Project managers and engineers are often debating between their choice of tool for all things management. Azure DevOps and Jira, more often than not, are part of that list.
Of course, developers love Azure DevOps for its seamless integration with their workflows, while the project managers are loyal to Jira’s familiar agile boards.
It is a classic case of tool tug-of-war. 🪢
If you’ve found yourself in a similar situation, you know the struggle of deciding between these two options. In this blog, we’ll break down Azure DevOps vs. Jira so you can confidently choose the one that deserves a spot in your toolkit. 🎯
Azure DevOps vs. Jira: Which is Best in 2024?
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat is Azure DevOps?
Azure DevOps is Microsoft’s cloud-based platform, which is packed with tools for planning, coding, testing, and deploying high-quality applications.
The Software as a Service (SaaS) platform offers an end-to-end DevOps workflow toolchain that spans the entire software development lifecycle. Azure DevOps enables efficient collaboration with integrated features that streamline communication between developers, project managers, and contributors.
Additionally, you can choose between its full suite of tools or handpick the services that fit your current workflow—all accessible through a web browser or Integrated Development Environment (IDE) client.
Azure DevOps features
Azure DevOps brings together a range of tools that support software development and project management. It covers everything from planning and collaboration to automating builds and deployments, helping teams work more efficiently.
Let’s explore some Azure DevOps features. 👇
Feature #1: End-to-end toolkit
Azure DevOps has a range of services that will aid you through the development lifecycle. Each offers a distinct functionality.
Here are some services on offer:
- Azure Boards to deliver a suite of Agile tools to support planning and tracking work, code defects, and supports using Kanban and Scrum methods
- Azure Repos to provide Git repositories or Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) for source controlling your code. This means your development teams can track changes made to a code over time easily, enhancing collaboration
- Azure Pipelines to build and release services for continuous integration and deployment (CI/CD) of your applications
- Azure Test Plans to test your applications, offering a comprehensive solution for exploratory and continuous testing
- Azure Artifacts to share packages such as Maven, npm, NuGet, and more from public and private sources. This feature makes the application easy to distribute and use
Also Read: 10 Best Generative AI Tools for DevOps Teams
Feature #2: Rapid application deployment and agility
Azure DevOps helps you deploy applications faster with its advanced CI/CD and DevOps automation features. You can deploy directly from the same source code, simplifying the process for IT admins.
Plus, it reduces the chances of mistakes and cuts down on manual work. This means your team can focus on what really matters—meeting business needs quickly and efficiently.
Feature #3: Improved workplace collaboration and project management
Azure DevOps makes teamwork easier. With just a few clicks, your teams can share files, work on the same code, and track changes across different apps. This improves communication and boosts productivity.
It also offers a simple way to manage projects. Teams can track bugs, set deadlines, assign tasks, and stay on top of priorities, all in one place.
Feature #4: Scalability and flexible integration
Microsoft Azure DevOps grows with you. Whether you’re working on a small project or a big one, it scales effortlessly using the power of the Azure cloud.
Additionally, Azure is flexible and platform-independent. You can integrate it with the open-source and third-party tools you already use, so you get the best of both worlds—your favorite tools and the Microsoft ecosystem.
Azure DevOps pricing
- Free forever
- Basic plan: $6 per user/month (free for first 5 users)
- Basic + test plan: $52 per user/month
Summarize this article for me pleaseWhat is Jira?
Jira is Atlassian’s project management and issue-tracking software. It is primarily designed for software development teams. However, it’s not limited to tech; multiple industries use it for various business functions.
This tool’s flexible and customizable platform supports agile methodologies such as Scrum and Kanban. It aids teams in planning sprints, managing backlogs, and visualizing workflows through boards that represent task status.
Jira allows you to turn large ideas into smaller, manageable tasks. It helps you organize work, set milestones, align tasks with goals, receive AI-powered suggestions, and collaborate with remote teams in real-time.
Jira features
Jira comes with a variety of features designed to help teams stay organized and efficient. Whether you’re managing tasks, tracking progress, or collaborating with your team, Jira has tools to keep things running smoothly.
Let’s delve into Jira’s features. 👇
Feature #1: Customizable workflows
Jira lets you build workflows that fit your team’s unique needs. Drag-and-drop tools make it easy to define and adjust workflows, setting up rules, triggers, and conditions that match your processes.
If you prefer to start fresh, you can use one of Jira’s pre-designed templates to get things going right away. This ensures your workflow aligns with your team’s approach.
Feature #2: Flexible issue tracking
Tracking issues in Jira is straightforward. You can create, edit, assign, and prioritize tasks, then add comments and attach files as needed.
Jira lets you categorize your work with different issue types, such as bugs, tasks, or subtasks. Additionally, it has custom fields, labels, and filters to add more information and context to the issues making them easy to find.
Feature #3: Powerful reporting and analytics
Skip the tedious task of writing long reports on your team’s performance with Jira. Its built-in dashboards and reports do the heavy lifting for you, offering insights through burndown charts, velocity charts, sprint reports, and more.
Create reports to track your team’s progress and quality with its gadgets, charts, and filter options. Jira also integrates with other tools, such as Confluence, Bitbucket, and Power BI, to enhance reporting and analytics capabilities.
Feature #4: Extensive and diverse marketplace
Jira offers a variety of apps and plugins that enhance its functionality and usability. You’ll find these extensions in the Atlassian Marketplace, covering categories like time tracking, automation, testing, reporting, and more.
Plus, you can integrate apps that work with other tools like Salesforce, Slack, and Gmail, allowing you to customize and optimize Jira to fit your team’s unique needs.
Jira pricing
- Free forever: For 10 users
- Standard: $7.16 per user/month
- Premium: $12.48 per user/month
- Enterprise: Custom pricing
Summarize this article for me pleaseJira vs. Azure DevOps: Features Compared
Azure DevOps and Jira are both top choices for managing projects in software application development, but they cater to different needs.
Azure DevOps offers a full set of tools for everything from planning and coding to testing and releasing software. It’s great for teams that want an all-in-one platform with built-in DevOps pipelines that enhance CI/CD automation.
Jira, on the other hand, is a versatile tool from Atlassian that focuses on project management. It’s perfect for Agile teams looking to track tasks, bugs, and projects with ease. Jira’s flexibility makes it a go-to for more than just software development.
Let’s compare their features in depth.
| Feature | Azure DevOps | Jira |
|---|---|---|
| Who’s it for? | Ideal for development teams needing end-to-end solutions for software projects | Designed primarily for software development teams but versatile enough for various industries |
| Key capabilities | Offers a complete DevOps toolkit for planning, coding, testing, and deployment | Supports agile methodologies like Scrum and Kanban for efficient project management |
| Workflow customization | Allows for defining workflows with drag-and-drop tools and pre-designed templates | Enables customizable workflows tailored to team needs, with a library of templates |
| Collaboration | Integrates seamlessly with Microsoft Teams for enhanced teamwork and communication | Provides real-time collaboration tools, including comments and notifications |
| Deployment and CI/CD | Features advanced CI/CD automation to simplify application deployment | Not primarily focused on deployment but can integrate with CI/CD tools for tracking issues |
| Reporting and analytics | Offers dashboards and reporting tools to monitor progress throughout the entire development lifecycle | Provides powerful reporting and analytics capabilities, including customizable dashboards |
| Integration options | Flexible integration with open-source and third-party tools | Extensive marketplace with apps for time tracking, automation, and integrations with other tools |
Feature #1: Source code management
Azure DevOps
Azure DevOps provides built-in Git repositories and version control (both Git and TFVC-Team Foundation Version Control), making it perfect for software development teams.
Jira
While Jira doesn’t include source code management out of the box, you can integrate it with platforms like GitHub and Bitbucket.
🏆 Winner: Azure DevOps for its integrated source code management tools.
Feature #2: Traceability
Azure DevOps
With Azure DevOps, you can trace every step of your project from start to finish. It’s ideal for teams that need clear visibility into work progress and relationships.
Jira
Jira has limited traceability. Tracking versions or seeing which tasks link to deployments requires manual effort. You’ll have to submit a request to see those, which can take some time.
🏆 Winner: Azure DevOps for its superior traceability features.
Feature #3: Customization and agile reporting
Azure DevOps
Offers basic customization but falls short in terms of advanced options. It doesn’t have agile-specific reports.
Jira
Jira offers advanced customization capabilities, including workflows and fields. It also shines with its range of agile reports, which give teams detailed insights into progress.
🏆 Winner: Jira has better customization and agile reporting capabilities.
Feature #4: Integration capabilities and mobile accessibility
Azure DevOps
It integrates seamlessly with Microsoft services and offers limited third-party integrations. Additionally, it provides mobile access to work on the go.
Jira
Jira supports a wide range of integrations through the Atlassian Marketplace, allowing teams to connect various tools easily. It also offers robust mobile applications for iOS and Android users.
🏆 Winner: Jira for a broader range of integrations and a better mobile experience.
Summarize this article for me pleaseJira vs. Azure DevOps on Reddit
To make the choice easier for you, we took to Reddit to understand the common consensus on the debate. When you search Azure DevOps vs. Jira on Reddit, you’ll find users’ opinions on both for different use cases.
Many users prefer Azure DevOps for its simplicity and ease of use. They suggest implementing the tool if your development team is already using Azure for infrastructure management.
Summarize this article for me pleaseMeet ClickUp—The Best Alternative to Azure DevOps vs. Jira
Jira is a great choice for customizable and flexible project management, while Azure has excellent integrated software development tools. But what if your team needs both of these functionalities?
Introducing ClickUp—a project management tool that offers the best of both worlds. This solid alternative for Azure DevOps and Jira is a flexible, all-in-one platform that handles everything, from development workflows to business operations.
While Jira and Azure DevOps have a user-friendly interface, ClickUp’s intuitive design makes it easier for teams to adopt. Its customizable features simplify processes, boost collaboration, and adapt to any DevOps project management style without much hassle.
ClickUp’s One-Up #1: Agile features
The ClickUp Agile Solution equips your team with everything needed to supercharge your workflow. It brings together project tracking, documentation, and collaboration in one place, making it easier than ever to keep things running smoothly.
Sprints
ClickUp Sprints helps streamline your sprint planning by letting you set clear timelines, assign story points for task effort, and prioritize work so your team knows exactly what to focus on.
It’s designed to keep the sprint process organized and easy to manage from start to finish.
You can also adjust your sprint setup to match how your team works. This flexibility helps you organize tasks in a way that fits your workflow, keeping everyone aligned with project goals throughout each sprint.
Board View
The ClickUp Board View is great for Agile teams who want a clear, visual way to manage their projects. It uses a simple, card-based layout where tasks move through different stages, making it easy to see what’s in progress and what still needs to be done.
You can customize the board with different task statuses, assign team members, set deadlines, and attach files—all in one place. With easy drag-and-drop features, the Board View keeps your team on track so they can work smoothly through each sprint.
Time tracking
ClickUp Project Time Tracking works well for Agile teams. You can log time directly within your tasks, giving you a clear picture of where the effort is going. Whether you’re at your desk or on the go, tracking time from any device ensures that everyone stays accountable, which is crucial for sprint planning and retrospectives.
You can also customize your time entries by adding notes and categorizing them, making it easier to see how time aligns with your DevOps goals and objectives.
Dashboards
ClickUp Dashboards are a powerful tool for Agile teams looking to manage their projects and sprints effectively.
With features like sprint reporting and metrics, you can use various charts—such as burndown, burnup, cumulative flow, and velocity—to keep track of progress and team performance.
ClickUp also integrates natively with GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket, linking commits, branches, and pull requests directly to tasks. This integration helps keep everything connected and encourages a shared ownership mindset by making team data accessible and easy to understand.
AI capabilities
ClickUp Brain is an AI-driven assistant designed to simplify project management for Agile teams.
With features like automated planning and documentation, ClickUp Brain can generate product roadmaps, create test plans, and draft technical specifications, saving valuable time.
It also streamlines meeting processes by helping craft agendas, summarizing notes, and ensuring that all key points are covered, which is useful during sprint planning and retrospectives.
Also Read: How to Use AI in DevOps (Use Cases & Tools)
ClickUp’s One-Up #2: Software Development Template
The ClickUp Software Development Template provides your development team with all the tools they need to collaborate effectively, bringing together product, design, and engineering teams in one space.
It guides you through the entire product roadmap, from inception to completion, enabling you to deliver product features and fix bugs using agile Scrum or Kanban methods.
As you use the template, you’ll see dedicated sections for managing product features and bug fixes. These areas make it easy to track software development projects, assign responsibilities, and set deadlines.
You can also create user stories and acceptance criteria to clarify requirements, ensuring that what you deliver meets everyone’s expectations.
ClickUp’s One up #3: Kanban for Software Development Template
The ClickUp Kanban for Software Development Template is a great tool for software teams that aim to enhance efficiency, productivity, and collaboration.
It provides a visual workflow management system, where tasks are represented as cards moving through various stages of the development process. Simply track a card to see how your task is progressing.
This template also features Work-in-Progress (WIP) limits and cycle time tracking, helping your team manage workloads and stay focused on what matters.
Summarize this article for me pleaseTake Charge of Your Agile Workflows with ClickUp
Choosing the right project management tool (Azure DevOps vs. Jira) is critical for your team’s success. Azure DevOps is perfect if you need built-in CI/CD features, while Jira shines in agile project management with its robust customization options.
ClickUp has your back if you want an all-in-one platform.
It combines the best of both, giving you a flexible, all-in-one solution for managing development workflows, tracking sprints, and much more.
Sign up for ClickUp today and transform your project management efforts!
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