Bug Tracking for Windows and SVN

Question

I'm working as part of a volunatry team creating an open source product with a permissive license. We are currently using Visual SVN Server/TortoiseSVN for source control and TeamCity for our continuous integration builds.

I would like to add a bug tracking component into the mix that will integrate into SVN. Ideally, I'd like to use FogBugz but we have no budget. So, I need an alternative. The requirements are:

• Must be free or have a free version supporting at least 20 developers (we're volunteers!)
• Must integrate with VisualSVN Server
• Must run on Windows
• I prefer Microsoft technology (ASP.Net over PHP; SQL Server over MySQL, etc) because we are a Microsoft shop, we have experience with those tools and already have them installed.
• Must be able to work with a geographically distributed team
• Must work with Express editions of Visual Studio (the developers don't all have the Pro version so we can't rely on Visual Studio add-ins).

I'd like The Community's recommendations, please, for products that meet all of the above requirements.

[Clarification: our license is very close (though not word-for-word) to the MIT license.]

Amin

Fogbugz does have a free version that allows 2 logins. You can also ask them for a free license if you are charity/non-profit etc – Businessman

Answer 1

JIRA is free for open source projects and will run on Windows. Subversion integration is available and provided through a plugin.

Sturm

JetBrains uses JIRA for their publiclly accessible bug tracking system. From an end user perspective, its a great product. – Heteroousian

I'm accepting this as my preferred answer because Jira has a no-brainer self-contained install, works on Windows, has an SVN plugin supported by the vendor and does have free licenses for open-source projects. I'm still uncertain whether they will accept our open source licens as it is not one of teh officially recognised ones, although it is very similar to the MIT license. – Amin

Another thing I liked about Jira is that it lets me use my Microsoft SQL 2005 server as the back-end database and doesn't force me to install MySQL. The installation is self-contained and very clean. – Amin

Good news, Atlassian accepted my request for an open-source license, so this option has worked out well for me. – Amin

JIRA is a bit an overkill and kinda feels little bit clunky. – Eurypterid

Answer 2

Trac: It is not a Microsoft technology but will integrate well into SVN. There are not many free bug tracking software's that are free on Microsoft technology.

Slather

Trac, while not MS stack worked great for me integrating with SVN. I used a hosted plan that provided trac and svn. I liked it. I have since used only Fogbugz, but would go back to trac if financial needs forced me to do so. – Soonsooner

Answer 3

• Trac
• Redmine

Jennet

I personally like Redmine over Trac because of the ability to have multiple projects in the same installation, but that may not apply in this question's situation. – Ivett

Answer 4

Try Bugzilla.

• Is free
• I do not know if integrates with SVN... but I suppose the answer is YES.
• Runs on Windows - you must set up few components, but it actually runs prety well on IIS, however installation is a bit tricky. Bugzilla is Perl and MySQL. However, as I said I had installed succesfully Bugzilla on Windows 2003. Installation of MySql and Perl does not take a lot of server resources - we had those two on our ASP.NET + MSSQL test server, and no performacne drop had been observed.
• Works with distributed team.

Aldis

Thanks for the suggestion, but those external dependencies were a real negative for me. I decided to go with Jira for the completely integrated installation experience with no external dependencies. Jira runs on Tomcat+JRE but everything is bundled into one setup package, it is as easy as falling off a log. Also, Jira supports my existing SQL Server infrastructure and doesn't force me to install a whole new database server for some quasi-religious agenda. I hate it when the tail wags the dog. Jira works well, it works with my systems and it is self-contained. – Amin

Answer 5

Try InDefero, you can even get the hosted way for free if your project is not that big in size.

Shahjahanpur

This seemed like a good product but I had no end of problems with the registration/login. When creating a new hosted system, the confirmation email never arrived. If I were going to use this system, I would not use the hosted option - but then the on-premise option doesn't run on Windows. But, +1 for a good suggestion, others may have better luck with it. – Amin