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IBM Rational ClearQuest vs Jira comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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

IBM Rational ClearQuest
Average Rating
7.2
Number of Reviews
4
Ranking in other categories
Defect Tracking (1st), Software Configuration Management (7th)
Jira
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
281
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (1st), Application Requirements Management (2nd), Project Management Software (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

While both are Application Lifecycle Management solutions, they serve different purposes. IBM Rational ClearQuest is designed for Defect Tracking and holds a mindshare of 21.7%, down 41.7% compared to last year.
Jira, on the other hand, focuses on Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites, holds 12.3% mindshare, down 22.2% since last year.
Defect Tracking Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
IBM Rational ClearQuest21.7%
Adminitrack14.3%
Assembla Workspaces12.4%
Other51.6%
Defect Tracking
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Jira12.3%
Microsoft Azure DevOps10.3%
Codebeamer7.0%
Other70.4%
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
 

Featured Reviews

it_user808977 - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Developer at a tech vendor with 11-50 employees
It can be adapted to any process flow
ClearQuest is a Defect Tracking system with a highly adaptable state machine together with an easy to use API, which can do all of the functions available in the GUI. This simplifies integration and automation of many steps is why the organization still uses a much older version, as there are no…
Akhil Viswam - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Agile workflows have streamlined sprint planning and tracking for faster feature delivery
Jira has a very good interface and it is very easy to manage sprints, tasks, and epics. The main feature is the hierarchy, as features can be converted into epics and topics, allowing bigger tasks to be partitioned into smaller ones. The hierarchy feature in Jira helps the team significantly compared to other tools that have been used, such as Trello, which is mainly useful only for a waterfall model. For modern Agile practices, Jira is the most adapted tool in the industry. Another valuable feature is that Jira APIs have been used for data science projects to analyze tasks and get insights. This has also been very helpful in the project.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"In combination with a good Configuration Management plan, an organization can create an optimal level of administration and automation creating good traceability in your tasks."
"This enabled us to completely migrate from paper-based forms to electronic forms for a number of business areas."
"The workflow feature with stateful record types and the ability to implement these rapidly in our project have been of value to us."
"Customization level of the tool to meet client’s requirements, you can do almost all of the customizations for a project or ticket management system, and notification, hooks, and UI customization are very stable."
"It can be adapted to any process flow and easily be integrated with other in-house tools using the ClearQuest API."
"The combination of a highly flexible state machine together with a platform independent API enables possibilities to automate many steps that in many systems are manual."
"There are many good things about Atlassian."
"This product has been very helpful for me in terms of creating tasks and tracking my development team's productivity."
"The simplicity of Jira is the part that I like the most, as well as the way in which it can be extended."
"This solution focuses on lean methodology which we have found useful and it can also be used on any device."
"When combining Jira with Bitbucket, you have the possibility to ensure continuous integration and other functions which is highly appreciated by our software development team."
"It provides very good visibility and traceability. You can clearly see each and every part of a process. It is also user-friendly and robust. It is working well, and there are a lot of add-ons or plug-ins out there that you can use."
"The solution offers a lot of plugins."
"The JIRA user interface looks great; it's an overall good experience, very intuitive and self-explanatory, and it's beneficial overall."
 

Cons

"Lack of a modern web interface compared to other systems might discourage customers."
"However, the user interface seems very static and the user experience was not the best."
"The user interface could benefit from a more modern look and feel."
"Lack of a modern web interface compared to other systems might discourage customers."
"It’s very expensive, especially considering that there are much more economical options out there."
"For our company, we're thinking about not only project management solutions but also collaboration solutions, and maybe if Jira had a chart or quick commenting option, it would be great."
"I also wish Jira had an indicator to tell you that you are approaching the limit for the story points that can be delivered during a sprint. I don't think there is an indicator like that, but such an indicator will be very helpful because then I will be easily able to see that we are approaching the limit."
"There is always a bit of a performance problem. It's a bit slow to load the whole data."
"The part when it comes to the testing area is a bit hard to handle. The screen is too small, you can't really read what you're typing in, and it's only for the testing area."
"There are no fields to search or to filter by, mainly the ones which use a data around a date and time when something changes."
"In terms of improvement, I think Jira (Jira Agile, specifically) can be made more user-friendly."
"An area for improvement in Jira is that it's not designed for test management. To use it for test management, you need an add-on or several add-ons, e.g. Xray or Zephyr."
"The solution needs more integrations with Azure DevOps OnPrem."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

Information not available
"Our client handles the licensing aspect. They have not yet purchased the premium version."
"The ballpark figure is about $100 a month."
"We used to be on a perpetual license provided by our clients."
"The price is quite competitive."
"Licensing is on a monthly basis, and it is based on what you use."
"The pricing for Jira is reasonable, although I think they can bring it down because the plugins cost extra."
"The price seems reasonable to me. It's very similar to Splunk."
"It is not too expensive. It is just comparative to other tools like Microsoft Teams."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
33%
Financial Services Firm
5%
Government
5%
University
4%
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Computer Software Company
7%
Government
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
No data available
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business107
Midsize Enterprise58
Large Enterprise151
 

Questions from the Community

Ask a question
Earn 20 points
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...
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...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Jira?
Jira itself is fairly priced for the features it provides, but pricing is a bit higher than some alternatives, mostly because many plugins and add-ons are paid and licensed per user. So even if onl...
 

Also Known As

Rational ClearQuest
Jira Software
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Atos SE, STM, Regence BlueCross BlueShield
Square, Nasa, eBay, Cisco, SalesForce, Adobe, BNP Paribas, BMW and LinkedIn, Pfizer, Citi.
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM Rational ClearQuest vs. Panaya Test Dynamix and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
885,728 professionals have used our research since 2012.