8 alternatives to Jellyfish software

Engineering leaders often find themselves overwhelmed with choices in the crowded landscape of engineering analytics tools. While platforms like Jellyfish are well-regarded for tracking DORA metrics, project costs, and R&D cost capitalization, these numbers usually fall short of providing the whole picture. Many software teams struggle with the limitations of purely quantitative data, realizing it doesn’t tell them how to improve or what’s happening outside of platforms like Git and Jira. Such a situation leaves a significant gap in visibility that can hinder actionable progress and slow development speed.

This guide will explore Jellyfish’s core strengths and limitations and introduce Jellyfish alternatives that take a more comprehensive approach to engineering efficiency. These engineering optimization platforms offer qualitative and quantitative insights, allowing software teams to track performance, identify critical bottlenecks like technical debt or scope creep, and improve workflow automation. By the end, you’ll understand how Jellyfish compares to its competitors and which platform is best suited to drive meaningful results for your organization.

Jellyfish

Jellyfish is an engineering analytics platform designed to help engineering leaders track productivity and R&D cost capitalization, focusing on DORA metrics. While it provides valuable insights for leadership, many users find it lacking in addressing developers’ daily challenges. Its strengths lie in top-down reporting, but it falls short of capturing the full story of developer productivity and what’s impacting it. Additionally, users say that it lacks flexibility in its reporting.

Pros:

• Cost capitalization: R&D cost capitalization reporting is helpful for organizations needing to track and report on engineering investments. It offers clear visibility into resource allocation.
• DORA metrics: Provides standard DORA metric tracking, a common benchmark for understanding software delivery.
• Integration with developer tools: Jellyfish connects with tools like Git and Jira, pulling productivity data for analysis.

Cons:

• Limited customization: Lacks flexibility in how metrics are defined and tracked, which can be restrictive for teams needing more tailored insights.
• Top-down focus: This focus primarily serves leadership, offering limited insight into developer experience, which may result in a disconnect between leadership goals and team challenges.

As CJ Montano, CTO of ComboCurve, observed, “Jellyfish has a top-down approach to measurement, largely benefiting leaders and not those doing the actual work.” Montano’s team ultimately switched to another platform after realizing the need to capture both top-down metrics and developer sentiment.

Jellyfish is great for leadership reporting. However, its limited customization and lack of focus on developer experience make it unsuitable for teams needing a broader view of productivity.

DX

DX is an engineering intelligence platform designed by leading productivity researchers. It combines data from development tools with self-reported data collected from developers to offer a comprehensive view of engineering productivity and its underlying factors.

The creators of DORA and SPACE founded DX, developing proprietary frameworks, including the DX Core 4 and DXI, helping organizations drive higher ROI per developer.

Key Advantages:

• Holistic developer metrics: DX evaluates productivity through the DX Core 4 framework, offering a complete picture of developer productivity by combining self-reported data with system-based metrics. This balanced focus on output and developer experience leads to measurable business impact.
  Marco Vadori of Docebo noted, “DX brings together quantitative metrics and qualitative feedback, the best way to measure productivity holistically.”
• Team-level adoption: DX’s intuitive dashboards and actionable insights facilitate quick adoption across development teams. They make it easy for engineers at all levels to incorporate metrics into their day-to-day workflows, leading to improved performance and alignment with organizational objectives.
• Data-driven insights: DX doesn’t just provide data—it delivers actionable insights that lead to real improvements. DX helps teams identify and address productivity barriers by combining self-reported data with system metrics. For instance, VTEX used DX to streamline its workflows, achieving a productivity boost equivalent to adding 11.3 additional engineers to its team. This blend of qualitative and quantitative insights has impacted developer experience and productivity, as VTEX’s blog post detailed.
• Integration with popular tools: DX works with tools like GitHub and Jira to give you flexibility and control. With its dedicated setup and single-tenant architecture, you can customize performance and data management to fit your needs. Plus, you’ll get instant insights into your workflows and the ability to create custom reports beyond basic metrics.

Considerations:

• Requires a commitment to action: DX works best for teams ready to use the insights to make meaningful changes. Customers who drive the most impact actively apply the data to improve productivity rather than simply collecting it for assessment.
• Flexibility over pre-built metrics: While other platforms may offer more pre-built system-based metrics, DX prioritizes flexibility, allowing teams to tailor the platform to their needs. DX’s product team is also quick to release new features and continues to expand its out-of-the-box reporting capabilities.

Gusto, with over 500 engineers, discovered the actual value of DX by going beyond surface-level metrics. Stephan Hagemann, Head of Product Infrastructure and Developer Productivity, explains, “DX strikes the right balance between providing solid quantitative data and gathering feedback directly from developers. It doesn’t just deliver metrics; it fosters an ongoing conversation that helps us continuously improve.”

DX offers a unique approach to measuring and enhancing developer productivity by prioritizing feedback loops, flow state, cognitive load, and well-being. With a focus on data-driven decisions and a holistic view of the development process, DX ensures that software development teams are productive, engaged, and satisfied. DX is an excellent choice for businesses that align their software delivery with long-term business objectives and foster a sustainable, high-performing development culture.

For more insights on how DX can transform your development team, visit getdx.com.

LinearB

LinearB is an engineering effectiveness platform designed to help software development teams improve operational efficiency and deliver better results. It focuses on critical areas such as developer productivity, code quality, and workflow optimization, making it a powerful tool for businesses aiming to streamline complex processes.

Pros:

• Automated metrics: LinearB automates the collection of crucial engineering metrics, reducing the burden of manual time tracking and providing actionable data-driven insights that align with business goals.
• Integration with DevOps tools: The platform integrates seamlessly with essential DevOps tools like GitHub, Jira, and Slack, providing a single source of truth and complete visibility into your development pipeline, including code repositories, code reviews, and request metrics.
• Improvement insights: LinearB provides insights that improve cycle time, reducecode churn, and boost developer satisfaction, all while supporting continuous delivery and more efficient release management.

Cons:

• Learning curve: The platform may require time to get accustomed to, particularly for teams new to engineering analytics and data-driven decision-making approaches.
• Limited customization: While LinearB offers robust default metrics, the customization options for dashboards and reports can be limited. LinearB may challenge teams with specific business metrics or complex task-tracking needs.
• Lack of self-reported metrics: LinearB does not incorporate self-reported metrics, which are critical for gaining a holistic view of developer productivity. Without subjective input from the developers, teams may miss out on vital insights related to personal workload, morale, and overall team dynamics that automated metrics alone cannot capture.

Swarmia

Swarmia offers a flexible platform for improving engineering productivity. Its strong focus is on team dynamics and workflow optimization. This versatile tool enhances collaboration and provides actionable insights for continuous improvement.

Swarmia stands out for teams looking to build a data-driven culture of continuous improvement focusing on autonomy and sustainable productivity. However, its advanced customization options and limited integrations may present challenges for teams seeking a more plug-and-play solution or wider tool compatibility.

Pros:

• Data-driven improvements: Swarmia excels at surfacing critical team metrics, such as cycle times and delivery bottlenecks, helping teams make informed decisions to optimize their workflow. This data-driven approach fosters continuous improvement and team agility.
• Developer-centric: Swarmia emphasizes developer autonomy and satisfaction, providing tools that help developers take ownership of their work while reducing friction and burnout, leading to a more sustainable work environment.
• Customizable workflows: With its highly customizable workflow tracking, Swarmia adapts to the specific needs of engineering teams, allowing for a personalized experience that caters to varying project complexities.

Cons:

• Learning curve: Swarmia’s powerful customization options may come with a steeper learning curve for teams unfamiliar with setting up detailed workflows, which could slow initial adoption.
• Limited integrations: While Swarmia integrates with crucial tools like GitHub, it may need more breadth of integrations found in more comprehensive DevOps platforms, potentially limiting its utility for teams relying on diverse tools.
• Failure to incorporate self-reported metrics: Swarmia needs to incorporate self-reported metrics, which are crucial for accurately assessing developer productivity. By relying solely on automated data, it misses the vital human perspective that provides context around workload, stress levels, and overall team health. Without this input, teams have an incomplete view of productivity.

Pluralsight Flow (formerly GitPrime)

Pluralsight Flow provides data-driven insights to help software development teams measure and optimize performance. The platform offers detailed analytics on code commits, pull requests, and code review discussions, enabling engineering leaders to effectively understand individual and team contributions.

Pros:

• Comprehensive code insights: Pluralsight Flow tracks code commits, code review comments, and collaboration patterns, offering a data-driven approach to improving team performance and identifying areas for business transformation.
• Team and individual metrics: The platform balances team and individual performance metrics, aligning with business objectives and organizational goals. This balance makes it a valuable tool for business leaders who require actionable metrics.
• Easy reporting: Pluralsight Flow offers easily digestible reports that non-technical managers and business teams can quickly understand, supporting informed decision-making and capacity planning.

Cons:

• High cost: The platform is relatively expensive, particularly for smaller teams, which may affect its adoption in the broader software development industry.
• Potential for misuse: The platform’s emphasis on individual metrics can lead to unintended consequences if not properly contextualized, especially in teams lacking a robust collaborative work management system.
• Overemphasis on quantitative metrics: Pluralsight Flow focuses heavily on quantitative metrics, overlooking the critical combination of qualitative and quantitative data. Without incorporating developer feedback and subjective input, it provides an incomplete view of productivity, potentially missing key insights into developer satisfaction and team dynamics.

Code Climate Velocity

Code Climate Velocity is a powerful tool that provides engineering insights that drive better decision-making and optimize engineering processes. Emphasizing actionable insights into code quality and overall development workflow helps teams maintain high standards while delivering efficiently.

Pros:

• Focus on code quality: Code Climate Velocity strongly emphasizes maintaining code quality, ensuring customers receive high-quality applications without sacrificing speed. This focus aligns with both product updates and long-term business service goals.
• Balanced metrics: The tool combines performance and quality metrics, offering a data-driven approach to balancing productivity with quality. This helps align engineering efforts with corporate goals and improve customer impact.
• Integration with CI/CD pipelines: Velocity integrates seamlessly with CI/CD tools and release pipelines, providing real-time insights across the entire development lifecycle, from source tools to application dependencies.

Cons:

• Setup complexity: The setup process can be cumbersome for teams with complex computer systems or workflows, requiring a detailed plan to ensure smooth integration.
• Requires regular attention: To fully leverage its potential, Code Climate Velocity requires continuous monitoring, which can increase the managerial workload, particularly when managing complex deployment patterns or dealing with frequent code deployments.

Plandek

Plandek provides end-to-end visibility into the software delivery process, helping engineering teams improve performance and align delivery with business objectives. It’s a robust tool for tracking key metrics across the development lifecycle.

Pros:

• Holistic view: Plandek delivers comprehensive visibility across the entire software delivery process, from coding to deployment, giving teams actionable insights into productivity, quality, and velocity. This end-to-end tracking allows for better alignment between engineering and business goals.
• Focus on predictability: By highlighting forecast accuracy and delivery predictability, Plandek helps teams reduce delays and improve delivery timelines, making it an excellent tool for organizations prioritizing predictability in their workflow.
• Advanced analytics: Plandek offers rich analytics and reporting features, enabling teams to examine delivery performance and spot areas for improvement. This makes it particularly valuable for organizations with complex projects requiring long-term trend analysis.

Cons:

• Steeper setup process: Plandek’s comprehensive feature set may require more time for teams to fully configure, making it less suited for teams seeking a quick-to-implement solution.
• Overhead for smaller teams: While Plandek shines for large or complex teams, its robust analytics may be overkill for smaller teams that don’t need such an extensive feature set or prioritize simplicity.

Haystack

Haystack provides real-time visibility into your engineering team’s work, helping to identify bottlenecks and improve productivity. As a lightweight alternative to more complex DevOps platforms like Jellyfish, it focuses on delivering actionable insights with minimal setup.

Pros:

• Real-time metrics: Haystack offers immediate insights into engineering performance, allowing teams to make quicker course corrections and streamline their delivery pipeline. This focus on real-time data provides a competitive edge, particularly in fast-paced environments.
• Focus on developer happiness: By including metrics to reduce burnout and improve job satisfaction, Haystack helps teams maintain a healthy work environment, crucial for long-term agile adoption and reducing Failure Rate.
• Slack Integration: It seamlessly integrates with Slack, enabling teams to stay informed and aligned without disrupting their workflow. This makes tracking day tasks and managing administrative tasks more manageable.

Cons:

• Limited historical data: The emphasis on real-time metrics may be better for teams that require long-term trend analysis or contextual analytics, but it limits its effectiveness for comprehensive Software Delivery Intelligence.
• Niche use cases: While Haystack excels in providing real-time insights for small to medium-sized teams, it may not be as comprehensive as other tools for large, complex teams that require custom dashboards and advanced application performance monitoring.

Waydev

Waydev is a Git analytics tool that helps optimize processes by providing critical metrics on productivity, code changes, and team collaboration. Waydev enables better decision-making and improves overall team efficiency.

Pros:

• Comprehensive Git analysis: Waydev offers deep insights into Git activity, clearly showing team performance across critical systems. This comprehensive analysis supports better resource planning and aligns with agile management practices, making it valuable for deployment teams and those working with complex application stacks.
• Multiple views: The platform provides different views, such as project, sprint, and individual performance, which are crucial for Agile planning and deployment frequency monitoring. This flexibility aids managers in making data-driven decisions and optimizing sprint plans.
• Customizable dashboards: Waydev’s highly customizable dashboards allow managers to focus on the metrics that matter most to them, whether tracking deployment teams, monitoring cloud cost anomalies, or managing automated ticketing and centralized runbooks.

Cons:

• Data overload: Waydev’s vast amount of data can be overwhelming, especially for teams needing more experience with analytics or a transparent declarative model for interpretation. This overload may hinder the effective use of the tool stack.
• Expensive for smaller teams: The platform’s pricing may be prohibitive for startups and smaller organizations, making it less accessible for those with limited budgets or smaller deployment teams.

Measuring software developer productivity and team performance is essential, but the right tool depends on your team’s needs. While Jellyfish offers a comprehensive solution, there are several viable alternatives, each with unique strengths and weaknesses. Whether you prioritize real-time insights, code quality, or a balance between performance and collaboration, a tool on this list can help you achieve your goals. When selecting an alternative, consider your team’s size, the complexity of your workflows, and the specific metrics that matter most to your organization.