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Jira vs Microsoft Project Server comparison

 

Comparison Buyer's Guide

Executive Summary

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
7.1
Organizations report enhanced efficiency and quick ROI from Jira, despite some dissatisfaction with recent changes and plugin support.
Sentiment score
5.1
Microsoft Project Server offers positive ROI, varying by organization type, with benefits of time savings and improved reporting.
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
Microsoft Project provides significant return on investment through time savings, enhanced visibility, real-time reporting, and risk mitigation for projects.
Project Manager at Digital Research Alliance of Canada
 

Customer Service

Sentiment score
6.7
Jira's customer service relies on documentation and forums, with varied satisfaction in email and technical support responsiveness.
Sentiment score
4.4
Microsoft Project Server support is decent but inconsistent; users rely on external resources and partners for comprehensive assistance.
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
Their support tends to decline when not supporting cloud solutions.
Managing Director at Knights Innovation Support Centre
It's challenging to navigate, often making it necessary to search for solutions externally.
Project Manager at Digital Research Alliance of Canada
Help forums and online resources like YouTube are helpful.
Project Manager at Marvell Technology Group
 

Scalability Issues

Sentiment score
7.2
Jira scales well from small teams to thousands, offering customization and integration with other tools, despite potential cost increases.
Sentiment score
7.5
Microsoft Project Server is scalable for large projects, though performance may vary based on version and infrastructure costs.
Scalability for Jira is great, and it handles growth easily from 100 to thousands.
CEO at 2Help
Microsoft Project Server is fully scalable and is widely used in many industries.
Project Manager at Marvell Technology Group
The desktop version does not have scalability.
Independent Business Consultant at Freelance
 

Stability Issues

Sentiment score
7.6
Jira is largely stable, experiencing occasional performance issues, with users valuing recent reliability improvements despite costly enhancements.
Sentiment score
7.1
Microsoft Project Server is stable and robust, with minor delays, improved in newer versions, especially the cloud version.
In my experience, Jira is stable, with around 99% uptime.
Senior Consultant at a consultancy with 10,001+ employees
I have never had to reach out to their support because the product works as expected.
Project Manager at Digital Research Alliance of Canada
 

Room For Improvement

Jira users face customization challenges, inadequate search and integration, performance issues, and seek improved interface, reporting, and training.
Microsoft Project Server requires better integration, customization, user-friendliness, cloud functionality, and agile methodologies to compete with alternatives.
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
Exporting data from Microsoft Project, especially Gantt charts, is overly complex and not user-friendly.
Project Manager at Digital Research Alliance of Canada
The lack of collaboration capabilities on the desktop version, unlike the cloud version, is a limitation.
Independent Business Consultant at Freelance
Microsoft has become increasingly expensive, and there seems to be a push towards cloud solutions which can be challenging for some.
Managing Director at Knights Innovation Support Centre
 

Setup Cost

Jira's pricing can be costly for larger teams due to user count and plugin dependencies, prompting alternatives exploration.
Microsoft Project Server offers flexible pricing, with on-premise and cloud options, potentially costing enterprises $120,000 to $150,000 annually.
Even if only five people from your team use a financial plugin, you still pay for all 100 seats.
CEO at 2Help
Microsoft Project Server is on the expensive side due to high licensing costs.
Project Manager at Marvell Technology Group
Microsoft's products are expensive for individuals.
Independent Business Consultant at Freelance
Considering the infrastructure commitments to SharePoint and SQL, the implementation costs are low if already set up.
Managing Director at Knights Innovation Support Centre
 

Valuable Features

Jira is user-friendly with powerful integrations, customizable workflows, Agile support, and robust reporting for enhanced collaboration and productivity.
Microsoft Project Server streamlines complex project management with resource allocation, integration, and robust tools for efficient collaboration and scheduling.
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
This setup allows for comprehensive reporting and management across multiple projects and portfolios.
Managing Director at Knights Innovation Support Centre
The dashboards are amazing for data crunching and provide a project focus with upcoming predictions, including burn-up and burn-down charts.
Project Manager at Marvell Technology Group
The Gantt chart is also a very powerful tool for a visual presentation of sequences, critical paths, and execution processes, which simplifies comprehension for users.
Project Manager at Digital Research Alliance of Canada
 

Categories and Ranking

Jira
Average Rating
8.2
Reviews Sentiment
6.8
Number of Reviews
277
Ranking in other categories
Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) Suites (1st), Application Requirements Management (2nd), Project Management Software (1st)
Microsoft Project Server
Average Rating
8.0
Reviews Sentiment
6.5
Number of Reviews
62
Ranking in other categories
Project Portfolio Management (5th)
 

Featured Reviews

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.
Ipsita Seth - PeerSpot reviewer
Project Manager at Marvell Technology Group
Enables effective workload monitoring and data insights with powerful features
Microsoft Project Server is quite a powerful tool and offers a good way of seeing dependencies and interactions, along with baselines. The resource management feature allows us to monitor workload and resource load effectively. Additionally, the dashboards are amazing for data crunching and provide a project focus with upcoming predictions, including burn-up and burn-down charts.
report
Use our free recommendation engine to learn which Project Portfolio Management solutions are best for your needs.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.
 

Top Industries

By visitors reading reviews
Manufacturing Company
17%
Financial Services Firm
10%
Computer Software Company
9%
Government
8%
Manufacturing Company
16%
Computer Software Company
12%
Government
9%
Energy/Utilities Company
7%
 

Company Size

By reviewers
Large Enterprise
Midsize Enterprise
Small Business
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business105
Midsize Enterprise56
Large Enterprise150
By reviewers
Company SizeCount
Small Business25
Midsize Enterprise12
Large Enterprise33
 

Questions from the Community

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...
What do you like most about Microsoft Project Server?
The ability to track a project's progress using Microsoft Project Server is the most valuable aspect. It depends, especially when managing multiple projects.
What is your experience regarding pricing and costs for Microsoft Project Server?
The pricing for Microsoft Project Server is standard, around $200-$250, but I think it's actually $80 to $100 per year. The pricing for Microsoft Project Server is relative; I would say it is cheap.
What needs improvement with Microsoft Project Server?
In order to improve Microsoft Project Server, collaborative features could be enhanced, as it is possible to improve it in a collaborative way similar to other office products, for example, using c...
 

Also Known As

Jira Software
MS Project Server
 

Overview

 

Sample Customers

Square, Nasa, eBay, Cisco, SalesForce, Adobe, BNP Paribas, BMW and LinkedIn, Pfizer, Citi.
Magnachip, Gwinnett County Schools, CLEAResult, Medbit Oy, Intelbras S.A., ETS, CORE Construction, Keller Foundations
Find out what your peers are saying about Jira vs. Microsoft Project Server and other solutions. Updated: December 2025.
881,082 professionals have used our research since 2012.