Backlog vs Pivotal Tracker

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Our analysts compared Backlog vs Pivotal Tracker based on data from our 400+ point analysis of Project Management Software, user reviews and our own crowdsourced data from our free software selection platform.

Pivotal Tracker Software Tool

Product Basics

Backlog is a cloud-hosted issue tracking and resource management solution that helps developers work with design, IT and marketing teams. Its core capabilities include subtasking, bug tracking, file sharing, Gantt charts, burndown charts and watchlists. Businesses can track overall work progress while prioritizing tasks and to-do lists through team collaboration.

Developers can integrate it with SVN and Git to manage project tasks and source codes. It offers businesses visibility into project workflows and daily timelines using Gantt charts, which get updated in real time. Managers can track and compare project modifications, monitor document changes and leave comments on pull requests. Users can dissect Gantt charts by milestone, assignee or category and export to Excel sheets.
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Pivotal Tracker is a cloud-hosted project planning solution that facilitates real-time communication and collaboration within cross-functional agile teams. Businesses can keep a tab on progress throughout a project’s lifecycle. It helps teams delegate and prioritize tasks, list actionable components and set deadlines. Project status, conversations and workflows are stored at a central location for easy accessibility and defining priorities.

It computes the time required to complete a project or smaller tasks based on previous data. Managers can use this data to estimate delivery time for every project subject to workforce availability and other conditions. It offers an iteration module that helps prioritize project tasks and divide them into manageable subtasks. Project status, everyday tasks and resource availability are displayed on a shared calendar.
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$35 Monthly, Freemium
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$0 Monthly, Quote-based
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Product Assistance

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Email
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Knowledge Base
24/7 Live Support
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24/7 Live Support

Product Insights

  • Gantt and Burndown Charts: Get a timeline view into the entire project for better planning. Track projects with details like tasks in progress, tasks assigned to each employee and completion dates. Automatically generate reports from both charts and drill them down for deeper insights. Update assignees, due dates and other details when required. 
  • Knowledge Sharing: Create accessible wikis that can be downloaded and edited by team members. Personalize capabilities and tools based on workflows. Store all team data and files while recording real-time conversations in a central place accessible by everyone. Retrieve files and customer information easily. 
  • Mobile App: Keep in touch with project progress and work updates, even when out of the office. Comment, create and update tasks on-the-go. Sync with online workspaces automatically using native Android and iOS apps. 
  • File Sharing: Store project files in a central location while adding comments for assigned employees. Upload files into folders created for a project, issue or team. Report issues by setting up an email address or through web forms. 
  • Notifications: Notify specific employees about tasks that require attention. Send notifications when posting a comment, creating a task, updating a wiki and more. 
  • Jira and Redmine Importer: Get step-by-step instructions on migrating data successfully from Jira and Redmine. Strengthen security with IP restrictions and manage workspace access for better information control. 
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  • 360-Degree View: Control projects across the board with complete visibility into their status and progress. Synchronize updated information with team members to reduce reporting time. Generate a history of project developmental progress while highlighting critical aspects that need to be tackled. 
  • Effective Communication: Share documents as well as concerns with team members with clear and effective lines of communication. Deal with customer feedback effectively by providing feasible project delivery timelines. 
  • Real-Time Collaboration: Get access to a virtual environment that fosters conversation and doesn’t need constant refreshing. Get regular updates via email, RSS, Campfire or Twitter. Let developers attach mock-ups that could be turned into working tools. 
  • Integrations: Create a variety of integrations and tools with REST API. Seamlessly integrates with external modules like Slack, Jira, GitHub, Jenkins, Zendesk and others. 
  • iOS Compatibility: Access integrated mobile interface on iOS devices and tackle critical issues on-the-go. Record stories from anywhere and get access to all business aspects in offline mode. 
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  • Project Management: Use burndown charts, Gantt charts or boards to monitor in progress or completed tasks and issues that require attention. Get a view of tasks within large projects and manage schedules with Gantt charts. Track team progress using Kanban boards.  
  • Task Management: Create task hierarchies to organize workflows. Split large projects into parent and child tasks. Divide child tasks or subtasks among team members, prepare checklists to monitor start and due dates, categories, project milestones, custom fields and more. Track project progress by monitoring assigned tasks while updating deadlines for clients. Use Gantt charts to get an overview of task status and status of task owners in one place. 
  • Bug Tracking: Identify bugs and prioritize the process to fix them. Collaborate with teams to fix bugs by logging them as issues, which act as a central hub to discuss and resolve each bug. Let managers and teams get a top view of progress on each bug. Understand bugs and fixes with the module's archives. 
  • Version Control: Discuss, organize and monitor all work progress in one location. Integrate with SVN and Git to manage source codes along with projects. Make codes better while discussing new features with the team before incorporating them into projects. View work on every branch, monitor changes and review team’s work. 
  • Team Collaboration: Eliminate confusion and get more done with enhanced team collaboration and communication. Set user roles and create guest accounts for non-technical teams and clients. Collaborate to edit, share and access wikis while getting notified about changes. Provide feedback, suggest changes and appreciate employees for good work. 
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  • Stories: Use stories to track actionable work items and project progress. Customize stories with categories like features, chores and bugs to construct new features, prevent bugs and restrict technical debts. Gauge a story’s complexity while prioritizing and allocating points by iteration using drag-and-drop functions. 
  • Velocity: Businesses can measure their speed and trajectory using velocity. Find out the pace at which teams are completing stories and gaining points per iteration. Get a realistic picture of project delivery time based on points earned in recent iterations. Encourage a consistent rhythm within teams to meet stringent deadlines. 
  • Workspaces: Set-up an ideal workspace by arranging multiple projects and juggling responsibilities on a single screen. Use the drag-and-drop tool to move stories between projects and find things by searching backlogs. Store all work across teams and projects into the ‘my work’ panel. Have an accessible location that contains all stories to plan future to-do lists. 
  • Analytics: Gauge team performance with broad trends and minute details that illustrate a project’s health. Identify fluctuations and trends to get a reality check of team productivity. Drill down reports to monitor project health closely by iterations, releases, epics and more. Gather requisite data for the teams to detect and remove bottlenecks from the elementary level. 
  • File Sharing and Labels: Enrich stories with presentations, mock-ups and other files from Google Drive or a computer. Organize stories with searchable labels for a more visible workflow. 
  • Notifications: Stay updated by configuring message notifications on desktop or mobile. Users can involve people in conversations with mentions and follow stories they like. 
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Product Ranking

#44

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#15

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Project Management Software

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User Sentiment Summary

Excellent User Sentiment 312 reviews
Great User Sentiment 565 reviews
90%
of users recommend this product

Backlog has a 'excellent' User Satisfaction Rating of 90% when considering 312 user reviews from 5 recognized software review sites.

85%
of users recommend this product

Pivotal Tracker has a 'great' User Satisfaction Rating of 85% when considering 565 user reviews from 6 recognized software review sites.

4.5 (14)
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4.5 (163)
4.1 (95)
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4.32 (122)
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4.3 (117)
4.5 (122)
4.3 (129)
4.2 (6)
4.6 (26)
4.5 (7)
4.1 (76)

Awards

Backlog stands above the rest by achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating as a User Favorite.

User Favorite Award

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Synopsis of User Ratings and Reviews

Visual Task Boards: Backlog provides Kanban-style boards that give teams a clear overview of project progress, allowing them to easily track tasks through different stages of completion.
Gantt Charts: Users appreciate the ability to visualize project timelines and dependencies using Gantt charts, which helps with planning and scheduling.
Custom Fields: Backlog allows users to create custom fields to store project-specific information, making it adaptable to various workflows and use cases.
Wiki Functionality: The platform includes a built-in wiki feature that enables teams to document project details, share knowledge, and collaborate effectively.
Version Control: Backlog integrates with Git and Subversion, providing version control capabilities for managing code and documents within projects.
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Simple Interface: Pivotal Tracker's straightforward design makes it easy to learn and navigate, even for those new to project management tools. Users appreciate the intuitive layout and lack of unnecessary complexity.
Effective Prioritization: The platform's emphasis on prioritizing tasks helps teams focus on the most important work first. Users find the ranking and backlog management features particularly useful for maintaining project clarity.
Collaboration Features: Pivotal Tracker facilitates team communication and collaboration through features like shared workspaces, comments, and @mentions. This helps keep everyone on the same page and promotes efficient teamwork.
Iteration Planning: The software's iterative approach to project management allows teams to break down large projects into manageable chunks. Users find this helpful for setting realistic goals and tracking progress over time.
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Limited Customization: Backlog's interface and workflow options can feel restrictive for teams with unique or complex project management needs. The platform's opinionated approach may not align with all team preferences, potentially hindering adaptability.
Reporting Capabilities: Generating in-depth reports or extracting specific data points can be challenging due to Backlog's reporting limitations. Users often find themselves needing to export data and manipulate it externally to gain deeper insights, adding an extra step to the process.
Mobile App Functionality: The Backlog mobile app has received feedback for lacking the full functionality and intuitiveness of the web version. This can limit users' ability to effectively manage tasks and projects while on the go, potentially impacting productivity and responsiveness.
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Limited Project Views: Pivotal Tracker's singular view can feel restrictive for teams accustomed to Kanban boards or Gantt charts, potentially hindering workflow visualization.
Estimation Challenges: The platform's story point estimation system, while promoting relative sizing, can be confusing for new users and may require additional training for accurate implementation.
Collaboration Constraints: The absence of real-time collaborative editing features can lead to version control issues and communication challenges, especially for distributed teams.
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Don't get stuck in a project management "backlog"; streamline your workflow with Backlog: This software has garnered positive attention for its user-friendly interface, making it a breeze for teams to jump right in and start managing tasks. Backlog's diverse features, like Kanban boards and Gantt charts, cater to various team needs, while its integrations with other tools ensure a seamless workflow. Users appreciate its affordability, making it a cost-effective solution for project management. However, some users point out that Backlog lacks certain features, such as time tracking, and offers limited templates and customization options. Compared to competitors like Asana and Trello, Backlog shines in its simplicity and focus on core project management functionalities. While it may not have all the bells and whistles of some platforms, its straightforward approach resonates with teams seeking an uncomplicated solution. Backlog's strength lies in its ability to bring clarity and organization to projects without overwhelming users with excessive features. Backlog is best suited for small to medium-sized teams, particularly those in software development and project management, who value a user-friendly and affordable solution with robust task management and collaboration features. Its intuitive interface and focus on essential project management tools make it an ideal choice for teams looking to enhance their productivity and streamline their workflows without the complexity of more feature-rich platforms.

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Pivotal Tracker shines as a project management tool built for Agile development teams, especially those using Scrum. Its strength lies in its intuitive interface and features tailored to Agile methodologies, like user story mapping and sprint planning. Users appreciate its simplicity and ease of use, making it a breeze to get started and manage projects without a steep learning curve. The platform's real-time collaboration features keep everyone on the same page, fostering transparency and efficient communication within teams. However, some users find Pivotal Tracker's simplicity limiting for complex projects that require extensive customization or advanced reporting capabilities. Additionally, while it integrates with popular tools like GitHub and Slack, the range of integrations might not be as extensive as some competitors like Jira or Asana. Pivotal Tracker's core strength is its laser focus on Agile principles, making it ideal for software development teams or organizations that heavily rely on Agile methodologies. Its user-friendly interface and collaborative features streamline sprint planning, backlog management, and progress tracking, ultimately boosting team productivity and project delivery. However, for teams with complex project needs or those seeking a broader range of features and integrations, exploring alternatives like Jira or Asana might be worthwhile.

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