Azure Test Plans vs Xray

From $52 per user/month (Basic + Test Plans, 30-day trial)

From $10 per month flat for up to 10 users ($100/year)

Azure DevOps Basic alone is free for the first 5 users then $6 per user/month; adding Test Plans takes it to $52. One of the more expensive per-user test management licences, but it folds into an existing Azure DevOps agreement.

Priced through the Atlassian Marketplace by Jira user tier. Above the 10-user flat tier it works out around $6.07/user/month (e.g. $7,280/year for 100 users) and falls to roughly $3/user/month by 500 users. It bills for every Jira user, not just testers.

Included exploratory testing extension is free; Test Plans itself requires a licence.

30-day trial via Atlassian Marketplace.

Established

Microsoft · since 2018

Category standard

Xblend / Xpand IT · since 2014

• Native traceability between work items, code, pipelines and tests.
• No extra vendor if you already run Azure DevOps.
• Solid exploratory testing capture through the browser extension.

• Complete requirement-to-test-to-defect traceability without leaving Jira.
• No second tool for the team to learn or license separately.
• Strong BDD support with Gherkin scenarios stored as Jira issues.

• Expensive per user compared to standalone alternatives.
• Weak outside the Microsoft ecosystem.
• Interface and reporting lag dedicated test management tools.

• Inherits Jira's performance characteristics; large test executions are slow.
• Billing per Jira user means non-QA staff inflate the cost.
• Test case authoring in Jira issue screens is clumsy compared to purpose-built editors.

Enterprises fully committed to Azure DevOps.

Organisations standardised on Jira that want a single system of record.