How to locate the best Gantt chart plugin for Jira?

Is it features, price, or perhaps a vendor’s reputation? How to select the best Gantt chart for Jira for your organization? Don’t fall into the trap of choosing a cheap plugin. To navigate to the best Gantt chart, look at features, but also prospects of an Atlassian vendor.

I cannot stress enough how important regular releases are. No matter how pretty a Gantt chart looks, plugins that don’t get updated a few times per year should be approached with caution. Consider this: what if a vendor has a pretty refined app, but they have switched to the harvest mode now? Once Atlassian upgrades Jira, or you need a custom-made feature for your Gantt plugin, you could get trapped.

	BigGantt	BigPicture Gantt chart + Scope + Roadmaps + Board + Calendar + Risks + Reports	Gantt Cloud	GanttChart Project for Jira – Enterprise	GanttPRO	Gantt-Chart for Jira	Structure .Gantt extension for Structure	Gantt Suite for Jira	WBS Gantt-chart for Jira
Vendor	SoftwarePlant	SoftwarePlant	WISOFT	Soyatec	GanttPRO	Frank Polscheit	ALM Works	BrizoIT	Ricksoft, Inc.
Jira Cloud
Server
Data Center
# of active instances	8864	11 082	1819	687		1259	4474	1338	5563
Marketplace rating /# of reviews	3.0 /179	3.1 /295	2.1 /118	1.9 /156	3.9 /27	2.8 /127	3.5 /22	3.9 /10	2.7 /114
# of releases (I – V 2021) ~how actively an app is developed	7	7		0		2	2	6	1
Launched	2015	2014		2011		2010	2018	2020	2013
Atlassian Marketplace Bug Bounty Program Partner allows security researchers to test app for security vulnerabilities
Price Cloud 100 users user/month	$1.25	$2.8	$0.45	$6 $1.5 – Professional Edition	$8.9 or less	$1	$1 + $0.6 requires Structure for Jira	$1	$1.25
Price Data Center 100 users annually	$1250	$2250		$8400 $1000 – Professional Edition. You can request a free license for Jira Server		$750	$2000 + $1000 requires Structure for Jira	free	$1000
Gantt chart features
What-if scenarios before you commit changes to a schedule
Issue links (end-to-start, end-to-end, etc.) these constraints have the power to influence the schedule
Soft dependency links an arrow between two tasks is evident, but it won’t interfere with the schedule
Baselines							on Server and Data Center
Resource management
Customize column views
Filter views								by issue type	on Cloud
Color tasks manually

An effort was made to gather accurate data, but these apps are sometimes incomparable. Data current at the time of writing. Help improve the table – e-mail marketing (a) softwareplant.com.

Subtle signs that indicate good Gantt addons

How to detect a decent Gantt chart plugin? Actively developed add-ons exhibit these subtle signs:

• Slides on Atlassian Marketplace show late Jira interface
• A plugin has been on the market for a relatively short period, but it is packed with features
• Keep a sharp eye on how fresh, modern the user interface is
• Look for settled, multi-employee vendors

What does a model Gantt chart look like?

Pictured is what we consider the best, at least mature, Gantt chart for Jira. This look & feel is available in BigGantt and BigPicture. The new Gantt chart debuted in version 8 of our software and has a sleek design, excellent user experience, and long-demanded new features:

• what-if scenarios – test before you commit changes to the schedule
• soft dependencies (issue links) – as opposed to classic, “hard” dependencies, soft links are represented by arrows, but they are not in power to reschedule anything
• and the hideable right-side panel sheds more light on a task – lists milestones, overdue tasks, and dependencies

New Gantt chart in BigGantt 8 and BigPicture 8 has what-if scenarios, soft dependencies (they don’t affect the schedule), and the collapsible ‘See the context of a task’ panel.