By Kappa Category itsm
Tags service management open source bug and issue tracking project management
Estimated Read Time: 16 min read
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Photo credit: John Schnobrich (Unsplash license)
Edit 1: There are changes for OTRS in 2021. On 1 Jan 2021, OTRS 6 community edition would not have new security updates. Also, the GitHub repository for OTRS 6 community is archived. So, there is no official support for OTRS 6 community edition any more.
There are two forks that I am aware at the moment: Znuny and Otobo.
Edit 2: Phabriactor stopped being maintained after June 2021.
Introduction about bug and issue tracking software
I had to admit I liked Atlassian Jira as a bug and issue tracking software. However, Atlassian had announced that when it's in 2021 February, the standalone server version would be gone. Also, there would be a price increase of all the existing data center version.
So let's look at other alternatives. In this article, I would briefly describe several open source and low cost bug and issue tracking applications. We would have a summary of each product after the table.
Table: Curated list of open source and low-cost bug and issue tracking software
| Name | License and pricing model | Languages and database | Target audiences / use cases | Pros | Cons and pain points | Which companies or organizations are using it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bugzilla | Mozilla Public License 2.0 (MPL 2.0) |
|
Bug and issue tracking tool | Well established, it has been around since 1998 | Last stable release was in 2019-Feb, development seems less active | Mozilla Foundation, Linux Kernel, Red Hat, Apache and etc. |
| Redmine | GPL v2 |
|
Project management, issue and bug tracking | Integrated features like project management, grantt chart, calendar, wiki and multiple projects support | Release version of Redmine do not support latest Ruby version 2.7.x You could use rvm to fix the Ruby version | Ruby-lang project, StrongSwan, Illumos and etc. Here's a list from redmine.org |
| Request Tracker | GPL v2 and commercial offering |
|
Bug and issue tracking tool | Well established, it has been around since 1999 | The UI for version < 5 is a bit outdated. But in RT 5 they have a responsive UI design | Best Practical Solutions LLC have a list in here |
| Mantis Bug Tracker | GPL v2 according to Source Forge |
|
Bug and issue tracking, project management tool | Well established, it has been around since 2000 | Last time when I tried to install MantisBT, the installer required me to input the username and credential of a database user that has database admin privilege. | AlmaLinux, CentOS and etc. |
| Phabricator | Apache 2.0 and commercial offering |
|
Code review, SCM integration, bug and issue tracking tool | Strong in code review and SCM integration | Only support MySQL | Facebook, FreeBSD and Wikimedia and etc. Wikipedia has a list in here |
| OTRS | GPL v3 and commercial offering |
|
Help desk, issue and bug tracking | Well established, it has been around since 2001. Can integrate with the company's ITSM add-on | Last community edition was OTRS and is lagged behind, commercial offering already released OTRS 8. | According to an old press release, 60% of DAX companies use the software made by OTRS Group. |
| Roundup Tracker | Roundup Licensing and ZPL |
|
Bug and issue tracking tool | It has a long history, it has been around since 2001 | Not having a fancy UI | Python bug tracker. Edit: New issues would be using GitHub Issue (March, 2022) |
| Jira | Closed source. Pricing model is changing in 2021. Cloud version of Jira is free for projects less than ten users. |
|
Bug and issue tracking tool, project management tool | Well established, it has been around since 2002 |
|
Lots of commercial companies and open source projects, here's a list |
Bugzilla
Bugzilla is a rock solid bug and issue tracking software. It was originally developed and used by Mozilla project. It was released since 1998. It is used by many companies and open source project, like Mozilla Foundation, Linux Kernel, Red Hat, Apache and etc. If you look at the release timeline , you would notice it had fewer major release after 5.x (2016). So, the product is already very stable, but on the other hand it seems that it don't have major development going on.
Redmine
Redmine is an integrated project management and issue tracking application. It supports multiple projects, having Gantt chart, calendar, wiki per project and more. It is written in Ruby in Rails. You may have problem if your distribution always install the latest Ruby programming language. So, I suggest to use Ruby Version Manager to fix the Ruby version.
Request Tracker
Request Tracker (RT) version 5 has an updated and responsive UI, it also have a dark theme. It has a graphical lifecycle creater, which is unique among other applications that we had introduced in this article. Looks like RT still wanted to modernize itself and would have active development in the near feature. RT looks promising to me.
Mantis Bug Tracker
Mantis BT is a full fledged bug and issue tracking system. It has full text search, audit trails, wiki documentation integration with some wiki systems and etc. So, it is capable to be used a project management tool.
Phabricator
Phabricator was originally a tool used by Facebook internally. The principal developer Evan Priestley left Facebook to continue Phabricator's development. Besides bug and issue tracking use cases, Phabricator is very good when used as a code review tool and with very strong SCM integration.
Edit: Phabriactor stopped being maintained after June 2021. I am not sure if there are other forks or clones to keep this application maintained.
OTRS
The OTRS software was backed by OTRS Group. Previously, the community edition could keep up with the commercial edition. However, it is not the case in recent releases. The community edition stops at OTRS 6.x, whereas the commercial edition is now at OTRS 8.x. Personally I would prefer choosing another open source solution if I want to use an open source bug tracking software.
Roundup Tracker
Roundup Tracker is the only software in this article that is written in Python. It does not have a fancy UI. But, it is used by Python programming language as their bug tracking application. If you have preference or requirement to use Python for hosting the bug and issue tracking software, Roundup Tracker is for you.
Edit: Python.org would be using GitHub Issue on March, 2022.
Jira
Well, Jira is a closed sourced application. It is great and used by many companies and projects. However, Atlassian has changed their pricing strategy in 2021 February. Standalone server version of all Atlassian products would be gone. The data center version of the Atlassian applications would have a price increase. They want you to migrate to cloud. Their cloud version of Jira is always free for 10 or less users. But you cannot own your data. It could be a problem for some people or projects.
Conclusion
Besides the list of applications that we had come across in this article, there are still lots of options out there. Like GitHub, GitLab, Gitea, Tuleap, Pagure and etc.