
Ask HN: Any recommendations for bug tracking software? - hvasishth
I am working on some personal projects and want to start using a bug tracking software for them. I am looking for recommendations for a bug tracking system which is<p>- Free/Freemium<p>- Web based so that I don't have to worry about installing/maintaining it.<p>- Simple to use
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pyronicide
I'd suggest not actually using a bug tracking system. They tend to be separate
from actual planning and the fact that they're separate means that planning is
harder.

Take a look at <http://www.pivotaltracker.com/>

The whole system is crazy simple/easy to use and it pretty much lets you do
all your project management in one place.

~~~
cmelbye
Pivotal Tracker is fantastic. Free, extremely easy to use, productive, and
they just re-did their user interface.

~~~
megamark16
We use Pivotal Tracker at work and it's just awesome! I can't believe it's
free, it's so good. At my last job we were using some enterprising scrum
management software and it was slow, clunky, and expensive (unless you used
the free version, which we didn't because heck, we've got an IT budget to
spend and we need that burndown report!)

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heyjonboy
<http://www.unfuddle.com>

It's basically a hosted, prettied-up version of Trac, with hosted SVN and Git
integrated. It's not as pretty or collaborative as GitHub, but the issue
tracking is much beefier.

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bobds
MantisBT is an easy to install one. It integrates with SVN, Git, DokuWiki and
many more.

<http://www.mantisbt.org/>

I like that I can hook it up to my Github projects. Here's the how-to:
[http://leetcode.net/blog/2009/01/integrating-git-svn-with-
ma...](http://leetcode.net/blog/2009/01/integrating-git-svn-with-mantisbt/)

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megamark16
I use a text file. Fixed bugs go to the bottom of the file with "FIXED" next
to them. The higher priority a bug is the higher up in the file it is. I keep
the file in source control with my code base.

I tried moving to a different system, but I found that even the simplest
alternative was still much more complex, and I tended not to use it as much
because it required me to open up a new window/tab. I find that a solution
that causes me to want to use it less is not a better solution.

I'm working alone, and I don't need much more then a description to remind
myself of what needs fixing, so it really works well for me. To each their
own.

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dtran
I submitted this same question to HN a little less than a year ago when we
started working on what would eventually become Crowdbooster. Here's a link to
it: <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1190516>

We ended up going with Unfuddle, which we still use, and it's nice to be able
to close out tickets in your Git commit messages, but we don't really use the
rest of the software much. Honestly, just having quick meetings and going down
a list on a whiteboard has been the most effective thing.

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grok2
Fossil? <http://www.fossil-scm.org/>

Not sure why everyone recommends trac, my personal experience with trac has
been that it's too simplistic.

Since you want to track bugs across several projects, it may not be possible
to find a hosted free bug tracker and should perhaps checkout redmine,
bugzilla (a pain) or mantis and install it on your own server.

A simple way to try out is use google spread-sheets or even your own local
spread-sheet.

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ordinaryman
If you would like to have a simple app which can align more with your
requirements, you can build one online in a few minutes, using iFreeTools
Creator.

Check out: [http://blogs.ifreetools.com/2010/03/building-simple-bug-
trac...](http://blogs.ifreetools.com/2010/03/building-simple-bug-tracker-
application.html)

The overview of the steps involved..

\- Edit App Settings to re-brand, set time-zone, etc.,. (optional)

\- Add Bug Entity

\- Add Attributes for Bug

\- Start using the Bug Tracker

~~~
babeKnuth
interesting. but not sure why you wouldn't just use google code since you're
building the entire thing in GAE anyway?

~~~
ordinaryman
I believe Google Code is only for open-source projects.

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greattypo
If it were just me, I would use the startup edition of FogBugz in a heartbeat:
<http://www.fogcreek.com/FogBugz/StudentAndStartup.html>

MantisBT is full featured but the interface is pretty clunky and dated (IMO).
I found Bugzilla to be similar but a little better once I got the hang of it.

My company uses Mantis.

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jhchen
The good news is there's plenty of good choices. There are many that do the
job well enough that preference in the end is either personal or just what we
happened to have the most experience with. Redmine, JIRA, Bugzilla and Trac
are just a few popular ones I'd recommend checking out. All are free except
JIRA costs $10 (one time) that they donate to charity.

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fendrak
The best free issue tracker I've used is the one on Google Code. I use GitHub
for hosting, but the Google Code issue tracker has plenty of options, and can
fit just about any bill you want it to. It also has a built-in wiki! Since
there's no requirement to actually host your code there, it works out pretty
well.

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endtime
I'm very happy with Redmine, and it's free. :) I do host it myself, which is
really not very hard (my instance runs off a Ubuntu Server VM on my Windows
work machine, and took about 30 mins to get running).

~~~
bnycum
I just setup Redmine after seeing a comment about it here yesterday, took
longer for the new subdomain to propagate than to install. In a day I have
fully switched from a bunch of Trac installs since I can manage multiple
projects with Redmine. Though I still think Trac's repo browsing is slightly
better.

~~~
sitmack
I have run trac and redmine, I like trac more since I grok the python and find
it pretty easy to hack extensions.

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jgeewax
I use and love CodeBaseHQ (<http://www.codebasehq.com/>)

It hosts git repos and does ticketing in a pretty minimal way...

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steveklabnik
I host all of my projects on GitHub, so I just use their built in Issues
system. For something a little more heavyweight, Lighthouse is a good option,
too.

~~~
MortenK
Beware that the only way to get your data out of Lighthouse is in JSON format.
Basically you will get a ton of folders containing JSON files and attachments.
You will have to write custom software to import that data into other
bugtrackers, in case you want to switch. Its the same with their support app,
tender.

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togasystems
Redmine works great if you got an old server kickn around

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babeKnuth
redmine (the bitnami redmine stack version)

<http://bitnami.org/stack/redmine>

and anything else by bitnami is also reputable for the simplicity in the
installation process

even the iphone app is free:

<https://github.com/wwk/iRedmine>

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gasull
<http://projectlocker.com>

git or SVN + Trac + wiki

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bigwally
bitbucket does the job for me.

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sitmack
trac is pretty easy to setup.

