GitLab vs Jira Align comparison

GitLab and Atlassian are both solutions in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category. GitLab is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.6, while Atlassian is ranked #3 with an average rating of 7.8. GitLab holds a 26.9% mindshare in EAP, compared to Atlassian’s 5.9% mindshare. Additionally, 97% of GitLab users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 92% of Atlassian users who would recommend it.

GitLab

Read 82 GitLab reviews

10,458 Views
8,512 Comparison Views

97% willing to recommend

Jira Align

Read 41 Jira Align reviews

2,306 Views
1,409 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

GitLab

Jira Align

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 2024

GitLab and Jira Align compete in the software development and project management category. GitLab has the advantage due to its strong focus on code repositories and DevOps solutions.

Features: GitLab emphasizes code repositories, seamless code merging, and a powerful CI/CD integration system, providing comprehensive DevOps control. Jira Align focuses on agile processes by aligning business and IT strategy, offering detailed planning and reporting tools for large organizational needs.

Room for Improvement: GitLab could improve its AWS integrations, leadership metrics, and documentation. Jira Align requires better integration with Jira, intuitive features, and customization for diverse needs.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GitLab uses Public Cloud for deployment, offering open-source flexibility, though its support might be inconsistent for free users. Jira Align is enterprise-focused with reliable support, but feedback suggests potential gaps in long-term support.

Pricing and ROI: GitLab offers a free version along with paid tiers that vary in pricing, reaching $99 per user/month for the Ultimate tier. This is justified by extensive features enhancing DevOps processes. Jira Align is priced higher and might be costly for SMEs but provides value for larger corporations with its strategic planning capabilities.

To learn more, read our detailed GitLab vs. Jira Align Report (Updated: April 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. Jira Align

April 2025

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Helped 849,686 peers since 2012

Review summaries and opinions

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Categories and Ranking

GitLab

Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

2nd

Average Rating

8.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.2

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Security Tools (9th), Build Automation (1st), Release Automation (2nd), Static Application Security Testing (SAST) (7th), Rapid Application Development Software (12th), Software Composition Analysis (SCA) (5th), Fuzz Testing Tools (2nd), DevSecOps (3rd)

Jira Align

Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

3rd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (9th), Value Stream Management Software (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of GitLab is 26.9%, down from 32.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Jira Align is 5.9%, up from 4.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

Featured Reviews

Gaurav Chandel

AWS DevOps/ Site Reliability Engineer at Tata Consultancy

Boosted productivity with automated pipelines and seamless collaboration

There are some challenges with repository file management as GitLab may struggle to manage larger files. Improvements could be made regarding size management and file partitioning. Also, the UI has remained the same for a couple of years and could benefit from an update with AI features and better customization.

Read full review

Tonia Spight-Sokoya

Program Support for Third Party External SPM Lead Business Execution Consultant/PMP PM at Wells Fargo

User-friendly with good documentation and the ability to integrate with other third arty vendors

I am really focused on identity access management and getting access to the vendors. Right now, I'm setting up vendor access through Azure. You can do that or with the IAM. Sometimes we have to create several different types of access because we have vaulted databases. We have the Unix databases, I have MySQL, and we have Mongo, where I get access to those user classes or to the databases in the host group. Those are all different access scenario forms that I submit after I do the configuration in the form with the security team. I need clarity on the IAM. I'm not clear on PAM eighter. Is there a form that they have to submit to get access to the internal cyber-risk teams to get their access for people to be able to use the tool on the Confluence side? Do they have to send some kind of form to the operation's security or enterprise security? To be able to get the access for privileged access, do they need to be working on projects that have vaulted databases? I still need to figure out how that works. Other companies that are competitors of Jira and Confluence, are able to create their active directories for the vendors that don't come in internally. They only do access through the cloud and through third-party, two-factor identification. That's something I was wondering if that was already implemented in the packages, the package for Confluence. It would be nice to have that right in the solution.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

We asked business professionals to review the solutions they use. Here are some excerpts of what they said:

Pros

"If you want to maintain your issues in GitLab and raise your book of work and features, then GitLab is a great tool for collaboration and integration with code deployment and CICD pipelines."

"I find the features and version control history to be most valuable for our development workflow. These aspects provide us with a clear view of changes and help us manage requests efficiently."

"They incorporate new features every September, and they have introduced their own code editor and AI features."

"The solution's most valuable features are pipelines."

"The best thing is that as the developers work on separate tasks, all of the code goes there and the other team members don't have to wait on each other to finish."

"The code merging capability is something that we use very frequently."

"The tool helps to integrate CI/CD pipeline deployments. It is very easy to learn. Its security model is good."

"CI/CD and GitLab scanning are the most valuable features."

More GitLab pros

"Defect tracking and dashboards are the most valuable features of Jira Align."

"Jira Align is an intuitive tool that features a roadmap view...The initial setup was straightforward...Jira Align is definitely worth the money."

"The interface of Jira Align is very easy to use and manage"

"Align enables the capture of all capabilities."

"The linking of PI Objectives with different features was one of the cool things. It had features, epics, and stories out of the box."

"The most valuable feature of Jira Align is the overall team vision."

"The tool enabled everyone to see the status of each environment."

"I've had no issues with Align's stability."

More Jira Align pros

Cons

"GitLab could add a plugin to integrate with Kubernetes stuff."

"Atlassian offers more products than GitLab. GitLab offers source control management, version control and collaboration between developers. Atlassian offers features on top of this as well as more integration points for developers."

"I would like more Agile features in the Premium version. The Premium version should have all Agile features that exist in the Ultimate version. IBM AOM has a complete Agile implementation, but in GitLab, you only have these features if you buy the Ultimate version. It would be good if we can use these in the Premium version."

"GitLab's Windows version is yet not available and having this would be an improvement."

"In the next release, I would like to see GitLab expand its integration capabilities to include platforms like DigitalOcean, which developers widely use for cloud infrastructure. Enhancing CI/CD automation features specifically tailored for DigitalOcean would be beneficial."

"GitLab could consider introducing a code-scanning tool. Purchasing such tools from external markets can incur charges, which might not be favorable. Integrating these features into GitLab would streamline the pipeline and make it more convenient for users."

"The solution does not have many built-in functions or variables so scripting is required."

"GitLab can improve its user interface to make conflict resolution more user-friendly."

More GitLab cons

"I would like to see Jira Align merge and integrate better with Jira as a whole. A lot of the time, the data from Jira won't map very well into Jira Align."

"AI is utilized worldwide; they could implement the functionality for notifications and other organizational operations in the product."

"Jira Align's cost needs improvement."

"For future releases of Jira Align, I would suggest making workflows simpler and more user-friendly."

"The tool must provide better bulk editing features."

"Other companies that are competitors of Jira and Confluence, they are able to create their active directories for the vendors that don't come in internally."

"The vendor should implement automation features"

"Jira Align's user interface needs improvement because its user experience is really bad."

More Jira Align cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There are different licensing options available, including a free limited-user license."

"We are using its free version, and we are evaluating its Premium version. Its Ultimate version is very expensive."

"The solution is based on a licensing model that includes technical support and is paid annually."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing a five out of ten."

"The solution is based on a subscription model and is reasonably priced."

"In terms of the pricing for GitLab, on a scale of one to five, with one being expensive and five being cheap, I'm rating pricing for the solution a four. It could still be cheaper because right now, my company has a small team, and sometimes it's difficult to use a paid product for a small team. You'd hope the team will grow and scale, but currently, you're paying a high license fee for a small team. I'm referring to the GitLab license that has premium features and will give you all features. This can be a problem for management to approve the high price of the license for a team this small."

"I'm not sure if they have some kind of discount. I've been negotiating with them on prices before, and I believe they weren't too happy to give discounts, but list prices are $19 per user, per month for Premium and $99 per user, per month for Ultimate. So, the difference between Premium and Ultimate is a bit bigger, and in most companies, you need to build some type of business case."

"The price of GitLab could be better, it is expensive."

More GitLab pricing and cost advice

"Our customers buy licenses. We are not involved in its purchase."

"At our company, we were concerned about the cost of Jira Align, which is expensive"

"The tool is moderately expensive."

"Jira Align's pricing is reasonable."

"My company pays approximately 399 USD per month for the solution."

"I would rate this solution a nine out of ten for pricing. The price of the solution depends on the number of people using it and the projects you are working on."

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate Jira Align a seven out of ten."

"Jira Align is quite expensive for small-to-medium companies, but it's quite reasonable for larger ones."

More Jira Align pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Educational Organization

24%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Computer Software Company

12%

Manufacturing Company

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Insurance Company

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GitLab?

I find the features and version control history to be most valuable for our development workflow. These aspects provide us with a clear view of changes and help us manage requests efficiently.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GitLab?

The pricing of GitLab is reasonable, aligning with what I consider to be average compared to competitors.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GitLab?

Certain features in Jira are not available in GitLab, such as the functionality to have weights at the milestone and epic levels. Hopefully, these features will be resolved with work items in GitLa...

See all answers

What do you like most about Jira Align?

I joined the company because they had a large project, and as a startup company, they needed to scale up efficiently. My task was to review the current baseline, assess the team's capabilities, and...

See all answers

What needs improvement with Jira Align?

The platform's communication features could be more robust for better team integration.

See all answers

What is your primary use case for Jira Align?

We use Jira Align for business strategies, collaboration, and reporting. The solution allows us to manage the various products and features delivered on that platform.

See all answers

Comparisons

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs GitLab

Compared 26% of the time

GitHub CoPilot vs GitLab

Compared 14% of the time

SonarQube Server (formerly SonarQube) vs GitLab

Compared 7% of the time

AWS CodePipeline vs GitLab

Compared 5% of the time

Tekton vs GitLab

Compared 5% of the time

More GitLab Competitors

OpenText ValueEdge vs Jira Align

Compared 42% of the time

ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management vs Jira Align

Compared 24% of the time

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Jira Align

Compared 5% of the time

Rally Software vs Jira Align

Compared 5% of the time

Planview AgilePlace vs Jira Align

Compared 4% of the time

More Jira Align Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

GitLab

April 2025

Download GitLab product report

Buyer's Guide

Jira Align

April 2025

Download Jira Align product report

Also Known As

Fuzzit

AgileCraft

Overview

GitLab is a complete DevOps platform that enables teams to collaborate and deliver software faster.

It provides a single application for the entire DevOps lifecycle, from planning and development to testing, deployment, and monitoring.

With GitLab, teams can streamline their workflows, automate processes, and improve productivity.

GitLab

Jira Align is a cloud-based agile planning tool designed to help enterprises visualize, manage, and carry out large-scale software and IT projects. Jira Align’s features are designed to align the activities of your company’s development team with the overall goals of the organization by helping you achieve the following results:

Connect and coordinate enterprise-level business teams.
Make your entire enterprise’s work visible to drive and improve business outcomes.
Improve product quality with a fully aligned organization.
Shorten delivery cycles by increasing operational efficiency.

With Jira Align’s integration with Jira Software, businesses can simplify governing large-scale software development efforts by translating their strategy and goals into the technical execution and delivery of work.

Jira Align uses the aggregated data from Jira Software to produce reports on every aspect of the development process. Product stakeholders are granted immediate visibility into the progress that has been made and can easily identify delays and their causes.

The solution also assists in budget planning by assigning expenses to various work items and giving management real-time insights into ongoing expenditures and performance against set budgets.

Jira Align Features

Some of the top features and benefits of using Jira Align include:

Strategy management: Jira Align provides a clear visualization of where your enterprise is holding via strategic snapshots. The snapshot helps guide teams throughout the product. With the snapshot in view, it becomes easier to see and track the goals your company wants to carry out.

Progress monitoring: View a progress bar that provides indication of the level of completeness of your projects. The interface is populated with live data, which assists with planning and execution reporting.

Reporting and metrics: Jira Align creates valuable insights using the aggregated data it collects, ensuring that changes are tracked across teams and results are made visible early on in the process. These metrics allow managers to quickly determine what actions need to be taken.

Scalability: Jira Align is designed to work within organizations with hundreds of technical staff members and it can scale to support tens of thousands of users.

Backlogs and workflows: Effectively manage your work utilizing backlogs and workflow boards.

Customizable dashboard: Lay out key data points to help management keep tabs on important items. Easily make decisions based on active live consolidated data along with forecasting, risk tracking reports, and more. To help lower risks, Jira Align provides you with a visualization of program cross dependencies. It also displays a comprehensive view of resource utilization across projects, and highlights inefficiencies so that they can be resolved quickly.

Reviews from Real Users

Jira Align stands out among its competitors for a number of reasons. Two major ones are its program-level planning options and its reporting capabilities.

A project manager at a consultancy notes, “I like how things can be sorted out, and it shows the different objectives one can do. You could also create a team view that would allow your team to see work outcomes. Jira Align also helps with the reporting, because we can export data to Excel or another format.”

Atlassian

Sample Customers

1. NASA 2. IBM 3. Sony 4. Alibaba 5. CERN 6. Siemens 7. Volkswagen 8. ING 9. Ticketmaster 10. SpaceX 11. Adobe 12. Intuit 13. Autodesk 14. Rakuten 15. Unity Technologies 16. Pandora 17. Electronic Arts 18. Nordstrom 19. Verizon 20. Comcast 21. Philips 22. Deutsche Telekom 23. Orange 24. Fujitsu 25. Ericsson 26. Nokia 27. General Electric 28. Cisco 29. Accenture 30. Deloitte 31. PwC 32. KPMG

Anthem, nielsen, Homeland Security, NCR, dimension data

Buyer's Guide

GitLab vs. Jira Align

April 2025

Free Report: GitLab vs. Jira Align

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