The Jira Cloud family of applications (Jira Software, Jira Service Management, and Jira Work Management) are standalone applications built on the Jira platform and can be used on its own or in any combination on the same site.
Jira Service Management and Jira Software can be added to the same cloud site for optimal integration benefits. Our Jira integration page shows the relationship between Jira Service Management and Jira Software and how it allows for both IT and DevOps to collaborate on issues. Our Jira family page shows the difference between our 3 flavors of Jira Cloud products.
Jira Service Management licensing overview
When it comes to licensing, both Jira Work Management and Jira Software are licensed based on total users. Jira Service Management is licensed based on total agents (users able to edit/work on requests). Customers (users submitting requests) can access the product for free and do not need a license. By default, both a Jira Service Management license and Jira Software license include Jira Work Management functionality with their licenses.
Depending on your setup, users can be licensed to one, all, or any combination of these products. Read on to understand how Jira Software licensing and roles affect what agents, customers, and other Jira users can do.
Product features and project types
Each product delivers a tailored experience to its users, and has an associated project type that in turn offers product-specific features. Here's a list of the project types and their associated features.
| Application | Project type | Application-specific feature set |
|---|---|---|
Jira Work Management | Business projects |
|
Jira Software | Software projects |
|
Jira Service Management | Service projects |
|
All users who can log into a Jira site will be able to see all the projects in that instance (pending permissions), but they will only be able to see the product-specific features when they have access. For example, a software project is able to display information from linked development tools, such as Bitbucket and Fisheye, as well as agile boards, but this information is only viewable by a Jira Software user. A Jira Work Management user would be able to see the software project, but wouldn't be able to see the software-specific features, like agile boards or the information from linked development tools. Likewise, a Jira Software user would not be able to see any Jira Service Management-specific features in a service project (they'll see only a basic view of the project and its issues).
- Only a Jira administrator can create a project for an installed product. They don't need application access to create the project, but they do need application access if they'd like to view or use the project.
- Anonymous users (people who haven't logged in) will have access equivalent to Jira Work Management users. In other words, they can view issues and work in any type of project, but they won't see product-specific features like agile boards, which are Jira Software-specific. To know how to allow anonymous users access to projects, see Managing anonymous or public access.
A list of the products, their user roles, and their project-specific features can be found below:
| Project-specific feature | Permission | Jira-Work-Management-user | Jira-Software-user | Jira-ServiceDesk-agent | Customers | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Service projects | Customer portal | Create |  | | | |
| View | | | | | ||
| Comment | | | | | ||
| Transition | | | | | ||
| Project level | Create |  | | | | |
View | | | | | ||
| Issue level | Create | | | | | |
| View | | | | | ||
| Internal comment | | | | | ||
| Comment to customer | | | | | ||
| Transition | | | | | ||
| SLA level | Create | | | | | |
| View | | | | | ||
| Queue level | Create | | | | | |
| View | | | | | ||
Jira Service Management gadgets | View | | | | |
By default, Jira Work Management and Jira Software users are restricted from viewing or commenting on Jira Service Management issues. However, they can participate in requests within the portal.
For Jira users not licensed for another Jira application on the same cloud site, browse and comment permissions can be granted on projects. For example, Jira Software users can comment on Jira Service Management issues and Jira Service Management agents can browse and comment on Jira Software issues, without having a paid license for the other product. Learn more about collaborating with other Jira users on Jira Service Management issues.