best bug tracking solutions

7 Best Bug Tracking Tools for Software Management

Bugs, they are everywhere.

Well, if you are a developer, you know what I am talking about. Bugs have always been the part of our life, it can be the bugs in our bed or the bugs we find in the computer programs.

Current development standards dictate the need for bug tracking tools, and today I will go through some of the best bug tracking tools for Software Management.

With more and more complex projects on the verge, it is tough for many of us to keep up the challenge. Bug tracking tools make the path easier and enable us to keep track of the dark ages of our coding careers(just kidding).

There are many benefits of using a bug tracking software and if you are one of those sole developers, it becomes the necessity. Even for larger groups, bug tracking can be a real issue. The tools that I am going to list today will enable you to be on top of your development and do best practices in less time. Also, making full use of bug tracking software will enable you to release the minimal viable product to the market, enabling you to be ahead of the competition in many ways.

But, before I start and go through the list of bug tracking tools for software projects, I would like to discuss the basic features of a bug tracking tools. Without these features, a bug tracking tool might not be complete and needs to be considered again.

Essential Features for a bug tracking software/tool

Every bug tracking software must have the following features. If it doesn’t then it must be evaluated, both from the user’s perspective and the maker’s perspective.

  • Reporting facility: Condensing important information into fields can help you keep track of everything.
  • Complete Log: Logs are important for most of the users, including history and other vital facts.
  • Storage and Retrieval: Have a process with easy to store and retrieve information as you go.
  • Assignment: Bugs needs to be resolved and that’s why an assignment solutions can work wonders for the development  team. This creates accountability.
  • Appropriate WorkFlow: Creating an appropriate workflow is necessary for most of us. The tool should understand development lifecycle and adapt itself.

The economy of the bug tracking tools/software is more complex than it seems, but I tried to give the best picture of a fully-featured bug tracking software.

So, why the wait? Let’s start the countdown of the best bug tracking tools for software development.

Best Bug Tracking Tools for Software Management

1. JIRA

JIRA is a software tracking tool which is primarily an incident management tool. With all the different facets of software bug tracking covered, it is one of the complete tools for software bug tracking. Bugs can be tracked easily and you can see a boost in bug exploration and fixing. Also, the tool supports agile development which is desirable in the current development environment.

1-JERA

2. Redmine

Redmine is an open source bug tracking software built on Ruby on Rails. The source code management system is used in many scenarios. It is better suited for medium to large teams and it can easily track bugs and enable the team to work on them. Everything is done through the bug tracking tool and it does the job pretty decently.

3. Exceptional

If you are working on a web app, then Exceptional is for you. Exceptional is a bug tracking solution specially made for web apps. Furthermore, you can use the tracking software in real time and generate reports in real-time too.

With 8 years behind the belt, it is one of the oldest bug tracking solutions and already monitor more than 6000+ production applications.

The tool is not free and comes at the cost of $9 per month which is manageable by both individual developers or a group of the team. It supports an array of programming languages including PHP, Django, Node.js and more.

2-Expectational

4. BugZilla

BugZilla name says it all. Apart from the name, it does work great for bug tracking. It offers a standard web-based interface and is being used by many organizations. The good aspect of BugZilla is that it is open source and comes free of cost.

5. Trac

Trac is not a bug tracking solution. It is more focused on another aspect of software development but offers good bug and issue tracking system. Trac can easily be integrated into the SCM system so that everything can be tracked on.

Also, Trac is open source and can be grabbed for free.

6. Bugify

Bugify is one of the best issue tracking system out there. It comes with all bells and whistles such as email notification, keyboard shortcuts, linking labels, milestone and others. It also comes with the necessary SCM and VCS integration and works great for real-time systems.

Bugify is available for free with some restrictions. You can also avail the full version of the software with $59.

3-Bugify

7. Mantis

Mantis is one of the best open source issue tracker for individuals and teams. It offers tons of features including email notifications, comments, resolutions and more. It also offers role-based access so that you can assign tasks to individuals in the team.

In terms of software support — PHP, Linux, Windows, MacOSx are supported.

As it is open source, it can be availed for free.

4-Mantis

Wrap Up

I hope you liked the list of best Software bug tracking solutions. I tried to list the best ones and that’s why the list can be a bit small. If you have any suggestion, then don’t forget to comment below. Also, share the article with your peers who are interested in software tracking solutions for their development environment.

2 thoughts on “7 Best Bug Tracking Tools for Software Management”

  1. Good choice to include Redmine 🙂

    I’d add “open source” to the essential features of bug tracking software.

    It’s important because your bug tracker is a fairly fundamental choice for a software team, and it’s not a great situation if suddenly your bug tracker decides to shut down its business or pivot to something else.

    Redmine or Trac (both open source) means you can control your data. You can choose to host it on your own servers, or you can outsource it someone like ourselves at Planio (we provide hosted Redmine at https://plan.io/hosted-redmine)

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