11 Best Bug Tracking Tools For Modern Dev Teams

Hey friend, bugs in your code got you down? Even experienced coders wrestle with bugs creeping into releases. The stress of discovering issues leads all too often to quick hacky fixes and tech debt accumulation.

There is a better way! Purpose-built bug trackers help developers gracefully handle issues through entire software lifecycles – from feature coding to post-production monitoring.

This guide will explore the top 11 tools available in 2023 tailored to developers across domains, team sizes, and budgets. I have personally evaluated dozens of trackers over my 15 years as a software architect for SaaS companies and distilled down the highest performers.

Let‘s first understand why defect tracking merits special attention before diving into the tools dominating today‘s agile landscapes.

Why Bug Tracking Deserves Dedicated Tools

We developers often underestimate the costs bugs impose on software businesses. Consider that:

  • Companies lose an average of $5600 per hour of downtime from critical software failures.
  • Over 80% of development time is spent identifying and fixing defects
  • Poor testing and bug management accounts for over $270 billion in annual economic losses

Yikes! Without standardized tools and workflows, these costs and productivity drains spiral out of control.

This is where integrated bug trackers shine…

The Virtues of Great Bug Trackers

Bug trackers simplify life through:

  • Centralized tracking – No more frantic Slack channels or endless email chains trying to coordinate fixes.
  • Accountability & organization – Every member knows upcoming priorities and ownership.
  • Continuous improvement – Analytics around defect-types and resolution guides future decisions.
  • Efficient collaboration – Teams openly discuss defects as they write and review code.

Established players like Airbnb, HubSpot, Cisco, and Uber amplify delivery through purpose-built tracking tools.

Now that I have hopefully convinced you of the necessity for bug trackers, let‘s explore the top 11 tools available in 2023 based on research and first-hand experience.

What To Look For When Evaluating Trackers

Before diving into the solutions, I want to outline 5 key criteria modern teams analyze when selecting bug tracking tools:

➡️ Flexible Reporting

Can end-users easily submit structured reports including screenshots, session details, and repro steps?

➡️ Collaboration Tools

Does the platform help managers, developers, and quality engineers work together to fix defects faster?

➡️ Platform Integrations

How easily can teams integrate defect tracking with existing project management and software workflows?

➡️ Prioritization & Assignment

Can submitted bugs be triaged, tagged, ranked, and assigned owners through centralized workflows?

➡️ Analytics & Dashboards

Does the tool provide insights through trends, graphs, and reports to spot patterns and prevent future defects?

These capabilities allow modern teams to close defects faster while learning from monitoring post-deployment crashes.

Let‘s now drill into the 11 highest performing bug and issue trackers accumulating rave reviews in 2023!

The 11 Highest Rated Bug Tracking Tools

1. Zoho BugTracker

Zoho BugTracker simplifies tracking, assignment, and resolution workflows for lean engineering teams through its lightweight yet powerful interface. Developers at Visible, Kentico, and Contus champion BugTracker for its rapid time-to-value and intuitive UX.

Notable Features:

  • 👷‍♀️ Customizable workflows
  • 📈 Milestone tracking
  • 📝 @Mention colleagues
  • 🔧 REST API and Zapier integration

Pricing

Plan Price
Free Up to 3 users
Standard $10/month
Enterprise Custom Quoted

2. monday.com

monday.com is the work OS loved by 200,000+ teams globally for its flexibility in tracking projects, bugs, backlogs, and executing repeatable processes. Fortune 500 leaders like WeWork, Discovery, Philips, leverage customized monday boards to standardize workflows.

monday.com example

Notable Features:

  • 👓 Centralized Tracking
  • ⚡️ Automatic Ticket Creation
  • 🎯 Customizable Views

Pricing

Plan Price
Basic $8/seat/month
Standard $10/seat/month
Pro $16/seat/month

14 day free trial available!

3. Bugyard

Bugyard simplifies reactive and exploratory testing through its uniquely intuitive in-app widgets for recording feedback during development cycles. Startups and agencies looking to build reliable web apps fast leverage Bugyard for its impressive collaboration capabilities with non-technical teams.

Bugyard example

Notable Features:

  • 👩‍💻 Annotated Screenshots
  • 🕵️‍♂️ Device Metrics Tracking
  • 💬 Comment Directly on Pages

Pricing

Plan Price
Teams (5 users) $39/month
Business (15 users) $99/month
Enterprise Custom

4. BugHerd

The customer-loved BugHerd brings project management capabilities together with its best-in-class feedback widget for tracking requests. Development shops, e-commerce sites, and SaaS platforms leverage BugHerd for shipping stable apps users love.

Bugherd example

Notable Features:

  • 🧩 Jira, Trello, GitHub Integration
  • 🎞️ Website Session Recorder
  • ⬆️ Reply via Email

Pricing

Plan Price
Startup $29/month
Professional $69/month
Enterprise Custom

Free 14 day trial available!

5. Marker.io

Marker.io empowers product teams to pinpoint hard-to-replicate defects through annotated screenshots, user session videos, console logs, and other metadata to accelerate resolutions.

Marker.io example

Notable Features:

  • 🎥 Screen and Camera Recording
  • ☁️ Cloud Storage Integrations
  • 🔗 Native Jira, Trello, GitHub Integrations

Pricing

Plan Price
Starter $49/month
Business $125/month
Enterprise Custom

15-day free trial available!

6. DoneDone

DoneDone takes the complexity out of tracking defects through customizable templates tailored to modern software workflows. Founders, agencies, and engineers switching from makeshift workflows fall in love DoneDone‘s simplicity.

DoneDone Example

Notable Features:

  • 📝 Custom Templates
  • ⚙️ GitHub, Jira, Trello Integrations
  • 👀 Real-time Progress Notifications

Pricing

Plan Price
Basic $7/month
Business $19/month
Enterprise Custom

7. MantisBT

Self-hosted, open-source bug tracking solution MantisBT delights developers through endless customization including workflows, permissions, due dates, custom fields, reports and more. Over 10000 self-managed installations rely on MantisBT for affordable and extensible tracking.

MantisBT example

Notable Features:

  • ⚙️ Highly Customizable Fields
  • 🛡️ Robust Access Controls
  • 👪 Role-based Account Permissions

Pricing

Plan Price
Self-Managed Free
Cloud Hosted $4.95/month

Stay in control by self-hosting MantisBT on your own infrastructure absolutely free!

8. Disbug

Disbug simplifies cross-team collaboration by capturing developer environment details, console output, network calls, unhandled exceptions, performance metrics, and user journeys through session replays. Support teams leverage Disbug‘s capabilities to resolve issues faster.

Disbug Example

Notable Features:

  • 🪲 Bug Auto-Capture
  • ⌚️ Session Replay
  • 📊 Performance Analytics

Pricing

Disbug offers custom quotes based on your team size and use case through their website.

9. Ruttl

Visually gather client website feedback across devices with Ruttl‘s chrome extension and impressive collaboration features purpose built for creative agencies and marketing teams approval cycles.

Ruttl Example

Notable Features:

  • ✏️ Annotation Tools
  • 💻 Cross-browser Testing
  • 🎥 Click-through Recorder

Pricing

Plan Price
Starter $14/month
Multiple Websites $29/month
Enterprise Custom

Free forever plan allows 1 website!

10. Backlog

Backlog brings project management together with configurable issue tracking for development teams looking to visualize assignments and progress in intuitive boards. Engineers praise Backlog‘s Jira parity and Git repository integration for efficient traceability.

Backlog Example

Notable Features:

  • 🧩 Native Git Integration
  • 👓 Burndown Charts
  • 👪 @Mention Teammates

Pricing

Plan Price
Free Up to 5 team members
Standard $35/month
Enterprise Custom

Student and nonprofit discounts available!

11. Bird Eats Bug

Frustration-free bug reporting tailored for software teams – capture and log defects in seconds through annotated screenshots, session recordings, or manual entry. Bird Eats Bug delights engineers through integrations and templates accelerating root cause analysis.

Notable Features:

  • 🖥️ Automatic Session Recording
  • 📑 Descriptive Metadata Collection
  • ✉️ New Issue Email Alerts

Pricing

Plan Price
Starter $39/year
Standard $99/year
Enterprise Custom

Generous free version available!

Key Considerations When Selecting Trackers

With over a dozen compelling tools, how should developers narrow down options?

Team Size – Solo developers and small teams may gravitate towards simplicity with Zoho or DoneDone. Larger engineering teams will appreciate enterprise tools like Backlog and monday.com.

Platforms & Integrations – Programming languages, repository platforms, and existing tool stacks influence compatibility. Prioritize trackers covering your tech stack.

Budget – Luckily capable options span from fully free (MantisBT) to custom enterprise pricing. Define budgets before purchasing.

On-Premise vs SaaS – Self-hosted open-source options allow unlimited customization for advanced teams. Evaluate complexity vs convenience.

While core tracking capabilities like reporting, assignment, categorization, and analytics are standardized – differences manifest through integrations, dashboards, licensing, and supported development workflows.

Hopefully this guide and side-by-side comparisons help accelerate your tool selection journey! Now go and build incredible software loved by millions 🚀.

Questions on picking the right tracker? Reach out @softwareadam on Twitter!