Best issue tracking software of 2024

Whether it's your customer service or IT support team, effectively tracking, managing, and resolving issues from customers, employees, and business partners is critical for business continuity and success. Without a proper system, issues can be overlooked, leading to unresolved problems and frustration for everyone involved.

Issue tracking software helps prevent these frustrations by enabling your business to monitor the status of each issue, prioritize tasks, assign responsibilities, and ensure timely resolution. This improves workflow efficiency, communication, and accountability throughout the problem-solving process. Use this guide to discover key features to look for, such as AI, usability, and scalability, to maximize the benefits of your issue tracker.

More in this guide:

• What is issue tracking software?
• How issue tracking software works
• Benefits of issue management software
• The 5 best issue tracking software
• How to choose the right issue tracking system
• Frequently asked questions
• Use a simple issue tracking software to enhance efficiency

Issue tracking software is a tool that helps service teams document, prioritize, assign, and monitor the progress of issues from initial report to resolution. It’s commonly used in customer support and IT to streamline workflows and enhance productivity.

Issue tracking software works by providing a centralized platform where all reported issues, bugs, and tasks can be logged, tracked, and managed. Here's a step-by-step overview of how it typically functions:

1. Issue reporting: Users report issues through various channels such as email, Slack, WhatsApp, or a self-service portal.
2. Categorization, prioritization, and assignment: The software uses information provided in the ticket—such as issue type or severity—to prioritize and assign it to the appropriate agent. This ensures that teams focus on the most critical problems first. Workflow automation is often included to route issues to the right personnel automatically.
3. Tracking and monitoring: As issues are worked on, their status is updated in the system. Common statuses include "open," "in progress," "resolved," and "closed." This ensures transparency and allows team members to monitor progress.
4. Collaboration: Team members can collaborate on resolving issues by adding comments, sharing files, and updating the issue details. This centralizes communication and documentation related to the issue.
5. Notification and alerts: The software sends notifications and alerts to relevant stakeholders about updates, changes in status, or when their input is required. This keeps everyone informed and engaged.
6. Resolution and closure: Once an issue is resolved, it is closed within the system. The resolution details are documented for future reference, ensuring similar issues can be addressed more efficiently. The software can automatically send follow-up messages to confirm the resolution and gather feedback about the interaction.
7. Reporting and analytics: Reports track support key performance indicators (KPIs), such as the number of issues, time to resolution, and common problem areas. This data helps organizations identify trends, improve processes, and make informed decisions.

AI-powered tools can significantly enhance this process by automating workflows, providing valuable insights, and assisting service teams in resolving issues more quickly and effectively.

The right issue management software can boost productivity and deliver more effective service to end users. Read on to discover the benefits of issue tracking software.

Increased productivity

Issue tracking software enhances productivity by expediting the resolution process in several ways:

1. AI-powered automation: Intelligent bots, such as Zendesk AI agents, can autonomously answer questions and resolve complex issues in multiple languages around the clock. This automation ensures faster ticket resolutions, even during peak times.
2. Self-service support: Tools like self-service portals and AI-powered knowledge bases empower users to resolve their own issues, freeing up your issue tracking teams to focus on more complex tasks.
3. Intelligent ticket routing: AI can tag and direct issues to the appropriate teams based on intent, sentiment, and language, reducing the manual workload for your team and ensuring that issues are addressed by the right people promptly.

Better collaboration

Issue tracking software fosters collaboration by centralizing communication and creating a shared understanding of tasks. Team members know which support tickets have been assigned to whom and the progress they’ve made, so nothing falls through the cracks.

Communication tools also make it easier to work together on tasks by discussing issues and sharing files. This transparency promotes teamwork, encourages collective problem-solving, and ultimately leads to more efficient and successful project completion.

Quickly spot gaps and inefficiencies

With the right issue tracking software, you can easily analyze and report on key metrics such as:

• Average resolution time
• Average first reply time
• Customer satisfaction (CSAT) score
• Tickets handled vs. tickets resolved per hour
• First contact resolution rate

AI-powered quality assurance (QA) tools significantly improve efficiency by automating the QA process and providing in-depth analysis of service interactions. These tools can automatically score 100 percent of service interactions, ensuring consistent evaluation standards and eliminating unseen areas in partial sampling. Doing so, they help identify patterns and trends in service quality, highlighting areas that consistently perform well and those needing improvement.

AI-powered reporting generates actionable suggestions based on this analysis, offering concrete steps to enhance service delivery. This allows teams to quickly address issues, implement best practices, and continuously refine their processes, improving operational efficiency.

Automate workflows

Automated workflows in issue tracking software offer teams numerous benefits by streamlining and standardizing the issue resolution process. By automating repetitive tasks like issue routing, notification triggers, and status updates, teams free up valuable time for focusing on complex problem-solving.

With Zendesk, for example, you can create object triggers that extend your workflows past tickets to automate actions that affect products, contracts, and more. This not only improves productivity but also minimizes human error and ensures consistency.

Let’s take a look at what different issue tracking tools have to offer, including an overview of each product, key features, pricing, and free trial information.

• Zendesk
• Jira
• Zoho BugTracker
• Redmine
• YouTrack

1. Zendesk

Zendesk offers AI-powered issue tracking software that is fast to set up, easy to use, and highly scalable. Our software can handle any use case, whether resolving customer, employee, or business partner issues.

Zendesk AI is pre-trained on over 18 billion real service interactions, requiring no technical expertise to implement, allowing you to get started immediately. Seamlessly integrated throughout the solution, our AI streamlines the issue resolution process. AI-powered workflow automation tools ensure issues are directed to the right agent or department every time. Our intelligent agent copilot assists service teams in real time, offering proactive suggestions for resolving each issue, resulting in faster, higher-quality, and more consistent resolutions.

Zendesk AI agents, the industry’s most autonomous bots, can resolve even complex issues independently, providing 24/7 multilingual support. You can set one up in minutes by connecting it to your help center. For those without a knowledge base, our generative AI tools can quickly create help center content.

Zendesk AI is seamlessly integrated into the omnichannel Agent Workspace, allowing users to submit issues over any channel and enabling service teams to track, manage, and respond to issues from one central location. Within the workspace, agents can access key context to personalize resolutions to each user's unique needs. AI can surface similar tickets, suggest macros, and edit the agent’s tone directly within the workspace. Additionally, service teams can collaborate on issue resolutions without leaving their workspace.

AI-powered reporting tools like Zendesk QA automatically review all service resolutions in real-time, flagging outliers and escalations and pinpointing areas for improvement to continuously optimize your operations.

Our software is also open and flexible, allowing you to customize it to fit your needs, streamline your data, and automate processes across systems with over 1,500 pre-built apps and integrations.

Features:

• AI-powered intelligent triage and routing
• AI-powered self-service
• Workflows and approvals
• Triggers and automations
• Reporting and analytics
• Unified agent workspace with omnichannel support
• Workday integration
• AI-powered insights and employee context
• Employee help center
• Service catalog
• Low-to-pro code customizations
• Unified employee service data
• No-code configuration tools
• Context and knowledge
• Collaboration tools
• Security and privacy

Pricing: Plans start at $55 per agent/month. A 14-day free trial is available.

Explore more Zendesk pricing plans.

2. Jira

Teams use Jira issue tracking software to plan, track, and manage software development projects. Its reporting and analytics features provide insights into project progress, team performance, and potential bottlenecks. Jira offers different ways to visualize work, including Kanban and scrum boards, backlogs, and timelines.

Users can create and assign issue tickets, track their progress through customizable workflows, and collaborate with teammates through comments and discussions. Users can also plan and track short- and long-term projects using a timeline view.

Features:

• AI-powered intelligent triage and routing
• AI-powered self-service
• Workflows and approvals
• Triggers and automations
• Reporting and analytics
• Kanban boards
• Scrum boards

Pricing: Plans start at $850 per year for one to 10 users. A free plan and a 14-day free trial are available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Jira integrates with Zendesk and how Zendesk vs. Jira compare.

3. Zoho BugTracker

Zoho BugTracker is an issue tracking software that teams can use to identify, track, and resolve bugs within their projects. Users can record and track bugs based on pre-determined criteria like severity and due date. Zoho BugTracker includes automation features that enable administrators to trigger status updates and email notifications when preset rules are met.

The issue tracking system also includes time-tracking capabilities that let team members log billable and non-billable hours. Additionally, users can communicate with teammates using in-app discussions and activity streams to keep everyone informed.

Features:

• Workflows and approvals
• Triggers and automations
• Reporting and analytics
• Time tracker
• Collaboration tools

Pricing: Plans start at $3 per user/month, billed annually. A free plan and a 10-day free trial are available.

Recommended reading: Learn how Zoho BugTracker integrates with Zendesk.

4. Redmine

Redmine is an open-source project management web application with issue tracking capabilities. Teams can use it to track issues using a calendar, Gantt chart, or timeline view. Managers can set role-based access to projects and make them private or public. Users can log descriptions of problems, set priorities, and attach relevant files.

The software also has forum capabilities, allowing users to communicate with one another using project-based forums. Additionally, Redmine has time-tracking functionality that lets users log hours for specific issues and projects.

Features:

• Workflows
• Discussion forums
• Time tracking
• Project roles
• Email notifications

Pricing: Free

Recommended reading: Learn how Redmine integrates with Zendesk.

5. YouTrack

YouTrack offers cloud- and server-based project management, team collaboration, and issue tracking tools. Users can apply pre-made workflow templates or create their own using a drag-and-drop builder to automate issue life cycles.

Teams can create a knowledge base to store information and share it with customers or among themselves. Users can also tag other team members in articles to involve them in discussions or correct information. The YouTrack bug-tracking tool includes built-in time-tracking features to monitor the time spent on issues, subtasks, and more.

Features:

• AI-powered self-service
• Workflows and approvals
• Triggers and automations
• Reporting and analytics
• Time tracking
• Knowledge base

Pricing: Plans start at $3.67 per user/month, billed annually. A free plan and a 14-day free trial are available.

When choosing issue tracking software, keep the following considerations in mind:

• Prioritize AI and automation: Enhance efficiency by automating responses to common issues, optimizing resolution workflows, and empowering your service team with real-time insights and suggestions. Not all AI tools are created equal; choose solutions specifically designed for issue resolution to start reaping the benefits of AI from day one.
• Look for a low total cost of ownership (TCO): While free help desk ticketing systems and free trouble ticket software exist, they often lack essential features needed as your business grows, leading to potential switching costs. Be mindful of hidden fees, such as endless add-ons or technical requirements for setup and maintenance. For instance, with Zendesk, you can get started without needing a team of developers, saving you time and money.
• Assess the system’s time to value (TTV) and adaptability: The quicker you can deploy your issue tracker, the sooner it can add value to your company. Opting for an out-of-the-box solution like Zendesk, which is quick to set up and easy to customize, enables your team to get started rapidly and make necessary adjustments on the fly, keeping pace with your business needs.
• Make sure it’s easy to use yet scalable: The shorter the system's learning curve, the faster users of all skill levels can adopt it into their processes. This also contributes to its scalability by allowing your team to accomplish more without adding more agents as the volume of requests grows.
• Prioritize security: Protect sensitive company and customer information by ensuring you control user access and encrypt data to maintain confidentiality.

Selecting an issue tracking system that checks these boxes can make managing issues from both customers and employees easier.