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Jira Align 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:
 

Categories and Ranking

Jira Align
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
8th
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
3rd
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
7.0
Number of Reviews
41
Ranking in other categories
Value Stream Management Software (1st)
Rally Software
Ranking in Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
10th
Ranking in Enterprise Agile Planning Tools
8th
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.9
Number of Reviews
119
Ranking in other categories
No ranking in other categories
 

Mindshare comparison

As of May 2025, in the Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites category, the mindshare of Jira Align is 1.5%, down from 1.7% compared to the previous year. The mindshare of Rally Software is 6.8%, up from 6.1% compared to the previous year. It is calculated based on PeerSpot user engagement data.
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites
 

Featured Reviews

Edson Takayassu - PeerSpot reviewer
An Agile Management Platform which provides more optimized and predictable delivery with fully aligned organizations across every level of scale
The biggest advantage of Jira Align, in my opinion, is its user-friendly interface, making it simple and easy for end users to navigate and utilize. The most valuable feature of Jira Align for me is its automation capabilities, allowing us to create automation rules based on logical conditions for our projects. In terms of cross-team collaboration, Jira Align's integration with our project squads has been highly effective. It enables seamless creation of stories linked to incidents and changes, facilitating better visibility and understanding of the relationships between them. Regarding road mapping and dependency tracking, Jira Align enhances our project planning by aligning with our best practices and providing robust capabilities for mapping out dependencies and tracking progress.
Deep Maini - PeerSpot reviewer
Helps you collaborate on various effects and solutions from the top to the bottom of the organization
We use Rally Software extensively in our agile development processes. We have program boards set up where we write and break down stories. We assign story points and map dependencies between different stories, showing how stories from one team may depend on stories from another team. It integrates these functions well, especially compared to Jira, which has some limitations in this area. The tool keeps improving based on how teams actually work in Scaled Agile, continually upgrading their software versions to meet our needs. I find the whole Rally Software tool integrated very nicely. In Jira, we often go to Confluence for documentation using two separate tools. But in the product, it's not like that. The documentation is tightly integrated. I don't feel like switching to another tool, like going from Jira to Confluence. The tool is designed for collaboration. It shows your organization's view, showing different teams and verticals. It helps you collaborate on various effects and solutions from the top to the bottom of the organization. It has an ecosystem that supports this. All the dependencies between different teams can be easily mapped in Rally Software. They have a program board for that purpose.

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 features of Jira Align are its product roadmap and reporting."
"The most valuable features are the ability to customize the entries and to update them quickly. Since the new version they released, we started utilizing the customization features to create specific codes and symbols for our teams that were not available before. For example, in team A each person had their own symbols and we had our own demarcation. When our project or task was completed, we had a code that we could enter online that let the main project managers know that it was time to remove it."
"Jira Align's most valuable feature is the view of strategic control reports for high-level directors."
"Defect tracking and dashboards are the most valuable features of Jira Align."
"The reporting structure is great."
"Jira Align has been quite a helpful tool for us because, without it, we would be juggling with all our story points or our backlog items, which would be difficult to manage."
"The tool helps us to stick with the timeline and budget of our projects. It also helps me to identify dependencies and red flags and intervene wherever possible. I have found the key metrics tab also useful."
"The most valuable feature is that engineers can access the Jira database and just search for the tasks that are assigned to them. They can then update the status on their own in those records that are assigned to them."
"We use the roadmap features, and we're getting better at using dates to use the roadmap so that we can see if we're on target for work."
"The product has excellent customizable reports."
"The most useful part is how it breaks down tasks into parents and children, manageable tasks. It has a whole project as an initiative, and then it breaks it down further and further. And then you get to actual user stories and tasks that you can sit and develop."
"The visibility it brings to the plan, the ability to capture tasks, and trace them all the way through the life cycle. Providing that visibility helps both me and the team, or teams, to be able to understand where we are in the development process."
"Helps me determine how fast I can launch, go to production."
"The configurable Portfolio Management and parent-child relationships."
"Its ability to scale."
"The main ways that I used it when I was in it day to day was keeping up with the burn rate within the teams. Also, to track at the feature level too, as far as how we were doing with actually being able to deliver that feature."
 

Cons

"AI is utilized worldwide; they could implement the functionality for notifications and other organizational operations in the product."
"Jira Align's user interface needs improvement because its user experience is really bad."
"Other companies that are competitors of Jira and Confluence, they are able to create their active directories for the vendors that don't come in internally."
"In my company, we found the solution to have many issues regarding its ability to handle claims and other processes since the solution is not available on a single window."
"One area where Jira Align could be improved is mobile accessibility."
"I would like to see Jira Align merge and integrate better with Jira as a whole. A lot of the time, the data from Jira won't map very well into Jira Align."
"The workflows are scalable from portfolio to individual level but can sometimes be complex to navigate."
"The synchronization between Jira and Jira Align takes too long."
"The Reporting feature can improve, especially around executive summaries and dependency mapping."
"In terms of improvement, perhaps some more metrics. If they could add some additional, that would be cool."
"The navigation within the tool sometimes is a little tricky for me. I'm sure with more use, more practice, I'll become accustomed to it, but some of the things just aren't intuitive."
"The solution is expensive."
"One problem I see is that if there is a dependent user story - for example, if my team is working on one thing and there is a dependent user story from another team - we can have a dependency created but we don't know if there is a change of status from the other team. That is something which is very important for Agile Central to look into so that if the other team makes any changes we will be notified as well."
"It could improve by being self-organizing: user stories, different hierarchies, and different perspectives. Not just as a single hierarchical structure, but something that can be multidimensional."
"We would like more meaningful, customizable dashboards."
"The product needs to have more integration capabilities."
 

Pricing and Cost Advice

"Jira Align has price packages for different purposes."
"Jira Align is an expensive solution."
"My company pays approximately 399 USD per month for the solution."
"The license for Jira Align is priced fairly."
"Jira Align is quite expensive for small-to-medium companies, but it's quite reasonable for larger ones."
"Jira Align's pricing is reasonable."
"The tool is moderately expensive."
"On a scale of one to ten, where one is cheap, and ten is expensive, I rate Jira Align a seven out of ten."
"I don't know the exact pricing, but I think the tool is priced high. They provide quality workmanship, good software, regular upgrades, and they're always attentive and listen to users. Everything comes with a price. I think it's an expensive solution compared to Jira or other competitors, but it's a complete package."
"The license costs are fairly high as compared to some of the other solutions out there."
"It is expensive and may not be worthwhile for a small company."
"From a price point, it's a cost effective solution for our needs."
"Rally Software costs $50 a month, and for a base account, that price is acceptable."
"I understand it's a little more expensive. That is why many people prefer Jira."
"Frankly, pricing is expensive and needs to be carefully planned for when budgeting."
"We are always looking for a discount, if the solution was less expensive it would be a benefit."
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Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Financial Services Firm
22%
Computer Software Company
14%
Manufacturing Company
12%
Insurance Company
7%
Educational Organization
71%
Financial Services Firm
4%
Manufacturing Company
4%
Insurance Company
3%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
 

Questions from the Community

What do you like most about Jira Align?
I joined the company because they had a large project, and as a startup company, they needed to scale up efficiently. My task was to review the current baseline, assess the team's capabilities, and...
What needs improvement with Jira Align?
The platform's communication features could be more robust for better team integration.
What is your primary use case for Jira Align?
We use Jira Align for business strategies, collaboration, and reporting. The solution allows us to manage the various products and features delivered on that platform.
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?
I don't know the exact pricing, but I think the tool is priced high. They provide quality workmanship, good software, regular upgrades, and they're always attentive and listen to users. Everything ...
What needs improvement with Rally Software?
The product itself seems to have a lot of bugs. One issue is that it sometimes allows people to modify data inappropriately. For example, team members can change numbers at will. While we have a me...
 

Also Known As

AgileCraft
CA Agile Central, Rally Enterprise, CA Agile Training, CA Agile Coaching, CA Agile Academy, CA Agile Management , CA ALM
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Anthem, nielsen, Homeland Security, NCR, dimension data
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 Jira Align vs. Rally Software and other solutions. Updated: May 2025.
851,604 professionals have used our research since 2012.