I was looking for an issue tracking/project management software, and stumbled upon this wikipedia page comparing the features of 43 of the most common ones. A bunch of features can be useful, but you won’t care about them if the job can’t be done easily and quickly, or if you fail to install the software and that there’s no one to tell you what you did wrong.
So, I looked for the most popular issue trackers. Popularity can be defined in many ways, the number of users for example, or the number of servers deployed. I chose the global interest for the software, and decided to measure it using Google Adwords and its Keyword Planner tool. I ranked the softwares based on the average monthly searches for each of them between september 2013 and september 2014. Below are the results.
You’ll notice that Atlassian JIRA easily outpaces its competitors, having 3 times more monthly searches than Redmine, the second in the table. You’ll find the top 10 most popular bug trackers, and as a bonus you’ll also get the ranking of all the other softwares listed on the wikipedia page !
| Ranking | Issue tracker Name | Avg Monthly searches between sep 2013 and sep 2014 | Keywords used in Google AdWords |
| 1 | JIRA | 301 000 | JIRA |
| 2 | Redmine | 110 000 | Redmine |
| 3 | Bugzilla | 40 500 | Bugzilla |
| 4 | OTRS | 40 500 | OTRS |
| 5 | Pivotal Tracker | 27 100 | Pivotal Tracker |
| 6 | Wrike | 27 100 | Wrike |
| 7 | Microsoft Dynamics CRM | 22 200 | Microsoft Dynamics CRM |
| 8 | Team Foundation Server | 22 200 | Team Foundation Server |
| 9 | Kayako SupportSuite | 14 800 | Kayako |
| 10 | YouTrack | 12 100 | YouTrack |
| 11 | FogBugz | 9 900 | FogBugz |
| 12 | SysAid | 9 900 | SysAid |
| 13 | HP Quality Center | 8 100 | HP Quality Center |
| 14 | org-mode | 5 400 | org-mode |
| 15 | Request Tracker | 5 400 | Request Tracker |
| 16 | IBM Rational ClearQuest | 4 400 | ClearQuest |
| 17 | MantisBT | 2 900 | MantisBT |
| 18 | Axosoft | 2 400 | Axosoft |
| 19 | Planbox | 2 400 | Planbox |
| 20 | StarTeam | 1 900 | StarTeam |
| 21 | Apache Bloodhound | 1 600 | Apache Bloodhound |
| 22 | Web Help Desk | 1 600 | Web Help Desk |
| 23 | TechExcel’s DevTrack | 1 300 | DevTrack |
| 24 | Projeqtor | 880 | Projeqtor |
| 25 | ikiwiki | 880 | ikiwiki |
| 26 | TestTrack | 880 | TestTrack |
| 27 | Plain Ticket | 720 | Plain Ticket |
| 28 | The Bug Genie | 720 | The Bug Genie |
| 29 | IBM Rational Team Concert | 260 | Team Concert |
| 30 | Remedy Action Request System | 210 | Remedy Action Request System |
| 31 | Liberum Help Desk | 170 | liberum help desk |
| 32 | Roundup | 110 | roundup issue tracker |
| 33 | Trac | 90 | trac issue tracking |
| 34 | Zoho BugTracker | 70 | Zoho BugTracker |
| 35 | AssemblaTickets | 50 | AssemblaTickets |
| 36 | TrackerSuite.Net | 50 | trackersuite |
| 37 | Fossil | 30 | switced to Fossil Issue Tracker, brand name was too generic |
| 38 | Teamwork | 10 | Teamwork issue tracking |
| 39 | Brimir | – | Brimir |
| 40 | Debbugs | – | Debbugs |
| 41 | GNATS | – | Gnats issue tracking |
| 42 | Google Code Hosting | – | |
| 43 | LibreSource | – | LibreSource |
| 44 | Supportworks | – | Supportworks issue tracker |
By default, I used the names of the defect tracking softwares as keywords. But some of them were quite generic (ex : “Fossil” got 1 million monthly searches…). So, I googled each of them and checked the content of the first results page. If all links were not related to the sofware, I added keywords to refine the search (ex : “Fossil issue tracker” instead of “Fossil”) and used Adwords to find the combination with the largest number of relevant results. This is not science, and one could easily question some scores (feel free to do it in the comments), still, I believe this method gives a reliable trend. Popularity is just one reason to select an issue tracker, and I would be curious to know which one you’re using, and why. Let me know in the comments !