The 5 Best Jira Integrations for Optimizing Software Development Projects

Jira is the homebase for software development projects in all sorts of organizations, from small startups to enterprise organizations. But while developers, team leads, and product managers might spend most of their days in Jira, that isn’t true of all teams they work with. Not only that, but key context for software projects often exists in other tools, from customer support platforms to spreadsheet reports. That’s why Jira integrations are so crucial to working effectively.

Here’s how that works.

What are Jira integrations?

Jira integrations are bits of software that connect Jira projects with work items in other tools, like Asana, ServiceNow, Smartsheet, and GitHub. An integration can be something you build yourself, either from the ground up or leveraging a tool’s API (application programming interface). It’s also a service you can pay for, just like any other software. No matter if you build or buy an integration, they offer a wide range of support. Some integrations give you a quick snapshot of what’s happening in another tool right in your Jira issues — you can’t interact with that data, but you can at least see it. Other integrations can build field-by-field relationships, allowing you to create exact copies of Jira issues in other tools that are kept up to date automatically.

Why integrate Jira with other tools?

Integrating Jira allows you to:

• Get better visibility on software development projects.
• Save budget on duplicate software licenses.
• Dispatch ticket escalations to developers seamlessly.
• Improve code quality through fuller context.
• Increase productivity.

Matching the right integration to your workflow can completely transform the way you work. For some workflows, getting full context without copying and pasting data back and forth can make a huge difference. For others, just having a screenshot of what’s happening in other tools can be enough.

What are your options for integrating Jira?

Every Jira integration transfers data between Jira issues and other tools. But there are differences between how much data each integration can transfer, how difficult they are to set up, and whether they need technical resources to set up. The integration triangle breaks down the three factors to consider when researching potential Jira integrations.

• Ease of use: Can anyone use the platform or does it require coding? Can you deploy the platform in a few days or does it take months?
• Breadth of integrations: How many integrations does the platform support? Do these integrations cover multiple types of tools or focus on one use case?
• Depth of integration: Does the integration only cover a few fields? Does it only push data in one direction or sync it back and forth?

Here are some of the most popular types of Jira integration, and how they rate across each factor.

Built-in Jira integrations

The Jira platform is owned by Atlassian, which also offers tools like Trello, Confluence, and Bitbucket. These tools all have varying built-in integrations, like this integration between Trello and Jira, which supports everything from attaching Jira work items to Trello cards to adding previews of work items from Jira to those cards.

Beyond Atlassian’s own tools, Jira’s Atlassian Marketplace offers apps that add extra functionality to your Jira projects. Over 3,000 of these apps are integrations, pairing Jira with tools like Miro, Figma, and GitHub. Some of these apps are built by Atlassian, while others are built by the companies behind these other tools. Either way, they all allow you to add integration functionality to Jira without leaving your Jira projects.

Ease of use: Varies, but typically easier.

Breadth of integrations: Wide.

Depth of integrations: Varies, but typically lower.

Automation tools

Automation tools use if-this-then-that logic to push data from Jira to other tools or vice-versa, but they typically don’t sync data back and forth. These automations usually cover simple actions, like creating a single work item or updating a single field, with the automation ending after that. They rarely update data after that one action is performed. An automation could, for example, automatically create a ServiceNow record to match a Jira work item, but it won’t update any fields in that record while you work in Jira. One of the primary advantages of automation tools is that, due to their simple logic, they can support a broad rage of apps.

Popular examples of automation tools include Zapier, Tray.io, and IFTTT.

Ease of use: Typically easy.

Breadth of integrations: Wide.

Depth of integrations: Low.

2-way sync tools

2-way sync tools build relationships between Jira work items and work items in other tools, moving data back and forth between them. These integrations cover both automatically creating new work items and syncing updates as you work.

Say, for example, that you’re syncing ServiceNow with Jira, so tickets automatically become work items in Jira when your customer success team escalates them. A two-way sync will handle that creation, as well as automatically updating both work items as developers and customer success agents work. Everyone has the context they need to do their best work.

2-way sync platforms are typically easier to set up, support more fields, though are more limited in integration choice.

Ease of use: Easy.

Breadth of integrations: Narrow.

Depth of integrations: Deep.

The 5 best Jira integrations

If you haven’t integrated Jira with the rest of your toolstack yet, here are a few platforms you should prioritize.

Repositories and CI/CD platforms

Jira allows your software teams to organize their work, but the actual work typically happens in a repository or similar tool. Integrating these platforms with Jira allows developers to submit pull requests directly to team leads in Jira, while product managers can make relevant comments in Jira work items and see that pushed over to a repository automatically.

Integrating repositories with Jira means you have access to development work right in your projects.

Examples of these tools

• GitHub
• GitLab
• Bitbucket

Customer support and ITSM tools

For organizations that sell software solutions, customer support tickets might need to get escalated to developers so a fix can be worked on. With the right integration, these tickets get pushed to Jira automatically, where you can add them to sprints and work on them. Any questions or updates from developers can also get synced to customer support tools to streamline communication between departments.

This kind of integration is especially important in ITSM, as it streamlines internal IT workflows.

Examples of these tools

• ServiceNow
• Zendesk
• HubSpot

Chat and meeting tools

Chat apps are essential for collaborating in knowledge work, and software development is no different. Whether it’s sending updates on a sprint or getting additional context on replicating a bug, these apps are often the main communication channel for anything crossing department lines. When you integrate Jira with these apps, you can automatically send updates from Jira projects (or even just specific issues) to these chat apps or create Jira issues from messages in these apps.

Examples of these tools

• Slack
• Microsoft Teams

Knowledge bases

Your knowledge base is your reference point for everything from internal workflows to your tool stack, and keeping that documentation up-to-date can be a full-time job all on its own. Software developers rely on your knowledge base to keep up with product updates or double-check processes they’re not entirely familiar with. A knowledge base integration means the information developers need is always at their fingertips.

Examples of these tools

• Confluence
• Notion

Other project management tools

Just because you manage software projects in Jira doesn’t mean it’s the only project management tool your organization uses. By integrating Jira with other project management tools, developers and team leads have all the context they need to know how software projects affect other projects (and vice-versa). It also allows project managers across departments to report on all their projects to stakeholders, no matter which tool they’re in.

Examples of these tools

• Asana
• Wrike
• Smartsheet

Integrate Jira with your tool stack using Unito

Unito is a 2-way sync solution for Jira and over 60 other tools that keeps all your work items up to date no matter where your teams work. With some of the deepest two-way integrations on the market, you’ll have all the data your workflows need right in Jira.

Want to see how this integration works? Here’s a look at Unito’s Jira-ServiceNow integration.

FAQ: Jira integrations

What are Jira integrations?

Jira integrations are software tools that bridge the gap between Jira and other tools, automatically creating work items and updating information in these work items. Some integrations push data in only one direction while other integrations like Unito offer two-way syncing back and forth.

What’s the difference between a native Jira integration and a third-party tool?

Jira has a number of built-in integrations for other Atlassian products, like Trello and Confluence, as well as other tools. These native integrations are usually more limited than third-party integration platforms, with the latter offering broader integration access and two-way sync.

Does Jira support two-way sync with project management tools?

Jira doesn’t offer two-way sync with other project management tools, you’ll need a third party tool like Unito to make that happen. Unito supports integrations with project management tools like Asana, Wrike, Smartsheet, ClickUp, and more.

Which tools can Jira integrate with?

Jira can natively integrate with over 3,000 apps, including Trello, Confluence, Miro, Figma, and more. Third-party integration tools like Unito can support more tools and more fields.

What Jira work item types can be synced with other tools?

Dedicated integration platforms like Unito can sync all Jira work items with other tools, including epics, stories, tasks, sub-tasks, bugs, and initiatives.

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