Hi community! Following the conversation in this post "Collaborative Planner" , let me share more about the differences between using Jira vs Confluence (with Gantt Chart add-on) for managing projects.
Ricksoft’s Gantt Chart Planner for Confluence is mainly used to visualize the project plan beyond the standard roadmap. It’s meant to complement the project planning capabilities within Confluence.
On the other hand, Jira is more widely used as a task management tool with features like boards and workflows. However, Jira users often rely on Confluence pages to collaborate on the project scope and share high-level updates with stakeholders.
While it’s common for agile software teams to use both tools together, with the Gantt Chart app, you can implement Confluence alone for project management use cases, especially for smaller teams that prefer to manage work on a single platform.
Due to their fundamental differences, this comparison aims to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of Jira vs Confluence in a traditional project management context, so understanding your specific needs is key.
Project requirements and planning
Jira
| Strengths |
Weaknesses |
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Plan tasks on a simple Timeline, supports Epic - Story - Sub-task hierarchical view
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Customizable issue types represent different types of work
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The scope of work can be defined on each issue's descriptions and fields
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Establish relationships between tasks using issue linking, whereas the “Block” issue type will be displayed as a dependency on the Timeline
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Advanced features like issue search and reporting enable teams to find information and extract project insights in real-time
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There’s no dependencies mapping besides blockers
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Without Confluence integration, project scope will be stored separately and this might cause information silos as the project progress
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If you’re using the Jira backlog feature, planning and prioritizing a long list of issues will be challenging
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Limited resource planning capability (dependent on time tracking or story points committed)
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Confluence + Gantt Chart Planner
| Strengths |
Weaknesses |
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Combined the power of the Confluence page editor with Gantt Chart planner to document the scope in more details
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Gantt Chart Planner supports flexible hierarchies, no issue types restrictions as Jira
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For non-software teams that don’t require issue/bug tracking, Confluence offers more convenient ways to plan projects that involve many moving parts, including:
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Ability to embed external content such as Google Docs, Figma, etc. for more extensive ideation and requirements scoping
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More visual content elements to help break down project information
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Additional features like Page Status, Page Properties, etc. enhance the way teams can track projects at the portfolio level
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With Gantt Chart Planner add-on, you’ll get:
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Ability to visualize milestones and set task duration, the app will automatically schedule the delivery time on the timeline
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Ability to allocate resources and get an instant view of each assignee’s workload
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For a comprehensive project plan, it supports critical path analysis and dependencies visualization
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Due to Confluence being a document and knowledge management software by nature, it doesn’t support workflow or task management as Jira
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While you can utilize Confluence notification (@mention, comments, or watch pages) to keep teams informed on updates, the task assignment via Gantt Chart app won’t send notifications to users
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Project collaboration
Jira
| Strengths |
Weaknesses |
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Customizable workflows that enable teams to transition issues to the correct status, depending on the project requirements
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Users will get notified when they are assigned to an issue, team members can also watch the issues to receive notifications on any updates
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Prone to scope creep if the issue description lacks clarity, or if it disconnects with the big-picture plan
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Requires subscription for advanced features (Jira offers more essential features in paid plans)
- The complexity of project types and administrative overheads might be overkill for smaller teams
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Confluence + Gantt Chart Planner
| Strengths |
Weaknesses |
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Confluence is the perfect solution for project deliverables that involve document sharing or content creation with a frequent feedback loop
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Teams get a shared view of the project delivery timeline and update the Gantt Chart to reflect the actual progress of the work
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The dependencies feature allows teams to prioritize critical tasks efficiently
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Gantt Chart Planner doesn’t support collaborative editing like Confluence page
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Choosing the right tools for your project needs
Jira focuses on issue tracking and workflow management. It can be setup for simple to advanced project management needs, especially for technical software delivery. However, you’ll likely need to integrate Jira with Confluence to maintain the project requirements document.
Confluence can be a project management solution for business teams that collaborate mostly on content, documentation, or external information. With the Gantt Chart Planner add-on, you can extend Confluence for visualizing project plans with advanced capabilities like auto-scheduling, dependencies mapping, and resource planning.
Get your 30-day free trial of Gantt Chart Planner for Confluence today!
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