Tuleap offers a reliable and sustainable Jira alternative for public organizations and enterprises in regulated environnements, due to its open-source nature, integrated features, customizable workflows, security, and cost-effectiveness. This in-depth article compare Tuleap and Jira Software capabilities. You’ll see that Tuleap is more than an alternative to Jira, as teams gets more features in one single tool. This feature comparison focuses on Tuleap Agile tools and Tuleap Trackers versus Jira Software. Remember to look at all other native modules included in Tuleap.
An alternative to replace them all
Before diving into the feature comparison, look at the illustration below to keep in mind all the modules natively provided by Tuleap, the open source alternative, in comparison to Jira Software. Then, you’ll be able to compare.
Want to go straight to the point? Read rather this shorter article : “Tuleap versus Jira : compare the all in one alternative to Jira”. It’s a sum up of the differences between the features and the offering of the two tools.
Now, let’s compare. The following tables compare 3 key capabilities:
Program Management for agility at Enterprise level and teams’ synchronization
Project Management for Agile tools at Team Level
Issue tracking and Workflow management
Agile tools at Enterprise level
Agile tools at the enterprise level are designed to support strategic planning, governance, and alignment across the organization. Some agile at scale methods help organisations deploy teams synchronization and shared business goals as Lean or Scaled Agile Framework.
Available with strong capabilities, 
Not available or Additional Atlassian product needed
| Synchronizing Projects and Teams | Tuleap | Jira Software |
|---|---|---|
| Program and Product Portfolio | | |
| Project hierarchy and aggregated teams | | |
| Cross-project/team backlog management | | |
| Cross-project/team releases planning | | |
| Multi-project or multi-teams roadmap | | |
| SAFe templates | | |
Agile tools at Team level
According to Gartner, Agile tools at the team level support agile methods as Scrum or Kanban. They are focused on enabling the team to plan and execute their work in an iterative and incremental manner.
Available with strong capabilities, 
Limited , Not available, additional product needed
| HYBRID APPROACHES | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Scrumban, Kanplan, homemade processes | |
|
| SCRUM | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Scrum to get started | | |
| Advanced Scrum (explicit backlog, fine-grained configurations) | | Limited. By admin platform only |
| Release planification, versions, sprints | | |
| Backlog management | | |
| Drag’n drop | | |
| Selection of one or multiple issues | | |
| Effort and capacity monitoring | | |
| Scrum taskboard/cardwall | | |
| Fine-grained permissions | | Limited. By admin platform only |
| Burndown chart | | |
| Link Scrum issues (stories, epics…) to source code, pull request, documents, deliveries | | Additional product needed |
| Customize planning hierarchy level (ex: release + sprints, or product + versions + weeks…) | | |
| Scrum at scale | | |
| KANBAN | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Boards with visual cards | | |
| Drag ‘n drop | | |
| Real time update | | |
| Kanban multi-issues (ex: 1 single Kanban with issue of type “tasks” + type “bug”) | | |
| Several Kanban by project (ex: two Kanban : one for tasks, one for bugs) | | |
| Kanban multi-projects | | |
| WIP limit configuration per column | | |
| Swim lanes | | |
| Workflow application in the Kanban columns (ex: restriction to move a card from “to do” to “achieved”) | | |
| Link Kanban issues (stories, epics…) to source code source source, pull request, documents, deliveries | | Additional product needed |
| Customize columns name and numbers | | Only by platform admin |
| Customize information displayed on cards | | |
| Filter cards by searches | | |
| Cumulative flowchart | | |
Issue Tracking – Workflow management
Issue tracking and workflow management are essential for managing projects effectively. A good tool should offer a comprehensive set of features, such as fine-grained customizable workflows, automation, and integration with other tools. It should also offers autonomy for teams and should be scalable to meet the needs of growing teams. Look for a tool that offers real-time collaboration, analytics, and reporting capabilities to help you track progress and identify areas for improvement.
For a stronger understanding of the two alternatives tools, check out our complementary article to better catch the different concepts of Tuleap and Jira.
Available with strong capabilities, Limited , Not available, additional product needed
| MUST HAVE | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Track any type of issue: tasks, bugs, requirements, stories | | |
| Unlimited trackers per project | | |
| Pre-configured trackers templates | | |
| Change history | | |
| Mass update | | |
| TRACEABILITY | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Link issue backward-forward to other issues (ex: link an incident to a task) | | |
| Link issues backward-forward to software development items (ex: link a requirements to a wiki page, a bug to a revision and a job, a release to a file…) | | Additional product needed |
| Link issues back to third party tools (ex: link a Tuleap task to a CRM activity) | | |
| Define artifact link nature (ex: resolved in, satisfied by) | | |
| WORKFLOW, PER EACH TRACKER | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Ability to modify the workflow of each type of tracker | Both at platform level and per project level | At platform level only |
| Define field dependencies (ex: if the field gets the value “FIXED”, then the status field is automatically set to ” CLOSED” | | |
| Define authorized transitions | | In advanced workflow only. By platform admin only |
| Project lead can define their own user groups to be used in the workflow | | |
| Project lead can define authorized user groups to make some specific transitions (ex: only group A can update the status from “TO DO” to “ON GOING”) | | |
| Project lead can define post functions after transitions (ex: when a task moves from “ON GOING” to “DONE”, then the remaining effort is automatically set to “0” | | |
| Set cross-tracker triggers (ex: when all sub-tasks are “DONE” then the parent task is automatically set to “COMPLETED”) | | |
| Define triggers between trackers and development tools (ex: launch a Jenkins job when the issue is set to “UNDER REVIEW”) | | Additional product needed |
| TRACKER CUSTOMIZATION | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Create corporate tracker template | | |
| Ability to customize trackers afterward | | Limited. Only by platform admin |
| Ability for project leads to create new trackers from scratch | | |
| PER TRACKER FIELD CUSTOMIZATION | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Ability to modify trackers’ fields | Both at platform and project level | At platform level only |
| Ability to choose the layout of the tracker form | | |
| Project lead can modify fields according to a predefined list | | |
| Project lead can add any type of fields | | |
| Project lead can add new values in fields | | |
| TIME TRACKING | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Fields for time tracking (effort, remaining time, hours) | | |
| Time Tracking per issue | | |
| Timer button | | |
| Time Tracking on multiple project | | |
| Time Tracking on a team | | |
| Time Tracking per people | | |
| NOTIFICATIONS | Tuleap | Jira software |
|---|---|---|
| Define generic notifications per tracker | | |
| Define notifications on each tracker | | |
| Per tracker canned responses | | |
| Per tracker date reminders | | |
Software Development
Available with strong capabilities, Limited , Additional product needed
| Continuous software development chain | Tuleap | Jira Software |
|---|---|---|
| Manage and streamline Git pipelines at Enterprise scale | | |
| Facilitate online code reviews with Pull Request and Gerrit integration | | |
| Advanced integration with Gitlab | | |
Test Management-QA
| TEST MANAGEMENT | Tuleap | Jira Software |
|---|---|---|
| Create, plan, automate et execute test campaigns (automated and manual tests) | | |
| Triggers and Fine integration with Jenkins | | |
Document collaboration
| COLLABORATIVE KNOWLEDGE | Tuleap | Jira Software |
|---|---|---|
| Collaborative document management per project (real-time edition, wiki, search, validation workflow…) | | |
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