Try our new research platform with insights from 80,000+ expert users

JIRA Portfolio vs Polarion ALM comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 18, 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 Portfolio
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
4th
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
58
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Polarion ALM
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
6th
Average Rating
7.8
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
21
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Enterprise Agile Planning Tools category, the mindshare of JIRA Portfolio is 1.3%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Polarion ALM is 4.2%, up from 2.9% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
 

Featured Reviews

Gary Craven - PeerSpot reviewer
Powerful, flexible solution with a bit of a learning curve
The weakness of the solution is that the interface is a little nonstandard, meaning it's very flexible. It's got a lot of power and gives the user the ability to combine different projects into the portfolio and move user stories between projects and link them. What I have found in a couple of organizations that I've used it with, is that the uptake tends to be a little slow because it's got a bit of a learning curve. It can dump data out to Excel and those programs, but it also has a big ecosystem of plugins and add-ons that you can get. I guess it has some strength in that regard, but if you're going to run it on-prem, you have to have people that are pretty well-versed in the program and have the time and capabilities to handle integration and make sure they're adding those modules correctly. Their interface is a little unique and I think that's partly because the core of the product has morphed into several sub-products, but the underlying architecture has stayed the same on all of them in that it was originally a help desk ticketing system. Now they are moving into these new use cases, including systems development, business projects, business processes, and redevelopment projects, but there is a problem with the nomenclature that they use, and some of the documentation is a little techy for moving it into those more business-focused use cases. It's a very tech-focused product and that's fair given its origins, but if they really want to expand their community of users, then they're going to have to move beyond that a little bit and polish it up.
Dina Bindi - PeerSpot reviewer
Provides traceability and compliance with high flexibility
It's extremely flexible. Configuring items is straightforward and doesn't require involving the supplier each time. We find the requirement management, test management, documentation, and dashboards very effective. However, we don't use DevOps-related features, such as integration with tools like SVN or Git, because we use Azure DevOps. The aspects related to requirements, testing, changes, tasks, and agile methodology are excellent, which is why we've been using it for a long time.

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The solution is very stable."
"Portfolio helps us increase the visibility of projects' status and management with remote workers who make up most of the company."
"The product's centralized database creates a single source of data for working groups so no data needs to be reconciled."
"Has good analysis integration capabilities."
"The best features of JIRA are its flexibility and configurability, allowing us to tailor it to our specific needs."
"The most valuable features of Jira are the dashboards where we see all the features lined up with the release dates in the portfolio view, it is very good."
"The workflows are the most valuable feature of the solution, whether for tasks, bugs, or chain requests from the site. I also like the solution's GUI, which is easy to navigate for everyone."
"The solution is simple to use."
"It meets with everybody's needs without having to grab plugins."
"It's extremely flexible. Configuring items is straightforward and doesn't require involving the supplier each time. We find the requirement management, test management, documentation, and dashboards very effective."
"The solution offers good integration."
"You can see the work ticket and you can circulate that within the teams. You can define your flows, customize according to your needs, and you can create dashboards and create the reports according to your needs."
"The features I find the most valuable are requirement tracking and schematics."
"The software is stable."
"We had a nice experience with technical support."
"I am impressed with the solution’s stability."
 

Cons

"The product could do with more flexible reporting."
"If you want to generate a report for individual usage, it's difficult."
"When I want to embed Jira Portfolio in a complete HLI cycle, I'm missing things to evaluate my ethic into my value stream."
"It would be really nice if the solution provided a heads-up every time they enhance something or add new features."
"We had to use assistance for the initial setup."
"The kanban board could also use some more filters. We just had a project where the deployment for Jira didn't have any ETA, and it's a requirement for the client. We accommodate a lot of issues on the board, so the workaround was to create boards by project, not client."
"The query features should improve in JIRA Portfolio. For example, if I would have to create my own queries for looking into something such as what business features we have released last month, or the last three months, I don't know if I can do it. The solution requires a certain level of expertise."
"The solution should provide a monitoring interface for the customers to have more information about the issues."
"The planning and task management aspects of the solution were not that easy."
"The solution needs to improve its user experience and graphics."
"The configuration aspect of the solution is not easy. A person needs a lot of programming knowledge in order to successfully handle the job."
"The system’s technology is not the most current, leading to missing features that are common in web-based applications."
"Nowadays, the dashboard is too complex to be created."
"The tool needs to improve its planning. It also needs to add more integrations."
"Test management lacks an automated process."
"The solution's editing capabilities need improvement."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate the pricing a six."
"Given the solution’s significant functionality, benefits, and value, you get more than you pay for."
"The pricing of the solution is expensive."
"This solution has a comparable pricing in comparison to other similar products on the market."
"The solution is offered at a high cost"
"The product is really not very expensive."
"There are free plugins available, but most of them are at an additional cost. Additionally, other services are an extra cost."
"I do not believe that the product provides value for money since I feel that it is quite expensive."
"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."
"The solution is expensive."
"You have to pay around 50-60 euros per user."
"If the pricing would come down and it was more affordable then we wouldn't have to switch."
"Software for medical devices is always expensive."
"The license model is okay for large companies but would be quite expensive for smaller enterprises."
"It is an expensive product."
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Enterprise Agile Planning Tools solutions are best for your needs.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
20%
Computer Software Company
17%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
26%
Computer Software Company
14%
Healthcare Company
8%
Financial Services Firm
4%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about JIRA Portfolio?
The solution's tracking capabilities helped ensure we had full visibility into planned work and scheduled work.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for JIRA Portfolio?
I am part of the delivery team and am not exposed to the commercial information. However, from what I understand, JIRA is competitively priced. It is not considered expensive in the market.
What needs improvement with JIRA Portfolio?
User experience should be more intuitive. Currently, it's not that intuitive. Additionally, a lot of querying and customization is needed for reporting. If there could be some templates out of the ...
What needs improvement with Polarion ALM?
Polarion ALM ( /categories/application-lifecycle-management-alm-suites ) could see improvements in performance and scalability. The system’s technology is not the most current, leading to missing f...
What is your primary use case for Polarion ALM?
Polarion ALM ( /products/polarion-alm-reviews ) is a tool that delivers both document views and table views simultaneously. It organizes configurations according to norms and standards, making it s...
 

Also Known As

Portfolio for JIRA
No data available
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Rosetta Stone, Sprint, UBS, Workday, Expedia, J.P. Morgan
Engineering Ingegneria Informatica,Ā IBS AG, Zumtobel Group
Find out what your peers are saying about JIRA Portfolio vs. Polarion ALM and other solutions. Updated: April 2025.
850,028 professionals have used our research since 2012.