There was a time when many teams preferred using Rally Software because of its ability to highlight data to stakeholders across the organization and on-premise hosting options. But, depending on who you ask, it would seem that Rally’s best days are a thing of the past. Rally Software stopped supporting on-site hosting in June 2023, prompting many users to explore other options. We know the project management solution market is crowded, with plenty of picks to choose from. That’s why we’re here to help you sort through your options and make the best choice possible.

Read on to learn more about the top alternatives to Rally Software.

Our Picks

Zenhub: Best all-around alternative

Jira: Best for the Atlassian ecosystem

monday.com: Best for templates

Zoho Sprints: Best for Zoho fans

ClickUp: Best for unique features

How We Chose Our Top Picks

To select our top alternatives, we examined over a dozen enterprise-grade project management solutions with features and features comparable to Rally Software’s target audiences.

Here are the top criteria we considered:

Criteria: 

• Ability to facilitate Agile frameworks
• AI and Automation capabilities 
• Visibility for internal and external stakeholders
• Reporting capabilities and ability to show data trends over time in a meaningful way
• Ability to host on-site or virtually in the cloud
• Support offerings and cost

The Best Alternatives To Rally Software

Zenhub: Best All-Around Alternative

Not to toot our own horn, but we designed Zenhub with enterprise-level Agile teams in mind. We know that developer teams already have enough moving parts to manage, so we aimed to create a platform that supports Agile without the overhead, ensuring that all members of your organization can easily facilitate Agile events and access project data and insights without extra hoops to jump through. Data-focused features, such as seamless data transfer from GitHub, ensure that teams never miss a beat while enjoying the freedom to customize views and work smarter with AI. 

Top Features

Daily feed: The daily feed is your home base in Zenhub, summarizing everything you and your team are currently working on and blocked on in one cohesive dashboard. Think of it as an always-up-to-date daily Scrum (or standup) summary that’s one click away. 

AI and Automation: Zenhub enables Agile without the overhead with AI and automation options that facilitate all your Agile events and processes. Watch sprints get built from your backlog instantly with Automated Sprints. Speed up your Issue creation and improve data quality with AI-generated Labels and Acceptance Criteria. Use AI Sprint Reviews to get an instant summary of what work was done on any of your previous sprints. 

Hosting options: Zenhub offers two hosting options, Zenhub Cloud and Zenhub On-Premise, which empower teams to select the hosting method that best suits their needs.

Why You Should Consider Zenhub

Zenhub offers fast-moving teams a little of everything, from industry-leading AI features to close integration with GitHub enterprise, planning poker, and robust Agile reporting. Compared to Rally Software, we offer the option for on-site hosting, AI coverage for various work types and processes, and extensive support options to help keep your team moving full steam ahead.  

Jira: Best for Atlassian Ecosystem

Atlassian’s Jira Software is one of the most well-known legacy brands in project management, with a host of features designed for Agile development teams. Bug, issue, and task-tracking features are complimented by data insights and project visualizations, such as Scrum boards and timelines. Oh and time tracking is built-in for better time management, which can be categorized into real, estimated, and logged time to help teams better map out project planning.

Example of a time tracking report in Jira. Source: Atlassian, accessed April 2024. 

Top Features

Timeline: One of Jira’s most prominent features is the timeline tool, which highlights task dependencies, schedules, responsibilities, and progress at a quick glance. 

Advanced reporting options: Burndown, burnup, time tracking, and capacity planning charts are just a few of the reporting tools that help highlight key data trends visually. 

Add-Ons: Jira offers an impressive lineup of add-on integrations, including Slack, Miro, Figma, and more.  Naturally, Jira is also a logical choice for teams that rely on other Atlassian products, such as Confluence or Jira Work Management – especially for managing cross-functional teamwork. 

Why You Should Consider Jira

If you’re on the hunt for Agile tools and detailed reporting features, Jira can be a great pick – especially for teams that already use other products in the Atlassian ecosystem. For teams who truly want to make the most of their portfolio project planning capabilities, there’s even an add-on called Portfolio for sharing progress across numerous projects for executive stakeholder users. 

monday.com: Best for Project Templates

monday.com is a project management software designed for maximum customizability and known for a massive library of premade project and work management templates. In addition to standard Agile features – such as bug and issue tracking, Kanban boards, and more – monday.com has an impressive capability to generate custom reports about one or more projects.

Example of API features in monday.com. Source: monday.com, accessed April 2024.

Key Features

Integration options: monday.com has an impressive list of native integrations (so you don’t need to spend extra on connectors like Zapier), including GitHub, Zendesk, Slack, and more. 

API connectors: Customization is the name of the game in monday, with custom fields, color schemes, and an API interface for more advanced users (PS – this feature is available for all paid plans).

Dashboard view: Individual widgets make it easy to plug and play specific metric visualizations as part of the reporting dashboard, whether it’s for individual projects or a portfolio. 

Why You Should Consider monday.com 

monday.com is an extremely visual project management tool that teams can feel free to make their own by selecting templates, custom views, fields, and more – without sacrificing Agile concepts and dev-friendly features. In terms of support, monday.com also stands out for excellent enterprise-level support options. 

Zoho Sprints: Best for Zoho Fans

Zoho Sprints is the Agile-focused variation of Zoho Projects. While Sprints offers some familiar features when compared to Projects, more specialized features such as resource tracking, multi-sprint tracking, and detailed Scrum boards make all the difference for faster-moving developer teams. 

Example of organized Kanban boards, with custom fields. Source: Zoho, accessed April 2024.

Key Features

Meeting scheduler: Keeping up with all types of meetings, from daily standups to sprint retrospectives, can be tough. In Zoho Sprints, you can schedule meetings right from your dashboard.

Backlog organization: Keep your lengthy backlog in check with organization features, tagging, and more. 

Custom fields: Individual issues and tasks can be labeled, assigned, tagged, and feedback can be added in the form of comments. 

Why You Should Consider Zoho Sprints

Zoho Sprints is the best of both worlds for teams who have loved Zoho Projects’ variety of features but need more Agile focused capabilities as well. Zoho Sprints also pairs well with larger teams who may need enterprise-level licensing and support options. 

ClickUp: Best for Unique Features

ClickUp is a highly customizable project management platform that caters to Agile teams through numerous unique and niche features. With colorful views and an easy-to-use interface, ClickUp is an appealing choice for teams who need unique features with support for Agile teams – such as native GitHub integration, premade workflows for Scum teams, goal tracking, an AI assistant, and even a blur feature to help highlight only the most relevant info in in-app screenshots.

Example of a project analytics dashboard in ClickUp. Source: ClickUp, accessed April 2024.

Key Features

Birds-eye view: ClickUp uniquely offers an Everything view, designed to help high-level stakeholders check in on a view of all tasks and progress across the organization in a succinct way. There are also over a dozen other unique views available. 

Collaboration options: Fast-moving Agile teams need multiple ways to keep communication rolling, and ClickUp offers a variety of great collaboration tools, from chat, to “watchers” (users who get notifications when certain tasks are completed) and whiteboards for brainstorming.

Time tracking: Individual task and project time tracking make it easy to keep resource management in check. 

Why You Should Consider ClickUp

Agile teams need a myriad of tools at their disposal and ClickUp excels at providing teams with a variety of resources to get the job done. Their reporting capabilities are excellent, and while it’s not great for guest access, which might make it a less appealing option to share updates with external stakeholders, overall ClickUp offers reporting capabilities that compare with or exceed Rally’s. 

Conclusion

While there are dozens of appealing options, the truth is that determining the right fit for your team’s unique needs is a highly individualized decision – and it can be extremely stressful if you’re going it alone. Luckily, that’s where we come in. 

Book a call today with one of our software experts to help determine the best Rally alternative for you. 

FAQs

Why Explore the Option of Hosting On-Site vs Cloud?

There are pros and cons of hosting in the cloud vs on-site.  On-site systems grant organizations greater control over the IT infrastructure and can function without an internet connection, which could mean less risk of outages. However, on-site options can get expensive quickly as teams must pay for hosting, dedicated human support to physically maintain systems, and a comprehensive setup process. 

Each hosting option has significant pros and cons, and ultimately, the best choice will vary greatly depending on your team’s unique situation and business needs. 

What is Rally Software? 

Rally Software is a project management solution designed with enterprise-level organizations in mind. Focused on data visualization, Rally Software aims to provide data insights to users at various levels of the organization.

Why might a Rally user want an alternative? 

While some teams may have had positive experiences with Rally in the past, many are looking to migrate out of the solution for a few notable reasons, such as:

• Features: Rally is a legacy tool that hasn’t had much updating in terms of new features. 
• Cost: Pricing is more expensive than other options.
• AI: Lack of AI features compared to competitors.
• Support: Support options can be limited and unhelpful.