20 Best Bug Tracking Tools (Defect Tracking Tools) in 2021
A bug tracking tool can help record, report, assign and track the bugs in a software development project. There are many defect tracking tools available. You can put this in another way “Better is the bug tracking tool, better the quality of the product.”
List of Popular Defect Tracking Tools/Software
Following is a handpicked list of Top Bug Tracking Tool, with their popular features and website links. The list contains both open source(free) and commercial(paid) software.
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| Name | BackLog | SpiraTeam | BugHerd | Userback | Smartsheet | ClickUp |
| Features | ✔️ Easy bug tracking tool ✔️ Search and advanced search features |
✔️ Ability to report issues and bugs via email. ✔️ Robust reporting, searching, and sorting |
✔️ Simple point-and-click bug and feedback capture ✔️ Stakeholders love it. |
✔️ Visual bug reporting for you and your users ✔️ Create custom workflows |
✔️ It provides customizable templates. ✔️ It offers powerful analytics and reporting. |
✔️ It offers a wide range of templates. ✔️ ClickUp enables you to sort tasks by project. |
| Price | Starting from $35/mo. | Starting from $42/mo | Starting from $39/mo. | Starting from $8/mo. | Starting from $7/mo. | Starting from $9/mo. |
| Review/Rating |  4.8 |
4.7 |
4.6 |
4.7 |
4.4 |
4.5 |
| Link | Visit website | Visit website | Visit website | Visit website | Visit website | Visit website |
1) BackLog
Backlog is a popular bug and project tracking tool in one platform. It’s easy for anyone to report bugs and keep track of a full history of issue updates and status changes. Development teams use Backlog to work with other teams for enhanced team collaboration and high-quality project delivery.
- Easy bug tracking tool
- Search and advanced search features
- Full history of issue updates and status changes
- Project and issues with subtasks
- Git and SVN built-in
- Gantt Charts and Burndown charts
- Wikis and Watchlists
- Native mobile apps
- Kanban-style boards for visual workflow
2) SpiraTeam
SpiraTeam is a turn-key Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solution with completely integrated bug tracking functionality. SpiraTeam lets you manage your entire testing process from requirements to tests, bugs, and issues, with end-to-end traceability built in. SpiraTeam’s come with the following features out of the box:
- Automatic creation of new incidents during the test script execution.
- Fully customizable incident fields including statuses, priorities, defect types, and severities.
- Ability to link incidents (bugs) to other artifacts and incidents.
- Robust reporting, searching, and sorting, plus an Audit log tracking changes.
- Email notifications triggered by the customized workflow status changes.
- Ability to report issues and bugs via email.
3) BugHerd
BugHerd is the easiest way to track bugs and manage website feedback. Pin bugs and feedback to elements on a website and capture the technical information to help resolve issues. Track feedback tasks to completion with the kanban style task board.
Features:
- Simple point-and-click bug and feedback capture
- Technical information like browser, OS, screen resolution is captured for you
- Track and manage all feedback and bugs in one central location with the kanban style Task Board
- Capture a screenshot or video with each bug reported
- Save hours during QA and UAT of websites and applications
- Stakeholders love it.
4) Userback
Userback is a visual bug reporting and website feedback tool. It’s the fastest way for software teams and users to report bugs from any website and application. Easily collect visual and highly contextual bug reports that help you replicate and fix issues faster. Userback automatically captures annotated screenshots, video recordings, console logs, browser info, custom data and more.
Features:
- Visual bug reporting for you and your users
- User-friendly drawing, annotation and video recording tools
- Manage bugs and user feedback in one place
- Kanban-style task board
- Create custom workflows
- Powerful team collaboration
- Collect bug reports your developers will love!
5) SmartSheet
Smartsheet is a spreadsheet-style bug tracking tool for businesses managing multiple projects. It helps organizations to manage workflows and helps them improve team collaboration. Smartsheet allows you to automate actions using simple rules.
Features:
- It offers security, user management, and single sign-on capabilities for team and project management.
- Provides solution building to meet your unique needs.
- It provides customizable templates.
- Seamlessly connects to your enterprise ecosystem.
- Helps you to simplify budget and planning.
- It offers powerful analytics and reporting.
- Supports automation, input from web forms, proofing, and approvals.
6) ClickUp
ClickUp is a highly customizable bug tracking tool that allows you to create your custom views. This project management tool offers highly comprehensive time management and task management and facilitates collaboration between business units. This application allows you to assign and resolve comments to tasks. It helps you to set priorities for the work with no hassle.
Features:
- You can filter and search for a specific task with ease.
- It offers a wide range of templates.
- Helps you to automatically import documents from other apps.
- Allows you to collaborate with other people.
- It allows you to assign multiple tasks with just one mouse click.
- ClickUp enables you to sort tasks by project.
- You can sync with Google Calendar.
7) Monday
Monday is a bug tracking tool that that enables you to analyze your performance and manage your team in one place. It provides flexible dashboard for easy visualization of data.
Features:
- You can collaborate with other people.
- It can automate your daily work.
- Integration with Mailchimp, Google calendar, Gmail, and more.
- You can track your work progress.
- It enables you to work remotely.
8) Zoho bug tracker
Zoho bug tracker is a powerful bug tracker that helps you to view issues filtered by priority and severity. It improves the productivity by exactly knowing which bugs are reproducible. It is an online tool that allows you to create projects, bugs, milestone, reports, documents, etc. on a single platform. With Zoho bug tracker automate reminding and notifying team members is possible.
Main Features
- Bug views and integration
- Issue trackers flexible workflow
- Classification of issues into different categories
9) BugZilla
BugZilla is a popular bug tracking tool. These tool is an open source software and provides some great features like
- E-mail notification for change in code
- Reports and Charts
- Patch Viewers
- List of bugs can be generated in different formats
- Schedule daily, monthly and weekly reports
- This bug tracking tool detect duplicate bug automatically
- Setting bug priorities by involving customers
- Predict the time a bug may get fixed
10) JIRA
Thousands of software professionals use JIRA as a bug-tracking tool because of its easy to use framework. JIRA is a commercial product and helps to capture and organize the team issues, prioritizing the issue and updating them with the project. It is a tool that directly integrates with the code development environments making it a perfect fit for developers as well. Due to its capability to track any kind of issues it is not just restricted to the software industry. It supports agile projects. It comes with many add-ons that make this tool more powerful than other tools
11) Mantis
If you have used other bug tracking tool, this tool can be easy to use. Mantis not only comes as a web application but also has its own mobile version. It works with multiple databases like MySQL, PostgreSQL, MS SQL and integrated with applications like chat, time tracking, wiki, RSS feeds and many more.
Mantis main features include
- This is a Open source tool
- This defect tracking tool provides E-mail notification
- Supported reporting with reports and graphs
- Source control integration
- Supports custom fields
- Supports time tracking management
- Multiple projects per instance
- Enable to watch the issue change history and roadmap
- Supports unlimited number of users, issues, and projects
12) RedMine
It is an open source bug tracking tool that integrates with SCM (Source Code Management System) too. It supports multiple platforms and multiple data-bases while for reporting purpose, Gantt charts and calendar are used. Redmine is a project management web application developed using Ruby on Rail framework. Some of the RedMine features include
- Gantt chart and calendar
- News, document and files management
- This bug reporting tool provides SCM integration
- Issue creation via e-mail
- This bug tracking software supports multiple database.
- Flexible issue tracking system
- Flexible role based access control
- Multilanguage support
13) Trac
Trac is a web based open source issue tracking system that developed in Python. It is the superior version of wiki and used as the issue tracking tool for software development projects. You can use it to browse through the code, view history, view changes, etc. when you integrate Trac with SCM. It supports multiple platforms like Linux, Unix, Mac OS X, Windows, etc. A time-line shows all current and past project event in order while the roadmap highlights the upcoming milestones.
14) Axosoft
It is a bug tracking system, available for hosted or on-premises software. It is a project management tool for Scrum teams. Project managers and developers can view each task, its requirement, defects and incidents, in the system, on individual filing cards, through the Scrum planning board. With Axosoft, you can manage your user stories, defects, support tickets and a real-time snapshot of your progress.
Main features
- It is one of the Best Bug management tool
- Scrum planning board
- Scrum burn down charts
- Requirement Management
- Team wiki
- Data visualization
- SCM integration
- Reporting
- Help desk or incident tracking
15) HP ALM/ Quality Center
HP ALM is a complete test management solution with a robust integrated bug tracking System within it. HP ALM’s bug tracking mechanism is easy and efficient. It supports Agile projects too. It is an expensive tool and may not be very friendly with all the web browsers.
Download HP ALM/Quality Center
16) eTraxis
eTraxis is an open source bug tracking tool supporting multiple languages. This tool is developed in a PHP language and supports multiple-database like Oracle, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and MS Server. For managing project, eTraxis gives you a flexible platform involving multiple organizations by providing a central place for all project activity. It allows to create multiple users and projects and at the same time view the bugs assigned. Custom workflows is an additional feature of this system that make handling project as per your requirement.
Main features
- Files exchange and supports attachment
- E-mail notification
- Flexible permission
- Powerful filtering on issues
- Custom workflow
- View complete history of all events
17) Bugnet
It is an open source bug tracker and issue tracking system that is written using Asp.Net platform and requires MySQL as a database. It has got everything that is required for creating projects, issues and managing them efficiently. It is free but the pro-version is licensed and commercial.
Main features
- Email notification
- Issue management
- This bug tracker system Supports multiple projects and databases
- Excellent Security
- Online support community
- Project and milestone management
- Easy navigation and administration
- Online support community
18) FogBugz
FogBugz is a web based bug tracking system that refers to defects as ‘cases’. It prioritize and organize development task in one central place. It includes a powerful search engine that enables you to instantly search the complete content of cases, wiki articles, and customer correspondence. Fogbugz supports almost all ios, Android, Blackberry, tablets, and ipads. It is a commercial product but reasonably priced.
Main Features
- Issue tracking
- Quick and easy case creation
- Support help desk
- Automated error reporting with Bugzscout
- Automatic upgrades and backups
- Integration with other tools
- Project management
- Time tracking
- Integrated wiki
19) The Bug Genie
Recording the issue in the Bug Genie is simple and fast. Also, you can add any number of the custom field to your issues. It exports all searches and project timeline as RSS feeds. In issue views and search lists, issue related actions are available with a single click. While the integrated quicksearch enables you to quickly view your issue, it also allows to search through wiki articles, users, teams and more. It is a complete Project management and issue tracking tool
20) Lighthouse
Lighthouse is the perfect ticket tracking solution. It is simple, organized and compatible with your mobile devices. To manage the bug, lighthouse give you all the amenities it requires like custom states, effective tagging system, advanced search, saved searches and a mass editing tool. It also integrates with dozens of useful services that integrates with Lighthouse like Airbrake, Github, Exceptional, Beanstalk, etc. With few clicks, you can start managing tickets with commit messages or convert the application exception into lighthouse issues
21) BugHost
Though it is a commercial tool, it is affordable. This tool is developed for large companies who need high volume licensing with a minimum prize. Bughost is accessible on cloud and can create an issue directly into your project.
Main features
- Record unlimited defects
- Integrated emails and file attachments
- Bug linking
- Update multiple bugs at once
- Submission of bugs directly to your project by customers
- Strong security protection to access bugs
22) Collabtive
It is an open source web based project management software designed for small and medium size businesses. It is cloud based and alternative to tools like basecamp. The key features of collabtive includes project management, milestones, basecamp import, file management, collaboration, timetracking etc.
23) Team Foundation Server
Team foundation server enables all stakeholders to participate in the development process using a single solution, but it is also used as a bug tracking tool. For bug tracking TFS gives notifications to team members as well as keeps the record of whom the bug was assigned to. Since TFS integrates with Active Directory, it is possible to send updates about the bug to the customer who filed the bug.
Main features
- Version control
- Agile planning and collaboration
- Reporting
- Test case management
- Bug tracking and notification
Download Team Foundation Server
24) IBM Rational ClearQuest
IBM ClearQuest tracks, captures and manages any type of bugs. Like any other tool, IBM rationalquest also gives you all the advantage of bug tracking system. It support multiplatform, like HP-UX, Linux, Microsoft Windows operating system. It can improve visibility and control of software development projects.
Main Features
- Integrating with other tools
- Supports real time reporting and metrics
- Increasing team collaboration
Download IBM Rational ClearQuest
25) Unfuddle
With unfuddle developers can commit source code. It can integrate with most critical tools for any software project. Unfuddle gives better security to your data as amazon provides their servers. It helps to track bugs, feature request and manage the tickets.
Main Features
- Bug and issue management
- Web-based subversion access
- Wiki
- Milestone tracking
26) DevTrack
DevTrack is not specially designed as a regular bug tracker tool. It has a wide range of function but can be considered for defect tracker.
Main features
- Automatically route issues to appropriate users
- Email notifications
- Help team members to track and resolve issues
- Create and assign sub issues
- Import and authenticate users from Active directory
27) Salesforce
It is a web-based bug tracking and project management system. The platform supports tasks planning, creates stories to track tasks, as well as various reports and statistics. The other features of this tool include
- Projects
- Clone defects
- Defect Sharing
- Kanban
- Defects
- Chatter
- Reports
- Burn work hours
FAQ
⚡ Which factors should you consider while selecting a Bug Tracking Software?
You should consider the following factors before selecting a tool
- Quality of Customer support
- License Cost if applicable
- In the case of an outsourcing project, you need to factor customer/Client preference of the automation tool
- The cost involved in training employees on the tool
- Hardware/Software requirements of the bug tracker tool
- Support and Update policy of the automation tool vendor.
- For a SaaS tool, the provider should have a successful track record of stability/uptime/reliability
- Reviews of the compan
✅ Which are the Best Bug Tracking Tools?
Here are some of the Best Bug Tracking Tools:
- BackLog
- SpiraTeam
- BugHerd
- Userback
- SmartSheet
- ClickUp
- Monday
- Zoho bug tracker
❓ When should you NOT use Defect Tracking Software?
You should NOT use Defect Trackers when testing small and simple software projects as these tools take have a steep learning curve and may involve license costs. Its better to use Excel in such cases.