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Microsoft Azure DevOps 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
6.6
Companies experience up to 50% productivity gains with Azure DevOps, finding it more effective than Excel and well-rated.
Sentiment score
7.5
Users find Rally Software essential for cost-effectiveness, time-saving, 15X ROI, despite access challenges and customer journey imperfections.
On a scale of one to ten, where ten is the best, I would say ROI is an eight.
Associate Director at Grant Thornton (US)
There has been a measurable improvement in productivity of around 40 to 50% after implementing Microsoft Azure DevOps, which has allowed more time to be spent on other things.
Senior Automation Engineer at Zellis
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.
Sr. Information Architect and Principal Consultant UX at Tech Mahindra Limited
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.8
Microsoft Azure DevOps customer service is generally praised for responsiveness and documentation, with occasional delays in unusual cases.
Sentiment score
6.8
Users appreciate Rally Software's responsive customer service and effective technical support, despite some slow or non-intuitive processes.
When requirements arise, they are raised and often get fixed within one or two days.
Senior Automation Engineer at Zellis
Resolving issues took time since understanding our unique problems was not always straightforward for support teams.
Project Executive at synergyc
I would rate technical support from Microsoft for Microsoft Azure DevOps an eight out of ten.
Consultant at Yara International ASA
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
Microsoft Azure DevOps excels in scalability, supporting diverse projects and teams with seamless collaboration and robust infrastructure.
Sentiment score
7.2
Rally Software is scalable and adaptable, supporting diverse organizations globally, though reporting and peak performance could be improved.
The scalability has left me pleased, not just for our teams in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, but as we expanded into North America, Africa, and even Australia.
Project Executive at synergyc
Microsoft Azure DevOps is scalable, with multiple options available to scale up the product as needed, given its Microsoft backing.
Senior Automation Engineer at Zellis
If you have a huge database, it becomes difficult to process the data.
Sr Technical Architect at HCLSoftware
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.9
Microsoft Azure DevOps is highly rated for stability and reliability, with responsive support and improved communication on updates.
Sentiment score
7.4
Rally Software is stable but occasionally slow, with intermittent outages; users note improvements and call for enhanced performance.
Its stability might be attributed to its legacy as an on-premise solution that has been in development for more than 25 years.
Software Architect at RedesCDM
There was just one time when there was some infrastructure issue from Microsoft's side, so we faced some glitches for a few minutes only, not for hours or a day.
DevOps Engineer at ENTERPRISE SYSTEM SOLUTIONS LIMITED
Microsoft Azure DevOps is definitely stable, as it is available most of the time, with very few downtimes.
Senior Automation Engineer at Zellis
 

Room For Improvement

Microsoft Azure DevOps needs improvements in integration, customization, UI, pricing, documentation, reporting, and customer support for enhanced usability.
Rally Software needs improved customization, performance, reporting, integration, Kanban features, UI, mobile friendliness, dependency management, and analytics.
Those processes are a bit difficult for some customers who may not have technical knowledge and don't go through the entire documentation.
Associate Director at Grant Thornton (US)
Out of the box, the solution is effective, yet with advancements in AI, it has the potential to be more intuitive.
Project Executive at synergyc
Instead of customers having to try many options themselves, they benefit from practitioner recommendations.
Founder & CEO at DevTools
At the time of my use, there was not an inbuilt capability to migrate applications from other third-party solutions to Rally Software.
Sr Technical Architect at HCLSoftware
One area for improvement might be the rigidity in role and access configurations, which require many process changes to fit the tool.
Sr. Information Architect and Principal Consultant UX at Tech Mahindra Limited
 

Setup Cost

Microsoft Azure DevOps offers competitive pricing with cost-effective options for large teams, despite some expensive testing features.
Rally Software offers valuable features for scaling agile, but its pricing is high compared to alternatives like JIRA.
They don't even provide a POC where you can have a sandbox or stuff that you can go through and see how exactly it's costing.
Associate Director at Grant Thornton (US)
I find it to be expensive.
Project Executive at synergyc
Azure charges only the parking cost, not for unnecessary or unwanted cost.
DevOps Engineer at ENTERPRISE SYSTEM SOLUTIONS LIMITED
The setup cost is expensive.
Sr Technical Architect at HCLSoftware
Rally Software is affordable because our customers also prefer it.
Sr. Information Architect and Principal Consultant UX at Tech Mahindra Limited
 

Valuable Features

Azure DevOps excels in CI/CD, integration, and lifecycle management, enhancing productivity and collaboration with seamless Microsoft tool integration.
Rally Software streamlines project management with features like resource scheduling, user stories, dashboards, and third-party integration for agile teams.
Whenever something is created or deployed, it automatically triggers the automated scripts, generates reports, and updates the test cases, providing a seamless end-to-end activity.
Senior Automation Engineer at Zellis
I can't approve my own request and move the code around without a review.
Associate Director at Grant Thornton (US)
Our company organized a training session with a certified Azure expert, which was extremely beneficial for adopting best practices during the initial three months.
Project Executive at synergyc
Rally Software provides real-time dashboards for different kinds of stakeholders and governance, giving clear insights into project progress, team velocity, and potential risks.
Sr. Information Architect and Principal Consultant UX at Tech Mahindra Limited
I can view configuration item details, such as what is being changed, and I can see any change requests attached to items or configuration items being moved to other locations.
Sr Technical Architect at HCLSoftware
 

Categories and Ranking

Microsoft Azure DevOps
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
2nd
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
1st
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
137
Ranking in other categories
Release Automation (1st)
Rally Software
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
7th
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
6th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
121
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2026, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of Microsoft Azure DevOps is 9.5%, down from 16.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rally Software is 5.3%, down from 6.8% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites Mindshare Distribution
ProductMindshare (%)
Microsoft Azure DevOps9.5%
Rally Software5.3%
Other85.2%
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
 

Featured Reviews

Bharadwaj Deepak Mohapatra - PeerSpot reviewer
DevOps Engineer at ENTERPRISE SYSTEM SOLUTIONS LIMITED
Have built reliable end-to-end pipelines and streamlined cloud provisioning through consistent collaboration practices
I am currently working with open-source tools such as Jenkins for my main CI/CD pipeline, and for enterprise clients, I am using Microsoft Azure DevOps CI/CD pipeline. For other clients, I have also implemented CI/CD YAML pipelines through GitLab CI/CD workflow and GitHub Actions. I am creating the end-to-end CI/CD pipeline from development to deployment and monitoring all of this. Azure Boards is easier than Jira for my understanding because there are very easy points to manage the Agile methodology which we work on. Because it is a GUI, sometimes the process may take a few minutes more than the CLI process since the backend is running the exact CLI, but we are commanding through the GUI. There is definitely a time lag, but it is more secure. Microsoft Azure DevOps pipelines work very seamlessly rather than other CI/CD pipelines, as of my understanding. The downside is that the process may take more time when deploying some clusters, Kubernetes, Azure AKS service, or some vast microservice architecture deployments. There may be a little bit of lag I feel, though I cannot tell very strictly that this is a disadvantage, but sometimes it takes a little more time than other cloud infrastructures. All the major things are done by GUI, which is somewhat a little slow. However, if considering automations, process, monitoring, and provisioning, then it is the best cloud service across all the other service providers. Our implementation is a hybrid cloud. Microsoft Azure DevOps is definitely easily scalable. I have worked on many Kubernetes infrastructures and microservice deployments, and I have seen that replication is very good because it is very easy. The replication process is very straightforward. I definitely advocate for using less code because it is very time-consuming. If using GCP or Amazon Web Service, there is more interaction related to work over the CLI process. In terms of Microsoft Azure DevOps, there are many things done by the GUI, which is the best part.
Amit Anand - PeerSpot reviewer
Sr Technical Architect at HCLSoftware
Drilling into change lifecycles has given me clear end to end traceability for every item
Reporting is my main area of concern. Additionally, the migration activity and portability are important areas for improvement. If I needed to move from Jira to Rally Software, having built-in portability or migration utilities would be beneficial. At the time of my use, there was not an inbuilt capability to migrate applications from other third-party solutions to Rally Software. Currently, I am not using Rally Software.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
13%
Financial Services Firm
9%
Government
8%
Computer Software Company
7%
Manufacturing Company
14%
Financial Services Firm
13%
Healthcare Company
7%
Insurance Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business43
Midsize Enterprise28
Large Enterprise69
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business13
Midsize Enterprise14
Large Enterprise113
 

Questions from the Community

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...
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...
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.
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

Azure DevOps, VSTS, Visual Studio Team Services, MS Azure DevOps
CA Agile Central, Rally Enterprise, CA Agile Training, CA Agile Coaching, CA Agile Academy, CA Agile Management , CA ALM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Alaska Airlines, Iberia Airlines, Columbia, Skype
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 Microsoft Azure DevOps vs. Rally Software and other solutions. Updated: May 2026.
894,830 professionals have used our research since 2012.