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Jira vs Rally Software 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:
 

ROI

Sentiment score
7.0
Jira offers cost savings and efficiency with initial setup costs, yielding qualitative benefits despite varying feedback on plugin support.
Sentiment score
7.5
Rally Software boosts efficiency by 10%, offers 15X ROI, saves time, and is cost-effective despite some user challenges.
It's always hard to measure ROI precisely, but overall, the development time usually pays off within a year through efficiency gains.
The ROI is visible, as that's why we are investing in these tools and running our projects successfully through them, despite a few challenges such as role-based access being somewhat difficult.
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Jira's customer service is well-regarded for online resources, though some desire faster email responses and phone support.
Sentiment score
6.8
Rally Software's customer service is responsive, with quick, knowledgeable support and proactive communication, generally satisfying users despite occasional delays.
Jira's customer support is one of the best I have ever dealt with because they respond quickly.
I did not face any issues with stability or upgrades.
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.3
Jira effectively supports large teams and user bases with customization options, despite some challenges like hardware needs and costs.
Sentiment score
7.2
Rally Software offers strong scalability supporting large enterprises, despite occasional performance issues, effectively handling significant user volumes globally.
Scalability for Jira is great, and it handles growth easily from 100 to thousands.
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Users praise Jira's reliability and smooth operation, noting occasional issues are often linked to server constraints or customization.
Sentiment score
7.4
Rally Software is generally stable and reliable, with occasional slowness and downtime, but users appreciate the responsive support.
 

Room For Improvement

Jira users cite difficulties with customization, usability, performance, integrations, native features, scalability, and desire improved reporting and administration.
Rally Software struggles with navigation, integration, user-friendliness, and requires improvements in reporting, customization, and workflow efficiency.
Focus more on improving API integration and automation tools, not just the design.
To improve Jira, maybe some AI features could be added.
One area for improvement might be the rigidity in role and access configurations, which require many process changes to fit the tool.
 

Setup Cost

Jira's pricing is affordable for small teams but escalates significantly with increased users and plugin needs for enterprises.
Enterprise users find Rally Software pricing high but valuable for large-scale agile projects, suggesting a more flexible model.
Even if only five people from your team use a financial plugin, you still pay for all 100 seats.
Rally Software is affordable because our customers also prefer it.
 

Valuable Features

Jira excels in customization, agile support, and integration, offering flexible workflows, robust reporting, and comprehensive project management features.
Rally Software offers user-friendly Agile project management with real-time dashboards, customizable reporting, and robust integration capabilities.
You can build your own workflows and make it work exactly the way your team needs and integrate it with almost every third-party software.
Rally Software provides real-time dashboards for different kinds of stakeholders and governance, giving clear insights into project progress, team velocity, and potential risks.
 

Categories and Ranking

Jira
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
276
Ranking in other categories
Application Requirements Management (1st), Project Management Software (1st)
Rally Software
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
9th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
120
Ranking in other categories
Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (6th)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of November 2025, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of Jira is 16.0%, down from 22.9% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rally Software is 5.5%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
Jira16.0%
Rally Software5.5%
Other78.5%
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
 

Featured Reviews

Nathan Akimoff - PeerSpot reviewer
Has customized workflows to fit internal processes and improved overall team organization
I don't have a particular customization or integration that's been especially valuable for my team, but I experienced integrating Jira and QuickBooks, which was very challenging, but it really impacted the efficiency of the whole company. I have been working with Jira for over 12 years, and I've seen it grow every year. It's a powerful product, but lately, I think Atlassian has been adding too many simplified features that look nice but don't offer the same level of flexibility, and made some fields not available through the API, which is kind of frustrating. If I could make one suggestion, it would be to focus more on improving API integration and automation tools, not just the design.
Rakhee Srivastava - PeerSpot reviewer
Real-time dashboards provide clear insights into project progress and team velocity
Rally Software is easy to use for Agile project methodology because it follows Scrum and Kanban, helping with sprint planning and backlog management. Rally Software provides real-time dashboards for different kinds of stakeholders and governance, giving clear insights into project progress, team velocity, and potential risks. Backlog management is present in the product, allowing prioritization of tasks. The dashboards provide all types of insights through analytics. Capacity planning helps optimize resource allocation, ensuring balanced workload and realistic sprint commitments for our projects. The solution integrates with GitHub, and we can also integrate with Excel and CI/CD pipelines.
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872,922 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Comparison Review

it_user355629 - PeerSpot reviewer
Nov 19, 2015
JIRA can do incident management, work configuration, and a lot of other different things. But we haven't found anything as compelling as CA Agile.
The tools are not overly complex for Agile. It appears that CA has recognized that. They're not just building the connector for Rally, but they are also allowing other groups to build connectors from JIRA into CA PPM and from other tools to CA PPM. If you are looking at open source products, why…
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Computer Software Company
10%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Financial Services Firm
11%
Insurance Company
10%
Computer Software Company
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business104
Midsize Enterprise56
Large Enterprise149
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise13
Large Enterprise110
 

Questions from the Community

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?
We operate under a nonlimited license with Jira, allowing a number of users to access it with a single enterprise license.
What do you like most about Rally Software?
Rally offers many features that help the management of activities, coordination, alignment and reports, which applies agility across the organization. If I were to highlight a particular feature, i...
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Rally Software?
Rally Software is affordable because our customers also prefer it, and I have never heard concerns about pricing preventing us from using this tool.
What needs improvement with Rally Software?
While I'm not heavily involved in project management tools, I am familiar with these tools. One area for improvement might be the rigidity in role and access configurations, which require many proc...
 

Also Known As

Jira Software
CA Agile Central, Rally Enterprise, CA Agile Training, CA Agile Coaching, CA Agile Academy, CA Agile Management , CA ALM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Square, Nasa, eBay, Cisco, SalesForce, Adobe, BNP Paribas, BMW and LinkedIn, Pfizer, Citi.
Physicians Mutual, Harvard Pilgrim HealthCare, Editora Abril, Tata Communications, Level 3 Communications, Seagate, TomTom, Philips, Hiscox, Physicians Mutual, MYOB
Find out what your peers are saying about Jira vs. Rally Software and other solutions. Updated: November 2025.
872,922 professionals have used our research since 2012.