Jira and Confluence Alternatives

There are many alternatives to Jira and Confluence available at UW-madison.

List of alternatives to Jira 

Chart comparing Jira alternatives 

List of alternatives to Confluence

Chart comparing Confluence alternatives   


Don’t know what alternatives to choose?

Contact the DoIT Shared Tools team by emailing st-help@doit.wisc.edu. We can provide recommendations for alternative services available at UW-Madison.


Jira alternatives

GitLab (recommended)

What is GitLab? GitLab is a single platform that combines project & portfolio management, service desk, source code management & deployment, knowledge management, metrics, analytics and insights. A shared instance of GitLab (git.doit.wisc.edu) is available to UW-Madison researchers, faculty, staff and certain affiliates. 

Resources

    Note: Migration tools are supported. Lunch and learns offered.

    Sign in to try GitLab and start with 4 personal accounts  Request a GitLab group and trial account  


    WiscIT (DoIT only)

    WiscIT is DoIT's Information Technology Service Management solution, powered by Cherwell Service Management. 

    Discuss your needs with the WiscIT team  


    O365 Products

    Both To Do and Planner can be integrated with Microsoft teams. 

    Microsoft Planner

    Microsoft Planner is a feature available in O365.

    Resources

    Note: You can export your Jira data to a CSV file and import it into Microsoft planner. 

    To Do

    Microsoft To Do is a feature available in Microsoft Office 365 (O365).

    Learn more about To Do or Planner and contact the O365 service team 


    Confluence alternatives

    KnowledgeBase (recommended)

    The KnowledgeBase (KB) is a platform for easily creating, displaying, sharing, and managing web-based knowledge documents.You can import Confluence page content into the KB.

    Resources 

    Note: Migration tools are supported. Lunch and learns offered.

    Explore existing KB sites and documents  Setup a site and learn more about the Knowledge Base What is the KnowledgeBase? 

    NoteInformation symbol

    The KB Team is the process of developing a batch import tool to help migrate content from the Wiki. Detailed steps will be available soon.


    WiscWeb

    WiscWeb is a platform for creating and maintaining a UW-Madison branded website.

    Resources

    Note: Lunch and learns offered.

    Learn more about WiscWeb  Request a new WiscWeb site 


    GitLab

    What is GitLab? GitLab is a single platform that combines project & portfolio management, service desk, source code management & deployment, knowledge management, metrics, analytics and insights. A shared instance of GitLab (git.doit.wisc.edu) is available to UW-Madison researchers, faculty, staff and certain affiliates. 

    Resources

      Note: Lunch and learns offered.

      Sign in to try GitLab and start with 4 personal accounts  Request a GitLab group and trial account  


      Google Workspace

      Google Workspace is a collection of cloud-based productivity and collaborative tools including: Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Sheets, Google Sites, Google Keep, Hangouts Meet, Hangouts Chat, and more.

      A Google team drive is a great alternative to a Confluence space. It allows teams to capture meeting notes and organize many different types of content. 

      Learn more about Google Workspace  


      Box

      Box provides you with a place to store and access files that are needed for active collaboration. 

      Learn more about Box  


      O365 Products

      From One-Drive to Microsoft Teams and Sharepoint, O365 has many alternatives for storing and sharing files. 

      Learn more about One-Drive, teams, and Sharepoint and contact the O365 service team 


      Comparison of Jira alternatives

      Jira alternatives and their features

      Feature

      Jira Software

      GitLab

      WiscIT (DoIT Only)

      Microsoft Planner

      To Do

      Individual tasks

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Agile project planning

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Scaled Agile Framework (SAFe)

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Roadmapping

      ✔️

      ✔️
      (limited)

      Board views (Issues - Kanban/Scrum)

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Board views (Epics)

      ✔️

      Epics

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Sub-epics

      ✔️

      Assign tasks

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Assign tasks to multiple users

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Issues

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Sub-tasks

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Internal Comments

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      External Comments

      ✔️
      (customization)

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Labels

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️
      (categories)

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Sprints (iterations)

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Releases (milestones & deployment releases)

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Versions (labels or tags)

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Connect issues to merge requests

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Estimating Effort

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Sprint Reports

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️
      (limited)

      Burndown Charts

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️
      (limited)

      Velocity

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️
      (limited)

      Groups

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Projects

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Permissions at the group and project level

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️
      (limited)

      Service desk/request intake process

      ✔️
      (customization)

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Issue/Ticket Activity History

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Notifications

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Issue Templates

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Cloning/Duplicating Issues

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Workflows

      ✔️

      ✔️
      (limited)

      ✔️
      (limited)

      ✔️
      (limited)


      Comparison of Confluence alternatives

      Confluence alternatives and their features

      Feature

      Confluence

      Knowledge Base (KB)

      WiscWeb

      GitLab

      Google Workspace

      Box

      Office 365 

      Spaces/Sites
      Contain pages/articles for individuals, teams, and projects

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Pages/Articles

      Pages with content used for various purposes

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Notifications

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Commenting

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Macros

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Real-time editing and collaboration

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Page versioning

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Permissions at the group, space, and page/article level

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️
      (limited to group and page)


      (limited to group and project level)

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Internal content accessed using permissions

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      External/public content

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️
      (using GitLab pages)

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Personalized feed and home page

      ✔️

      Landing page

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Announcements

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Blogs

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Structured page tree

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Templates

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      ✔️

      Search

      ✔️

      ✔️
      (semantic search in progress)

      ✔️

      ✔️
      (limited search capabilities)

      ✔️
      (limited search capabilities)

      ✔️
      (limited search capabilities)

      ✔️
      (limited search capabilities)



      Keywordsalternatives, services space issue tracking workflow content restrictions, comparison, jira, confluence, wiki, retirement, service change, cloud, data center, server, Atlassian, DoIT, shared tools   Doc ID123742
      OwnerVanessa T.GroupShared Tools
      Created2023-02-01 18:53 CDTUpdated2023-09-07 16:05 CDT
      SitesDoIT Help Desk, Shared Tools
      Feedback  0   0