Tuleap, the all-in-one alternative to Jira The key differenciators, explained

All-in-one Agile ALM

Tuleap is a complete Agile Application Lifecycle Management solution (ALM, also called Enterprise Agile Planning tool) as such it provides all of the tools you need to create smart software, all in a single product. Contrary to others, with Tuleap, you get everything you need in one package. Tuleap empowers your teams with pre build templates and every tools they need to plan, track, code, build, test and release better software.

For software-driven companies, deploying an all-in-one agile project management software offers several advantages over using a single issue tracking tool . Firstly, an all-in-one solution provides a comprehensive suite of tools that streamline workflows and improve global productivity. Secondly, an integrated platform offers better visibility and transparency, allowing multi-competency teams to collaborate more efficiently on software projects, from start to finish. Finally, it reduces the need for multiple tools, which can result in lower costs and easier licences management. Overall, an all-in-one agile project management software is a more valuable investment for organizations looking to optimize their agile and software development processes.

Compare Tuleap versus Jira features

Jira

Limited to project and issue tracking

Jira simply cannot do everything Tuleap can on its own. Jira is a tool for project and issue tracking. If you want to get a complete agile software development solution, you will need to add several plugins and additional tools like Bitbucket, Confluence, Bamboo and even more… It’s important to be aware that each additional tool and plugin corresponds to an additional cost and administration.

Enterprise Project Management

In the early design, Tuleap has been conceived for managing projects on a companywide scale. This requires a focus on central management of workflows, security and access controls with a good balance to provide enough freedom to unleash the potential of teams.

Tuleap onboards multiple profiles and create cross-functional teams, sharing the same project workspace. It aligns teams and boost collaboration across your organization. Tuleap allows seamless collaboration and workflows within the different teams that need to cooperate, each one with its own quirks and needs, yet on a common schedule and with a coherent vision.

Jira

A collection of issues

Originally, Jira was designed as an issue tracker. It has grown patch by patch into a project management tool by the acquisition of companies, softwares and a third parties plugins system. 

A Jira project is like a collection of issues. No software development tools, no document management, no test management. The thinking behind and functioning is not made of complete workspaces. But entreprises need full-featured project spaces and a global view on all the phases of the SDLC. This is a a key differenciator between Jira and Tuleap.

Ready for years to come

Some of Tuleap clients’ production installations host 15.000 people and 4.500 project workspaces on one single platform. It has grown progressively, smoothly, without the need of new installation, nor complex administration. Probably adding CPU and RAMS but nothing more.

And guess how many admins for the whole Tuleap system for 15.000 users ? 100? 10? No! One is the correct answer! This alone describes the business orientation of Tuleap. Adapted to your entreprise needs, no matter how large or heterogeneous they are! No need to undergo heavy training just to administer and make it works. It’s simple and fast to maintain. “Seven minutes are enough to update our whole Tuleap platform” says an IT Manager in the semi-conductors industry.

Jira

NEW NEEDS = NEW PURCHASES

As your needs will increase and become more diverse, you will probably need several Jira instances and the complexity of managing all of this will also increase. Atlassian advises to connect and work with their solutions partners in order to help you scale and manage your installations. This can imply additional costs and delay before implementation.

YOU TAILOR. Extended adaptability

TOOLS & WORKFLOWS ADAPTED TO TEAMS

With Tuleap your fantasy is the limit, not the tool.

Tuleap offers pre built templates. This is as a way to standardize processes and help teams start quickly with ready-to-use tools, used as a customizable canvas. Tuleap is a way to reach a balance between corporate templates and freedom for teams to customize agile workflows. 

Tuleap tools provide software development teams the ability to work autonomously and collaborate with other teams across the enterprise. Each project team can configure and customize agile project management tools to support how they work.

Picture this, this is what is a best alternative to Jira! Imagine, you start small with a simple list of tasks to do in a Kanban board. Gradually new team members join, so you need to know “who is working on what”; just add a field “assigned to” in your tracking tool. Later on, you need to display the “time spent”: just add the “time tracking”. You start coding and need a Git repository ? In one click, it’s done!

When your customers start asking for real time planning, and release information, you need to structure it. Easy peasy, add a dashboard to the same initial workspace.
Top Management becomes interested in your project success, and wants to see a Gantt chart? Ok, just generate the chart dynamically. And etc.

Jira

YOU USE. Limited adaptability

TEAMS ADAPT TO TOOLS AND WORKFLOWS

There are several versions of Jira among which you have to choose even before you start : Jira Software, Jira Align, Jira Core and Jira Service Desk, once you have read which version is more adapted to your project management needs, you start being driven into a predetermined track that provides a series of workflows and templates to which the team must adapt, instead of the other way round. Aside prices,

Some customization is available within the limits of the initial framework chosen. No way to create your own transitions. No possibilities to create your own users group and permissions on your project tracking, etc. To get a better alternative, take a look at Tuleap trackers. You will understand by yourself 😉
If a team needs to add another key feature, like code review, they will need to buy a new tool dedicated to that purpose. This concept is repeated with all additional needs your team might have as it evolves. Soon you’ll find that you spend a lot of time managing and updating your Atlassian tools and plugins in order to match your evolution.

INVEST IN VALUE. NOT ONLY IN FEATURES

Working with the Tuleap crew is different. You buy much more than a software licence. You invest in a continuous journey towards better software engineering and project management, as well as peace of mind with SLAs for guaranteed reliability.

You enter into a true human relationship based on trust and listening. As the first provider of an open source agile ALM solution, Tuleap business model is disruptif. See our Open Roadmap® option for example.

At Tuleap, we open bottles of champagne when our new client is satisfied, not when he buys a licence. Do you see why this is more than a Jira alternative difference?

Jira

Buy and Buy

Jira software is a common tool so you think you take no risk with it. Are you sure of this? Have you really considered everything? The present and the near future? The people behind?

When you buy Jira, you buy a tool and keep your fingers crossed that everything goes well.

It is a classical buyer-provider relationship with a strict licensing model. You buy a certain number of user licences and for every additional plugin, an additional licensing cost. It’s impossible to go over the limit of users. If you need one single user more, you will be blocked until the administrative process expands your licence.

Atlassian surely offers numerous key features, but in a very hectic solution, not fully integrated and with a very time consuming process of selection and choice of tools, plugins, configurations and additional costs. It’s costing both in time and money to manage this system.

BY THE CORE TEAM WHO KNOW YOU AND THE PRODUCT

At Tuleap, when you ask for help, you get immediate access to the core team. Our support crew is made of engineers and software experts. They truly understand your business challenges, your industry. They interact constantly with the R&D team. A strong alternative to Jira, no?

You are not limited to issue resolution with a Tuleap plan: our support team ise here to help you boost strap from the beginning. We will guide you through installation, configurations, deployment, and operation. According to Tuleap SLAs, we provide you prompt enterprise support level 2 & 3 and expert insights to make you progress.

Jira

Done by a … third team

When buying a software, it is important to ask yourself: “What will happen when I’ll get stuck on an issue? Who will support me?” .

With Jira, do you know the people who are supposed to help you? Can you discuss with them before purchase?You’ll probably need to go through resellers or intermediaries.

The Open Source alternative to Jira

Enterprises looking to make smart investment in a new tool have plenty of great reasons to prefer open source alternatives. This is why leading companies trust Tuleap and its Open Source aspect as a strong advantage.

An open source software tool as Tuleap emphasizes transparency, sustainability, long-term viability and freedom from lock-in. In addition, Open source development promotes stability, security, and innovation. Much of the innovation in technology is taking place in the open source community, and companies all over the world trust open source software.

How does Tuleap become an Enterprise Open Source ALM?
To be an Enterprise Open Source solution, Tuleap is developed with an advanced DevOps engineering policy and tested in accordance with a demanding quality policy. Tuleap team is made of expert software developers and has a security crew that stands behind it, and processes for responding to new security vulnerabilities and notifying users about security issues and how to remediate them.
Because if you’re on your own when it comes to quality and security issues, you don’t get an Enterprise Open Source tool.

Jira

Proprietary. Vendor lock-in

Jira and other Atlassian products are proprietary tools. As other software providers, they keep their source code secret. Proprietary source code is closed off from outsiders who can’t inspect the code or find out how it works. You have no rights to read, modify or improve the code.

Rather than being locked into a proprietary vendor and often trapped into paying high plans, many companies understood they can get the same quality, capabilities and reliability with open source solutions.
In addition, as a CIO, avoiding vendor lock-in is a key challenge. One alternative is choosing open source software.
Gartner recently reminds us: “Most organizations use open-source software within their mission-critical IT estates. Application leaders must understand and embrace Open source: it is becoming the backbone for driving digital innovation.”