Best Bug Tracking Software

The buyer’s guide to bug tracking systems aims to provide the users with in-depth knowledge about the importance of bug tracking software in software development. Businesses today have the privilege to leverage efficient bug tracking tools to automate various bug tracking process activities, track bugs, generate reports, and promptly resolve issues.

In this buyer's guide, you will learn about the features, importance, and benefits of bug tracking system software. Additionally, the guide offers a detailed pricing analysis for the top bug tracking tools available in the market to help you compare and choose the one that fits your budget. The buyer’s guide also provides insight into the critical points that one should consider before buying the best bug tracking software for your software development business.

A bug tracking software is a set of software development tools on a unified platform designed to help software developers identify, monitor, and resolve bugs in a software product or application. Leveraging bug tracking tools enable software development teams to produce a high-quality product. It also significantly boosts profits for software development companies in the long run. Reports suggest that the global bug tracking software market size is growing at a CAGR of 13.60% from 2019 to 2026 and will reach $601.64 million by 2026.

Bug tracking software is a type or subset of issue tracking software. Modern bug tracking systems provide extensive tools to cover a wide range of issue tracking functions apart from just coding bugs, to help software development companies control both technical and non-technical aspects of issue tracking in one place.

Software development businesses face numerous bug tracking challenges in the absence of a reliable bug tracking system. These challenges include:

• Delayed bug identification at later stages of development, raising the need for voluminous corrections/resolutions at later stages.
• Missed deadlines due to delayed bug identification and resolution.
• Inaccurate or deficient bug logging/recording due to manual or human error.
• Team communication, coordination, and collaboration issues.
• Absence of a common platform for the stakeholders leading to delayed access and updates of bug status or progress.
• Lack of standardized bug tracking process and guidelines.
• Loss of development time leads to increased costs and reduced profitability.

As bug tracking software helps catch bugs during the early stages of development, it saves significant time for coders, software developers, and QA testers by preventing comprehensive re-work at later stages. Thus, the best bug tracking system or defect tracking software ensures enhanced profitability for software development companies. Let’s have a look at the detailed advantages of leveraging a bug tracking system.

Bug tracking systems help software development companies streamline bug tracking all through the software product development lifecycle. Below are the advantages of using the best bug tracking software for your business.

Centralized Bug Tracking

A bug tracking system provides a unified platform for identifying bugs or defects in the software product in the development stage, notifying the relevant developers, and resolving the defect. It thus helps streamline and control the development process by bringing all the stakeholders of the development process in one place.

High-Quality Software Product Development

Automation of bug tracking lifecycle through bug or issue tracking software helps developers eliminate bug miss-outs and enhance process accuracy with improved bug identification and resolution. It ultimately results in developing a higher quality software product.

Better Team Communication and Collaboration

A centralized bug tracking system offers various features to enable improved team communication, collaboration, and performance resulting in streamlined bug resolution and enhanced software development workflow.

Time-Saving

Bug tracking software enables quick detection of bugs at an early stage of development, thus eliminating voluminous corrections at later stages. It thus saves a lot of time and prevents delays in the overall development process.

Informed Decision-Making

The analytics and reporting features of bug tracking systems offer valuable insights into bug resolution timelines and bug trend or pattern identification through past data. These insights help development companies in making informed decisions for better software product development and management.

Better Customer/Client Service

Leveraging bug tracking tools enable software development businesses to offer better services to clients/customers with enhanced visibility, transparency, and communication. It leads to increased customer (or client) satisfaction, which is the primary goal of a business.

Enhanced Profitability

With the reduction in overall time consumed in software development and so many benefits (as above), the best issue tracking software helps in cost reduction and thus improved return on investment (ROI) for software companies in the long run.

The core or must-have features of the best bug tracking software include:

Bug Reports

Bug reporting is a crucial feature of bug tracking software. Bug reports provide detailed diagnostic information to help developers find and fix bugs during the development.

Issue Tracking

To help software development companies develop a better software product, the bug tracking software must offer broader issue tracking features to cover issues related to development workflow, design issues, post-production issues, and more, in addition to coding bug/defect tracking.

Track and Resolve

Bug track and resolve feature in bug tracking software provides comprehensive monitoring of bugs or defects in software development. The software also aids in automated bug resolution for common and repetitive coding defects or issues by recording past bug resolution data and patterns.

Visual Task Board

For easy access and monitoring of bug tracking tasks, a reliable bug tracking software must offer a visual task board. This feature provides a quick, customizable, and interactive view of all bug tracking processes in one place.

Alerts and Notifications

Bug tracking systems are incomplete without alert and notification features. The best issue tracking software offers alerts and notifications to the relevant software development team members for bug identification, bug tracking, bug resolution, and progress/status changes. It ensures uninterrupted software development workflow and timely product delivery.

Access Control

For added security in bug tracking and resolution, bug tracking systems typically offer a role-based access control (RBAC) feature that allows access permissions to relevant authorized team members and restricts others from viewing or making any modifications in the code.

Collaboration

The bug tracking process also requires perfect collaboration within the development team. Thus, online bug tracking software must offer communication, coordination, and collaboration features for better bug tracking and resolution.

Customization

Software development teams have varied needs in bug tracking. The best bug tracking software must provide customization settings for perfect, need-based bug tracking.

Task Management

Bug tracking or issue tracking systems typically offer task management features as these are essential to control and streamline various tasks in the bug tracking lifecycle.

Workflow Management

Apart from task management, bug tracking systems must provide workflow management features for seamless management of bug tracking and resolution workflow.

As every software development business has different bug tracking process needs, before choosing the perfect bug tracking software for your business, it is crucial to make sure that you are on the right track. Following this checklist can help you make the right choice.

Deployment Type

Bug tracking software is available as both on-premise and cloud-based or SaaS (Software-as-a-Service) solutions. While on-premise bug tracking tools can have one-time costs, the SaaS-based software is hosted on third-party servers for which the software providers typically charge on a per-month basis. Analyze the pros and cons of each option, and decide whether your business needs an on-premise bug tracking software or a SaaS-based solution.

Budget and Feasibility

A bug tracking system is feasible for your business if it costs well within your budget and its profitability or Return on Investment (ROI) from its deployment outweighs its cost. Before buying the best issue tracking software or bug tracking system, compare the pricing of different bug tracking tools and analyze your budget to choose a feasible software for your business. Additionally, decide whether the basic plan (less priced) can meet your requirements or a higher plan with advanced features is needed.

Features

Bug tracking software solutions available in the market offer different sets of features to suit the varying requirements of businesses. For purchasing the best bug tracking software for your business, it is vital to ensure that the solution facilitates all the necessary tools or features to manage your business’s bug tracking lifecycle.

Integrations

The bug tracking software you choose for your business must enable seamless integration with your existing systems and third-party systems as needed. Discuss this requirement with the software vendor to prevent integration hassles later.

Customer Support and Updates

The best issue tracking software vendor must offer prompt customer support as needed to ensure quick resolution of your software bugs, issues, and queries. You must confirm this directly with the software vendor. Additionally, inquire about the maintenance and updates policy offered by the vendor.

Scalability

Software development businesses typically aim for speedy growth; thus, the best bug tracking software for your business must support scalability for increased needs in the future.

Vendor Reviews

As a bug tracking system is a software development tool that directly impacts your software business profits, selecting the right vendor is as important as choosing the right bug tracking software. You must confirm that the bug tracking system vendor has the required expertise and experience. Verify the vendor’s feedback from other customers of the same industry as yours. If you opt for SaaS-based bug tracking software, it is further essential to ensure that the provider has a good market reputation and reviews as the software is hosted on the provider’s server.

Request a Demo

Ask the defect tracking software vendor to perform a software demo for your target users or leverage the free trial (if available) before choosing the best bug tracking software for your business.

Software development companies benefit a lot by deploying bug tracking tools, but it is essential to know how much these systems cost. Here is all you need to know about the pricing of the top bug tracking software.

Best Free and Open Source Bug Tracking Software

There are many free and open-source bug tracking systems available in the market that businesses can leverage for seamless bug tracking in software development to enhance profits. These free software tools typically offer limited features or core/basic bug tracking tools; for example, free and open-source bug tracking systems Redmine and WebIssues. Please check our blog on the best free and open source bug tracking software for detailed information on free bug tracking tools.

Factors That Influence the Cost of Bug Tracking Software

The cost of bug tracking systems depends on numerous parameters. Here are the factors that predominantly affect the pricing of bug tracking software.

• Features it offers
• Deployment type
• Number of users
• Number of projects
• Storage

Detailed Pricing Analysis - Bug Tracking Software

Bug tracking system vendors facilitate multiple software packages or plans of their software solution for businesses to choose from, based on their requirements and budget. They typically offer free versions or freemiums and low-priced versions with limited functionality and allow a limited number of users/projects for small businesses with budget limitations that require only the basic bug tracking tools. Advanced or feature-rich versions/packages of the top bug tracking systems designed for large businesses generally cost higher.

It is possible to get many reliable bug tracking software options within $39 per month; for example, YouTrack is free for up to 10 users and costs $3.67 per user per month. GoodDay, another top bug tracking software, allows a free version for up to 15 users with paid packages starting from $4 per user per month. Ubertesters costs $26 per month, BugHerd costs $39 per month, and Backlog offers a free basic version with paid plans starting from $35 per month.

Besides, a bit higher-priced options for the best bug tracking software include Bug-Track.com that offers a 14-day free trial and costs $50 per month for unlimited users and projects, and ZipBoard, which allows a 15-day free trial for all plans and costs $49 per month for unlimited projects and unlimited collaborators (users).

Hidden or Additional Costs to Look For in Bug Tracking Systems

Top bug tracking software vendors are generally transparent about the pricing of their tools. Still, before you plan to buy the best issue tracking software, you must confirm with the software provider about possible hidden costs related to:

• Installation
• Maintenance and system upgrades
• Integrations with other systems
• Customer support

Besides, bug tracking software vendors typically provide customization at extra costs based on the complexity of your requirements. All these factors may significantly influence the pricing of bug tracking systems.

GoodFirms prevails as the most dependable source for the list of the best software in various categories, with over 30,000 unbiased reviews from verified customers and a listing of over 60,000 services and software. GoodFirms has performed extensive research and rigorous analysis to formulate the list of best bug tracking software for you. Our insights are based on information gained from industry leaders worldwide and verified user reviews.

GoodFirms handpicks the top bug tracking system software after carefully analyzing their features and prices. We understand your needs and provide you with multiple filters to sort and shortlist bug tracking tools for your business based on prominent features, pricing models, deployment type, devices supported, business size, etc. Leverage this list of the best bug tracking software for businesses curated by GoodFirms and select the right solution to take your business to new heights.