Jira + Tempo alternative for software agencies
Spedy vs. Jira + Tempo
Jira is the standard issue tracker of large dev organisations; Tempo attaches time tracking to it. Spedy brings tickets, time on the ticket, budget per client, pull requests and MCP into one product, for agencies with five to thirty developers and many parallel client projects.
Context
What Jira + Tempo is built for
Jira scales to enterprise size: many teams, many workflows, many add-ons. Tempo adds time tracking as its own product. For a large engineering organisation with a dedicated Jira admin, that is a proven stack. For an agency with fifteen developers and twelve clients it is often two products, two price lists and an admin effort nobody does full-time. Spedy is the smaller, coherent answer.
Feature comparison
Eight rows that make the difference for a software agency running its own agents.
| Capability | Spedy | Jira + Tempo |
|---|---|---|
| Tickets & boards | included: One board per client, tickets with status, subtickets, comments and PR links. | included: Issues, boards and sprints, the standard in large dev organisations. |
| Time tracking | included: Timer on the ticket, agent time as a draft for approval, export or sync to MOCO. | not assessed: Jira logs work on issues; Tempo adds reporting and approvals. Check the current scope with the vendor. |
| Budgets & project billing | partial: Hour budget per board with monthly carryover. In hours, not euros, no invoicing. | not assessed: Depends on the Tempo setup; please check with the vendor. |
| Git, pull requests & pipelines | included: GitHub and GitLab pull requests on the ticket, status moves along, CI pipelines in the dashboard. | partial: Via integrations with the Git provider. |
| MCP for your AI agents | included: Its own MCP server per organisation, included on every plan. No surcharge for agent access. | not assessed: Please check with the vendor |
| Client access | included: Client logins unlimited and free: create tickets, see status and hours. | not assessed: Please check with the vendor |
| GDPR & hosting in Germany | Hosted in Germany, DPA in the standard contract, self-hosted on request. | Please check with the vendor |
| Entry price | Free: a single seat to look around. Pro: €9 per person per month, net. | Two products, two price lists. Please check with the vendor. |
As researched, without claim to completeness. Third-party details are list prices or publicly described features. Check the vendors’ current offers yourself.
When Jira + Tempo is the better choice
- You are a large engineering organisation with your own Jira admin and many individual workflows.
- Your clients demand Jira because their own teams work in it and you work inside their instance.
- You need a specific add-on from the Atlassian ecosystem without which your process doesn’t work.
When Spedy is the better choice
- You want tickets, time, budget per client, pull requests and MCP in one product instead of two plus add-ons.
- Nobody administers Jira full-time at your place, and you don’t want to hire anyone for it.
- Your own agents should pick up tickets over MCP and deliver their time as a draft for approval.
- You want client logins without seat costs and hosting in Germany with a DPA in the standard contract.
Migration or side by side
Switching: Jira import with field and user mapping
Spedy imports Jira projects including field and user mapping; status comes along, comments and attachments too. You migrate exactly one client project first, run the first agent PR and decide then. If a client stays in their own Jira instance, that is fine: Spedy replaces your internal delivery system, not the client’s.
Frequently asked questions
- Can I import my Jira projects into Spedy?
- Yes. The importer pulls Jira projects including field and user mapping; status, comments and attachments come along. You start with one project and fetch the rest once the first board is running.
- Do I need a time-tracking add-on like Tempo?
- No. In Spedy time tracking is part of the ticket: start a timer, book time, approve agent time. CSV export or sync to MOCO are built in.
- What about clients who work in Jira themselves?
- They stay there. Spedy is your internal delivery system: one board per client with budget, tickets, PRs and agents. If you have to work inside a client’s Jira instance, you keep doing that.
- How do pull requests work in Spedy?
- The code stays in GitHub or GitLab. Spedy hangs off the PR: tickets are linked to pull requests, the status moves along (open → in review → merged), CI pipelines show up in the dashboard.
- And if we want back out?
- Time exports as CSV any time, the wiki fully as Markdown, tickets and comments via the REST API. No contract term beyond the month.
More comparisons
One client project.Two weeks. Then you decide.
Create a board, import a live project, run the first agent PR. No rollout, no migrating eight clients at once.