Atlassian ALM vs Microsoft Azure DevOps comparison

Atlassian and Microsoft are both solutions in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category. Atlassian is ranked #17, while Microsoft is ranked #2 with an average rating of 8.1. Atlassian holds a 1.7% mindshare in ALM, compared to Microsoft’s 16.0% mindshare. Additionally, 60% of Atlassian users are willing to recommend the solution, compared to 95% of Microsoft users who would recommend it.

Atlassian ALM

Read 6 Atlassian ALM reviews

679 Views
557 Comparison Views

60% willing to recommend

Microsoft Azure DevOps

Read 133 Microsoft Azure DevOps reviews

9,879 Views
7,018 Comparison Views

95% willing to recommend

Atlassian ALM

Microsoft Azure DevOps

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Download the report

Executive SummaryUpdated on Dec 15, 2024

In the Application Lifecycle Management tools category, Atlassian ALM and Microsoft Azure DevOps are two competing products. Atlassian ALM appears to have the upper hand in pricing and support satisfaction among users, while Microsoft Azure DevOps is preferred for its extensive features and effectiveness, justifying its pricing.

Features: Atlassian ALM is known for robust integration capabilities, powerful collaboration features, and seamless project management. Microsoft Azure DevOps excels in strong CI/CD pipelines, extensive project planning functionalities, and development operations processes.

Room for Improvement: Atlassian ALM could enhance integration with Stash, improve custom issue creation, and expand cloud hosting options. Microsoft Azure DevOps could benefit from more proactive customer service, improved user training resources, and simplification of certain complex features.

Ease of Deployment and Customer Service: Atlassian ALM provides a straightforward deployment process and excellent customer service support. Microsoft Azure DevOps offers comprehensive cloud-based deployment, though customer service is perceived as less proactive by some users.

Pricing and ROI: Atlassian ALM offers a cost-effective setup with lower initial expenses and a favorable ROI due to substantial support. Microsoft Azure DevOps, despite a higher setup investment, delivers excellent ROI through its capabilities and benefits, which many users find justify the expenditure.

To learn more, read our detailed Atlassian ALM vs. Microsoft Azure DevOps Report (Updated: June 2025).

Buyer's Guide

Atlassian ALM vs. Microsoft Azure DevOps

June 2025

Download the complete report

Helped 859,129 peers since 2012

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

Atlassian ALM

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

17th

Average Rating

7.6

Reviews Sentiment

6.6

Number of Reviews

Ranking in other categories

No ranking in other categories

Microsoft Azure DevOps

Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

2nd

Average Rating

8.2

Reviews Sentiment

7.1

Number of Reviews

133

Ranking in other categories

Release Automation (1st), Enterprise Agile Planning Tools (1st)

Mindshare comparison

As of June 2025, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of Atlassian ALM is 1.7%, up from 1.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Microsoft Azure DevOps is 16.0%, down from 23.7% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.

Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites

Featured Reviews

Xie Zhifeng

R&D Director, CTO at CSDN

Scrum board feature is highly valuable and handles different user volumes

We have both small-sized and big-sized customers. The small ones generally have around 50 to 200 users. The larger ones, for example, in China, have around 15,000 platform users. So, the number of small companies is high, but the total business value comes from the big companies. Atlassian ALM can handle different user volumes. For customers with more than 500 users, we recommend deploying a high availability (HA) architecture. The solution supports both single-node and HA modes. I would rate the scalability a five out of ten. It could be better in terms of scalability with more users. It could be improved to better handle larger numbers of users. We have clients using Atlassian ALM both in China and globally. We have around 20 clients using this solution.

Read full review

Ivan Angelov

Project Executive at synergyc

Facilitates agile transformation with potential for enhanced intuitiveness

What I liked about the solution is that it offers numerous features that are not available by default unless you are agile. Transitioning from the traditional Waterfall model to an agile methodology was challenging for us. Until 2020, our team predominantly worked with the Waterfall approach, using local tools like ServiceNow. We had a few team members who were familiar with Agile ISO, but none had experience with Azure. Therefore, we pursued Azure certification at the AZ-900 level. Our company organized a training session with a certified Azure expert, which was extremely beneficial for adopting best practices during the initial three months. This preparation helped us get accustomed to the new tool, as transitioning to a new system invariably requires time. Managing a pipeline of deliverables became significantly easier with this solution. We utilized it for stories and integrated change management with Azure DevOps. Eventually, everything related to the environment was organized there, enabling us to follow up and track progress with our technical engineers on an hourly, daily, or weekly basis. Reports were automatically generated and sent to management, offering them insights into our progress concerning the predefined roadmap.

Read full review

Quotes from Members

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

Pros

"The most valuable feature is the Scrum board."

"This solution fits very well into our agile product management environment."

"The main power of this tool is the integration between the different products of the Atlassian suite. We have good integration with work management with Java. This is the major strength from this provider."

"The installation is straightforward. We can create a whole new organization in less than a day."

"Our technical sales staff and business development people need to know how far the developers are on any product that we're developing. DevOps makes it easier for you to see how far along they are with the work because they have a repository where they store everything. There is a portal where you can see what has been done, what has been tested, what is working, and what isn't. I have a huge dashboard with an overview of what the development team is doing from an executive point of view."

"The initial setup is very easy."

"There are a lot of helpful features available for tracking dependencies."

"The extensibility of the work item forms and customizations as well as the backend API to query the data, et cetera, and manipulate the data programmatically are all very valuable aspects of the product."

"The features of Azure Repos that we find most impactful are those related to source control management within our DevOps code management processes."

"Some of the most valuable features are the ease of use and the ability to monitor a lot of things. It has a lot of applications and facilities that meet all the developers' requirements. For example, we can use application insights to get an idea of our application's performance. Since it's cloud-based, it's really good for collaboration and working as a team."

"The pricing seems to be reasonable."

More Microsoft Azure DevOps pros

Cons

"The reports are not really customizable, which is something that they should improve on."

"The automation for scheduling software and doing software tests should be simplified because it's complex and too rigid."

"There is room for improvement in the high-level project management."

"Reporting could be better. We would like to see how many applications are onboarded in DevOps and in which phase they are. We would like to know for how many applications we have done only the repository, but we have not yet done the build pipeline or deploy pipeline. Currently, there is no such report. We have to figure it out ourselves. There is no way to check how many applications are completing their build pipelines, how many applications are completing their deploy pipeline, how many are ready to use, and how many pipelines are working."

"We are currently in the process of moving all of our on-prem to the cloud platform. We are trying to make that move and host the majority of our DevOps services in the cloud because the cloud is where most of the things are going nowadays. However, the process of this transfer is not straightforward, and it could be a lot easier. Microsoft hasn't provided the maturity for migration tools. It could be a lot easier in that respect. I want to see them continue to advance the API capabilities. They could add some more robust functionality to the administrative layer within ADO services. There are a lot of configuration elements that you need to take care of at the organization level and the project configuration level from an administrative capacity. When you're dealing with process templates and things of that nature, you have to do them all manually. Being able to automate some of that using scripts or API functionality would be really nice."

"The test management section needs to be improved."

"When converting to DevOps, it was difficult to map."

"More features can be included."

"Non-functional testing such as security testing, log testing, and performance testing can be improved with a better visualization."

"The functions have too much dependency right now, so it makes it really, really hard to upgrade and make a change in the code."

"They should expand it from just a PC, software, or server development platform to other kinds of software or engineering systems so that it is not necessarily built around a normal PC with a server. I would like to see the ability to write my own scripts in my own compiled program or online. Right now, there are things that you can do in the user interface, but you can't do them programmatically and vice versa. I want to see them both. If I can do it in a script, I should be able to do it from the user interface, and if I can do it in the user interface, I should be able to do it in a script."

More Microsoft Azure DevOps cons

Pricing and Cost Advice

"There is a community edition available, but if the price were lower for the addons then more people would use the full version."

"I don't know what we pay, but I do know what I've seen online. If we switched to JIRA, we will basically have to double our costs because we still have to pay for the DevOps licensing. We're probably spending $100 a month on it. It has only standard licensing fees."

"For Microsoft, it can get expensive when you need heavy-duty machines."

"I find that the pricing is good, and it is competitive with the other vendors in the market."

"When compared to other vendors, it is cheaper."

"The cost is quite affordable."

"The reason that customers are going to the cloud is that it provides the ability to reduce the license cost. For example, when purchasing Office 365 it is bundled with Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, and many other applications. In the past, purchasing a license was approximately $600. Today it's only $35 or $45 per customer, per client, or per user, plus the storage. It's less expensive for companies today, to use something, such as Microsoft Azure DevOps, and provide the software to all the employees needing a license. It's better to go with the cloud than just to buy the licenses by themselves."

"This product could maybe be cheaper. My organization handled licensing, so I'm not aware of which subscription they have."

"There is a licensing fee of $6/user per month."

More Microsoft Azure DevOps pricing and cost advice

See which vendors are best for you

Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites solutions are best for your needs.

See recommendations

859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews

Computer Software Company

17%

Manufacturing Company

15%

Financial Services Firm

13%

Healthcare Company

Manufacturing Company

13%

Computer Software Company

13%

Financial Services Firm

12%

Government

Company Size

By reviewers

Large Enterprise

Midsize Enterprise

Small Business

No data available

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Atlassian ALM?

The most valuable feature is the Scrum board.

See all answers

What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Atlassian ALM?

The pricing is on the higher side. I would give it an eight out of ten, where one is low, and ten is high.

See all answers

What needs improvement with Atlassian ALM?

There is room for improvement in the high-level project management. In future releases, I would like to have a planning feature for high-level project management.

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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...

See all answers

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.

See all answers

Comparisons

Jira vs Atlassian ALM

Compared 46% of the time

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) vs Atlassian ALM

Compared 16% of the time

OpenText Software Delivery Management vs Atlassian ALM

Compared 8% of the time

Polarion ALM vs Atlassian ALM

Compared 8% of the time

Codebeamer vs Atlassian ALM

Compared 7% of the time

More Atlassian ALM Competitors

GitLab vs Microsoft Azure DevOps

Compared 32% of the time

Jira vs Microsoft Azure DevOps

Compared 16% of the time

Rally Software vs Microsoft Azure DevOps

Compared 7% of the time

OpenText Application Quality Management vs Microsoft Azure DevOps

Compared 5% of the time

TFS vs Microsoft Azure DevOps

Compared 5% of the time

More Microsoft Azure DevOps Competitors

Product Reports

Buyer's Guide

Atlassian ALM

June 2025

Download Atlassian ALM product report

Buyer's Guide

Microsoft Azure DevOps

March 2025

Download Microsoft Azure DevOps product report

Also Known As

No data available

Azure DevOps, VSTS, Visual Studio Team Services, MS Azure DevOps

Overview

How to use Atlassian to manage application lifecycle: Atlassian builds software to pull together all the elements of application lifecycle management. Product management, developers, Q/A, dev ops, and business stake holders all have their own ways of interacting with application lifecycle management and Atlassian splits up the process into a few buckets.

1) Collaborate to plan and envision work

Atlassian's Confluence is a collaboration platform for building and driving consensus. Call stake holders in to give approval, comment on, and share pages and integrate with the rest of the development toolchain.

2) Build and track roadmaps

Atlassian's JIRA Software offers incredibly flexible project management with custom workflows, plugins, and high visibility rollups through JIRA Portfolio. Issues can be embedded right in confluence, or be used to kick off new branches in version control. Keep everyone on the same page with project progress.

3) Track and deploy code

Atlassian's Bitbucket is the world's most robust Git solution. The ability to deploy multiple-nodes with failover, global mirroring for super fast clones, and powerful code review control set it apart from competition. Bitbucket also has a mature plugin and hooks system that allows extensions and connection to a suite of CI software.

4) Support and Iterate

Track support requests, bugs, and route users in the right direction with JIRA Service Desk. With the same custom workflow engine as JIRA Software, a tight integration with the rest of the stack, and a knowledge base function make it a powerful addition to the ALM stack.

5) Tie it together

ChatOps helps tie every part of the ALM together. Get stake holders in the same room to manage a project, teams in the same page to manage their work, or plugin automated members to report on CI status, pull requests, page changes in Confluence, or bug reports. Like every piece of Atlassian's ALM there is a mature API for extending plugins and everything can be hosted behind your own firewall.

Atlassian

Microsoft Azure DevOps is a cloud service that enables developers to collaborate on code development projects and create and deploy applications quicker than ever before. The service helps unite developers, project managers, and software development experts through a collaborative experience while using the application. For the users' convenience, Azure DevOps offers the user cloud services through Azure DevOps Services or an on-premises service using Azure DevOps Server. In addition, it supports integration with additional services and adding extensions, including the ability for the user to create their own custom extensions.

Azure DevOps provides a variety of unified features that can be accessed through their web browser or IDE client, such as:

Azure Pipelines - Develop and deploy services to support ongoing application integration and delivery. Azure pipelines, which work with almost every project type and most languages, will automatically test code projects in order to make them available to others.
Azure Artifacts - Share packages and integrate package sharing between teams. Packages include NuGet, npm, and Maven, in addition to other private and public sources. Developers can now share and consume packages with other developers from different public registries.
Azure Repos - Offers source control of your code through Team Foundation Version Control (TFVC) or Git repositories. Developers can now keep track of any changes that are made in their code over the course of their project.
Azure Test Plans - Offers continuous and manual/exploratory app testing through several tools. Test Suites, or a collection of Test Cases, are grouped together in a container called a Test Plan.
Azure Boards - Provides a suite of Agile tools to track work, support planning, code defects, and general issues while using Kanban and Scrum software. Teams are in need of tools that are flexible and will help them grow. Azure Boards is a service that helps developers manage their software projects.

Benefits of Microsoft Azure DevOps

Microsoft Azure DevOps offers many benefits, including:

A quick setup and easy deployment
An elastic scale
Exceptional security
No-maintenance operations
Effortless collaboration through domains
The ability to create and deploy products faster than traditional software

Reviews from Real Users

Microsoft Azure DevOps stands out among its competitors for a variety of reasons. Two major ones are its ability to forecast how long each task will take and the ability for users to follow the entire development process.

PeerSpot viewers note the effectiveness of this solution. An executive chief operating officer for a cloud provider notes, “We can forecast tasks and the number of hours a task will take and can compare it with how long a task actually takes.”

Carlos H., a product and system director at SPCM, writes, “I think the most usable thing is that you can follow the whole progress of the development process. This makes it very useful for us.”

Microsoft

Sample Customers

Facebook, NASA, Cisco, eBay, Redfin, Toyota, Kaiser Permanente, Gilt, CSIRO, Autodesk, The Daily Telegraph, CODE, Illumnia

Alaska Airlines, Iberia Airlines, Columbia, Skype

Buyer's Guide

Atlassian ALM vs. Microsoft Azure DevOps

June 2025

Free Report: Atlassian ALM vs. Microsoft Azure DevOps

Find out what your peers are saying about Atlassian ALM vs. Microsoft Azure DevOps and other solutions. Updated: June 2025.

DOWNLOAD NOW

859,129 professionals have used our research since 2012.

See our Atlassian ALM vs. Microsoft Azure DevOps report.

See our list of best Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites vendors.

We monitor all Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites reviews to prevent fraudulent reviews and keep review quality high. We do not post reviews by company employees or direct competitors. We validate each review for authenticity via cross-reference with LinkedIn, and personal follow-up with the reviewer when necessary.