feature so important? |
Mar 2004 | TrackStudio support filtering projects by project category. | |
| Support for Product Suites / Sub-Projects Why is this feature so important? |
Feb 2007 | TrackStudio support project hierarchy/grouping. |
Not available in either TrackStudio Enterprise or JIRA Enterprise:
| Feature | Submit Date | Comments |
| Migrate to Atlassian User (externalized LDAP management) Why is this feature so important? |
Jul 2003 | |
| Search/ filter for "empty" fields Why is this feature so important? |
Sep 2005 | |
| Ability to share custom Portals Why is this feature so important? |
Oct 2004 | Seems like too JIRA-specific. |
| Strict priority for all open issues Why is this feature so important? |
Apr 2005 |
As you can see, 26 out of 30 of the most popular features requested have been outstanding for several years, are still not available in JIRA Enterprise but have, for some time, been available in TrackStudio Enterprise. Three more of the unresolved issues are JIRA interface-specific (if you extend your analysis to the 50 most popular features, the picture continues to be the same)
Why, you may wonder, is the progress in the development of Atlassian is so slow? The answer to this question lies in the history and origin of the product. Simple open source systems (Bugzilla, Mantis) were very popular only a few years ago. The appearance of JIRA stimulated the market, drew attention to commercial systems and considerably raised the level of user requirements. The logical model of the system taken from Bugzilla and the simple user interface quickly made JIRA popular but they now slow down its further development. The implementation of the requested features is actually going to require turning JIRA into a hierarchical issue tracking system that, in turn, will necessitate the complete rewriting of the system kernel and considerable changes made to the interface.
In conclusion, its more powerful and flexible internal structure allows TrackStudio to have a number of important features that are unlikely to appear in Atlassian JIRA in the next few years.