Jira Align vs Microsoft Azure DevOps comparison

Atlassian and Microsoft are both solutions in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category. Atlassian is ranked #9 with an average rating of 7.8, while Microsoft is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.2. Atlassian holds a 1.5% mindshare in ALM, compared to Microsoft’s 16.7% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Atlassian users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Jira Align

Read 41 Jira Align reviews

1,134 Views
704 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure DevOps

Read 133 Microsoft Azure DevOps reviews

11,749 Views
9,638 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Jira Align

Microsoft Azure DevOps

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

Microsoft Azure DevOps and Jira Align are key competitors in the software development lifecycle management space. Microsoft Azure DevOps holds the upper hand due to its comprehensive tool suite, integration with Microsoft products, and favorable cost-effectiveness for various-sized teams.

Features: Microsoft Azure DevOps provides Azure Pipelines for CI/CD automation, Azure Test Plans for testing, and Azure Boards for task management. It offers seamless integration with Microsoft products. Jira Align is designed for aligning agile work with organizational strategy and includes detailed roadmaps, customizable dashboards, and strategic planning tools.

Room for Improvement: Microsoft Azure DevOps could improve customization options, integration with non-Microsoft products, and analytics. Users also seek enhancements in test management and workflows. Jira Align would benefit from improved usability, better tool integration such as with Jira, simplification of navigation, and enhanced mobile accessibility.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Microsoft Azure DevOps offers flexibility with public cloud, hybrid, and on-premise options. Its customer service generally benefits from Microsoft's robust support infrastructure, though some users rely on internal resources. Jira Align is mostly deployed on the cloud, with the assumption of solid support within Atlassian's ecosystem.

Pricing and ROI: Microsoft Azure DevOps is perceived as cost-effective with favorable licensing options and free access for small teams, delivering ROI through enhanced productivity. Jira Align, viewed as more expensive, is targeted at larger enterprises, offering strategic features that justify higher costs but prompting some users to seek more cost-effective alternatives like Azure DevOps.

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

Buyer's Guide

Jira Align vs. Microsoft Azure DevOps

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

Jira Align

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

9th

Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

3rd

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Value Stream Management Software (1st)

Microsoft Azure DevOps

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

2nd

Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools

1st

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

133

Ranking in other categories

Release Automation (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of Jira Align is 1.5%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure DevOps is 16.7%, down from 24.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

Featured Reviews

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

Ivan Angelov

Project Executive at synergyc

Facilitates agile transformation with potential for enhanced intuitiveness

What I liked about the solution is that it offers numerous features that are not available by default unless you are agile. Transitioning from the traditional Waterfall model to an agile methodology was challenging for us. Until 2020, our team predominantly worked with the Waterfall approach, using local tools like ServiceNow. We had a few team members who were familiar with Agile ISO, but none had experience with Azure. Therefore, we pursued Azure certification at the AZ-900 level. Our company organized a training session with a certified Azure expert, which was extremely beneficial for adopting best practices during the initial three months. This preparation helped us get accustomed to the new tool, as transitioning to a new system invariably requires time. Managing a pipeline of deliverables became significantly easier with this solution. We utilized it for stories and integrated change management with Azure DevOps. Eventually, everything related to the environment was organized there, enabling us to follow up and track progress with our technical engineers on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis. Reports were automatically generated and sent to management, offering them insights into our progress concerning the predefined roadmap.

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

"We use Jira Align for business strategies, collaboration, and reporting."

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

"The technical support team responds quickly and resolves issues effectively."

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

"The deployment phase of Jira Align wasn't difficult."

"I like the way the UI functions."

"The technical support services are excellent."

"It's easy to set up."

More Jira Align pros

"We use all the DevOps features and services, like reports, Boards, Pipelines, Artifactory, etc. The interface is interactive and intuitive. The platform visuals and workflow are straightforward in Azure DevOps."

"The most valuable feature is that it brings order to our projects, and we know the status of each one at every moment."

"Managing a pipeline of deliverables became significantly easier with this solution."

"The initial setup process is easy."

"It's a complete solution that has everything you need."

"Microsoft Azure DevOps has helped the developers a lot and we are deploying process changes very frequently and simultaneously. A lot of my team members that are developers are updating the code in parallel using Git. Additionally, Microsoft Azure DevOps is providing a very good approval mechanism. Overall it is benefiting by creating efficiency in production deployment and applications, our new releases are running well. The security of secured is good."

"Azure enables us to create a staging environment through to a production environment in an easier way and then get the code and run that."

"If someone is considering developing and deploying the infrastructure in this solution, then using this tool is perfect because it's fully integrated with the pipelines and with a server core repository."

More Microsoft Azure DevOps pros

Cons

"The solution’s stability could be improved."

"We have experienced errors with the internal server that occurs frequently."

"The workflows are scalable from portfolio to individual level but can sometimes be complex to navigate."

"Jira Align's cost needs improvement."

"One feature that needs improvement is the tool's ability to change schedules automatically. Users can't simply drag and drop tasks to reschedule them without notifying the entire team. This lack of functionality can hinder project management control, as changes should be communicated transparently to all team members."

"The product should improve its communication. My English proficiency is not high, but writing in English is another skill that you need. Maybe AI can help here. Because I can see in some other applications, they have AI helpers. So when you write something and you want to do something, it can help. For example, Google Cloud Platform has it. They have a helpdesk for it. When you want to create a cluster, it can help you."

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

"Lacks sufficient reporting capabilities."

More Jira Align cons

"Microsoft could focus on refining the reporting and dashboard elements of Azure DevOps to improve it."

"Azure has not yet advanced to the performance level of the other major competitors and is missing integration with important technologies."

"I would like to see improvement in the metrics and the dependencies."

"Microsoft Azure DevOps could improve by having better integration with other email servers."

"While reporting in Azure DevOps is a robust capability, there's always room for enhancement, particularly in providing more granular reports."

"The initial three months were particularly challenging, and without the help of an external consultant, adapting to the change in work processes would have been difficult."

"We are facing some problems because the capacity can only be measured within a project. It cannot be measured across multiple projects. So, the reporting needs to be enhanced, and there should be more graphs to be able to easily give the upper management insights about all the employees from different departments. It will be helpful for employee management. Currently, the managers over here are using Power BI for insights because the functionality of Azure DevOps Boards is not enough. So, we have to export the data into another visualization tool and get the results."

"Service monitoring should be improved."

More Microsoft Azure DevOps cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"The tool is moderately expensive."

"Jira Align's pricing is reasonable."

"The pricing and licensing costs are rated lower, around six mainly due to significant increases in licensing costs that were not well-received by users."

"Jira Align was reasonably priced then, especially for a bundle license that accommodated around 50 monthly users."

"Jira Align has price packages for different purposes."

"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."

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

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

More Jira Align pricing and cost advice

"Microsoft Azure DevOps is an expensive solution."

"It is relatively inexpensive compared to other solutions that necessitate servers and physical hardware."

"The solution is expensive."

"For Microsoft, it can get expensive when you need heavy-duty machines."

"Compared to other tools, Microsoft Azure DevOps is a cheap solution."

"It is the least expensive product in this class."

"Its pricing is reasonable for the number of features that you get and the functionality that you can utilize for the agile delivery, which is what we are using it for. I found it extremely cost-effective."

"The reason that customers are going to the cloud is that it provides the ability to reduce the license cost. For example, when purchasing Office 365 it is bundled with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and many other applications. In the past, purchasing a license was approximately $600. Today it's only $35 or $45 per customer, per client, or per user, plus the storage. It's less expensive for companies today, to use something, such as Microsoft Azure DevOps, and provide the software to all the employees needing a license. It's better to go with the cloud than just to buy the licenses by themselves."

More Microsoft Azure DevOps pricing and cost advice

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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Financial Services Firm

23%

Computer Software Company

14%

Manufacturing Company

11%

Insurance Company

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

Questions from the Community

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

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

Which is better - TFS or Azure DevOps?

TFS and Azure DevOps are different in many ways. TFS was designed for admins, and only offers incremental improvements. In addition, TFS seems complicated to use and I don’t think it has a very fri...

See all answers

What do you like most about Microsoft Azure DevOps?

Valuable features for project management and tracking in Azure DevOps include a portal displaying test results, check-in/check-out activity, and developer/tester productivity.

See all answers

Comparisons

OpenText ValueEdge vs Jira Align

Compared 42% of the time

ServiceNow Strategic Portfolio Management vs Jira Align

Compared 24% of the time

Rally Software vs Jira Align

Compared 5% of the time

Planview AgilePlace vs Jira Align

Compared 4% of the time

Jira vs Jira Align

Compared 4% of the time

More Jira Align Competitors

GitLab vs Microsoft Azure DevOps

Compared 33% of the time

Jira vs Microsoft Azure DevOps

Compared 16% of the time

Rally Software vs Microsoft Azure DevOps

Compared 7% of the time

OpenText ALM / Quality Center vs Microsoft Azure DevOps

Compared 5% of the time

TFS vs Microsoft Azure DevOps

Compared 4% of the time

More Microsoft Azure DevOps Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Jira Align

April 2025

Download Jira Align product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure DevOps

March 2025

Download Microsoft Azure DevOps product report

Also Known As

AgileCraft

Azure DevOps, VSTS, Visual Studio Team Services, MS Azure DevOps

Overview

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

Microsoft Azure DevOps is a cloud service that enables developers to collaborate on code development projects and create and deploy applications quicker than ever before. The service helps unite developers, project managers, and software development experts through a collaborative experience while using the application. For the users' convenience, Azure DevOps offers the user cloud services through Azure DevOps Services or an on-premises service using Azure DevOps Server. In addition, it supports integration with additional services and adding extensions, including the ability for the user to create their own custom extensions.

Azure DevOps provides a variety of unified features that can be accessed through their web browser or IDE client, such as:

Azure Pipelines - Develop and deploy services to support ongoing application integration and delivery. Azure pipelines, which work with almost every project type and most languages, will automatically test code projects in order to make them available to others.
Azure Artifacts - Share packages and integrate package sharing between teams. Packages include NuGet, npm, and Maven, in addition to other private and public sources. Developers can now share and consume packages with other developers from different public registries.
Azure Repos - Offers source control of your code through Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) or Git repositories. Developers can now keep track of any changes that are made in their code over the course of their project.
Azure Test Plans - Offers continuous and manual/exploratory app testing through several tools. Test Suites, or a collection of Test Cases, are grouped together in a container called a Test Plan.
Azure Boards - Provides a suite of Agile tools to track work, support planning, code defects, and general issues while using Kanban and Scrum software. Teams are in need of tools that are flexible and will help them grow. Azure Boards is a service that helps developers manage their software projects.

Benefits of Microsoft Azure DevOps

Microsoft Azure DevOps offers many benefits, including:

A quick setup and easy deployment
An elastic scale
Exceptional security
No-maintenance operations
Effortless collaboration through domains
The ability to create and deploy products faster than traditional software

Reviews from Real Users

Microsoft Azure DevOps stands out among its competitors for a variety of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to forecast how long each task will take and the ability for users to follow the entire development process.

PeerSpot viewers note the effectiveness of this solution. An executive chief operating officer for a cloud provider notes, “We can forecast tasks and the number of hours a task will take and can compare it with how long a task actually takes.”

Carlos H., a product and system director at SPCM, writes, “I think the most usable thing is that you can follow the whole progress of the development process. This makes it very useful for us.”

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Anthem, nielsen, Homeland Security, NCR, dimension data

Alaska Airlines, Iberia Airlines, Columbia, Skype

Buyer's Guide

Jira Align vs. Microsoft Azure DevOps

April 2025

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