Jira Align vs TFS comparison

Atlassian and Microsoft are both solutions in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category. Atlassian is ranked #8 with an average rating of 7.8, while Microsoft is ranked #5 with an average rating of 7.7. Atlassian holds a 1.5% mindshare in ALM, compared to Microsoft’s 4.1% mindshare. Additionally, 92% of Atlassian users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 87% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Jira Align

Read 41 Jira Align reviews

1,090 Views
685 Comparison Views

92% willing to recommend

TFS

Read 98 TFS reviews

5,239 Views
2,488 Comparison Views

87% willing to recommend

Jira Align

TFS

Comparison Buyer's Guide

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Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

TFS and Jira Align compete in the application lifecycle management and project management category. TFS seems to have the upper hand for organizations prioritizing development integration and lifecycle management while Jira Align is preferred for strategic planning and high-level project alignment.

Features: TFS offers user-friendly features that integrate seamlessly with Visual Studio, providing comprehensive application lifecycle management, version control, and agile workflow management. Its reporting services, collaboration capabilities, and customization options support dynamic development environments. Jira Align focuses on strategic alignment with capabilities in program and portfolio management, insightful reporting, and robust planning tools that aid team alignment with business objectives.

Room for Improvement: TFS users suggest enhancements in stability, interface intuitiveness, and complex permission management. They seek improved merging features and administrative control. Jira Align requires better integration capabilities, a more intuitive interface, and clearer pricing structures. Users find the navigation system complex and express a need for enhanced synchronization and customization.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: TFS is flexible, available across on-premises, private, and hybrid environments whereas Jira Align primarily uses public cloud settings. TFS users report mixed reviews on customer service, ranging from superb to needing improvement, while Jira Align's adaptability suggests adequate user support, although specific feedback is limited.

Pricing and ROI: TFS is considered costly, mostly due to its integration with Visual Studio, but its robust feature set provides good value through volume licensing. Users highlight the potential complexity of its licensing. Jira Align is expensive, particularly for smaller businesses, though large enterprises may find the pricing aligns with its extensive capabilities. Some organizations note significant ROI with its strategic planning features.

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

Buyer's Guide

Jira Align vs. TFS

April 2025

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Helped 850,076 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

8th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.0

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (3rd), Value Stream Management Software (1st)

TFS

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

5th

Average Rating

8.0

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

Test Management Tools (3rd)

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 TFS is 4.1%, down from 7.1% 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.

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Pmurki@Micron.Com Praveen

VP & GM, Client Storage at Micron Technology

Version control is excellent and good for code review, branching, merging strategies and more

I've worked with TFS for source control and Agile project management. We also used TFS for seamless team collaboration and tracking. I used TFS for a couple of years. Now, we use Azure DevOps. It's a wonderful tool for source control and CI/CD pipelines It's a really valuable tool for…

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Quotes from Members

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

Pros

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

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

"The technical support services are excellent."

"The reporting structure is great."

"I found Confluence most valuable."

"The most valuable features of Jira Align are its product roadmap and reporting."

"Velocity and reporting provide good visibility, burndown charts, and particularly velocity measurement."

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

More Jira Align pros

"User alerts are very helpful for knowing when work is required."

"Microsoft's technical team is supportive."

"I like its MTM (Microsoft Test Manager) section which gives us options to create various test plans and add test cases into it."

"The biggest value-add is the solution integrates well with most Microsoft products."

"The most valuable feature is the backlog."

"The most valuable feature of TFS is the central repository, and you can see what changes other developers did from which branch."

"TFS’s test management capability without the expensive licensing has large gaps. Users will be unable to access performance testing and coded UI testing capabilities."

"The most valuable feature from my point of view is project management, which includes user stories as well as task management."

More TFS pros

Cons

"One area for improvement is that Jira Align's double menu and multiple menus can be difficult for new users."

"Jira Align can improve the visibility of executive teams."

"I've encountered limitations in using Jira Align for certain aspects, particularly in implementing OKRs. Jira Align's highest hierarchy is Epic, which may not always align perfectly for specific initiatives. Additionally, while Jira Align offers functionality for tracking OKRs and generating dashboards, I've found that it lacks in some areas. As a result, we've explored alternative solutions that better meet our needs in these areas. Its Kanban feature is also limited."

"Deployment was very complex."

"The product needs to improve its configurations."

"Jira Align has price packages for different purposes. Users must do their own research and see if it fits their purpose."

"The solution needs to improve its pricing. It also needs to provide an integrated view of how other tasks are to be tracked. It would be also useful to see the integration of Confluence, Teams, and Slack into the product. I want to be able to communicate directly with others while using the product. I am also not sure if the integration of third-party alternate workflow tools like SAP would be possible."

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

More Jira Align cons

"The interface can be improved and made more user-friendly."

"There is room for improvement from reporting point of view."

"We are also using Microsoft Teams. The two products function separately. There is not enough collaboration between Microsoft Teams and TFS."

"The execution of test cases could stand improvement."

"Merging branches is definitely one of the more challenging aspects for people new to TFS."

"I understand Microsoft is phasing out TFS in favor of Git, so I would steer anyone interested in TFS to look into Git."

"In the next release, I would like them to include integration for various projects, similar to what JIRA has, and they could create this feature on the dashboard."

"The project management side should be addressed and the project and release planning should be somewhat extended."

More TFS cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

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

"Jira Align has price packages for different purposes."

"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."

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

"Jira Align's pricing is reasonable."

"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 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."

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

More Jira Align pricing and cost advice

"We pay subscription fees on a yearly basis and the price is reasonable."

"I would like to see TFS improve its web interface as there are some limitations with IDs and the integration behind it and with open source tools like VS Code."

"TFS is on the higher side, but if you intend to use the tool as a complete ALM tool, it will reduce your costs in the long run."

"It's just as expensive as HPE ALM, without many of the features, best used for development tool only to avoid higher costs."

"There are different prices depending on the configurations. There is a free version available. There is no extra cost for the solution. However, the hardware could be something that needs to be considered."

"I was working with the engineering team, and that was not under my umbrella. From what I can remember, its license was yearly. They had the licenses on a per-user basis, and they included MTM."

"TFS is not cheap."

"We are using the open-source version."

More TFS 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

Educational Organization

68%

Computer Software Company

Financial Services Firm

Manufacturing Company

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...

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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 - 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 TFS?

Microsoft's technical team is supportive.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for TFS?

While I do not know the exact pricing, TFS is likely more expensive than GitLab.

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

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

Microsoft Azure DevOps vs TFS

Compared 28% of the time

Jira vs TFS

Compared 24% of the time

Rally Software vs TFS

Compared 9% of the time

TestRail vs TFS

Compared 8% of the time

OpenText ALM / Quality Center vs TFS

Compared 6% of the time

More TFS Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Jira Align

April 2025

Download Jira Align product report

Buyer's Guide

TFS

March 2025

Download TFS product report

Also Known As

AgileCraft

Team Foundation Server

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

Visual Studio’s Team Foundation Server (TFS) is a powerful application development lifecycle management solution. It aids developers in managing every aspect of their DevOps and application creation. TFS combines many different types of solutions into a single powerful platform.

Visual Studio TFS Benefits

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

Build automation. TFS enables users to create definitions that can easily automate any and all tasks that are critical to the development of their applications. Businesses can utilize features that are built into TFS to accomplish preset tasks that can help them create the application of their choice. This can include enabling them to run automated tests when the need arises. Additionally, users can create custom tasks that will run automatically and allow users to focus their attention on the areas that most demand their focus.

Security. TFS is designed with the security of a user’s DevOps in mind. It enables an organization to restrict user permissions so that only developers that are meant to have access to particular parts of the development process can perform tasks related to those sections. It segments the development process to reduce the possibility of sensitive data being stolen.

Enables product rollbacks. TFS keeps copies of past versions of the organization’s application. Users can sift through the different versions that are available and can redeploy the version that best fits their needs should it ever become necessary to do so.

Visual Studio TFS Features

Source code management. TFS comes with all of the tools that developers need to completely manage their source code. They can share their code so that multiple developers can work on the same project. Additionally, TFS enables them to do things like review the history of a particular piece of source code.
Project management. Organizations can leverage the wealth of project management features that TFS offers and ensure that their projects run as smoothly as possible. Project managers are able to use TFS to control every aspect of their project, from the planning stage until the application’s development has reached its conclusion.

Reporting. TFS enables users to generate reports that leverage critical metrics and provide them with important insights into the applications that they are creating. These comprehensive reports can be secured so that only users with the proper level of clearance can access them.

Reviews from Real Users

TFS is a highly effective solution that stands out when compared to many of its competitors. Two major advantages it offers are its source code management capabilities and its powerful integration suite.

Carl B., the vice president of engineering at Vertex Downhole Ltd, writes, “The most valuable features are related to source code management. Using TFS for source code management and being able to branch and have multiple developers work on the same projects is valuable. We can also branch and merge code back together.”

Ashish K., the principal consultant at Wipro, says, “I have found almost all of the features valuable because it integrates well with your Microsoft products. If a client is using the entire Microsoft platform, then TFS would be definitely preferable. It integrates with the digital studio development environment as well.”

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Anthem, nielsen, Homeland Security, NCR, dimension data

Vendex KBB IT Services, Info Support, Fujitsu Consulting, TCSC, Airways New Zealand, HP

Buyer's Guide

Jira Align vs. TFS

April 2025

Free Report: Jira Align vs. TFS

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