Top 10 Issue Tracking Software Systems to Optimize Workflow in 2023
Issue tracking software is an essential project management tool for optimizing workflows and managing software development, IT, business and other projects in 2023. With the right issue tracker or ticket tracking system, you can easily track tasks, defects, features, support tickets and more to resolve problems quickly and deliver projects on time. This article outlines the top 10 issue tracking solutions to consider this year based on capabilities, integrations, ease of use and value to meet diverse needs.
We’ll explain what issue tracking software is, key benefits, must-have features, and provide an in-depth overview of 10 popular options for improved workflow and issue resolution in 2023. Read on to find the best issue tracker for your team!
What is Issue Tracking Software and Why it’s Valuable
Also known as defect trackers, ticket trackers or issue management systems, issue tracking software helps teams manage, prioritize and resolve issues that arise during software development, IT, business projects and operations. Issues may include bugs, tasks, features, support tickets, incidents and more.
An issue tracker gives your team a centralized hub to report, assign, collaborate and track progress on issues from creation to resolution. Issue tracking software improves productivity and optimization by:
Ensuring issues don’t fall through the cracks so projects stay on track
Allowing collaboration across teams like IT, Dev, Support, Legal, etc.
Providing metrics to prioritize the most urgent issues or tasks
Creating transparency into issue status with dashboards and reporting
Streamlining communication for faster resolution
Integrating with other platforms like project management, code repositories, chat, help desk software and more
With the right issue tracking system suited to your processes, you can work more efficiently together as a team to build better products, deliver exceptional service and complete projects on time and budget.
Key Must-Have Features for Issue Tracking Tools
With countless issue tracking apps on the market, how do you determine the right solution for your needs? Here are some of the most important features and capabilities to evaluate:
Custom Fields & Forms: The system should allow custom fields and forms to capture all necessary issue details like category, version, components, screenshots, etc.
Configurable Workflows: An ideal tracker allows creating rules and automations for workflows like assignments, notifications, label setting, approvals, status changes, escalations and more.
Mobile Access: Mobile optimization is vital so team members can update or resolve tickets on the go without being chained to their desks for faster response times.
Dashboards & Reports: At-a-glance dashboards let you monitor real-time issue metrics and trends. Custom reports provide deeper historical insights to guide decisions. Can the software analyze patterns like recurring code issues?
Integrations: Seamless integration with tools like email, chat, docs, project management, code repositories, help desk software is key for smooth workflows instead of constant tool switching.
Configurable Rules & Alerts: Rules that automatically route issue assignments or alert appropriate team members of new issues can prevent bottlenecks and speed resolution.
User Permissions: Advanced solutions allow fine-grained control over user access to match team roles like developer, product manager, support rep etc. This ensures security.
Open API & Extensibility: Options to extend the system’s capabilities via API, automation, plugins and custom development enables it to grow with your changing needs.
Now let’s explore 10 top-rated issue trackers that deliver exceptional feature sets based on real user reviews.
[[best issue tracking software]]
1. Jira - Powerful Customization for Technology Teams
Trusted by over 200,000 customers globally including 83% of Fortune 500 companies, Jira provides powerful workflow customization to match diverse team needs making it one of the most widely-used and top-rated IT issue tracking tools.
The platform enables creating custom statuses, screens, fields and even custom issue types from bugs to tasks, features and more. Jira helps teams build automated workflows for assignments, notifications, approvals, field updates plus triggers based on changes or dates to streamline process management. With real-time and historical reporting capabilities, Jira provides data-driven insights to optimize cycle times. Native integrations offered for systems like GitHub, Jenkins, Bitbucket, Confluence, Jira Service Management to seamlessly manage issues across development and IT teams.
Users highlight Jira’sexceptional flexibility through customization and integration capabilities. Yet some find the interface less intuitive than other platforms without training. Pricing starts at $10 per month for teams when billed annually. Jira also offers a forever-free version for open source development and nonprofit teams.
Key Features
Highly customizable issues, fields, workflows
Powerful reporting and analytical insights
Native GitHub, Bitbucket, Confluence, JSM integrations
Ideal for technology and development teams
200,000+ global customers and Fortune 500 leader
New Issue Types and Workflows for 2023Jira recently introduced simplified issue type creation and new designer workflow builder features to make customizing processes even more intuitive without coding — helping managers better optimize workflows this year.
2. Zoho Desk - Affordable Client Support Focus
Zoho Desk strikes an impressive balance with robust issue management capabilities through their customer support ticket tracker yet an affordable price tag— starting at only $3 per agent monthly billed annually.
It simplifies collaboration across customer service and support teams with shared context-rich inboxes to track customer queries and requests efficiently in one view. Customizable ticket forms and response templates help agents resolve common or recurring issues faster. A centralized knowledge base also improves self-service for customers and productivity for teams.
Help desk agents and managers benefit from real-time dashboards, custom reports and service level agreement tracking providing actionable insights to continuously improve customer satisfaction. With email, live chat, Twitter and Facebook integrations alongside VoIP phone support, Zoho Desk enables managing tickets across channels conveniently.
While more focused on customer ticket tracking vs complex project issues, Zoho Desk wins praise from users for its collaboration-oriented features, multi-channel issue resolution capabilities and affordable pricing for growing teams.
Key Features
Unified team inboxes to track customer tickets
Custom forms and response templates
Knowledge base to improve self-service
Social media and phone integrations
Real-time helpdesk performance analytics
Starting at $3 monthly per agent for premium plan
New Features Coming Soon in 2023
Zoho Desk has hinted at a revamped machine learning-powered search experience alongside more third-party integrations to simplify issue tracking workflows coming later this year.
[[issues and feature requests]]
3. GitHub Issues - Code-Centered Open Source Tracking
As one of the leading code-connected open source issue tracking platforms used by over 100 million developers globally, GitHub Issues offers agile, integrated management centered around repositories and pull requests.
Software teams can track code defects, tasks, features, improvements and more directly alongside repositories in GitHub for improved context and cross-functional visibility. New issues, code reviews and feature requests can be configured using labels, milestones and assignees with permission controls for secure and organized workflow.
Comment threading keeps developers, QA, product managers, support reps aligned on status and needed testing or approvals to drive progress. Issue management automation workflows can also be configured using GitHub Actions like automatically closing ticket when pull requests meet review criteria to eliminate manual steps.
Integrated GitHub Issues management helps developers rapidly build, ship and iterate —which earns GitHub its reputation as a top issue tracker for agile dev teams. Yet some business teams may desire more robust reporting dashboards. GitHub Issues is free for public repositories while pricing starts at $4 per month for private repositories billed annually.
Key Features
Lightweight issue management and code collaboration
Integrates directly with repositories
Automations via GitHub Actions
Permission controls across issues
Free for open source and public repos
New GitHub Issue Features for 2023
GitHub continues expanding its automation capabilities including new options to automatically link issues for easy traceability expected later this year.
4. Asana - Flexible Tasks and Project Issue Tracking
Asana provides highly flexible tools for integrated task and issue tracking, project management and team collaboration—making it a popular pick across both agile software teams and business teams in departments like marketing, product, sales and more.
The platform allows creating issues as reusable project-centric or standalone tickets with the ability to track details like priority, assignees, start/due dates, attachments, conversations and more in one unified place. Custom fields enable capturing additional issue metadata no matter how unique team needs. Rules and dashboard views automate and provide visibility into things like task assignments, milestones and ticket resolution times.
Asana really shines through its comprehensive integration ecosystem, native app integrations, and ability to overlay visual task boards—enabling teams to gain transparency across complex workflows spanning multiple tools. Choose from 100+ native integrations like Slack, Salesforce, Dropbox, GitHub, Adobe CC and more.
Some users feel Asana handles flexible project management exceptionally well but may lack the change management rigor for certain IT issue tracking scenarios. Yet its open API and solutions marketplace does offer ways to extend functionality. Asana pricing starts at $8.98 per month billed annually for their Premium plan with free trials available.
Key Features
Unified issue, task and project tracking
Custom forms, rules and assignments
100+ native app integrations
Kanban task boards
Flexible for many team workflows
Asana Product Roadmap 2023
Asana has hinted at plans for new features like program-level milestones, upgraded API, additional third-party integrations and more customizable board views later this year.
[[15 best issue tracking software]]
5. Freshdesk - User-Friendly Ticketing Software
Known for its intuitive interface rivaling top help desk apps, Freshdesk neatly combines robust ticket tracking with an engaging user experience. It enables efficient issue resolution across teams with capabilities like automations based on pre-defined triggers, skills-based ticket routing to qualified agents, and process enforcement via graduated ticket SLAs.
Teams can further customize common forms, statuses and workflows while customers benefit from self-service via knowledge base access, community forums and ticket monitors to track progress. With conversational ticketing, intelligent suggestions, satisfaction analytics and robust custom reporting, Freshdesk provides comprehensive insights to optimize operations and the customer experience. Freshdesk is accessible from any device and integrates natively with popular channels like WhatsApp, Shopify, Slack and 100+ other apps.
While focused primarily on help desk ticketing vs complex project management, Freshdesk wins praise from users across IT, support and success teams for its balance of power, simplicity and affordable pricing starting at $15 monthly per agent billed annually.
Key Features
Intuitive, enjoyable user interface
Customizable ticket workflows
Customer self-service portals
Real-time team analytics
Robust custom reporting
100+ Native app integrations
Help desk software leader
Freshdesk Roadmap 2023
Freshdesk has exciting updates planned for later this year including enhancements to their AI capabilities to further simplify issue reassignments, suggestions and streamline repeated workflows.
6. Beanstalk - Code-Connected Project Management
Beanstalk offers integrated code, issue and project tracking in one unified platform designed to strengthen collaboration between developers and teams like product managers, while providingtransparency across software lifecycles.
It enables developers to easily link code commits and releases to issues for quick diagnosis while giving managers clear visibility into cycle times from commit stage through testing and deployment. Custom fields make it easy to capture details for defects, features, change requests and other issues. Custom permission settings matching team roles like developer, QA lead, product owner are also offered to securely manage workflows.
Integrated issue management alongside agile project planning with sections to track development, testing or deployment tasks enable true collaboration across software teams.While some users desire more advanced reporting dashboards, Beanstalk’s combined development lifecycle visibility and configurable platform capabilities receive praise.
Their Pro plan starts at $99 monthly for 10 users when billed annually with a 14-day free trial available. Integration partners include GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab, Slack and Gmail.
Key Features
Combines code repo tracking and agile project management
Traceability from commits to deployments
Custom roles and permissions
Configurable issue types, fields & workflows
Built for aligned software teams
Beanstalk 2023 UpdatesBeanstalk has hinted at plans to expand their git platform integrations to support CVS providers beyond GitHub later this year alongside a new mobile app.
[[feature request]]
7. ProWorkflow - Custom Project & Issue Tracking
ProWorkflow takes a project-based approach to highly-configurable issue tracking. As every team’s process looks different, the platform provides customizable fields, forms, status values and easy automation configuration through their workflow engine to adapt the system to diverse tracking scenarios - making it win over teams with advanced needs.
Project managers and teams can easily monitor issue types like tasks, defects, change requests or approvals while capturing relevant screenshots, documents, project data like budgets and hours for holistic visibility. Rules streamline workflows by setting assignments, approvals and notifications based on conditional logic.
While ProWorkflow specializes in work and issue monitoring for project teams vs pure developer tickets, some users note the interface takes a bit more training than other intuitive tools. However, for teams seeking ultra customization to their project tracking process with integrated collaboration capabilities ProWorkflow makes it achievable.
Their Professional plan starts at $45 monthly billed annually and serves unlimited users. Integrations are available via Zapier including Jira, Quickbooks, Google Workspace, Box and more.
Key Features
Highly-customizable issue and work tracking
Built-in approvals, timesheets and budgeting
Advanced rule automations
Collaborative document sharing
Unlimited users option
Ideal for customizable team workflows
2023 ProWorkflow Roadmap
ProWorkflow has hinted at expanded reporting dashboards tailored for key roles like Project Managers alongside new Gantt Chart views to simplify planning and traceability.
8. Zendesk Support - Enterprise-Level Client Services
Trusted by over 160,000 clients globally including companies like Vodafone, Amazon, Airbnb and Autodesk, Zendesk Support delivers powerful enterprise-level capabilities purpose-built to unify customer issue tracking across diverse teams with services tailored by industry.
Customizable support ticket forms, advanced skills matrix routing, auto-assignments, triggers, and custom ticket management rules provide the flexibility to build workflows matching unique needs. Support managers gain access to a centralized dashboard plus historical and custom reporting for actionable insights.
With omni-channel support for 40+ channels from social to in-app messaging, voice, chat and email alongside validated integrations with tools customers already use like Shopify, Mailchimp, Salesforce and more – Zendesk enables organizations to seamlessly track customer issues end-to-end.
While focused on customer support tickets rather than internal task and project management, Zendesk’s enterprise expertise, robust platform and marquee client portfolio makes it a leader for complex multi-team services tracking.
Mid-market pricing starts at $59 monthly per agent billed annually. Free trials are not offered given implementation complexity for the enterprise yet custom quotes are available.
Key Features
Enterprise-level customization
360 customer context and multi-team collaboration
Omnichannel support across 40+ channels
Powerful custom reporting capabilities
Integrates with major ecommerce, CRM and marketing platforms
Trusted choice for dedicated customer support teams
What’s New in Zendesk Support for 2023Enhanced analytics dashboards leveraging machine learning to uncover issue trends alongside new functionality to engage support teams community-wide for knowledge sharing are slated for this year.
[[issue tracking software for 2023]]
9. ServiceNow ITSM - Strategic IT Workflows
As a longstanding industry leader used by over 6,700+ enterprise customers like Spotify, KPMG, AMD, Deutsche Bank and more, ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) takes a strategic approach combining robust IT issue tracking with digital transformation maturity and scalability.
Following proven frameworks like ITIL 4 and DevOps, ITSM promotes resilience through customizable workflows for tech teams to detect,
Top 10 Issue Tracking Software Systems to Optimize Workflow in 2023
Issue tracking software is an essential project management tool for optimizing workflows and managing software development, IT, business and other projects in 2023. With the right issue tracker or ticket tracking system, you can easily track tasks, defects, features, support tickets and more to resolve problems quickly and deliver projects on time. This article outlines the top 10 issue tracking solutions to consider this year based on capabilities, integrations, ease of use and value to meet diverse needs.
We’ll explain what issue tracking software is, key benefits, must-have features, and provide an in-depth overview of 10 popular options for improved workflow and issue resolution in 2023. Read on to find the best issue tracker for your team!
What is Issue Tracking Software and Why it’s Valuable
Also known as defect trackers, ticket trackers or issue management systems, issue tracking software helps teams manage, prioritize and resolve issues that arise during software development, IT, business projects and operations. Issues may include bugs, tasks, features, support tickets, incidents and more.
An issue tracker gives your team a centralized hub to report, assign, collaborate and track progress on issues from creation to resolution. Issue tracking software improves productivity and optimization by:
Ensuring issues don’t fall through the cracks so projects stay on track
Allowing collaboration across teams like IT, Dev, Support, Legal, etc.
Providing metrics to prioritize the most urgent issues or tasks
Creating transparency into issue status with dashboards and reporting
Streamlining communication for faster resolution
Integrating with other platforms like project management, code repositories, chat, help desk software and more
With the right issue tracking system suited to your processes, you can work more efficiently together as a team to build better products, deliver exceptional service and complete projects on time and budget.
Key Must-Have Features for Issue Tracking Tools
With countless issue tracking apps on the market, how do you determine the right solution for your needs? Here are some of the most important features and capabilities to evaluate:
Custom Fields & Forms: The system should allow custom fields and forms to capture all necessary issue details like category, version, components, screenshots, etc.
Configurable Workflows: An ideal tracker allows creating rules and automations for workflows like assignments, notifications, label setting, approvals, status changes, escalations and more.
Mobile Access: Mobile optimization is vital so team members can update or resolve tickets on the go without being chained to their desks for faster response times.
Dashboards & Reports: At-a-glance dashboards let you monitor real-time issue metrics and trends. Custom reports provide deeper historical insights to guide decisions. Can the software analyze patterns like recurring code issues?
Integrations: Seamless integration with tools like email, chat, docs, project management, code repositories, help desk software is key for smooth workflows instead of constant tool switching.
Configurable Rules & Alerts: Rules that automatically route issue assignments or alert appropriate team members of new issues can prevent bottlenecks and speed resolution.
User Permissions: Advanced solutions allow fine-grained control over user access to match team roles like developer, product manager, support rep etc. This ensures security.
Open API & Extensibility: Options to extend the system’s capabilities via API, automation, plugins and custom development enables it to grow with your changing needs.
Now let’s explore 10 top-rated issue trackers that deliver exceptional feature sets based on real user reviews.
[[best issue tracking software]]
1. Jira - Powerful Customization for Technology Teams
Trusted by over 200,000 customers globally including 83% of Fortune 500 companies, Jira provides powerful workflow customization to match diverse team needs making it one of the most widely-used and top-rated IT issue tracking tools.
The platform enables creating custom statuses, screens, fields and even custom issue types from bugs to tasks, features and more. Jira helps teams build automated workflows for assignments, notifications, approvals, field updates plus triggers based on changes or dates to streamline process management. With real-time and historical reporting capabilities, Jira provides data-driven insights to optimize cycle times. Native integrations offered for systems like GitHub, Jenkins, Bitbucket, Confluence, Jira Service Management to seamlessly manage issues across development and IT teams.
Users highlight Jira’sexceptional flexibility through customization and integration capabilities. Yet some find the interface less intuitive than other platforms without training. Pricing starts at $10 per month for teams when billed annually. Jira also offers a forever-free version for open source development and nonprofit teams.
Key Features
Highly customizable issues, fields, workflows
Powerful reporting and analytical insights
Native GitHub, Bitbucket, Confluence, JSM integrations
Ideal for technology and development teams
200,000+ global customers and Fortune 500 leader
New Issue Types and Workflows for 2023Jira recently introduced simplified issue type creation and new designer workflow builder features to make customizing processes even more intuitive without coding — helping managers better optimize workflows this year.
2. Zoho Desk - Affordable Client Support Focus
Zoho Desk strikes an impressive balance with robust issue management capabilities through their customer support ticket tracker yet an affordable price tag— starting at only $3 per agent monthly billed annually.
It simplifies collaboration across customer service and support teams with shared context-rich inboxes to track customer queries and requests efficiently in one view. Customizable ticket forms and response templates help agents resolve common or recurring issues faster. A centralized knowledge base also improves self-service for customers and productivity for teams.
Help desk agents and managers benefit from real-time dashboards, custom reports and service level agreement tracking providing actionable insights to continuously improve customer satisfaction. With email, live chat, Twitter and Facebook integrations alongside VoIP phone support, Zoho Desk enables managing tickets across channels conveniently.
While more focused on customer ticket tracking vs complex project issues, Zoho Desk wins praise from users for its collaboration-oriented features, multi-channel issue resolution capabilities and affordable pricing for growing teams.
Key Features
Unified team inboxes to track customer tickets
Custom forms and response templates
Knowledge base to improve self-service
Social media and phone integrations
Real-time helpdesk performance analytics
Starting at $3 monthly per agent for premium plan
New Features Coming Soon in 2023
Zoho Desk has hinted at a revamped machine learning-powered search experience alongside more third-party integrations to simplify issue tracking workflows coming later this year.
[[issues and feature requests]]
3. GitHub Issues - Code-Centered Open Source Tracking
As one of the leading code-connected open source issue tracking platforms used by over 100 million developers globally, GitHub Issues offers agile, integrated management centered around repositories and pull requests.
Software teams can track code defects, tasks, features, improvements and more directly alongside repositories in GitHub for improved context and cross-functional visibility. New issues, code reviews and feature requests can be configured using labels, milestones and assignees with permission controls for secure and organized workflow.
Comment threading keeps developers, QA, product managers, support reps aligned on status and needed testing or approvals to drive progress. Issue management automation workflows can also be configured using GitHub Actions like automatically closing ticket when pull requests meet review criteria to eliminate manual steps.
Integrated GitHub Issues management helps developers rapidly build, ship and iterate —which earns GitHub its reputation as a top issue tracker for agile dev teams. Yet some business teams may desire more robust reporting dashboards. GitHub Issues is free for public repositories while pricing starts at $4 per month for private repositories billed annually.
Key Features
Lightweight issue management and code collaboration
Integrates directly with repositories
Automations via GitHub Actions
Permission controls across issues
Free for open source and public repos
New GitHub Issue Features for 2023
GitHub continues expanding its automation capabilities including new options to automatically link issues for easy traceability expected later this year.
4. Asana - Flexible Tasks and Project Issue Tracking
Asana provides highly flexible tools for integrated task and issue tracking, project management and team collaboration—making it a popular pick across both agile software teams and business teams in departments like marketing, product, sales and more.
The platform allows creating issues as reusable project-centric or standalone tickets with the ability to track details like priority, assignees, start/due dates, attachments, conversations and more in one unified place. Custom fields enable capturing additional issue metadata no matter how unique team needs. Rules and dashboard views automate and provide visibility into things like task assignments, milestones and ticket resolution times.
Asana really shines through its comprehensive integration ecosystem, native app integrations, and ability to overlay visual task boards—enabling teams to gain transparency across complex workflows spanning multiple tools. Choose from 100+ native integrations like Slack, Salesforce, Dropbox, GitHub, Adobe CC and more.
Some users feel Asana handles flexible project management exceptionally well but may lack the change management rigor for certain IT issue tracking scenarios. Yet its open API and solutions marketplace does offer ways to extend functionality. Asana pricing starts at $8.98 per month billed annually for their Premium plan with free trials available.
Key Features
Unified issue, task and project tracking
Custom forms, rules and assignments
100+ native app integrations
Kanban task boards
Flexible for many team workflows
Asana Product Roadmap 2023
Asana has hinted at plans for new features like program-level milestones, upgraded API, additional third-party integrations and more customizable board views later this year.
[[15 best issue tracking software]]
5. Freshdesk - User-Friendly Ticketing Software
Known for its intuitive interface rivaling top help desk apps, Freshdesk neatly combines robust ticket tracking with an engaging user experience. It enables efficient issue resolution across teams with capabilities like automations based on pre-defined triggers, skills-based ticket routing to qualified agents, and process enforcement via graduated ticket SLAs.
Teams can further customize common forms, statuses and workflows while customers benefit from self-service via knowledge base access, community forums and ticket monitors to track progress. With conversational ticketing, intelligent suggestions, satisfaction analytics and robust custom reporting, Freshdesk provides comprehensive insights to optimize operations and the customer experience. Freshdesk is accessible from any device and integrates natively with popular channels like WhatsApp, Shopify, Slack and 100+ other apps.
While focused primarily on help desk ticketing vs complex project management, Freshdesk wins praise from users across IT, support and success teams for its balance of power, simplicity and affordable pricing starting at $15 monthly per agent billed annually.
Key Features
Intuitive, enjoyable user interface
Customizable ticket workflows
Customer self-service portals
Real-time team analytics
Robust custom reporting
100+ Native app integrations
Help desk software leader
Freshdesk Roadmap 2023
Freshdesk has exciting updates planned for later this year including enhancements to their AI capabilities to further simplify issue reassignments, suggestions and streamline repeated workflows.
6. Beanstalk - Code-Connected Project Management
Beanstalk offers integrated code, issue and project tracking in one unified platform designed to strengthen collaboration between developers and teams like product managers, while providingtransparency across software lifecycles.
It enables developers to easily link code commits and releases to issues for quick diagnosis while giving managers clear visibility into cycle times from commit stage through testing and deployment. Custom fields make it easy to capture details for defects, features, change requests and other issues. Custom permission settings matching team roles like developer, QA lead, product owner are also offered to securely manage workflows.
Integrated issue management alongside agile project planning with sections to track development, testing or deployment tasks enable true collaboration across software teams.While some users desire more advanced reporting dashboards, Beanstalk’s combined development lifecycle visibility and configurable platform capabilities receive praise.
Their Pro plan starts at $99 monthly for 10 users when billed annually with a 14-day free trial available. Integration partners include GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab, Slack and Gmail.
Key Features
Combines code repo tracking and agile project management
Traceability from commits to deployments
Custom roles and permissions
Configurable issue types, fields & workflows
Built for aligned software teams
Beanstalk 2023 UpdatesBeanstalk has hinted at plans to expand their git platform integrations to support CVS providers beyond GitHub later this year alongside a new mobile app.
[[feature request]]
7. ProWorkflow - Custom Project & Issue Tracking
ProWorkflow takes a project-based approach to highly-configurable issue tracking. As every team’s process looks different, the platform provides customizable fields, forms, status values and easy automation configuration through their workflow engine to adapt the system to diverse tracking scenarios - making it win over teams with advanced needs.
Project managers and teams can easily monitor issue types like tasks, defects, change requests or approvals while capturing relevant screenshots, documents, project data like budgets and hours for holistic visibility. Rules streamline workflows by setting assignments, approvals and notifications based on conditional logic.
While ProWorkflow specializes in work and issue monitoring for project teams vs pure developer tickets, some users note the interface takes a bit more training than other intuitive tools. However, for teams seeking ultra customization to their project tracking process with integrated collaboration capabilities ProWorkflow makes it achievable.
Their Professional plan starts at $45 monthly billed annually and serves unlimited users. Integrations are available via Zapier including Jira, Quickbooks, Google Workspace, Box and more.
Key Features
Highly-customizable issue and work tracking
Built-in approvals, timesheets and budgeting
Advanced rule automations
Collaborative document sharing
Unlimited users option
Ideal for customizable team workflows
2023 ProWorkflow Roadmap
ProWorkflow has hinted at expanded reporting dashboards tailored for key roles like Project Managers alongside new Gantt Chart views to simplify planning and traceability.
8. Zendesk Support - Enterprise-Level Client Services
Trusted by over 160,000 clients globally including companies like Vodafone, Amazon, Airbnb and Autodesk, Zendesk Support delivers powerful enterprise-level capabilities purpose-built to unify customer issue tracking across diverse teams with services tailored by industry.
Customizable support ticket forms, advanced skills matrix routing, auto-assignments, triggers, and custom ticket management rules provide the flexibility to build workflows matching unique needs. Support managers gain access to a centralized dashboard plus historical and custom reporting for actionable insights.
With omni-channel support for 40+ channels from social to in-app messaging, voice, chat and email alongside validated integrations with tools customers already use like Shopify, Mailchimp, Salesforce and more – Zendesk enables organizations to seamlessly track customer issues end-to-end.
While focused on customer support tickets rather than internal task and project management, Zendesk’s enterprise expertise, robust platform and marquee client portfolio makes it a leader for complex multi-team services tracking.
Mid-market pricing starts at $59 monthly per agent billed annually. Free trials are not offered given implementation complexity for the enterprise yet custom quotes are available.
Key Features
Enterprise-level customization
360 customer context and multi-team collaboration
Omnichannel support across 40+ channels
Powerful custom reporting capabilities
Integrates with major ecommerce, CRM and marketing platforms
Trusted choice for dedicated customer support teams
What’s New in Zendesk Support for 2023Enhanced analytics dashboards leveraging machine learning to uncover issue trends alongside new functionality to engage support teams community-wide for knowledge sharing are slated for this year.
[[issue tracking software for 2023]]
9. ServiceNow ITSM - Strategic IT Workflows
As a longstanding industry leader used by over 6,700+ enterprise customers like Spotify, KPMG, AMD, Deutsche Bank and more, ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) takes a strategic approach combining robust IT issue tracking with digital transformation maturity and scalability.
Following proven frameworks like ITIL 4 and DevOps, ITSM promotes resilience through customizable workflows for tech teams to detect,
Top 10 Issue Tracking Software Systems to Optimize Workflow in 2023
Issue tracking software is an essential project management tool for optimizing workflows and managing software development, IT, business and other projects in 2023. With the right issue tracker or ticket tracking system, you can easily track tasks, defects, features, support tickets and more to resolve problems quickly and deliver projects on time. This article outlines the top 10 issue tracking solutions to consider this year based on capabilities, integrations, ease of use and value to meet diverse needs.
We’ll explain what issue tracking software is, key benefits, must-have features, and provide an in-depth overview of 10 popular options for improved workflow and issue resolution in 2023. Read on to find the best issue tracker for your team!
What is Issue Tracking Software and Why it’s Valuable
Also known as defect trackers, ticket trackers or issue management systems, issue tracking software helps teams manage, prioritize and resolve issues that arise during software development, IT, business projects and operations. Issues may include bugs, tasks, features, support tickets, incidents and more.
An issue tracker gives your team a centralized hub to report, assign, collaborate and track progress on issues from creation to resolution. Issue tracking software improves productivity and optimization by:
Ensuring issues don’t fall through the cracks so projects stay on track
Allowing collaboration across teams like IT, Dev, Support, Legal, etc.
Providing metrics to prioritize the most urgent issues or tasks
Creating transparency into issue status with dashboards and reporting
Streamlining communication for faster resolution
Integrating with other platforms like project management, code repositories, chat, help desk software and more
With the right issue tracking system suited to your processes, you can work more efficiently together as a team to build better products, deliver exceptional service and complete projects on time and budget.
Key Must-Have Features for Issue Tracking Tools
With countless issue tracking apps on the market, how do you determine the right solution for your needs? Here are some of the most important features and capabilities to evaluate:
Custom Fields & Forms: The system should allow custom fields and forms to capture all necessary issue details like category, version, components, screenshots, etc.
Configurable Workflows: An ideal tracker allows creating rules and automations for workflows like assignments, notifications, label setting, approvals, status changes, escalations and more.
Mobile Access: Mobile optimization is vital so team members can update or resolve tickets on the go without being chained to their desks for faster response times.
Dashboards & Reports: At-a-glance dashboards let you monitor real-time issue metrics and trends. Custom reports provide deeper historical insights to guide decisions. Can the software analyze patterns like recurring code issues?
Integrations: Seamless integration with tools like email, chat, docs, project management, code repositories, help desk software is key for smooth workflows instead of constant tool switching.
Configurable Rules & Alerts: Rules that automatically route issue assignments or alert appropriate team members of new issues can prevent bottlenecks and speed resolution.
User Permissions: Advanced solutions allow fine-grained control over user access to match team roles like developer, product manager, support rep etc. This ensures security.
Open API & Extensibility: Options to extend the system’s capabilities via API, automation, plugins and custom development enables it to grow with your changing needs.
Now let’s explore 10 top-rated issue trackers that deliver exceptional feature sets based on real user reviews.
[[best issue tracking software]]
1. Jira - Powerful Customization for Technology Teams
Trusted by over 200,000 customers globally including 83% of Fortune 500 companies, Jira provides powerful workflow customization to match diverse team needs making it one of the most widely-used and top-rated IT issue tracking tools.
The platform enables creating custom statuses, screens, fields and even custom issue types from bugs to tasks, features and more. Jira helps teams build automated workflows for assignments, notifications, approvals, field updates plus triggers based on changes or dates to streamline process management. With real-time and historical reporting capabilities, Jira provides data-driven insights to optimize cycle times. Native integrations offered for systems like GitHub, Jenkins, Bitbucket, Confluence, Jira Service Management to seamlessly manage issues across development and IT teams.
Users highlight Jira’sexceptional flexibility through customization and integration capabilities. Yet some find the interface less intuitive than other platforms without training. Pricing starts at $10 per month for teams when billed annually. Jira also offers a forever-free version for open source development and nonprofit teams.
Key Features
Highly customizable issues, fields, workflows
Powerful reporting and analytical insights
Native GitHub, Bitbucket, Confluence, JSM integrations
Ideal for technology and development teams
200,000+ global customers and Fortune 500 leader
New Issue Types and Workflows for 2023Jira recently introduced simplified issue type creation and new designer workflow builder features to make customizing processes even more intuitive without coding — helping managers better optimize workflows this year.
2. Zoho Desk - Affordable Client Support Focus
Zoho Desk strikes an impressive balance with robust issue management capabilities through their customer support ticket tracker yet an affordable price tag— starting at only $3 per agent monthly billed annually.
It simplifies collaboration across customer service and support teams with shared context-rich inboxes to track customer queries and requests efficiently in one view. Customizable ticket forms and response templates help agents resolve common or recurring issues faster. A centralized knowledge base also improves self-service for customers and productivity for teams.
Help desk agents and managers benefit from real-time dashboards, custom reports and service level agreement tracking providing actionable insights to continuously improve customer satisfaction. With email, live chat, Twitter and Facebook integrations alongside VoIP phone support, Zoho Desk enables managing tickets across channels conveniently.
While more focused on customer ticket tracking vs complex project issues, Zoho Desk wins praise from users for its collaboration-oriented features, multi-channel issue resolution capabilities and affordable pricing for growing teams.
Key Features
Unified team inboxes to track customer tickets
Custom forms and response templates
Knowledge base to improve self-service
Social media and phone integrations
Real-time helpdesk performance analytics
Starting at $3 monthly per agent for premium plan
New Features Coming Soon in 2023
Zoho Desk has hinted at a revamped machine learning-powered search experience alongside more third-party integrations to simplify issue tracking workflows coming later this year.
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3. GitHub Issues - Code-Centered Open Source Tracking
As one of the leading code-connected open source issue tracking platforms used by over 100 million developers globally, GitHub Issues offers agile, integrated management centered around repositories and pull requests.
Software teams can track code defects, tasks, features, improvements and more directly alongside repositories in GitHub for improved context and cross-functional visibility. New issues, code reviews and feature requests can be configured using labels, milestones and assignees with permission controls for secure and organized workflow.
Comment threading keeps developers, QA, product managers, support reps aligned on status and needed testing or approvals to drive progress. Issue management automation workflows can also be configured using GitHub Actions like automatically closing ticket when pull requests meet review criteria to eliminate manual steps.
Integrated GitHub Issues management helps developers rapidly build, ship and iterate —which earns GitHub its reputation as a top issue tracker for agile dev teams. Yet some business teams may desire more robust reporting dashboards. GitHub Issues is free for public repositories while pricing starts at $4 per month for private repositories billed annually.
Key Features
Lightweight issue management and code collaboration
Integrates directly with repositories
Automations via GitHub Actions
Permission controls across issues
Free for open source and public repos
New GitHub Issue Features for 2023
GitHub continues expanding its automation capabilities including new options to automatically link issues for easy traceability expected later this year.
4. Asana - Flexible Tasks and Project Issue Tracking
Asana provides highly flexible tools for integrated task and issue tracking, project management and team collaboration—making it a popular pick across both agile software teams and business teams in departments like marketing, product, sales and more.
The platform allows creating issues as reusable project-centric or standalone tickets with the ability to track details like priority, assignees, start/due dates, attachments, conversations and more in one unified place. Custom fields enable capturing additional issue metadata no matter how unique team needs. Rules and dashboard views automate and provide visibility into things like task assignments, milestones and ticket resolution times.
Asana really shines through its comprehensive integration ecosystem, native app integrations, and ability to overlay visual task boards—enabling teams to gain transparency across complex workflows spanning multiple tools. Choose from 100+ native integrations like Slack, Salesforce, Dropbox, GitHub, Adobe CC and more.
Some users feel Asana handles flexible project management exceptionally well but may lack the change management rigor for certain IT issue tracking scenarios. Yet its open API and solutions marketplace does offer ways to extend functionality. Asana pricing starts at $8.98 per month billed annually for their Premium plan with free trials available.
Key Features
Unified issue, task and project tracking
Custom forms, rules and assignments
100+ native app integrations
Kanban task boards
Flexible for many team workflows
Asana Product Roadmap 2023
Asana has hinted at plans for new features like program-level milestones, upgraded API, additional third-party integrations and more customizable board views later this year.
[[15 best issue tracking software]]
5. Freshdesk - User-Friendly Ticketing Software
Known for its intuitive interface rivaling top help desk apps, Freshdesk neatly combines robust ticket tracking with an engaging user experience. It enables efficient issue resolution across teams with capabilities like automations based on pre-defined triggers, skills-based ticket routing to qualified agents, and process enforcement via graduated ticket SLAs.
Teams can further customize common forms, statuses and workflows while customers benefit from self-service via knowledge base access, community forums and ticket monitors to track progress. With conversational ticketing, intelligent suggestions, satisfaction analytics and robust custom reporting, Freshdesk provides comprehensive insights to optimize operations and the customer experience. Freshdesk is accessible from any device and integrates natively with popular channels like WhatsApp, Shopify, Slack and 100+ other apps.
While focused primarily on help desk ticketing vs complex project management, Freshdesk wins praise from users across IT, support and success teams for its balance of power, simplicity and affordable pricing starting at $15 monthly per agent billed annually.
Key Features
Intuitive, enjoyable user interface
Customizable ticket workflows
Customer self-service portals
Real-time team analytics
Robust custom reporting
100+ Native app integrations
Help desk software leader
Freshdesk Roadmap 2023
Freshdesk has exciting updates planned for later this year including enhancements to their AI capabilities to further simplify issue reassignments, suggestions and streamline repeated workflows.
6. Beanstalk - Code-Connected Project Management
Beanstalk offers integrated code, issue and project tracking in one unified platform designed to strengthen collaboration between developers and teams like product managers, while providingtransparency across software lifecycles.
It enables developers to easily link code commits and releases to issues for quick diagnosis while giving managers clear visibility into cycle times from commit stage through testing and deployment. Custom fields make it easy to capture details for defects, features, change requests and other issues. Custom permission settings matching team roles like developer, QA lead, product owner are also offered to securely manage workflows.
Integrated issue management alongside agile project planning with sections to track development, testing or deployment tasks enable true collaboration across software teams.While some users desire more advanced reporting dashboards, Beanstalk’s combined development lifecycle visibility and configurable platform capabilities receive praise.
Their Pro plan starts at $99 monthly for 10 users when billed annually with a 14-day free trial available. Integration partners include GitHub, BitBucket, GitLab, Slack and Gmail.
Key Features
Combines code repo tracking and agile project management
Traceability from commits to deployments
Custom roles and permissions
Configurable issue types, fields & workflows
Built for aligned software teams
Beanstalk 2023 UpdatesBeanstalk has hinted at plans to expand their git platform integrations to support CVS providers beyond GitHub later this year alongside a new mobile app.
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7. ProWorkflow - Custom Project & Issue Tracking
ProWorkflow takes a project-based approach to highly-configurable issue tracking. As every team’s process looks different, the platform provides customizable fields, forms, status values and easy automation configuration through their workflow engine to adapt the system to diverse tracking scenarios - making it win over teams with advanced needs.
Project managers and teams can easily monitor issue types like tasks, defects, change requests or approvals while capturing relevant screenshots, documents, project data like budgets and hours for holistic visibility. Rules streamline workflows by setting assignments, approvals and notifications based on conditional logic.
While ProWorkflow specializes in work and issue monitoring for project teams vs pure developer tickets, some users note the interface takes a bit more training than other intuitive tools. However, for teams seeking ultra customization to their project tracking process with integrated collaboration capabilities ProWorkflow makes it achievable.
Their Professional plan starts at $45 monthly billed annually and serves unlimited users. Integrations are available via Zapier including Jira, Quickbooks, Google Workspace, Box and more.
Key Features
Highly-customizable issue and work tracking
Built-in approvals, timesheets and budgeting
Advanced rule automations
Collaborative document sharing
Unlimited users option
Ideal for customizable team workflows
2023 ProWorkflow Roadmap
ProWorkflow has hinted at expanded reporting dashboards tailored for key roles like Project Managers alongside new Gantt Chart views to simplify planning and traceability.
8. Zendesk Support - Enterprise-Level Client Services
Trusted by over 160,000 clients globally including companies like Vodafone, Amazon, Airbnb and Autodesk, Zendesk Support delivers powerful enterprise-level capabilities purpose-built to unify customer issue tracking across diverse teams with services tailored by industry.
Customizable support ticket forms, advanced skills matrix routing, auto-assignments, triggers, and custom ticket management rules provide the flexibility to build workflows matching unique needs. Support managers gain access to a centralized dashboard plus historical and custom reporting for actionable insights.
With omni-channel support for 40+ channels from social to in-app messaging, voice, chat and email alongside validated integrations with tools customers already use like Shopify, Mailchimp, Salesforce and more – Zendesk enables organizations to seamlessly track customer issues end-to-end.
While focused on customer support tickets rather than internal task and project management, Zendesk’s enterprise expertise, robust platform and marquee client portfolio makes it a leader for complex multi-team services tracking.
Mid-market pricing starts at $59 monthly per agent billed annually. Free trials are not offered given implementation complexity for the enterprise yet custom quotes are available.
Key Features
Enterprise-level customization
360 customer context and multi-team collaboration
Omnichannel support across 40+ channels
Powerful custom reporting capabilities
Integrates with major ecommerce, CRM and marketing platforms
Trusted choice for dedicated customer support teams
What’s New in Zendesk Support for 2023Enhanced analytics dashboards leveraging machine learning to uncover issue trends alongside new functionality to engage support teams community-wide for knowledge sharing are slated for this year.
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9. ServiceNow ITSM - Strategic IT Workflows
As a longstanding industry leader used by over 6,700+ enterprise customers like Spotify, KPMG, AMD, Deutsche Bank and more, ServiceNow IT Service Management (ITSM) takes a strategic approach combining robust IT issue tracking with digital transformation maturity and scalability.
Following proven frameworks like ITIL 4 and DevOps, ITSM promotes resilience through customizable workflows for tech teams to detect,