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Jira Align vs Polarion ALM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

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
7th
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
4th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.7
Number of Reviews
43
Ranking in other categories
Value Stream Management Software (1st)
Polarion ALM
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
5th
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.0
Number of Reviews
24
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of March 2026, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of Jira Align is 2.1%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Polarion ALM is 5.9%, down from 7.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Polarion ALM5.9%
Jira Align2.1%
Other92.0%
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
 

Featured Reviews

JA
Technical Program Manager at Concentrix Catalyst
Everyone knows the tool and adapts swiftly, making teamwork efficient
Jira Align has become a standard in this industry, so everybody knows how to use it. Everybody knows Jira Align, so it is not hard to adapt to projects and customers. That is the aspect I appreciate the most. It is very scalable, and I appreciate that. Because it is a standard, as I mentioned, though not an official one, Jira Align is adapting to the latest approaches such as Scrum and Kanban. It is really easy to set up a project and start working with the team. Everybody knows Scrum, everybody knows Kanban, or a combination of both. That is the benefit I see, and the UI is very intuitive.
LasseMikkonen - PeerSpot reviewer
CEO at byte
Has provided mature traceability and configuration features while supporting complex product development for mid-to-large companies
Polarion ALM can learn from Atlassian tools a lot, as the usability is not the best, and it is really narrowly focused on requirements management only. For example, if you want to do testing and test result management with it, it is very limited. Jama Connect has similar limitations, and both should really focus on developing the integrations and extendability. For example, Jama Connect does not even have an extension marketplace, whereas Polarion has a small one. However, compared to the Atlassian Marketplace where you can get whatever applications for whatever price, it is a totally different ballgame. I would highly recommend Polarion ALM add more AI features to it. I know they have started to do something, but for example, I have been developing widgets for IBM DOORS Next, AI widgets, so that you can write and analyze requirements with the AI, and I have also done the same for Jira, creating a couple of Jira applications in the marketplace as well.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"Some of the most valuable features are the configurations and dashboards."
"The most valuable feature is that engineers can access the Jira database and just search for the tasks that are assigned to them. They can then update the status on their own in those records that are assigned to them."
"The product has good visualization capabilities and helps to see the different dimensions of a plan."
"The most valuable features of Jira Align are its product roadmap and reporting."
"Jira Align helps us manage communication and tasks for a variety of teams without overlap."
"The most valuable features are the ability to customize the entries and to update them quickly. Since the new version they released, we started utilizing the customization features to create specific codes and symbols for our teams that were not available before. For example, in team A each person had their own symbols and we had our own demarcation. When our project or task was completed, we had a code that we could enter online that let the main project managers know that it was time to remove it."
"Jira Align has been quite a helpful tool for us because, without it, we would be juggling with all our story points or our backlog items, which would be difficult to manage."
"In my previous experience, the Portfolio and Structure feature in Jira is really valuable because it assists with forecasting for projects."
"The best feature of Polarion ALM to me is its traceability link."
"The tool's most valuable feature is its browser experience. I rate its traceability feature a ten out of ten. From the initial stage to the release, you can manage everything through a single point."
"Polarion ALM is powerful in easily creating your own workflows for completely different kinds of things."
"The tool helped us to more effectively and efficiently gather and structure the information (requirements, test plans, project management data, etc.), and share it with the involved stakeholders in a safe and change-controlled manner."
"It is a very stable solution."
"I am impressed with the solution’s stability."
"The technical support is quite good."
"We had a nice experience with technical support."
 

Cons

"Lacks sufficient reporting capabilities."
"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."
"The solution’s stability could be improved."
"We have experienced errors with the internal server that occurs frequently."
"Someone who is new to Jira or doesn't have many years of working experience in Jira Align gets easily lost because everything looks the same in the product."
"It would be helpful if they had something for capacity planning that was simpler to understand."
"Jira Align can improve the visibility of executive teams."
"Jira Align's setup process could be more straightforward, and they could make training and educational documentation more accessible."
"One of Polarion's shortcomings would be planning. It can handle plans, but the planning feature is very basic."
"I don't think that this solution scales well. It means that we have to split our project and use something with fewer objects in it."
"The interface for this solution needs to be made more user-friendly to provide a better user experience."
"Nowadays, the dashboard is too complex to be created."
"The user interface of Polarion ALM needs improvement as it can experience changes that disrupt workflows, especially during major updates."
"I also recently suggested that CMS consider incorporating generative artificial intelligence into the system."
"The tool needs to improve its planning. It also needs to add more integrations."
"The weak point of Polarion ALM software is about reporting and time for extraction of the data...The quality of reporting needs to improve."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"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."
"The tool is moderately expensive."
"The software is very good, but the price is expensive. Our licensing costs are on a monthly basis, but there are no additional costs to the standard license fees."
"Jira Align is an expensive solution."
"Jira Align's pricing is reasonable."
"Jira Align was reasonably priced then, especially for a bundle license that accommodated around 50 monthly users."
"Jira Align is quite expensive for small-to-medium companies, but it's quite reasonable for larger ones."
"Jira Align is an expensive solution."
"Software for medical devices is always expensive."
"It is an expensive product."
"Our license for Polarion ALM is yearly. And it's not the cheapest tool that we've looked at. So if we had made our decision purely based on the licensing cost, we wouldn't have selected Polarion."
"If the pricing would come down and it was more affordable then we wouldn't have to switch."
"The solution is expensive."
"The license model is okay for large companies but would be quite expensive for smaller enterprises."
"You have to pay around 50-60 euros per user."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
15%
Manufacturing Company
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Insurance Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
30%
Computer Software Company
10%
Healthcare Company
6%
Financial Services Firm
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business18
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise17
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business10
Midsize Enterprise3
Large Enterprise12
 

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...
What needs improvement with Jira Align?
The platform's communication features could be more robust for better team integration.
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.
What needs improvement with Polarion ALM?
Polarion ALM can learn from Atlassian tools a lot, as the usability is not the best, and it is really narrowly focused on requirements management only. For example, if you want to do testing and te...
What is your primary use case for Polarion ALM?
We are in our product development using Polarion ALM's functionalities. I am a power user, partly responsible for configuring the tool. We are using it for many things. The idea was to go for a req...
What advice do you have for others considering Polarion ALM?
The pricing of Polarion ALM and IBM ELM is pretty much aligned. They are not at the same level, but I would say aligned according to the capabilities of the tools, with DOORS being more expensive b...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

AgileCraft
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Anthem, nielsen, Homeland Security, NCR, dimension data
Engineering Ingegneria Informatica, IBS AG, Zumtobel Group
Find out what your peers are saying about Jira Align vs. Polarion ALM and other solutions. Updated: March 2026.
884,933 professionals have used our research since 2012.