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IBM DOORS vs Jira comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive SummaryUpdated on Nov 2, 2025

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
6.9
IBM DOORS offers significant ROI in large-scale projects, emphasizing customization, timely delivery, and efficiency, despite newer tool options.
Sentiment score
7.1
Organizations report enhanced efficiency and quick ROI from Jira, despite some dissatisfaction with recent changes and plugin support.
This customization capability helps me reduce process overhead and efforts significantly.
Software Manager at Forvia
A return on investment has been seen with Jira, as a lot of time has been saved in arranging tasks, converting software features into epics, tasks, and milestones, making it easy to track progress and plan future roadmaps.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
It's always hard to measure ROI precisely, but overall, the development time usually pays off within a year through efficiency gains.
CEO at 2Help
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.4
IBM DOORS' customer service is mixed, with responsive support but slow response times and a need for more advanced assistance.
Sentiment score
6.7
Jira's customer service relies on documentation and forums, with varied satisfaction in email and technical support responsiveness.
Jira's customer support is one of the best I have ever dealt with because they respond quickly.
CEO at 2Help
I did not face any issues with stability or upgrades.
Senior Director, Head of Information Systems Division at Israel Innovation Authority
Whenever there are issues, the internal Jira enterprise team is contacted directly.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.0
IBM DOORS is scalable and adaptable for diverse users, but performance depends on infrastructure and effective project management.
Sentiment score
7.2
Jira scales well from small teams to thousands, offering customization and integration with other tools, despite potential cost increases.
We are also creating a platform that will serve as a baseline for creating variant management for other projects, which will significantly reduce time and effort.
Software Manager at Forvia
Scalability for Jira is great, and it handles growth easily from 100 to thousands.
CEO at 2Help
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.4
IBM DOORS is stable overall, with occasional crashes, benefiting from skilled administrators and strong networks for better performance.
Sentiment score
7.6
Jira is largely stable, experiencing occasional performance issues, with users valuing recent reliability improvements despite costly enhancements.
Other groups in our organization have been using the toolchain for quite some time, and they have supported us in deploying our project into this toolchain and provided configuration customizations for us.
Software Manager at Forvia
In my experience, Jira is stable, with around 99% uptime.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Room For Improvement

IBM DOORS struggles with a complex interface, integration issues, and user-unfriendliness, hindering functionality and remote work efficiency.
Jira users face customization challenges, inadequate search and integration, performance issues, and seek improved interface, reporting, and training.
The only gap I have identified is in code-level coverage reporting.
Software Manager at Forvia
Focus more on improving API integration and automation tools, not just the design.
CEO at 2Help
It would be appreciated to have more reporting capabilities in Jira, such as easily exporting capabilities to show how tasks are in progress and how the team is performing well or poorly.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
To improve Jira, maybe some AI features could be added.
Senior Director, Head of Information Systems Division at Israel Innovation Authority
 

Setup Cost

IBM DOORS is costly, especially for large teams, but offers extensive functionality and compatibility for enterprise buyers.
Jira's pricing can be costly for larger teams due to user count and plugin dependencies, prompting alternatives exploration.
Even if only five people from your team use a financial plugin, you still pay for all 100 seats.
CEO at 2Help
 

Valuable Features

IBM DOORS offers flexible customization, extensive traceability, and integration capabilities, making it essential for effective requirements management and collaboration.
Jira is user-friendly with powerful integrations, customizable workflows, Agile support, and robust reporting for enhanced collaboration and productivity.
The requirement management system makes it very easy to maintain the entire V-cycle from customer requirements through test coverage.
Software Manager at Forvia
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.
CEO at 2Help
The main feature is the hierarchy, as features can be converted into epics and topics, allowing bigger tasks to be partitioned into smaller ones.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
 

Categories and Ranking

IBM DOORS
Ranking in Application Requirements Management
1st
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
56
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
Jira
Ranking in Application Requirements Management
2nd
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
277
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (1st), Project Management Software (1st)
 

Mindshare comparison

As of January 2026, in the Application Requirements Management category, the mindshare of IBM DOORS is 28.0%, down from 34.4% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Jira is 12.4%, down from 15.6% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Requirements Management Market Share Distribution
ProductMarket Share (%)
IBM DOORS28.0%
Jira12.4%
Other59.6%
Application Requirements Management
 

Featured Reviews

Amol Dumbre - PeerSpot reviewer
Software Manager at Forvia
Integrated lifecycle management has supported global A‑SPICE projects and custom reporting
I believe the toolchain currently covers all of our requirements. Even for A-SPICE and related requirements, I can add attributes and manage things effectively because the tool is highly customizable. I can continue updating things and managing different processes. The only gap I have identified is in code-level coverage reporting. I have coverage traceability from IBM DOORS through the architecture and design, but I am unable to demonstrate code-level coverage reporting. That reporting capability would be helpful. Testing is covered very well through IBM Test Manager. The traceability to code is something I feel there may be certain gaps in, though I may not be fully aware of all capabilities since my role is different and I primarily receive reports rather than being an end user. Regarding the traceability feature, I am not an end user but rather receive reports from my team, so my perspective is limited.
Akhil Viswam - PeerSpot reviewer
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
Agile workflows have streamlined sprint planning and tracking for faster feature delivery
Jira has a very good interface and it is very easy to manage sprints, tasks, and epics. The main feature is the hierarchy, as features can be converted into epics and topics, allowing bigger tasks to be partitioned into smaller ones. The hierarchy feature in Jira helps the team significantly compared to other tools that have been used, such as Trello, which is mainly useful only for a waterfall model. For modern Agile practices, Jira is the most adapted tool in the industry. Another valuable feature is that Jira APIs have been used for data science projects to analyze tasks and get insights. This has also been very helpful in the project.
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
26%
Aerospace/Defense Firm
8%
Government
6%
Computer Software Company
5%
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business12
Midsize Enterprise10
Large Enterprise38
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business105
Midsize Enterprise56
Large Enterprise150
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about IBM Rational DOORS?
The traceability matrix in DOORS improved our project outcomes. It helps ensure coverage of requirements at different levels, from user requirements to software requirements to test requirements.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for IBM Rational DOORS?
Over the years, the first version cost something around 5800 euros.
What needs improvement with IBM Rational DOORS?
I believe the toolchain currently covers all of our requirements. Even for A-SPICE and related requirements, I can add attributes and manage things effectively because the tool is highly customizab...
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?
Jira itself is fairly priced for the features it provides, but pricing is a bit higher than some alternatives, mostly because many plugins and add-ons are paid and licensed per user. So even if onl...
 

Comparisons

 

Also Known As

Rational DOORS
Jira Software
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Infosys, Chevrolet Volt
Square, Nasa, eBay, Cisco, SalesForce, Adobe, BNP Paribas, BMW and LinkedIn, Pfizer, Citi.
Find out what your peers are saying about IBM DOORS vs. Jira and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.