Bugzilla Vs Jira: A Complete Comparison

Are you finding it hard making a choice between Bugzilla Vs Jira?  Bugzilla and Jira are examples of defect tracking tools. Defect tracking tools help in automatically finding, reporting, recording, and tracking software issues or bugs in software development projects. In this article, we bring you all you need to know to help you choose between the two defect tracking solutions.

What is Bugzilla?

Bugzilla is a web-based open-source defect tracking system designed by Mozilla Foundation to support developers in tracking issues in software projects. Bugzilla can be linked to other tools such as Jira, QC, etc. and it is built with Perl and runs on the MySQL server platform.

Key Features of Bugzilla

1. Superb security

Bugzilla has been designed with an effective and stable security architecture. Some of the security features implemented are the two-factor authentication (2FA) feature, strengthened root store policy, prevention of secrets being leaked through Clipboard, improvement of publicly trusted intermediate CA certificate, and so on. All these features help to guarantee effective security in the Bugzilla platform and keep user details and tasks safe.

2. Bugs Representation Formats

For easier and faster understanding by developers, Bugzilla produces bugs in multiple formats such as in an XML format, Long format, or just a Time summary.

Also in terms of calibration Bugzilla can present bugs in Line graphs, Bar charts, or Pie chart patterns. With these formats, it is easier for a developer to have a clearer understanding of the type and magnitude of the bug and find the best way to address it.

3. Email notification controlled by user preferences

The email notification sent by Bugzilla can be controlled based on the user’s choice. With Bugzilla email notification, a user has access to enable or disable notifications on specific events. You can determine the maximum number of emails you want Bugzilla to send to you through the Email Preferences tab.

4. Advanced Search Capabilities

Once a bug is reported, it’s quite simple and easy to search the bug out for fixing using Bugzilla. With the advanced search, you have the privilege to filter your search based on some parameters, for instance, you can filter and search based on

1. Classification e.g. unclassified.

2. Product e.g. Spider secretion.

3. Company e.g. Salt.

4. Status e.g. unconfirmed.

5. Resolution e.g. Fixed and so on.

5. Time Tracking

This feature of Bugzilla enables users to estimate time for debugging, track work hours and establish deadlines.

6. Customization

Customizing the Bugzilla dashboard is quite easy and less complex compared to some other defect tracking tools. Bugzilla has fewer dashboard metrics to set up compared to others. On the Bugzilla dashboard, you have Menus and Filters, Charts, and Saved views mainly, through which you can handle tasks.

But in other tools such as Jira, you have more other metrics such as  Epic Burndown, Sprint Burndown, Cycle Time, Defect Ratio, Velocity, etc which you will also need to customize.

7. Localization

It is possible for the user interface of Bugzilla to be made localized in another language. At the moment, there are over 10 languages for Bugzilla localization such as Chinese, Japanese, German, Russian, Czech, and many more.

What is Jira?

It is an advanced project management system designed by the Australian Company Atlassian for agile teams to essentially optimize project planning, execution, and tracking. It is a tool built for software issues/bugs tracking that has functionalities to manage your dynamic project workflows. Jira connects people, activities, and tools to help developers make great software products.

Key Features of Jira

Jira has some very useful features as can be seen below:

1. Plans/Advance Roadmaps

Roadmaps in project management usually help to display all your work items in a single project in a clear way that lets you plan and track work in that project. Plans are specific roadmaps that help you bring multiple projects together for a broader view of your projects all in one place. This Jira feature is quite useful to developers for better efficiency and accuracy.

2. Project Tracking

Jira has the capacity to track software issues even on an ongoing project at any stage. Also, there is a customizable query language on Jira that allows one to filter or sort bugs/issues in various criteria. There is an available sidebar as well through which you can view immediate details about releasing, planning, tracking, and reporting.

3. Jira Security

Jira’s security settings for issues tracking on software ensure there is a restriction of access to only people who are granted permission to work on the bug or team member security level. You can set your security level on the bug when you are creating it or during editing.

4. Jira Add-On Connectivity

Because Jira is furnished with pliable Java APIs & REST, one can simply extend its strength to achieve functionality based on the person’s business value requirements. Importantly, the over 800 add-ons and plugins for Jira available in the Atlassian Marketplace give you the privilege to have significant control of the product. Some of the popular add-ons include:

Atlassian REST API Browse

JIRA Toolkit Plugin

Zephyr for JIRA – Test Management

ScriptRunner for JIRA

Tempo Timesheets for JIRA

JIRA Misc Workflow Extensions

Portfolio for JIRA

Suites utilities for JIRA

JIRA Charting Plugin

Etc.

5. Jira Reports

Jira’s ability to articulate and deliver the needed information in a simplified manner known as a report makes it one of the best defect tracking tools available.

You can gain insights through numerous reports available in Jira to help you have a better understanding of the project situation. The reports contain statistical details covering the entire project lifecycle from the start to the end of the project.

6. Effective Product Integrations

Jira has very friendly and simple integration features to integrate with other tools such as the Atlassian tool known as Confluence. As well, you can connect your development and IT team together for the speedy resolution of issues through integrating with Jira software with Jira Service Desk. Currently, Jira comfortably integrates with the following solutions:

Zendesk

Service Desk

GitHub

Tempo

Salesforce Sales Cloud

Gantt-Chart for JIRA

nFeed

Balsamiq

EazyBI

Zephyr

Atlassian Confluence

Gliffy

Etc.

7. Detailed Activity Log

One other feature that makes Jira a project management solution of choice for many is its efficient activity logging function. It can capture all activities, updates, and all tasks logged against one’s issues.

Jira Vs Bugzilla Comparison: Major Differences in Features

The details in the table below indicate Bugzilla vs Jira comparison.

Bugzilla Vs Jira Comparison: Pricing

Jira Vs Bugzilla: Customer Reviews

One of the ways to know the level of satisfaction customers are deriving from your products or services is through customer reviews. Below is the major difference between JIRA vs Bugzilla in terms of customer reviews from some top online review platforms.

Bugzilla

What Customers Like Most:

1. Free price

2. API for creating custom dashboards

3. Easy-to-use interface

4. Email notification

5. Can search for more than one bug at a time

6. Perfect for most database systems

What Customers Do Not Like:

 1. Interface is clunky and difficult to manage

2. Requires more documentation guide

3. Loading time takes long

4 It is difficult to customize

5. Sometimes it is difficult to maintain logged errors

Jira

What Customers Like Most:

1. Many options for customization

2. Ease-of-use

3. Ease of integration with other tools

4. Effective issues tracking

What Customers Do Not Like:

1. No provision to delete item or subtask

2. Doesn’t have auto-refresh options

3. Quite slow when loading initially

4. Price is high

Conclusion

Jira is created based on 3 fundamental concepts of Issue, Project, and Workflow. This makes it cover more ground in terms of the entire software development life cycle project and the release of the software product with confidence. Jira is mostly used by agile development teams.

Bugzilla is a superb defect/bug tracking tool that is open-source with a free license. It allows integration with other tools like Jira, ALM, or QC, etc.

To help make the right decision with regards to the right choice between Bugzilla vs Jira, it will be right to say that based on all we have reviewed about the two tools, both solutions are great.

However, to make a choice between Bugzilla vs Jira, you need to put many factors into consideration. If you will require the tool to handle the entire software project from start to the end including issues, and tracking, and would not mind the cost of the license, then Jira will be your best bet.

On the other hand, if you will prefer the tool just mainly handling defect/bug tracking and pricing is a factor, then Bugzilla is the better option for you.

Generally, both tools are quite sophisticated and useful for defect tracking to guarantee great software product output.

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