We recently discussed with one of our customers about their customer, who wanted to get rid of Atlassian JIRA. The underlying reason for this was a simple one: JIRA is just too complex for their needs. Naturally our discussion with the customer revolved around JIRA alternatives, which could provide the team with a flexible issue tracking tool. We ended up comparing a bunch of different software configuration management tools and especially their issue tracking features. For this particular customer, possibility to set the issue's priority and state according to your own workflow was a must-have, which is pretty evident in the following comparison.

1. Comparison of Issue
Tracking in Major SCM Tools

2. GitHub

3. • Create issues without assigning to a milestone
• Repository-bound issue management
• Cannot set any priorities or modify states
• Shortcuts for proper Markdown commands
• Unclear support for attachments

4. Conclusion
GitHub's issue management has similarities with
other SCM tools. Simplicity is a plus, as is the
possibility to set due dates for milestones. Lack of
prioritizing may cause issues for project managers.

5. Gitlab

6. • Repository-bound issue management
• Choose between "open" or "closed" states
• Priority set on a scale of 1-9
• Filterable by multiple factors
• Allows bulk milestone, status or assignee edits

7. Conclusion
GitLab's issue management has nice features,
looks good, and lets you use emojis and choose the
color for your labels. Communicating within issues
is also possible.

8. Bitbucket

9. • Not active by default
• Issues states limited to open or resolved
• Limited labelling and priority levels
• Basic filtering via advanced search
• Lacks many basic issue management features

10. Conclusion
BitBucket's issue management lacks many basic
features you might expect from an issue
management tool. It's possible Atlassian would
prefer users adopt JIRA instead.

12. • Project based issue management
• Issues categorized under milestones
• Custom priorities, states, and labels
• Filter by custom priorities, states, and labels
• Visualize issues in a task board (Kanban board)
or list view

13. Conclusion
Deveo's issue management has a versatile feature
set for project based issue management. Users can
set custom priorities and states, and view in a
board or list view. Deveo issue management
doesn’t allow bulk editing or deadlines.

14. Possible to modify top
priority levels
Possible to modify states
Supports attachments in issues
Commenting/ Discussion
under issues
Labels
Kanban view
Possible to link to issues
Ability to set deadlines
Ability to bulk edit the issues

15. What issue tracking feature would you like
to see in your SCM tool?
Comment below, or tweet us your answer
@deveoteam