JIRA is a popular software created by the Australian company Atlassian, which was created in 2002. There are many reasons why JIRA is a popular task management and issue tracking software. This post will highlight the best free Jira plugins available.
The tool is a powerful platform with a wide range of functionalities to help teams all over the world in vastly different industries and fields and looking for multi-functioning capabilities.
Not only is the fact that JIRA offers an all-encompassing platform the only reason for its popularity. JIRA also provides its users the ability to customize features according to their specific needs.
What the application cannot offer in way of customization, it makes up for with its enormous library of available plugins. In this blog post, we will consider some of the best free JIRA plugins that you can adopt to help customize your JIRA experience to be best suited for you and your team.
What are JIRA Plugins?
JIRA plugins can also be referred to as JIRA add-ons or alternatively as JIRA apps. Understand these as pieces of software, they help improve your JIRA experience by offering new functionality which essentially ‘plugs into’ the JIRA platform.
They help in creating a faster as well as easier to use JIRA experience and offer functionality that may otherwise be missing.
You can access these plugins or JIRA add-ons from the Atlassian Marketplace. The Atlassian Marketplace has multiple options, approximately around 1,700 different JIRA plugins that you can choose from.
These add-ons or applications are created either by Atlassian developers or other partners of Atlassian to work in combination with the JIRA platform.
Let’s look at some of the JIRA plugins that are available for you to choose from which are our top picks for the best free JIRA plugins.
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Top Choices for Free JIRA plugins
With the sheer number of options in terms of available plugins or add-ons to choose from, the choice of which app is best suited for you and your team can become confusing, if not entirely daunting.
Consider certain things when choosing which plugin or add-on you are going to choose as each team’s requirement is different and you could not simply rely on the popularity of a plugin.
Firstly, you want to check what the plugin offers and whether it compliments how you wish to use JIRA. Look for an add-on that offers the functionality you are after without offering unnecessary advanced features or lacking features that are important for you.
The number of features and capabilities of a plugin also affects the price and cost of any specific app which should also factor in to the choice of the add-on you choose.
Another consideration is how old the plugin is. Choosing plugins that have been around for at least a while can be beneficial as those that are entirely new do not guarantee they will be permanent features of Atlassian’s Marketplace.
Other considerations include how well the plugin is supported by the vendor which indicates how quick any issues will be resolved if they were to arise.
Moreover, you want to consider the vendor’s timing in addressing JIRA version upgrades and security fixes. If the vendor cannot address such things in a timely manner, you and your team will find yourselves waiting to upgrade your JIRA platform due to outdated plugins or add-ons.
And while popularity is not a determining factor on which plugin you will choose it should be a consideration as more installs mean the app is popular and usually that is for good reason.
1. Timesheet tracking for JIRA
Timesheet tracking for JIRA has over 8500 installations. This add-on offers you the ability to create timesheet reports of the time logged for work you and your team have done and have tracked using JIRA.
You have the ability to generate pie charts or tables depending on how you would like your timesheet reports. These offer you a quick oversight over your team member’s work logs and project durations.
The reports can also be filtered to your liking with customization of whether you want to see the users, projects, or any other filter you may apply.
What’s more, is that you can also export these reports to use as you please.
2. JIRA integration for Microsoft Teams
Communication is important in a team no matter which industry you and your team are working in. And with Microsoft Teams being the go-to communication app for many teams JIRA integration for Microsoft Teams had to be our next pick of the best JIRA add-ons.
This add-on allows you to easily create, search, or share new issues you make in JIRA with the rest of your team. You can use the messaging extension to cut downtime when searching or sharing issues with your team while also being able to create new JIRA issues.
You can also use the JIRA Server Bot to assign issues in JIRA to yourself, add comments and modify JIRA issues, and even log time. This bot can be added as a member of your team or even be assigned as a sort of personal assistant.
Moreover, you can create tabs and track team progress or personal progress. Tabs allow you to create, update, and sort JIRA issues in both a personal capacity and on a team scope basis by applying basic filters.
3. Stateoscope
Stateoscope’s JIRA add-on allows you to gain the ability to see all issue state history at a glance.
This particular add-on will appear in the default issue view page of JIRA as an additional tab panel named “Stateoscope”.
With access to this tab, you will be able to see a brief history of all the issue’s state changes that have been created in the JIRA application. You can also see things such as response time per every individual state change.
It should be noted however that Atlassian’s privacy policy is not applicable to the use of this particular add-on.
4. TestRail Integration for JIRA
TestRail is a popular application for test management and quality assurance. TestRail Professional, as well as TestRail Enterprise, can both be integrated with the TestRail integration for the JIRA add-on.
The application is used by over 8000 different companies including the likes of Amazon, Apple, and even Microsoft.
You can easily accelerate both your quality assurance and testing process and efforts for you and your team.
The add-on allows you to access features such as Forecasting, test automation API, and custom reports creating a user interface optimized for your testing needs.
The add-on offers two-way sync between JIRA functionalities such as issues, bugs, and other requirements as well as the tests run in TestRail.
5. Event Calendar for JIRA
With this plugin of Event Calendar for JIRA you can easily manage your work calendar within your project workspace.
The Event Calendar for JIRA plugin offers the ability to manage both events and meetings directly within JIRA so you are not switching between different applications constantly.
The add-on offers the ability to share calendars with different users and team members, create either one or more calendars per project you are working on, create, edit, or delete separate events.
This add-on integrates with your Atlassian product and even offers support via email or live chat.
6. Automation for JIRA (Server Lite)
Automation for JIRA is a plugin that offers you the ability to simplify automating and extending JIRA.
You can easily automate tasks in JIRA by the use of simple building blocks to help save valuable time and effort that can otherwise be used elsewhere.
Take the scripting out of the automation process for both simple use-cases as well as complex use cases.
This add-on that we are discussing is the free version and therefore is limited in the features it offers. However, you can choose to purchase the Automation Pro add-on for the full range of available features.
How to Install free JIRA Plugins?
How you are able to install add-ons for JIRA is dependent on what type of user of the platform you are.
If you are simply a standard user, chances are you will require the permission of your administrator, that is your JIRA account’s administrator, to be able to download or install any such plugin or app.
On the other hand, if you do have admin permission or are a JIRA administrator yourself the process is fairly simple and straightforward.
A JIRA admin user has the ability to install any such free JIRA plugins as they wish. You can access available plugins or add-ons through your access to the Atlassian Marketplace which is accessible via your admin console.
All you have to do is choose which add-on you wish to access or use and click on the install button. Doing so will give you the ability to use the add-on in connection with JIRA’s platform.
Conclusion
These are our top picks for the best free JIRA plugins.
It should be noted that when you adopt any plugin or app to work with JIRA you need to consider which version of the application you are using.
JIRA can be used with two main versions, that is the cloud version and the server version. Both have their own benefits and drawbacks as well as different pricing options. The applications or plugins you wish to use in conjunction with JIRA need to be compatible with the version of the software you use.
We hope this list can give you insight into how you can create the perfect JIRA experience for yourself and your team.
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