13 Best bug tracking software tools to adopt during AI boom

No matter how careful you are, bugs are inevitable when it comes to coding. And the larger your software is, the higher the likelihood of bugs. In today's day and age, where most developers turn to AI to ship features, this has become more and more of a prevailing problem.

A report by the Consortium for IT Software Quality (CISQ) confirms this, stating that developers typically introduce 100 to 150 errors per thousand lines of code.

Fortunately, AI isn’t just part of the problem, it’s also becoming part of the solution. With the rise of MCPs, developers are easily able to grant AI agents access to help catch and fix bugs from their bug tracker faster than ever before.

Major companies are taking notice too, as Amazon is reportedly working on an AI-powered code generation tool, codenamed "Kiro", and Canva just shipped MCP support to connect agents.

In this article, I’ll share with you the best bug tracking software (whether free or open source), highlighting their strengths and limitations, and how up-to-date they're with adopting AI.

How I shortlisted bug trackers for this list

There are a lot of bug trackers in the market today — some old, others quite modern. 

Fortunately, I've had the real-world experience of using some of these tools in a work setting (as well as in some solo projects, too).

Drawing from that experience, I curated and evaluated each tool in the list based on key criteria such as the user interface, ease of filing a bug report, integrations (GitHub, Slack, etc.), pricing, collaboration features (such as assigning ownership and comments) and workflow customization because no two teams operate the same way.

The result is a balanced list of 13 contenders, well-suited for 2025.

Jira

Pricing: Free for up to 10 invited users, and paid plan starting from $8.6 per month

Jira is the cornerstone of issue tracking and project management for most enterprise organizations. It empowers teams with the ability to organize their work using Kanban and Scrum boards, while also offering detailed backlog management to prioritize tasks. 

Though primarily known for its agile project management capabilities, Jira doubles as a bug tracking tool for software developers.

One of it's biggest strengths lies in its vast ecosystem, with over 3,000 integrations (or better known as "Jira apps") including Slack, Microsoft, Google, Zoom, and more.

In the past, I've found it to be great using it with the GitHub integration to track bugs, feature requests, and support tickets neatly all in one place. It even features customizable workflows so actions like closing an issue will automatically move related tickets to their next stage.

That level of customizability is fantastic... if only you’re willing to invest the time.

When I first logged into Jira, I was honestly overwhelmed ngl (imagine logging to AWS console for the first time). I eventually got used to it by digging through the docs, but it made me realize its learning curve can be steep for beginners or even those used to simpler tools.

Pros: Jira offers a wide suite of features for everything you could ever want including third-party integrations making highly valuable for large corporations.

Cons: Its vast array of features that make it powerful can also overwhelm new users or teams accustomed to simpler platforms, as its setup and configuration require a significant time investment and familiarity its terminology.

Linear

Pricing: Free tier available for everyone, with paid subscriptions starting at $8 per user per month

Linear swept me off my feet from the first use and easily ranks as my favorite bug tracking software so far. It doubles as both a project planning and issue tracking system, streamlining your entire product development workflow. It comes off clean with a slick and modern feel to its UI that's also surprisingly keyboard-driven.

If you know me, you know I love vim, and I'm a sucker for my shortcuts. 

Because of this, Linear instantly appealed to me and felt very much at home when it comes to filing bugs, because nearly every interaction can be done without lifting my fingers from my keyboard.

Another standout feature is how it blends issue tracking with project planning, so you can triage bugs into sprints or cycles and link them to broader roadmaps.

Just like Jira, it supports multiple integrations out of the box, with GitHub being one of the most essential. I say this because it keeps your work perfectly in sync in both applications by linking Linear issues to pull requests and commits, so issues automatically update as the PR moves from one stage to being merged.

Pros: It offers a sleek, modern, and keyboard-driven interface that makes bug filing and project planning fast, especially for users who enjoy shortcuts.

Cons: It lacks some of the deeper customization and advanced reporting features available in more heavyweight tools like Jira.

GitHub Issues

Pricing: GitHub offers free plans for individuals and teams, with paid plans starting at $4 per user per month for advanced features and enterprise options.

GitHub Issues is a widely used and versatile tool for bug tracking and issue management. 

It is a built-in feature of GitHub, one of the most popular version control platforms out there. 

If your code already lives on GitHub, it can be tempting to just stick with GitHub Issues because it eliminates context switching between multiple tools (just like you would using Pieces 😉).

You can file a bug right in your codebase, mention/reference a pull request, and auto-close it with a commit message, all without leaving the platform.

Beyond issue tracking, GitHub also offers project planning through its "Projects" feature, which ties neatly with Issues. 

With it, you can visualize your issues in Kanban boards or even a live canvas. You can also customize them with custom fields and saved views to tailor the experience to your team’s needs.

But don’t expect the full capabilities of a dedicated bug tracking platform. GitHub Issues is fairly limited (to certain individuals) and just mainly focuses on issue tracking and issue tracking only. If your need grows to anything outside of that, you’ll eventually hit a wall.

That said, it’s not all gloom and doom. You can easily transition out to another tool if ever the need arises, or try customizing it with other tools. Some folks from Pieces user base connect together Github and Pieces, or implement MCP to maximize their workflow.

Pros: For individuals or teams who looking for a lightweight and simple bug tracker to start with, GitHub Issues rocks.

Cons: While GitHub Projects can aggregate issues across multiple repos, GitHub issues itself are scoped to individual repos. Also, it doesn’t work well for cross-functional teams(Designers, Product managers, etc.)

Azure DevOps (Boards)

Pricing: Free for up to 5 users, while paid plans start at $6 per user per month beyond that.

Azure DevOps is Microsoft’s full-stack solution for software development lifecycle management.

Think of it as the counterpart to GitHub’s offerings, but all on Azure’s platform. 

It bundles Azure Repos (similar to GitHub repos), Azure Pipelines (comparable to GitHub CI/CD), and Azure Boards (combining GitHub Projects and Issues).

Azure Boards lets you and your teams create, track, and plan work items (bugs, tasks, and user stories) across several projects using Kanban and Scrum boards, backlog, and cumulative flow diagrams.

One of my favorite things about Azure Boards is how well it integrates issues with other code tools in its lineup. 

Similar to GitHub, bugs or work items can be referenced directly wherever on the platform, giving you full traceability. This includes CI/CD, commits, test results, PRs, etc.

It also supports hierarchical work tracking, making it a solid choice for enterprise teams that want more control. If your organization is already invested in the Microsoft ecosystem, I see no reason why you shouldn't give it a shot.

Pros: It comes with built-in compliance for enterprises and possesses a handful of third-party integrations.

Cons: It can feel complex at times for newcomers, especially non-technical folks.

Bugzilla

Pricing: Free and open source

Bugzilla is the granddaddy of defect management and frankly, it's still kicking to this day. It was originally created in the mid-’90s (specifically 1998) by Netscape initially, and later transitioned to the Mozilla Foundation. Despite its name, it remains an independent open source project and is not directly owned by Mozilla (many tend to get this confused).

Since Bugzilla is open source, you can download and self-host it on any machine as long as the prerequisites of having Perl installed and a database are met. 

While primarily a bug tracker, Bugzilla can also be adapted into a support ticket system or project management tool (spoiler alert: it's not great, but hey, at least you can).

The Achilles’ heel of Bugzilla is its user interface. Its UI is relatively complex and less user-friendly compared to modern alternatives, which makes it challenging to navigate. This largely stems from its age and being designed for traditional development workflows.

However, if you can look past the dated UI and have an in-house ops team comfortable with self-hosting, Bugzilla delivers great features.

Pros: It is fully free and self-hostable, making it very appealing as a no-cost solution.

Cons: The outdated user interface can be off-putting in today's age, and setting it up requires some DevOps skills. Additionally, third-party integrations are also very scarce.

Pieces

Pricing: Completely free

Keeping track of bugs is one thing, but actually fixing them is another. Pieces is an on-device AI assistant that helps spot bugs in your codebase, suggest context-aware fixes, and act as a coding buddy while you write code.

It's not your typical traditional bug tracker in some sense, but it grants enough similar features to be used as one. 

With Pieces Drive, you're able to save and store bug reports and share it with your team through shareable links. 

This can be done from your IDE, web browser, or even productivity tools, as Pieces supports a wide range of platforms.

Once you have your bug reports saved on Pieces Drive, this opens the doors to a wider usage of AI tools that Pieces render. One of which is Pieces Copilot, an AI coding assistant.

For example, I'm sure you've had low-priority bug tickets that feel too trivial to spend time on, but need to be resolved regardless. 

With Pieces Copilot, you can just reference the saved bug in your prompt and let Pieces handle the rest:

Pieces can also be called by other AI tools through it's support for the MCP. This means you can grant access to your saved bugs to your favourite third-party AI tools like Claude Code, OpenAI Codex, etc.

With the ability to bring with you your bugs wherever you are (whether through MCP or native integration), you get to eliminate that jarring context-switching between various apps.

Pros: It supports multiple integrations (including your browser) so you can easily access it from anywhere. It also comes with first-party AI assistance.

Cons: It doesn't have visualization features for bugs, like Scrum or Kanban boards

YouTrack

Pricing: Free for up to 10 users, and $4.40 per additional user per month beyond 10 users.

YouTrack pleasantly surprised me the first time I tried it out. Developed by JetBrains, it’s a project management and team collaboration tool that feels similar to GitHub Issues and Projects but with a different UI.

It features a customizable issue tracker where you can define your own custom fields, workflows, and issue types to match your team’s process. It also supports bug triaging, enabling things like batch issue editing, linking related issues, and assigning tasks across multiple teams or sprints.

I'm sure we’ve all struggled with clunky search syntax to find related issues. One of YouTrack's big selling points is its advanced search filtering using natural language processing (NLP). 

If you've never heard of it, it's basically using AI to interpret your queries the way a human would. 

That way, you can find what you need simply by typing in everyday language.

It's good to note that Pieces Drive offers the same powerful NLP-based search for your saved snippets and code.

YouTrack also comes with a built-in helpdesk, which lets you manage customer support directly within the same platform as your developers. It turns incoming emails or web form submissions into issues, which can then be categorized and assigned like any other task.

Pros: Its integration of helpdesk functionality cuts down on the need for an extra service subscription.

Cons: You can get most of the features from GitHub for free, to not satisfy making a switch.

Redmine

Pricing: Completely free

Redmine is classic open-source bug tracker that you can download and install on your personal hardware without any licensing costs. It's one of the OG bug trackers (similar to Bugzilla), and some might regard it as one of the best open-source bug tracking software available.

Redmine blends issue tracking with project management so well that it often feels like multiple tools bundled in one.

Apart from issue boards, Redmine offers a built-in forum for team discussions, Gantt charts for project timelines, a wiki for internal documentation, a news section for changelogs, and much more.

Because Redmine isn't a SaaS, you’ll need to self-host it yourself if you want to use it. 

This means messing with Docker and having a little bit of knowledge on DevOps if you plan to run it in the cloud. 

Luckily, various third-party providers offer hosted Redmine instances if you don't want to manage one yourself (for a fee, of course).

This open licensing makes it great, especially for large organizations or compliance-focused environments where audit trails, access controls, and on-premise hosting are must-haves.

Pros: It offers issue tracking, project planning, and team collaboration under one roof without a limit on added users or enterprise features like audit logs, governance control etc.

Cons: The user interface feels dated and can be less intuitive to people who expect a modern design. Also, setup and installation require technical expertise, potentially posing a challenge for non-technical users.

Shortcut (formerly Clubhouse)

Pricing: Free for up to 10 users, with paid plans starting at $10 per user per month.

Shortcut is one of the newer kids on the block. It combines the simplicity of a lightweight bug tracker with robust agile features such as Kanban boards, sprints, roadmaps, and integrated documentation.

Similar to Linear, Shortcut follows an opinionated workflow with its own unique terminology. In it, workflows are organized around what they call Stories, Epics, Objectives, and Docs. You can group your bugs into Epics or Sprints, assign them to specific team members, and track the progress through various stages.

The platform supports over 50 integrations, including GitHub and GitLab, which enables auto-linking commits to stories, and Slack integration for allowing team members to create bug reports directly from Slack messages.

As a big fan of Sentry, I also appreciate Shortcut’s integration that lets you automatically generate bug reports from captured errors.

Pros: It strikes a compelling balance for power users and someone in need of something lightweight.

Cons: It's SaaS only model, meaning if you ever need an on-premises solution for compliance reasons, you’re out of luck.

Zoho BugTracker

Pricing: Free for up to 3 users, with paid plans starting at $2.8 per user per month.

As part of Zoho’s extensive suite, Zoho BugTracker fits alongside Zoho Projects, CRM, and their other products. This makes it particularly convenient if you’re already embedded in the Zoho ecosystem, as it allows you to easily connect support tickets to engineering backlogs. It offers a straightforward solution for tracking and resolving bugs across various projects.

For those who embrace agile methodologies, it has a Kanban view for issues and lets you triage bugs based on their priority or due dates.

An added feature some might care about is its time tracking. Its Timesheets feature enables users to log their billable and non-billable hours.

Pros: If you’re already paying for Zoho One, BugTracker is a cost-effective addition.

Cons: Integrations outside the Zoho ecosystem are limited, and there are frankly better alternatives out there.

MantisBT

Pricing: Completely free.

MantisBT is one of those classic bug tracking tools that’s been around for decades yet remains actively maintained. 

Fun fact: I checked its release date and was amazed to find out I hadn’t even come into existence yet!

Like Redmine and Bugzilla, it’s open source and designed to be self-hosted, which makes it a great choice for teams that want full control over their infrastructure (or just want to avoid expensive SaaS pricing).

Now, about MantisBT user interface, let’s just say it hasn’t exactly kept up with the times. It still gives off that early 2000s era vibe, compared to modern platforms we have today like Jira and such.

But if you can look past the nostalgia, it does get the job done. For small to medium-sized teams, MantisBT covers all the essentials you’d expect: role-based access, issue reporting via email, time tracking, and customizable workflows.

While MantisBT is primarily self-hosted, they do offer a SaaS option called MantisHub for those who want to skip the setup hassle. Just a heads-up, though, it’s a bit pricey.

Pros: It's mature and highly customizable for most of your bug-tracking needs. It's also open-source and free to self-host.

Cons: The plugin ecosystem doesn't support third-party bug trackers, making gradual migrations not feasible. Also, the user interface is dated.

Featurebase

Pricing: Free plan for Individuals, with paid plans for teams starting at $59 per user.

Featurebase takes a fresh approach by tying bug reports directly to product feedback and feature requests in a single package. It lets you collect customer feedback and bug reports directly from your app with what they call "in-app widgets" (which are just embeddable widgets).

Under the hood, Featurebase includes an analytics dashboard that highlights where most of your bugs cluster, helping teams decide where to invest most of their QA time. It also offers Slack-style threads on each item, so you can discuss with others.

It's really nice to see a tool that doesn't just have basic bug reporting, but shapes a new flow for your customers to file bugs and feedback alongside using your software. As @levelsio recently highlighted in a tweet on X, Featurebase makes it easy to collect and manage bugs by turning everything into “user-based demand.”

While Featurebase boasts integrations with popular platforms like Jira, Linear, GitHub, and ClickUp, its ecosystem is still growing. At the time of writing, it supports only 12 integrations. 

This means, if you're looking to try out Featurebase while syncing issues between your existing issue tracker, there's a chance it might not be supported hence not possible.

Pros: Featurebase excels in collecting bug reports and feature requests directly from users under a single platform.

Cons: Its limited integration ecosystem could be a hurdle for some teams.

BugHerd

Pricing: Starts at $49 per month for 5 users (Standard), with plans scaling up to $149 per month for 25 users

BugHerd flips the script by embedding bug reporting directly into your web app, similar to Featurebase, but with a bigger focus on visual feedback. It allows for the reporting of bugs that might not actually be technical defects, but instead are design issues.

When a bug is reported, it instantly captures and attaches valuable metadata like browser agent, operating system, screen resolution and a nice tidy screenshot, so developers (or whoever assigned) know exactly what needs fixing.

It's commonly used for getting feedback from client and letting them track the progress of their reported bug. 

For teams that don’t want non-tech stakeholders fumbling through developer tools, this is really nice as feedback and bug reports come in as reproducible tickets.

Beyond that, BugHerd offers Kanban-style task boards and simple priority labels making management easy for the development team. It also provides basic time-tracking so you can see how long each bug eats up.

If have you a project management tool in use already, you aren't left out. BugHerd has integrations for popular platforms like Jira, Trello, and GitHub, so you can funnel external issues into your existing workflow.

Pros: Reduces the barrier to reporting bugs for non-technical clients and customers.

Cons: Its strong focus on visual, web-based feedback means it’s best complemented with another bug tracker or project management tool.

How to choose the best bug tracking software

Picking the right bug tracker for your team boils down to understanding your specific needs and priorities. 

Here’s my take on the key factors to weigh as you decide.

First, consider your team size and the complexity of your workflow. 

It's easy to prefer lightweight bug trackers like GitHub Issues or Shortcut as a solo dev or small teams, as that might be the fastest way to move, while larger enterprises often require deep customizability with the nitty-gritty features (tools like Jira and Azure DevOps comes to mind here).

Next, think about integrations. 

Ask yourself, "Does this tool play well with my existing stack?" 

And by stack, I mean your version control system, CI/CD tools, workspace chat/messaging apps, and maybe your existing project management or bug tracker tool if you have one. 

Good integrations save time by cutting out manual labor and duplicated work.

Usability is often overlooked, but it’s hugely important. 

What good is a powerful bug tracker if it's too complex to use for your team or stakeholders? 

No good, that's what. But for some reason, we developers yearn for overly complex solutions. 

Featurebase, for example, does a great job here, striking a balance between both.

What about deployment? 

Do you need an on-premise solution for security or compliance reasons? If yes, then the bug tracker of your choice has to offer a self-hosted option. 

You would also need someone with DevOps knowledge on the team.

Finally, pricing tiers and budget. 

Bug tracking subscription can range anywhere from hundreds of dollars per month to free (as in free beer), thanks to open source alternatives. 

Luckily, many paid platforms offer free trials or freemium tiers so you can test drive before committing.

Conclusion

There you have it — 13 bug tracking software contenders, each with distinct strengths and trade-offs.

Bugs are a common occurrence in software development, and having a tool to manage them is indispensable. From the visual feedback-oriented trackers like BugHerd to the all-in-one ambitious solutions like ClickUp, there’s a right fit for every team’s size.

If you’re still undecided, my best advice is to spin up a free tier and try a demo sprint. That way, you can see for yourself which truly feels like a natural extension of your workflow.