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Jira project cost and budget apps compared: Tempo Financial Manager and alternatives

Caner Kaya -Kayabyte-

Disclosure: I make Burnrate, one of the six apps below. It's new and has no reviews yet, so weigh it accordingly. Facts about the other apps come only from their public Marketplace listings as of 3 Nov 2026. "Not described" means the listing doesn't mention it, not that the app can't do it.

Jira records who logged how much time, but it has no hourly rates or budgets. So "what has this project cost, and will the budget last?" takes either a spreadsheet or an app. Here's how the main cost and budget apps differ, including where each one beats mine.

	Burnrate (mine)	Financial Manager (Tempo)	Time & Cost Tracker (SaaSJet)	Budgety (Deiser)	WorklogPRO (The Starware)	MarginRadar (Radrly)
Rates with effective dates	Yes	Yes	Yes	Not described	Not described	Yes
Budgets	Projects, epics, fix versions or JQL	Project, epic or portfolio	Planned budget value	Spaces and work items	Not described	Spaces; epics, versions, labels, components or JQL on Advanced
Forecast	Pace, run-out date, estimate at completion	Not described	Yes	Yes, against actual	Not described	Burn rate; forecast on Advanced
Margin or profit	Yes, per budget when billing is on	Not described	Not described	Not described	Profit calculations	Yes, on every epic
Costs other than time	No	Not described	Direct expenses	Direct and indirect	Not described	Expenses
CAPEX/OPEX	No	Not described	Not described	Yes	Not described	Yes, on Advanced
Own time logging	No, reads Jira worklogs	Not described	Yes	Not described	Yes, with timers and approval	Timers and weekly timesheet with approval on Advanced
Works with Tempo Timesheets	Yes, beta	Made by Tempo	Tempo API	Yes	Not described	Yes, hours synced to Jira worklogs, priced at a default rate

How to choose

One project, one report: a spreadsheet is fine. Export the worklogs, multiply hours by a rate and compare with the budget. It gets harder when rates change partway through or several budgets run at once.

Financial Manager if you already run Tempo and want one vendor, or you need portfolio-level budgets.

Time & Cost Tracker if you want time tracking and cost in one app, or need to include direct expenses.

Budgety if finance needs CAPEX/OPEX or costs beyond people's time.

WorklogPRO if timesheets and approvals come first, with cost and profit on top. Its listing doesn't describe budgets.

MarginRadar if you bill clients and need expenses, retainers or fixed-price revenue counted in margin, with no new place to log time. Added after its founder commented below; I checked it against its listing and docs.

Burnrate if your team already logs time in Jira and you want cost and budgets from that, with no new place to log time. It sets a default rate, roles and people with dated cost and billing rates, so past costs don't change when a rate does, and a budget with billing on shows margin. It has no timesheet, approvals, expenses, CAPEX/OPEX or portfolio view.

Whichever you pick, try it on one real project first: set your rates, compare the total with a number you trust, and only then share it.

What are you using for this today, and what does it still not do? I'd like to hear, including from people who picked something else.

Comments

Marcin Nowak (Radrly)

Thanks for a fair comparison, Caner, and for the disclosure. Same from me: I'm Marcin, founder of Radrly, and we make MarginRadar, so weigh this accordingly.

For anyone comparing, here is how MarginRadar fills your rows, based on its public docs:

Rates with effective dates: yes, cost and billable rates by role, person or space. A rate change never rewrites past months.
Budgets: per space, per epic, and scoped budgets for a version, label, component or JQL query.
Forecast: daily burn from the last 14 days, with run out date and estimate at completion. Advanced adds a P50 to P90 range.
Costs other than time: yes, expenses count in spent and margin, with CSV import.
CAPEX/OPEX: yes, per expense, on Advanced.
Own time logging: no, it reads native Jira worklogs.
Margin: revenue from billable rates, and on Advanced also a fixed price or a monthly retainer, plus a portfolio page across budgeted spaces.

Where it fits: teams that already log time in Jira and need margin as well as budget, for example agencies and consultancies that bill clients. If timesheets and approvals come first, WorklogPRO or Tempo are the better place to start.

Next on our roadmap, both still Runs on Atlassian with zero egress: counting the hours Tempo Timesheets syncs to Jira worklogs, and timers with timesheet approval on Advanced.

Docs: https://marketplace.atlassian.com/apps/598215572/marginradar-budget-forecasts-profitability-for-jira

Caner Kaya -Kayabyte-

Thanks Marcin, this is useful, and good of you to disclose it too. MarginRadar works from native Jira worklogs like Burnrate does, and it goes further on margin and expenses, so anyone who bills clients should look at it. I'll add it to the comparison on my site once I've checked it against your listing and docs, same as the others.

Marcin Nowak (Radrly)

Quick update, Caner: both roadmap items from my comment above are now live in MarginRadar.

Tempo: hours that Tempo Timesheets syncs to Jira worklogs are counted in every edition. Tempo stores them under its own app account, so they're priced at the space default rate, or an admin can choose to count the hours with no cost. Per-person rates apply wherever Jira names the person.
Timers and timesheets (Advanced): start a timer on a work item and confirm it to log a Jira worklog. A weekly timesheet lets people submit their week, and approvers approve or reject with a comment, with an approval history. Jira can't lock worklogs, so edits made after approval are flagged.

Still Runs on Atlassian with zero egress and no new scopes. Same disclosure as before: I'm the founder of Radrly.

Caner Kaya -Kayabyte-

Thanks Marcin. I checked both against your docs and updated the table here and on my site. For readers: MarginRadar now counts Tempo hours synced to Jira worklogs at a default rate, and has timers and a weekly timesheet with approval on Advanced. Burnrate's optional Tempo connection (beta) reads worklogs from Tempo's API instead, so it prices each by its real author, which needs a Tempo API token and an outside call.

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