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I introduced BugZilla as my bug tracking software of choice.

Most of the managers in my company, who are not IT people, are asking for a simpler solution that is simpler to use. They are not techies, so they can't live with so much info.

To me BugZilla is not complicated, and I know it can be configured to change its outputs, but I don't have much time to dedicate to the task.

I'm looking for a simpler, free alternative to BugZilla.

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You can find a lot of alternatives on alternativeTo. – Witek Apr 27 '11 at 14:09
I've used Trac. It's decent. What is excellent is FogBugz which is free in the Startup/Student edition. Get it. Use it. Love it. – Rig Feb 24 '12 at 18:46

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11 Answers

up vote 24 down vote accepted

I would suggest Trac:

Trac is an enhanced wiki and issue tracking system for software development projects. Trac uses a minimalistic approach to web-based software project management. Our mission is to help developers write great software while staying out of the way. Trac should impose as little as possible on a team's established development process and policies.

I have used this on a couple of projects, and worked great.

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+1 Trac is wonderful. – user2567 Oct 6 '10 at 10:55
I use it too. It support synchro with svn and git, the 2 SVC I usually use, and provide many usefull tools for devs (wiki, bugtracking, nice interface over version control, etc . . .). But it is a bit difficult to set up at first. Then it is wonder. – deadalnix Feb 24 '12 at 17:56
up vote 21 down vote

My favorite is Redmine. It's quite modular so it can be simplified simply by disabling unnecessary modules.

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Yes! We use it! – Sri Kumar Oct 6 '10 at 11:30
3  
I did a comparative evalutation of 4 issue tracking systems, namely Trac, Mantis, Jira and Redmine. (full story available at wamped.org/post/4105652822/…). Redmine was the winner. So far, we're very happy with our decision. – András Szepesházi Mar 26 '11 at 12:43
+1 Where I work we recently started using Redmine as our first serious bugtracking and collaboration tool and we're very happy with it. – Luiz Damim Apr 27 '11 at 16:23
up vote 11 down vote

I tried to find an alternative to BugZilla for years.

In the end I settled for FogBugz. It's not free but great value.

After the free trial you're hooked. We even moved our source control to Kiln after a few weeks.

Beware, FogBugz is like heroin!

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I got a chance to use it a few months ago- I loved the UX. Very powerful filtering, and intuitive to boot. – Fishtoaster Oct 6 '10 at 15:43
FogBugz is free in the correct circumstances so it's not a total non answer...just a partial non answer. – Rig Feb 24 '12 at 19:20
@Rig - adding those circumstances to the answer would help! – ChrisF♦ Feb 25 '12 at 10:55
fogcreek.com/fogbugz/StudentAndStartup.html ... just for reference. – Rig Feb 26 '12 at 7:50
up vote 7 down vote

I have used Mantis fairly extensively. It is fairly straight forward but functional.

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I was going to suggest Mantis. I use it all the time. I've no experience in non-technical people using it though. – Frank Shearar Oct 6 '10 at 11:34
up vote 4 down vote

The link Top 10 Open-Source Bug Tracking System describes various tools and the features that it provides. You may choose the one that best suits you.

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up vote 2 down vote

These days some VCS come with issue trackers. Fossil SCM has its own and I find it good enough for my small projects. For my bigger public projects, I use BitBucket website that also comes with a issue tracker.

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up vote 0 down vote

You should try Scarab. I remember trying it 8 years ago, :-) and it was very nice even then. It was quite easy to install and customize.

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And How does this help? – MansonRix Oct 6 '10 at 11:34
up vote -1 down vote

If you are an open source project then you can also use Atlassian's JIRA for free

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up vote -1 down vote

Having tried most of the bug tracking system, the one I really liked is Sifter . It is hosted and really simple to use.

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up vote -2 down vote

You can use this bug tracking system called informup It is fully customized so You can customized the work item to be as simple as you need

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If this is your application can you please make it clear. Self promotion is a sensitive area. – ChrisF♦ Jan 2 '12 at 12:45
up vote -6 down vote

Roll your own - I did, and I'm pretty much a bum.

It's not too hard to write something like tailored to your needs if all your clients have an active connection to the internet and you've got a reasonable amount of control over your company's website.

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-1 Waste of time. It would be better to extend an existing product. Reasons why: stackoverflow.com/questions/62153/… – M. Dudley Jul 14 '11 at 18:22
@emddudley, nothing you can learn from is a waste of time! – Peter Turner Jul 14 '11 at 18:25
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Absolutely true, but it's not practical in a business setting. – M. Dudley Jul 14 '11 at 19:12
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The answer depends on whether the software is commercial or hobby, whether it's a bug tracker or support desk, and whether it's internal or public. – nponeccop Sep 28 '11 at 8:18
, and whether its users are laymen or IT professionals. Only public support desks for commercial software for laymen are worth (re)writing in certain cases, because more features confuse laymen and you in fact need less. You will soon get sick from trying to remove features from existing trackers such as trac. And in rare cases when you need to add features, it's better to add a few features to a well-designed tracker than to implement zillions of minor features yourself. – nponeccop Sep 28 '11 at 8:30
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