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 You decide
Superb issue organization
Issue Navigator
The Dashboard Using KlipFolio
Customizable workflow  
Available workflows Fixed 1 Unlimited Unlimited
Workflow editor  
Saved filters
Subscribable filters
Shared filters
Multiple dashboards   Using KlipFolio
Custom fields
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  
Per filter column ordering      
Permission schemes
Project permissions
Dynamic role-specific permissions    
Issue security levels    
LDAP configurator    
Sub-tasks  
Task sequencing  
E-mail integration
RSS integration
MS Excel integration
Remote APIs
Install JIRA plugins No, use scripts instead
CVS repositories per project 1 Unlimited Unlimited Unlimited
Project categories    
Component leads    
Project e-mail addressing    
Legendary Service You decide
Unlimited users
Unlimited projects
Unlimited issues
Upgrades
E-mail support
Priority E-mail and Phone support    
Our famous free JIRA t-shirt      
Source code 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.