Best Jira Plugins 2024 – Which Should You Use?

Jira plugins (also known as Jira apps) are as numerous as they are varied. At time of writing there are over 3,000 different Jira plugins from over 1,000 suppliers on the Atlassian Marketplace.

Jira plugins can transform Jira from a relatively blank slate into a tool that is much more specialized and powerful for your specific type of projects, role, and organization. This makes it crucial to select the right loadout of apps for your Jira instance.

The sheer number of Jira apps and plugins available can be overwhelming. It can be difficult to decide which you should consider, never mind which you should actually use.

So, to help cut through the confusion, here’s my perspective on the best Jira apps available. I keep this list updated regularly and give you enough detail on each app so that you can tell whether each is actually best suited to you, or if a given tool is better for other types of Jira user instead. 

At the end of the blog, I also break down my top three Jira apps within a few different categories, so you can immediately narrow down your search for a specific kind of app. 

Best Jira Plugins 2024 – Quicklist:

In no particular order, here’s my best Jira plugins, across every category:

1. Scriptrunner
2. Jira Workflow Toolbox
3. Visor
4. Extender for Jira
5. QMetry
6. Zephyr Scale
7. SAML Single Sign On
8. Power Admin for Jira
9. Issue Checklist for Jira

Scroll down to see my detailed assessment of each of these Jira plugins, and why I consider them to be the best.

And at the end of this blog of you’ll also find my top three in the following categories:

• Best Jira plugins for workflow and automation
• Best Jira plugins for admin users
• Best Jira plugins for Roadmaps and Gantts
• Best Jira plugins for Testing

Best Jira Plugins 2024 – Detailed Assessment

1. Scriptrunner

Scriptrunner has been a staple of Jira instances for a number of years and is much more mature than most other Jira script and workflow plugins. At time of writing it has over 36,000 installs from the Atlassian Marketplace and a rating of 3.7 out of 4. 

Scriptrunner comes with a library of ready-to-use scripts. But most Scriptrunner users are developers, and reveal it’s true power by using some basic code to create custom scripts to:

• Automate bulk actions
• Create scripted fields that are able to show calculated data
• Automate steps and activities in workflows and issues
• Create both scheduled and triggered automation
• Run sophisticated queries 
• Create custom filters with improved levels of granularity
• Make forms smarter with scripted validators and conditions 

In addition to enhancing Jira, Scriptrunner also works with Confluence, where users can add their own custom macros and scripts there. REST endpoints means you can integrate with a wide range of other apps too.

Pros 

• Great for sophisticated search queries, bulk actions, workflow and automations
• Allows for the creation of super granular filters
• Has a library of ready-to-use scripts
• Empowers Jira admins to enforce a wider range of rules and processes
• Store and manage scripts in a single, well-organized location
• GUI interfaces can be added to scripts to assist end users and junior admins

Cons

• A steeper learning curve than other automation apps/plugins
• Requires some coding knowledge to create custom scripts – fine for engineering teams but the wider Jira user base may struggle
• Scripts can be slow to run if you have a lot of simultaneously activated scripts
• Uses Java APIs which may change between versions of Jira and break

Pricing

Jira Cloud: Free for up to 10 users. Then $2.50 per user up to 100 users per month. The pricing is banded, so as you increase the number of users, the price per user decreases. 

Full pricing for ScriptRunner

Best for 

Confident coders who are not intimidated by a bit of complexity. Those who want a powerful, mature scripting app that will unleash a range of powerful automation, rules, and intelligence enhancements to their Jira instance.

2. Jira Workflow Toolbox

If you don’t want to use code or scripts then Jira Workflow Toolbox (JWT) is your best option to add extra automation and control to your workflows in Jira. 

Despite the name, Jira Workflow Toolbox is a Jira plugin with a wide range of features beyond workflows, including those that users may have a dedicated Jira app for (such as adding calculated fields). 

That’s not to say, for example, that it’s a better automation tool than Automation for Jira, but it does automation adequately for most users, who can avoid exhausting their budget on dedicated Jira plugins for every function. 

The key features of JWT are:

• Workflow functions
• Automation rules
• Calculated fields
• Built-in expression parser

The workflow functions are of course the core of JWT’s offering. Common examples of post functions, validators and conditions are included, such as:

• Creating issue links
• Moving issues
• Field value controls and enforcement
• Requiring field completions before transitioning the issue stage
• Evaluating formulas
• Automatically creating issues and sub-tasks on transition

Beyond these basics, JWT has some really powerful examples that push it above the competition. 

For example, you can create workflows that trigger, or don’t trigger, or trigger differently depending on the values in certain fields or the issue’s properties. This means you can use single workflows used across multiple projects, and have branching post functions depending on criteria in the issue (such as a field value). 

Pros

• Very easy configuration (no code) with auto-complete to guide users
• Range of built-in workflow templates/examples
• Detailed and extensive in-app handbook
• Preview your configs and changes in real-time
• Covers multiple functions in a single app, meaning you can avoid using multiple, costly apps

Cons

• Is more a jack-of-all-trades than best-in-class for all the functionality it covers 
• No simple/easy migration option from other Jira workflow apps
• Can’t achieve everything that you can do with custom scripts (e.g. with Scriptrunner)

Pricing

Free for up to 10 users. For more than 10 users: approximately $1.30 per user per month ( average).

Best for

Users who want to utilize a wide range of Jira workflow and automation without using code and scripts.

3. Visor

Visor is much more than a Jira plugin. But it firmly deserves a high spot on this list because of how well it integrates with and compliments Jira, as well as the impact it has for Jira users of all kinds. 

The 3.9 out of 4 score and glowing reviews on the Atlassian Marketplace speak to the effectiveness of Visor especially when used with Jira. 

Visor, as the name suggests, enables you to easily create fully customizable views for your Jira projects, using a bi-directional integration with Jira. This equips you with a multitude of new ways to display, share and work on your projects, including Gantt, table, board, and timeline.

With Visor you can see your projects at different levels, switching from one view to another as desired, with everything staying in sync.

People use Visor in a huge variety of ways, but the most common common are to:

• Review projects, and backlogs with squads
• Sharing colorful roadmaps or Gantt charts with stakeholders or clients
• Provide a space to collaborate with non-Jira users  

Users outside your team (typically stakeholders or clients), can also use Visor to collaborate with you on projects, without actually ever having to go into (or even learn how to use) Jira. You can then sync updates back into Jira when you choose. 

Pros 

• Saves time reformatting Jira project data into easier to understand, familiar formats
• Superior way of collaborating with teams/stakeholders/clients
• View projects in a multitude of ways without exporting or changing the base data
• Impressive free roadmaps in an instant
• Easy to use for all users, highly intuitive UI and plenty of in-app support
• Bi-directional integration with Jira keeps everything in sync

Cons

• Limited number of integrations with other apps (but more planned)
• Better reporting/analytics type functionality would make it even more powerful
• Filtering functionality is basic (you can’t add logic)
• Lacks the ability to add formulas and calculated fields

Pricing

Visor has 3 tiers of pricing:  

Fully free plan: Start using Visor now.

Pro ($9 per editor license per month) and Ultimate ($18 per editor license per month) tier plans provide more Editor level licenses, higher usage levels and some premium functionality. 

Best for

Jira project managers and other users who want a better way to organize, review, present, share and collaborate on their projects. 

4. Extender for Jira

Extender for Jira comes equipped with a set of tools to help make the lives of Jira admins easier. There’s no Jira Cloud version at time of writing (Jira Data Center and Server only).

Most Jira admins will reuse a handful of certain workflow conditions, post function automations and validators. You can clone workflows, but what happens if you want to make bulk changes? If you’re just using Jira, that’s a long day ahead of you. 

Extender for Jira lets you create Workflow Templates, so that you can reuse sets of conditions, validators and post functions. You can then use these templates in as many workflows as you like.

Crucially, you can then manage these templates collectively, change and update them, disable them and even view and verify where templates are in use across your Jira workflows and projects. 

Workflow and project documentation is a pain but, of course, a necessary one. Jira admins will love that Extender for Jira generates documentation for you in a few clicks. All the important information is included including the statuses, transitions, schema configuration, components, and custom fields. 

You can also export and import full dashboard configurations and easily execute REST API on behalf of users. There’s a global search too, so you can quickly find configurations by parts of the description, ID, or Name, giving you a faster alternative to navigating around manually.

Pros:

• Generate high quality documentation to save time and maintain standards
• Global search to quickly find configurations across a Jira instance
• Centrally control and bulk update custom workflow components 
• Template workflow components to save time and maintain consistency

Cons:

• Lacks an export directly to Confluence feature
• Does not support Jira Cloud

Pricing

Free 30 day trial, then prices start at $300 for 50 users, $550 for up to 100 users and so on. Extender for Jira pricing information.

Best for

Jira admins generally, and especially those working in large organizations.

5. QMetry

QMetry is a test management tool for agile development and dev ops teams. It’s firmly established a reputation for being both comprehensive and easy to use, especially when compared to older testing platforms which can be intimidating and unintuitive.

With QMetry, you can easily automate tests without having to code, and get superb insights into your tests using cross-project reporting and real-time analytics. There’s also a smart approach to failed tests, as QMetry gives you the ability to group by statuses, and add tests to a dedicated retesting cycle.

There are some organizational features in QMetry that are very useful, such as the ability to bulk update tests, which is not something you’ll find in every testing tool for Jira.You can also add labels and metadata, to help group and find your tests.

QMetry have recently added AI into the mix. At the time of writing you can use inbuilt AI functionality to automatically flag errors and “flaky tests”, automate the authoring of test cases to save you time, and calculate test success rates.

Pros

• Simple, intuitive and easy to use
• Smart use of AI to detect “flaky tests” and automate the authoring of test cases
• Seamless publishing of tests to Confluence
• You can edit tests during runs
• Efficient retesting process
• Robust parameterization of test cases and sets
• ISO27001 Certification

Cons

• Inability to filter based on fields that have no value
• Lacks some integrations that would be useful (Zapier, Slack, Webhooks)
• No customizable workflows 
• No scheduled reports
• Lacks some functionality mobile-focused developers favor

Pricing

Jira Cloud: Free for up to 10 users, thereafter around $3.00 per user per month (rate per user decreases the more users you add)

Jira Server/Data Center: See full pricing for QMetry

Best for 

Agile teams that want a simple, easy to use testing solution, with sufficient functionality for small-mid sized teams, especially those using Jira Cloud. 

6. Zephyr Scale

Zephyr Scale is a test management platform that integrates neatly with Jira, providing a superb level of test management functionality and is especially suited to large teams.

Zephyr Scale includes a range of gadgets that can be added to native Jira reports to give you a strong set of testing reports. You can also create custom queries to fine tune reports to fit your specific testing needs, and to drill down and learn more about your tests. Reports can also be run across multiple or single projects.

Tests can easily be saved, organized in well structured libraries and reused across multiple projects. With Zephyr Scale you can implement a much better organized, consistent and efficient approach to testing, with lots of integrations to help you to continuously improve your testing.

Pros 

• Reuse test cases across different projects
• Easily create testing cycles
• Native integration with Jira
• Run automated tests via integrations with HaloAI, SmartBear, Jenkins and more
• End-to-end traceability across defects, requirements, test cases and issues. 
• Powerful, detailed built in reporting including cross-project reports and change history
• Easily create and run Behavior Driven Development test cases 
• Atlassian Cloud Fortified certification
• Very affordable and free for your first 10 users

Cons

• Support is only available Monday-Friday 9am-5pm BST
• Limited level of customization available within each project
• Many users find Zephyr a steep learning curve
• UI and navigation is not as well executed as newer testing Jira apps like QMetry
• Because testing takes place within Jira, larger teams may experience performance issues

Pricing

Jira Cloud: Free for up to 10 users. $5.62 per user, for every additional user above 10.
Jira Data Center: $3650 per year for 50 users, $6011 per year for 100 users. 

Best for 

Larger organizations with multiple engineering teams, or growing organizations that are scaling up, and need a more efficient, structured and consistent approach to testing.

7. SAML Single Sign On (SSO) by Resolution

Unlike many other Jira plugins in this list, SAML SSO does one thing but it does it very well. SAML SSO manages the exchanges between your Service Provider and Identity Provider (IdP), so that you don’t need to manage, or worry about updating credentials, removing users and so on.  

SAML SSO originally plugged a gap in Jira’s functionality, which Jira has since tried to fill with its own SSO app. However, the plugin from Resolution is more mature and (at time of writing) still has the edge over Jira’s offering and other competitors, with features including:

• User directory synchronization
• Debugging tools
• Exportable configuration settings to transport to other instances
• Advanced attribute mapping
• User synchronization and user provisioning features
• Advanced group management
• Single Logout (SLO) across all applications (improving security)

Pros

• Fast, easy user management, including groups of users
• Connects with multiple IdPs
• Detailed documentation and video tutorials
• Automate account creation before users join and login
• Includes LDAP user provisioning

Cons

• No Jira cloud version yet
• Can be intimidating and complex for new users – not intuitive
• Smaller teams may prefer a lighter offering (like Atlassian’s)

Pricing

Data Center pricing starts at $950 per year for up to 50 users. Full SAML SSO pricing information.

Best for

Large organizations who require a really robust, full spec SSO solution to manage users, groups, and facilitate an iron clad approach to data and project security.

8. Power Admin for Jira

Like Extender for Jira, Power Admin is an app that makes the work of Jira admins easier and more effective by solving common challenges they face. 

For admins using Jira without a plugin like Power Admin, finding where a specific configuration element is used can take many boring hours that could be better spent on something more productive. 

Adding Power Admin gives you the ability to quickly search for configuration elements, see where they are used, including in workflows, dashboards and filters.

You can also identify unused or underused configuration elements and delete them, or merge cannibalizing custom fields. This helps you keep your Jira instance tidy, and keep it lighter to improve performance. 

Another handy feature is that when you go to make changes, Power Admin will evaluate the impact before you proceed, so you can have greater confidence in the updates you’re making. 

One drawback people report is that, although you can see how often and where a component is implemented, you can’t go a level further and see if users are actually using the component. For example, you can see how often a custom field has been added to projects, but not how often it’s been populated. Adding this granularity would further help users optimize their Jira instance. 

Pros

• Identifies opportunities to tune up performance for you
• Make changes more confidently with impact assessments
• Gives you mastery over configuration elements in your instance, showing where they are used and how

Cons

• Lacks additional levels of granularity in component usage reports which would be useful
• Currently no Jira Cloud version available

Pricing

30 day free trial. Thereafter, $250 per year for up to 50 users see full pricing for Power Admin for Jira.

Best for

Admin users with a focus on performance improvements and using data to understand which configuration elements are most important. 

9. Issue Checklist for Jira

This is another one of those simple and universally acclaimed Jira plugins. It doesn’t have a load of shiny advanced features to wow you, but you wouldn’t want to run your Jira instance without it either. 

Issue Checklist for Jira enables you to add to-do lists to Jira issues in a single click. You can also create templates of checklists, and default checklists which are automatically added to issues.

At time of writing this app has just under 40,000 installs and a 3.8 out of 4 rating on the Atlassian Marketplace. Clearly this is a really impressive ratio, and testament to the power of doing something relatively simple, really well. 

When I first started using Jira I assumed Issue Checklist was an inbuilt feature! Which shows not only how necessary a plugin like this is, but also how well this particular one integrates into the Jira issue UI. 

I should say there are alternative checklist plugins for Jira, including Smart Checklist for Jira, My ToDo, and Checklist for Jira On-The-Fly, but in my opinion, none are as refined as Issue Checklist, and all have fewer reviews and lower overall scores than Issue Checklist.

Pros

• Helps break down tasks into manageable chunks
• Templating/default checklists help enforce process for common issue types
• Supports multi-line descriptions for added details on checklist items
• Templating/default checklists save time and repetition
• Add rich formatting (due dates, mentions, clickable issue keys) in checklist items
• Checklist items are searchable using JQL
• Convert checklist items into new Jira issues in one click

Cons

• Lacks some advanced features (such as drop-downs within checklist items)
• Free version lacks checklist history
• Bulk changing checklist items is only available in the Enterprise version
• Email notifications not included in Free version
• Importing checklists from Jira Server/Data Center only supported in Enterprise version

Pricing

Free: Completely free, no charge.

Pro: Average $5.00 per user per month

Enterprise: Free 30 day trial, thereafter enterprise pricing, $300 per year for up to 50 users, $600 for up to 100 users, $1,40 for up to 250 users and so on full pricing information.

Best for

I can’t think of a reason why you wouldn’t want this in your Jira instance, unless there are specific features that make you opt for a different checklist app for Jira.

Best Jira Plugins by Category 

Below I’ve listed a few key categories, and my favorite three apps for each, in order. 

My top pick won’t always be best for you, but you should at least be able to use the below to narrow down your longlist to a short one, before considering your options in more detail.

Best Jira Plugins for Workflow and Automation

1. Scriptrunner
2. Jira Workflow Toolbox
3. JSU Automation Suite

Best Jira Plugins for Admin Tasks

1. Extender for Jira
2. Power Admin for Jira
3. Admin Toolbox for Jira

Best Jira Plugins for Roadmaps and Gantts

1. Visor
2. Bigpicture
3. WBS Gantt-Chart for Jira

Best Jira Plugins for Testing

1. QMetry
2. Zephyr Scale/Zephyr Squad
3. XRay

Best Jira Plugins for Portfolio Management

1. Visor
2. PPM Express
3. Big Picture

You should also read our full breakdown and comparison of the best portfolio management plugins/apps for Jira.

Best Jira Plugins – Rounding Up

Assuming you’ve read all (or at least some) of the above, you should have a much better idea of which Jira plugins you should look at when taking into account the problems you’re trying to solve, your team, and existing Jira setup.

I hope you no longer feel like a boat floating downstream without a rudder, but instead have a clear sense of where you want to go and the best Jira plugin or app to help you do it.

Visor is not a Jira plugin. But it demands a place on this list because it’s so widely used by Jira project managers, engineers, and other teams, to make impressive, free Jira visualizations (like in the example below) and roadmaps without breaking the bank, or having to export and manually update.

If it is important to you to keep stakeholders impressed and engaged, improve backlog grooming, or you simply want to make your Jira projects easier to understand, update and more attractive, then you should give Visor a try. 

It’s free to use and has a bi-directional integration with Jira so all your data stays in sync and you don’t need to spend any time doing manual updates.

James Taylor

James Taylor

Senior Digital Marketing Manager

James Taylor is Visor's Senior Digital Marketing Manager. Originally from the UK, he has 8+ years experience writing about all things software and technology, project management and organizational processes. When he's not working you'll find him hiking a hill, attempting to cook ambitious recipes, or gorging on hours of history podcasts and documentaries.