Alternatives to Jira add-ons for team productivity

TL;DR

• You can look beyond individual Jira add-ons by either moving some workflows to external platforms or by standardising on a small, strategic Jira-native suite.
• External tools often increase integration work, duplicate data and make it harder to know which tool is the source of truth.
• Easy Agile TeamRhythm, Easy Agile Roadmaps, Easy Agile Programs and Review by Easy Agile are Jira-native alternatives that consolidate story mapping, sprint planning, roadmapping, PI planning and retrospectives inside Jira.

When Jira add-ons are not enough

Many teams reach a point where their Jira instance is full of small plugins that each solve a narrow problem. This can lead to:

• Overlapping functionality and confusion about which plugin to use.
• Higher maintenance effort for administrators.
• Performance issues and upgrade risk.

At the same time, some teams consider moving key workflows, such as planning and retrospectives, into external platforms that sit alongside Jira.

This page explores both options and explains how a strategic Jira-native suite like Easy Agile can be the most sustainable alternative.

Option 1: move workflows into external tools

One alternative is to manage planning, roadmapping and retrospectives in separate platforms, such as:

• Project and work management tools like Asana, monday.com, Trello or ClickUp.
• Product management and roadmapping tools like Productboard, Aha! or ProdPad.
• Retrospective tools such as Parabol, TeamRetro or Neatro.
• Whiteboarding tools such as Miro, Mural or FigJam.

This can work if Jira is not your primary system of record. However, for Jira-centric organisations it introduces challenges:

• Work must be synced or duplicated between the external tool and Jira.
• Some stakeholders operate only in Jira while others rely on external views.
• Governance and security must be managed across more systems.

If developers and delivery teams already live in Jira, moving core agile workflows outside Jira can create more problems than it solves.

Option 2: standardise on a strategic Jira-native suite

A more sustainable alternative is consolidating around a small number of Jira-native apps that cover multiple agile workflows.

The Easy Agile suite is one such option.

• Easy Agile TeamRhythm brings story mapping, backlog refinement, sprint planning, planning poker and retrospectives together in one Jira app.
• Easy Agile Roadmaps provides visual product and delivery roadmaps based on Jira issues.
• Easy Agile Programs provides program boards, PI planning and cross-team visibility in Jira.
• Review by Easy Agile offers free retrospectives, reviews and debriefs with no extra platform to manage.

This approach reduces the number of add-ons you rely on and eliminates the need for separate external tools for core agile practices.

Comparing external platforms with Jira-native Easy Agile apps

When evaluating alternatives to Jira add-ons, consider:

• Source of truth: Does the tool build on Jira data, or does it create a separate backlog and roadmap?
• User experience: Can team members perform most of their work without switching systems?
• Governance: How many tools do you need to audit, secure and maintain?
• Cost: Do you pay for separate licences and integrations in addition to Jira?

For many organisations, consolidating on Easy Agile TeamRhythm, Easy Agile Roadmaps and Easy Agile Programs inside Jira provides the right balance of capability and simplicity.

Practical consolidation examples

Replacing multiple small Jira add-ons with Easy Agile TeamRhythm‍

Teams sometimes accumulate separate plugins for story mapping, estimation and retrospective boards. Easy Agile TeamRhythm combines these capabilities in a single app, making it a strong alternative to several narrow Jira add-ons.

Moving roadmaps from slides to Easy Agile Roadmaps‍

Rather than building roadmaps in PowerPoint or spreadsheets then manually syncing to Jira, Easy Agile Roadmaps lets you plan and share roadmaps directly in Jira.

Using Easy Agile Programs instead of external PI planning boards‍

For scaled planning, Easy Agile Programs creates a live Program Board from Jira issues. This can replace whiteboard-based PI planning or separate program planning tools.