GoCD vs Jira comparison

Thoughtworks and Atlassian are both solutions in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category. Thoughtworks is ranked #15 with an average rating of 7.3, while Atlassian is ranked #1 with an average rating of 8.4. Thoughtworks holds a 0.5% mindshare in ALM, compared to Atlassian’s 17.7% mindshare. Additionally, 88% of Thoughtworks users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 91% of Atlassian users who would recommend it.

GoCD

Read 7 GoCD reviews

959 Views
192 Comparison Views

88% willing to recommend

Jira

Read 275 Jira reviews

14,801 Views
9,029 Comparison Views

91% willing to recommend

GoCD

Jira

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

GoCD and Jira both play important roles in software development with GoCD focusing on continuous delivery and Jira excelling in project management. Despite GoCD's competitive pricing, data comparisons suggest that Jira maintains an edge due to its comprehensive features and integration capabilities.

Features: GoCD enables seamless pipeline configurations, sophisticated dependency management, and offers a robust plugin architecture for customization. Jira provides agile workflow support, a powerful API for integrations, and versatile project management tools.

Room for Improvement: GoCD could benefit from expanding its plugin library, enhancing its UI for even better usability, and strengthening its community support. Jira can improve by reducing complexity in customization, enhancing performance during high loads, and streamlining integrations with non-Atlassian tools for better compatibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: GoCD offers straightforward deployment options, ideal for CI/CD setups, with effective customer support for its core functionalities. Jira provides flexible cloud-based and on-premises deployment options, supported by extensive resources and robust customer service that ease the overall implementation process.

Pricing and ROI: GoCD, being open source under Apache License 2.0, presents lower upfront costs and good ROI for focused CI/CD operations. Jira, with its licensing costs, delivers significant ROI by catering to large teams with extensive project management functions, which justifies its pricing through long-term benefits.

To learn more, read our detailed GoCD vs. Jira Report (Updated: September 2025).

Buyer's Guide

GoCD vs. Jira

September 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 867,341 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

GoCD

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

15th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Build Automation (17th), Release Automation (10th)

Jira

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

6.8

Number of Reviews

275

Ranking in other categories

Application Requirements Management (1st), Project Management Software (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of September 2025, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of GoCD is 0.5%, up from 0.2% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Jira is 17.7%, down from 23.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites Market Share Distribution
Product	Market Share (%)
Jira	17.7%
GoCD	0.5%
Other	81.8%

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

Featured Reviews

Nishant Narayan Singh

DevOps Architect at Cognizant

Simplifies the pipeline process, but the access control system needs enhancement

One area of product improvement is the access control system. It is difficult to assign different access levels because it relies on separate keys for developer and admin access, which could be simplified. The folder structure is another aspect that could be enhanced, as all jobs are displayed on a single page without the clear organization seen in Jenkins. Implementing a more structured approach to organizing jobs would improve user experience. AI could simplify job creation. For example, instead of manually editing pipelines as code, an AI tool could allow users to input variables and automatically generate the required jobs. It would help reduce human errors, such as issues that arise from incorrect edits in large code files.

Read full review

AmitUbale

Assistant General Manager at ICICI Bank

Efficient project management that's comprehensive and and helps with time efficiency

We use Jira primarily for project management within the organization. It helps us manage tasks, bug management, and tracking tickets effectively. We assign tickets to individual team members and track them easily For project management, Jira has helped facilitate efficient task segregation and…

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

"The most notable aspect is its user interface, which we find to be user-friendly and straightforward for deploying and comprehending pipelines. We have the ability to create multiple pipelines, and in addition to that, the resource consumption is impressive."

"GoCD's open-source nature is valuable."

"The UI is colorful."

"Permission separations mean that we can grant limited permissions for each team or team member."

"This is our way of communicating with different teams. We are a global company. I am based in San Diego, for example. A lot of the BAs are based in Paris. The development team is based in Minsk. We absolutely need to be in constant communication and on the same page."

"The JIRA user interface looks great. It's an overall good experience. It's very intuitive in the sense that you understand how it's going to work. It's very self-explanatory, and it's beneficial overall."

"The user interface is simple."

"It's an open-sourced product that is easy to customize."

"I have found the most valuable features of Jira to be ticketing, life cycle workflow, definition, and creation. Many of the features are useful."

"We've found the scalability to be good."

"For QA, the most interesting for me are boards, backlog, and filters."

"The sprint tracking is really helpful and very convenient."

More Jira pros

Cons

"The documentation really should be improved by including real examples and more setup cases."

"It is difficult to assign different access levels because it relies on separate keys for developer and admin access, which could be simplified."

"The tool must be more user-friendly."

"The aspect that requires attention is the user management component. When integrating with BitLabs and authenticating through GitLab, there are specific features we desire. One important feature is the ability to import users directly from GitLab, along with their respective designations, and assign appropriate privileges based on that information. Allocating different privileges to users is a time-consuming process for us."

"When we use the plugin in Jira so, there are two different systems which we are working on, Jira and the X-ray plugin. The X-ray plugin should be incorporated into Jira because we have to fetch two reports. One report is faxed through Jira, and one can be faxed through X-ray. So there needs to be clarity about which the Jira team should reflect."

"One thing that I don't like about Jira is that when you do an export, it only allows a thousand issues. So the export feature needs to be better."

"There should be a way to look for specific comments. When we have thousands of comments on a Jira ticket, there is no way to look at the comments of a specific type. In the comments, if there is a way to put a tag, it would be helpful. For example, when there are a lot of lengthy discussions happening on a particular ticket, there could be a conclusion tag or something like that to indicate a conclusion. It would help in sorting the comments based on a certain category, such as conclusion."

"I have noticed a problem with Jira in the Philippines. In the Philippines, there are only a few companies that offer local support, which is alarming."

"I do know the initial setup was pretty complicated. The user interface could be better organized and easier. "

"If Jira would be interested in offering a SharePoint version, it would be beneficial."

"There are a limited number of gadgets accessible in Jira; thus, additional ones should be supported."

"In terms of the general Jira software, one element that is missing is budget management. Perhaps such functionality exists in add-ons, however."

More Jira cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"This is an open-source solution and it is inexpensive."

"It's an open-source and free tool."

"The price at the moment for Jira is okay. I'm absolutely not amused with the plans to try to drive us to the cloud or to other licensing models. For the very simple reason that we are a company in the defense sector where cloud is problematic in a number of the domains. We are now approximately 60 users and the new policy will actually confront us with an upscale to approximately 500 users. I find it unacceptable, and may potentially lead us to look for another solution."

"One of my customers told me that they were receiving better pricing for a similar tool from Microsoft."

"The pricing is much higher than other similar solutions available in the market, and as such, the vendor should think about a price reduction to make this product more affordable."

"I don't have the number, but I sure wish Jira was less expensive. Its price point should be a little lower, and it should be more flexible for users who are just ticket viewers."

"We are on an annual license and could be less expensive."

"For very small companies, if you have less than 10 individuals, it is $10 a year for each of the products. When we were a part of the enterprise and had more than 10 people using it, or before they came up with this solution for small companies, it was $2,500 a year for the license for Jira and Confluence, and I believe something like $600 a year to perpetuate the license. I can't remember if it was $600 or $2,500 annually. It was for up to 25 people at the time, and this was in the early 2000s and mid 2000s."

"The basic price of Jira is reasonable, but for each plugin, we have to keep paying more. When you add it all up, it can be expensive. The main problem we face is we are forced to purchases plugin licenses for users who are not going to use them. For example, we have Jira licenses for approximately 450 people but if we only want a purchase a plugin for few people it is mandatory to buy the license for the 450 people who have Jira licensees. This is a problem because sometimes we need plugins for the product manager or for people in charge of the report, not everyone. For us, it can be very expensive in the end, they should alter this policy to allow plugins for only a set number of licenses."

"It is very cheap if you forego the local instance and stick to the cloud."

More Jira pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

14%

Financial Services Firm

Retailer

Educational Organization

Manufacturing Company

16%

Financial Services Firm

11%

Computer Software Company

10%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	4
Midsize Enterprise	2
Large Enterprise	3

By reviewers
Company Size	Count
Small Business	102
Midsize Enterprise	57
Large Enterprise	149

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about GoCD?

The UI is colorful.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for GoCD?

The product is free of cost.

See all answers

What needs improvement with GoCD?

See all answers

Is Jira better or would you go with Micro Focus ALM Octane?

Hi Netanya, Basically , it all depends on the use cases for your environment and the business needs. Hope the below data may be relevant to you for identifying your needs and deciding on the approp...

See all answers

Which is better - Jira or Microsoft Azure DevOps?

Jira is a great centralized tool for just about everything, from local team management to keeping track of products and work logs. It is easy to implement and navigate, and it is stable and scalabl...

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Jira?

We operate under a nonlimited license with Jira, allowing a number of users to access it with a single enterprise license.

See all answers

Comparisons

GitLab vs GoCD

Compared 35% of the time

Jenkins vs GoCD

Compared 32% of the time

GitHub Actions vs GoCD

Compared 20% of the time

Tekton vs GoCD

Compared 13% of the time

More GoCD Competitors

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs Jira

Compared 12% of the time

IBM DOORS vs Jira

Compared 9% of the time

OpenText Software Delivery Management vs Jira

Compared 7% of the time

Polarion ALM vs Jira

Compared 5% of the time

Rally Software vs Jira

Compared 5% of the time

More Jira Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

August 2025

Download GoCD product report

Buyer's Guide

Jira

August 2025

Download Jira product report

Also Known As

Adaptive ALM, Thoughtworks Go

Jira Software

Overview

GoCD is an open source continuous delivery server created by ThoughtWorks. GoCD offers businesses a first-class build and deployment engine for complete control and visibility. It was designed for continuous delivery and the concepts essential to this practice are built in at the core.

Thoughtworks

Jira is a powerful cloud- and subscription-based application lifecycle and issue management solution. It is designed to aid users both in project management and in resolving any issues that arise at any point in the software development process. It is especially concerned with easing the ability of developers to collaborate.

Jira Benefits

Some of the ways that organizations can benefit by choosing to deploy Jira include:

DevOps lifecycle visibility and planning. Jira provides application developers with tools that enable them to track and visualize where they are in the development process. This means that a DevOps team can measure their progress at all times. Jira’s roadmapping feature also enables a DevOps team to work more efficiently by setting goals for their projects, keeping them on track. Additionally, they are able to track whether they are meeting the goals that they set for their projects.

Regular product updates. Atlassian is constantly updating Jira so that it is continuously evolving into an ever more powerful and user-friendly solution. Users can be sure that the product that they are using is always being tweaked so as to provide them with the best possible project management solution.

Flexibility. Jira enables users to customize their workflows and dashboard so that the solution is operating in a way that best matches their needs. Jira can also integrate with more than 3,000 other applications and integrations. Organizations can use it to expand their project management and DevOps capabilities in many different ways.

Jira Features

Security capabilities. Jira is equipped with a number of useful security features. It gives administrators the ability to restrict access to certain tools so that only users who are authorized to complete certain tasks have access to the tools related to the completion of that task. Users can also set default permissions so that only particular users can work on new projects or particular projects.

Real-time notification feature. Users can set Jira so that it offers them notifications that contain critical information in real time. It can send users email notifications when pressing issues have been updated. They can also set it to notify them about tasks that may be due, or other similar events.
Activity log. Jira has the ability to track any and all changes that are taking place within the software framework. Users can keep a close eye on everything that is going on. This promotes a high level of visibility and can be leveraged to aid developers in their collaboration efforts.

Reviews from Real Users

Jira is a powerful solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are its workflow engine and its highly customizable dashboard.

Bharath R., the tool implementation and project management lead at a financial services firm, writes, “I feel the strongest feature of Jira is its workflow engine. It empowers us to automate our workflows within our organization. It's the one characteristic of Jira which I think can help any organization, be it in any domain.”

Uday J., a staff engineer at a computer company, says, “Another thing that I like a lot about Jira is that in the dashboard, you can plug the modules that you want. You can enable certain sections. For example, you can show trend history, open Jira tickets, etc. Some of the managers have created a dashboard for each engineer.”

Atlassian

Sample Customers

Ancestry.com, Barclay Card, AutoTrader, BT Financial Group, Gamesys, Nike, Vodafone, Haufe Lexware, Medidata, Hoovers

Square, Nasa, eBay, Cisco, SalesForce, Adobe, BNP Paribas, BMW and LinkedIn, Pfizer, Citi.

Buyer's Guide

GoCD vs. Jira

September 2025

Free Report: GoCD vs. Jira

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