Coda vs Notion: Issue tracking with Jira

Comparing Notion’s Jira integration with Coda’s Jira integration.

Jordan Milner

Solutions Architect at Coda

Coda vs Notion: Issue tracking with Jira

By Jordan Milner

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Tool consolidation
Notion and Coda are quickly becoming two of the most popular productivity platforms for teams looking to collaborate in a single, all-in-one tool. They are designed with customization in mind, and they integrate with numerous third-party services. Jira, a project management tool, is one of the most popular integrations in both tools. I’ve seen teams sync Jira issues into collaboration tools like Notion and Coda for a couple of reasons: to combine issue tracking with the rest of their work, provide transparency to those who don’t have access to Jira, and to build out systems on top of Jira data for analytics and cross-functional work. Both platforms offer unique ways to integrate with Jira, and they cater to different user needs and preferences, but which tool does it better? Does Notion or Coda have a better integration with Jira?

Comparison criteria.

 First, let’s define the criteria I will use to evaluate and compare these two tools. I’ve found that teams tend to expect these things from their tools:
  • Ease of use: Connecting Jira to Notion or Coda should be easy and intuitive. It should be straightforward to find the right epic, project, or issue without needing to open Jira in another tab or write JQL. And maybe most importantly, once you’ve pulled your Jira issues into your tool, the issue tracker itself should be easy to use.
  • Flexibility: Complementing the integration’s ease of use, teams expect their integration to be effective, accurate, and customizable. Teams want to know that they can rely on this connection to make their lives easier, rather than creating headaches down the line. The point of bringing your data into a tool like Notion or Coda is to connect it with your other data. If it sits in another silo, then you may as well go back and open up the Jira tab.
  • Two-way sync: A truly seamless Jira integration should allow you to make updates in your Notion or Coda table and have those updates reflected in Jira. This type of two-way sync can also provide a cost-savings mechanism, as most of your team won’t need to pay for (very expensive) Jira licenses if they can make changes right in Notion or Coda.

Which Jira integration is easier to use?

 In my experience, the first worry teams have is that getting the Jira integration set up will be a long, complicated process. Connecting with Jira should feel straightforward, both in pulling data and taking action with that data.
Notion
  • Notion’s Jira integration is easy for anyone to set up and start using without a steep learning curve.
  • Notion’s formula language makes creating new columns such as roll-up progress bars to monitor epic progress harder than it needs to be.
  • If you want to filter for a specific type of issue, you have to create a filtered board in Jira, then add it to Notion.
  • When you want to make changes in Notion, you have to open the issue in Jira to update it.
Coda
  • Coda’s Jira Pack will likely require you to filter issues before your sync, which may feel more cumbersome to a new user.
  • Coda’s more robust formula language means you can do simple things like roll-up progress bars with ease and lowers the skill-floor for more advanced data manipulation.
  • In Coda, to filter for a specific type of issue, you can use the UI to add filters before syncing in your issues.
  • You can make changes in directly in Coda using two-way sync (more on this later).
Both Notion and Coda also enable you to embed Jira issues directly into your Notion page or Coda doc, which can be useful for referencing specific tasks during discussions or documentation. Decision: Split decision. Notion is a bit easier to set up but falls short of expectations in your daily use. Coda’s more powerful configurations require more setup but are intuitive.

Does Notion or Coda offer more flexibility in their Jira integration?

 Much of the power of a Jira integration with Notion or Coda is the ability to build custom workflows on top of your data. To fully take advantage of the native capabilities of Notion and Coda, you need a flexible, performant integration. So it’s important to examine how customizable and scalable each of the integrations are.
Notion
  • Notion syncs up to 20,000 rows in a Jira synced database.
  • Jira lacks many customization options, such as visualizing Jira issues by priority across multiple projects. And since Notion has no configuration of what gets synced in once you paste a link to a project or board, you’ll struggle to make up these deficiencies with the Notion integration.
  • Notion automations cannot be triggered by changes in synced Databases. This means you will need a third-party tool to make changes in Notion when your Jira data changes.
  • Notion does not have native charting, so you will need a third-party extension to visualize your Jira data.
Coda
  • Coda has a soft limit of 10,000 rows in a Jira sync table, although you can request to have this increased on a per doc basis.
  • Coda has extensively customizable views, allowing you to create things like executive summaries of your Jira issues through interactive dashboards.
  • Coda’s automations can be triggered based on changes in sync tables, and they have expansive capabilities allowing you to set up workflows like sending weekly emails recapping resolved and escalated issues (via Teams, Gmail, or anything else there is a pack for).
  • Coda has native charting capabilities, allowing you to build a powerful Jira dashboard like in this template.
Decision: Coda. While Notion allows you to sync in more rows from Jira, Coda offers more flexibility and capabilities with features like view customization, native charts, and automations.

Does Notion or Coda have a more effective two-way sync?

 The last question I’m frequently asked is whether each integration offers two-way sync capabilities. Teams want to know how easy it is to update issues. And if there is two-way sync available, they also want to know how long it takes to set it up.
Notion
  • The native integration only allows for viewing Jira issues within Notion, with no ability to update issues directly. You can use an external service to provide two-way syncing, but doing so may be complex, more expensive, and mean sharing data with an untrusted third party.
  • Notion automatically syncs your data every hour, and you cannot refresh more frequently than once per hour.
Coda
  • Coda provides the ability to update Jira issues directly within Coda, creating a two-way communication channel. Every time you make a change, it immediately syncs back to the source in Jira.
  • Coda also automatically syncs changes from Jira every hour, but you can also sync manually at any time with a click of a button.
Decision: Coda. Coda provides a native two-way editing experience that is simple to set up and easy to use. Notion provides no native two-way syncing capabilities, and workarounds require third parties and complex configuration.

Conclusion.

Each team has unique needs that determine which platform fits best for a Jira integration. From my perspective:
  • Coda is best for teams that need a deep integration with Jira, want the ability to manipulate and interact with Jira data directly in their docs, and are looking for powerful automation capabilities.
  • Notion is best for teams that only need a simple, one-way connection, want to link Jira issues in their documentation for reference, and do not need powerful graphing or automation capabilities.
If you’re interested in learning more about how Notion and Coda compare, check out Noah’s comprehensive Notion vs. Coda Evaluation Guide for the full rundown on where each tool shines.
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