Depentra vs Jira
Jira is issue tracking and agile planning for software teams, with Plans for work across teams. Depentra is a planner built around dependencies: what links to what, what a delay moves, and what to do about it.
Last verified 1 October 2026 against Jira's public documentation.
Choose Jira if your work is software delivered in sprints from a backlog, and dependencies are mostly "this ticket blocks that one".
Choose Depentra if you run dated programs, delivery or cross-functional plans where link types, lags, float and the critical path decide the finish date.
This compares Jira Cloud, including Plans (formerly Advanced Roadmaps), which come with the Premium and Enterprise tiers.
Dependencies and scheduling, side by side
| Capability | Depentra | Jira |
|---|---|---|
| Dependency types | All four: FS, SS, FF and SF, on every plan, including Free | Work item links, treated as "blocks" in plans[1] |
| Lag and lead | Yes, on every plan, including Free | Not described in the documentation we reviewed |
| Total float on every task | Yes, on every plan, including Free | Not described in the documentation we reviewed |
| Critical path | Yes, on the Standard plan and up | No built-in critical path, per Atlassian's community; Plans schedule from the dependency chain[3] |
| Baselines | Yes, on the Professional plan and up | Not described in the documentation we reviewed |
| Dependencies between projects | Yes, in Programs, on the Standard plan and up | Yes, in Plans, when both items are in the plan (Premium and Enterprise tiers)[1] |
| Simulate a delay without changing the plan | Yes, the What-If Delay Simulator, on the Professional plan and up | Yes, scenarios in Plans (Premium and Enterprise tiers)[2] |
"Not described in the documentation we reviewed" means we could not find it in Jira's help pages, not that it is impossible. If something here has changed, tell us and we will correct it.
Where Jira is the better fit
- Issue tracking, backlogs, sprints and boards built for software teams.
- Scenarios in Plans for comparing what-if versions of a plan.
- Deep integration with developer tools and the Atlassian ecosystem.
What Depentra does differently
- Every dependency type with lead and lag, and total float on every task, on every plan, including Free.
- The What-If Delay Simulator: delay any task and see what moves, the new finish date and the float used, without touching the live plan, on the Professional plan and up.
- Dependency analysis that shows how a delay travelled, task by task, and what sits downstream of any task, on the Standard plan and up.
- Programs that roll projects up and link tasks across them, so a dependency between two teams sits in one place, on the Standard plan and up.
- Pentra, Depentra's AI assistant, answers questions about your plan in plain language.
Depentra does not do automatic resource levelling or time tracking, and has no public API.
Moving a plan to Depentra
Export the issues to CSV, then import them into Depentra; import from Excel or CSV is on every plan. Many teams keep Jira for the sprint work and plan the dated program in Depentra.
To see your own plan's dependencies first, paste its rows into the free delay simulator: no account needed.
Sources
- Atlassian Support: Configure dependencies in Jira for your plan
- Atlassian Support: What are scenarios in my plan?
- Atlassian Community: How to do critical path analysis in Jira
Jira is a trademark of its owner. Depentra is not affiliated with or endorsed by Jira's owner.