Bugzilla or Mantis? [closed]

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As the title says, I'm starting one project right now, and trying to layout the infrastructure for the project (SVN, Email, Bug tracking, Online Forums, etc...)

So, Bugzilla or Mantis?

Tipple answered 27/11, 2008 at 10:22 Comment(3)

Here is a link to the mantis demo site – Boote 1/1, 2009 at 17:5

do you have to cover multiple projects with your system, or might that happen in the future? – Hatchett 3/2, 2009 at 1:15

Also see #1130966 – Alisun 23/2, 2013 at 20:7

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I think you'll find that your team will like either Trac or Redmine more than Bugzilla or Mantis. Both integrate nicely with Subversion. Both include wiki, forums, project management features...

Quick overview:

Trac: Very widely used and loved, written in python, huge community, lots of "plugins". A common complaint is that it doesn't support multiple projects out-of-the-box, but you can add a plugin to help with that.

Redmine: Written in RubyOnRails. Like Trac, but more complete out of the box. The authors of Redmine are trying to create a better Trac than Trac.

If you are interested in what others searching for bug trackers have written, comparing trackers to each other, I've put some links together here:
http://ifdefined.com/blog/post/2007/10/Links-to-other-comparisons-of-issue-trackers.aspx

If you on Windows, which I'm guessing you aren't, then also consider BugTracker.NET, an easy-to-use, very configurable bug tracking system in .NET/MS SQL Server. (Disclaimer: I'm the author).

Avestan answered 27/11, 2008 at 11:43 Comment(4)

Can you add a link to the multi-proejct trac plugin? – Celadon 11/12, 2009 at 1:48

As a noob that was recommended to use that, someone can answer if it is fully free and how to install it or if it is that kind cloud-like service. And also if it is that anyone-can-see thing or if I can protect what is mine... – Photodynamics 26/5, 2012 at 14:39

Base your choice on what you love: ruby or python :) – Alisun 23/2, 2013 at 19:56

With the question being "Bugzilla or Mantis?", "neither/another" is not really helpful. – Overrule 3/4, 2013 at 8:3

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I like mantis. It's simple and it gets the job done.

Artless answered 27/11, 2008 at 10:33 Comment(0)

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I've used Bugzilla and Mantis, but I prefer Mantis' simplicity. It's not as feature rich as Bugzilla but, I remember fighting with Bugzilla a lot more. Mantis is the kind of thing you can setup once then leave.

Sb answered 27/11, 2008 at 14:23 Comment(0)

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Mantis definitely wins on usability grounds over Bugzilla.

In particular, it is just a lot faster to log bugs on Mantis. Time to log bugs is a blocker for some people - I've heard it used as an excuse for not logging them, fixing them and pretending there was never a bug to fix (symptomatic of deeper team problems).

It wasn't until a client (currently using Basecamp, bleah!) canned the idea of Mantis because it wasn't pretty enough that I realised some people (as noted above) think it is ugly.

Compared to Bugzilla or another system we tried implementing, some weird European thing, Mantis is gorgeous.

I know Mantis scales well - a friend used it for the production of the movie Happy Feet. He customised it by adding one extra field to provide another level of categorisation.

Hatchett answered 3/2, 2009 at 1:14 Comment(0)

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Bugzilla is bigger, a larger community, more features, more power ... for that reason I've always prefered mantis ;) Mantis is as ugly as sin but for most projects it gives you what you need in a simple and intuative way.

If you have a large team, a big QA department and all the rest bugzillia may be a better fit. Small team that just needs to get stuff done - then mantis is probably better in my opinion.

The biggest feature missing from mantis (they may have added it since, this was a few years ago) is the reports feature so you can track progress with nice line and pie charts. However, I just wrote a simple PHP script to pull out the data and manually created them in Excel each week (only took 5 minutes or so). Not great but functionally sufficient for what we needed at the time.

However there online demos of both so I suggest you try them out and pick what suits you the best.

Sacrament answered 27/11, 2008 at 10:38 Comment(2)

There is some reporting in newer mantis versions. I don't know how it compares, since I never managed to get bugzilla set up. – Yogi 22/5, 2009 at 7:16

Accordingly to OhLoh.net Mantis has 2,5x times the code of Bugzilla – Renowned 24/5, 2011 at 16:35

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Mantis is great and very easy to setup

I have been using it for about 3 years

It has the following problems.

There is a 2 Meg limit on the file size that you can store in issue. This becomes a problem when you want to include screen shots of the problem.

If two people update the issue at the same time - Someone will lose data

Boote answered 31/12, 2008 at 17:34 Comment(3)

Are you sure that the 2MB limit is due to Mantis, since by default PHP has a 2MB limit on uploads, and this Mantis is written in PHP, this will therefore affect Mantis. You can try changing the setting in PHP.ini for the upload size and that may solve the problems you are having with it. – Pathological 23/1, 2009 at 19:52

yes, 2mb is just a PHP default. what's good about mantis - you can configure it to store files either directly in the DB or in the file system. – Perennial 7/2, 2009 at 0:7

You can also choose an FTP option which would allow you to store files on a separate FTP server without requiring disk access to that location. The Mantis default file size limit out of the box is 5MB and the config files include a warning to check php.ini. – Hatchett 20/3, 2009 at 8:27

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I have used both and didn't like them at all, I prefer Trac, thou if you really need to choose between those two I'd go for Bugzilla The integration for TRAC with subversion is real good (have a look at Assembla to see how the integration works )

Trac is also open source and its pretty simple to add new reports and stuff like that.

Sniperscope answered 27/11, 2008 at 10:34 Comment(0)

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Mantis is great and simple, simplicity is important as my clients are non technical people.

Trichromatism answered 10/8, 2009 at 8:35 Comment(0)

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You could try Redmine. It gives you repo access, trackers, forums, wiki, calendar - in one place.

Kearney answered 27/11, 2008 at 10:30 Comment(1)

It looks like a beta port of trac to ruby. If you aren't a ruby partisan, it probably isn't the best. I do like the integrated forums, but they look so bad I'd probably just install a copy of something else and be done. Can't wait to see what its like in a year or so. – Wilkey 3/2, 2009 at 0:52

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I have extensively used Bugzilla (default for projects at work) but Mantis gets my vote for easy setup and use.

Inhabited answered 11/12, 2008 at 12:14 Comment(0)

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I've heard good things about fogbugz but have yet to find an opportunity to use it. http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBUGZ/

Layton answered 13/1, 2009 at 18:17 Comment(0)

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I prefer mantis. It performs nicely and is easily extend able either by the use of plugins or with by coding.

Langley answered 3/2, 2009 at 0:39 Comment(0)

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Another vote for Trac -- dead simple to get going, nice web-based view into your repository, etc.

Gallego answered 27/11, 2008 at 14:17 Comment(0)

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Choosing the right bug tracker requires that you know who is going to use it (and how it is going to be used). I've used Bugzilla and Mantis and found Bugzilla better from a technical point of view but Mantis wins if some of your bug reporters are not programmers / not programmer minded. Its interface is less 'threatening' for a novice bugtracker user.

If you are going to have a private bugtracker you also need to consider the options it gives you to specify who is allowed to view/edit etc.

Garretson answered 1/1, 2009 at 18:3 Comment(0)

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I've used bugzilla for a while, but Redmine get my vote. easy setup, very very intuitive.

Profile answered 27/10, 2009 at 15:14 Comment(0)

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