I’ve been using and implementing Redmine in organisations for many years. Of course I already knew about Jira but it was not until some months ago that I began using it in a new project. This post makes a brief comparison between two systems like Redmine and Jira that address similar needs: tasks and project management.
IMPORTANT: this post is under construction. Future features that will be compared are marked “to be assessed“.
| FUNCTION | REDMINE | JIRA |
|---|---|---|
| Focus | Task is the main entity in Redmine. Most setup is focused in managing its configuration, management and security. No many configuration options are left to the project. | Project is the main entity in Jira. You will have to go through many configuration options before you are able to work with tasks in a project. Jira configuration has a higher level of abstraction than Redmine’s. |
| Projects | It is very easy to create a project in Redmine, since projects are mainly task containers. You can also duplicate an existing project. | Creating a new project in Jira can be a really tough task since you will have to setup endless options. Luckily you can also duplicate an existing project. |
| Users/Groups | to be assessed | to be assessed |
| Roles | to be assessed | to be assessed |
| Custom fields | to be assessed | to be assessed |
| Permissions | Permissions by roles (profiles) | Permissions by schemes |
| Issue security | Simple and easy configuration: security permission by role and by project | Sophisticated security schemes, more powerful and complex |
| Notifications | Simple and easy configuration: issue notifications by type of event and user | Sophisticated notification schemes, more powerful and complex |
| Reports/filters | Very powerful tool in Redmine. You set up customized reports and lists with filters. | You can setup issue lists with the basic filters tools. You may implement very sophisticated filters with Jira programming language. |
| Workflow | Workflows are just an issue status changing flow. | There are transition buttons with specific windows; you can also see the whole workflow for the issue. |
| Extend options | Free plugins | Plugins, many of them on a pay-per-use basis |
| Setup | to be assessed | to be assessed |
| Integrations | to be assessed | to be assessed |
| Implementation | In 2-3 weeks you can deploy the system in your organisation and the team will be up and running. Minimal training needed. | In 2-3 weeks you begin using it but you will need a thorough continuous work in improving and fine-tunning the system. Extensive training needed. |
| Source | Open. Community driven development. | Proprietary(Atlassian) |
| Development | to be assessed | to be assessed |
| Price | No license fees. Many free plugins. Some premium professional plugins are not free. | From 10$ to 75$/user for Jira Software, but no “helpdesk” or “business” type projects. You will pay proportionally more when your number of users keeps growing. |
| User interface | Standard Redmine theme isn’t a very stimulating interface. However you can substantially improve it by installing new themes developed by the community. | Inline edition, native boards. Dashboards. |
| Hosting | In house installation, hosted services. | In house or Jira hosted service. |
Summary
Redmine is easier and faster to implement.
Jira is more powerful and complex.
Redmine is a perfect project and task management tool for small and medium size companies or teams.
Jira is more recommended for big companies or for high-tech companies with team members with agile skills.
You can install Redmine in your server. If you need help to install and implement Redmine in your company, you can contact me here. I’ve got plenty of experience in such projects.
If you prefer to use Redmine as a cloud service, you can try any of the current hosted options like plan.io or Redmineup Cloud.
If you prefer Jira, please refer to Atlassian web page.
Note: I know Redmine peculiarities better than Jira. If you think there’s something missing or wrong on this post, please comment it!
Hi Luis,
I have just read your comparison and find it very good. Have you thought about doing an update looking at the areas of ‘short comiings’ on the part of Redmine, you mention Agile is better handled in Jira, by adding plugins? We use Redmine and have an Agile plugin which works really well. You could also then include comments on the 2019 Jira interface update which make Jira one of the most unusable products I have ever had to use, and from comments I have read these is a large group of people that would agree with this.
Thanks
Simon
Thanks a lot for your comments, Simon. You’re right that Jira has become more unusuable as they revamped their interface. Regarding interface, please do not forget to check Zenmine and Boostmine from Best Redmine Theme https://bestredminetheme.com/.
Hola Luis, buenos días,
Ante todo muchas gracias por el artículo, nosotros en la compañía estamos pensando en hacer cambios de jira a otra posible plataforma que lo sustituya por tema de costes, estamos valorando redmine.
¿Qué tal de rendimiento para 500-1000 usuarios?, ¿son muy complicados los updates en redmine?
Gracias de antemano
Gracias, Antonio. En principio, el número de usuarios no es ningún problema para Redmine. Tengo clientes, fundamentalmente organismos oficiales o grandes empresas, que utilizan Redmine y que pueden tener ese número de usuarios.
Los updates de Redmine no son especialmente fáciles, lleva un proceso minucioso; no es como WordPress, por ponerte un ejemplo conocido. Eso sí que es algo que debería mejorarse en el futuro.