A Zephyr Alternative That Connects to Jira Without Living Inside It

About Zephyr

Zephyr is SmartBear's Jira-native test management, now sold as Zephyr (formerly Zephyr Scale) and Zephyr Essential (formerly Zephyr Squad). It adds test cases, test cycles, and execution reporting directly inside Jira, so testers and developers work in the same place, and includes AI-assisted features such as test step suggestions. SmartBear sells QMetry separately for teams that want a standalone tool.

Why Teams Look for a Zephyr Alternative

• Jira-wide licensing — on Atlassian Cloud, paid Marketplace apps are licensed to match your whole Jira site's user tier, so a 500-person Jira site pays for 500 users even if 15 people test.
• Jira performance and clutter — test data living in Jira adds load and noise to a system everyone uses.
• People outside Jira — external testers, support, or stakeholders who need test results but not a Jira seat.
• Sharing results — wanting a live, no-login status page for stakeholders rather than reports inside Jira.

TestKit vs. Zephyr at a Glance

When Zephyr Is the Better Choice

• Nearly everyone on your Jira site tests, so Jira-wide licensing isn't a penalty.
• Your team strongly prefers never leaving Jira, even for test execution.
• You're already invested in other SmartBear tools and want them under one vendor.

When TestKit Is the Better Choice

• Testers are a small share of your Jira users, and you'd rather pay per tester.
• You want a purpose-built execution UI instead of test screens layered onto Jira.
• You need to share results with people who aren't in Jira.
• You want AI test case and strategy generation on every plan, including free.

For a broader look at the trade-offs between Jira apps and connected tools, see test case management in Jira.

Moving From Zephyr to TestKit

1. Export your test cases from Zephyr — in Zephyr's Tests view, select your cases or a folder and choose Export → CSV. (Zephyr Essential, formerly Squad, exports to Excel, which TestKit's importer doesn't read yet — use the CSV template import for those.)
2. Import the file as-is — on TestKit's Test Cases page, choose Import and pick Zephyr as the source. Steps, folders (as suites), and linked Jira issues come across, and a preview shows exactly what will land before anything is saved.
3. Spot-check a suite — every imported case is tagged with where it came from, so the whole batch is easy to find, review, or bulk-edit (up to 5,000 cases per file).
4. Connect Jira (Pro and Team plans) so imported cases link back to the stories they cover.
5. Run the next release in TestKit while keeping Zephyr read-only as a reference, then retire it.

Frequently Asked Questions