Best Jira time in status apps (2026)
If you’re comparing Jira time in status apps, the category is mature and the differences are real — some tools are built for enterprise cross-project flow analytics, others for a small team that just wants to see where issues are getting stuck. This guide compares the established options honestly, explains what separates them, and helps you match one to your team’s size and need rather than its feature list.
Why Jira can’t show time in status on its own
Jira records every status change in an issue’s history, but it has no built-in report that adds up how long issues sat in each status. You can reconstruct it by hand from the changelog for one issue, but there’s no native cross-issue or cross-project view — which is why this is one of the oldest, most-populated app categories on the Marketplace. The apps differ mainly in report depth, working-hours accuracy, scale, and price.
The main Jira time in status apps, compared
Figures are approximate Marketplace numbers as of late 2026 and shift over time — read them as relative scale, not exact.
| App | Vendor | Rating / reviews | Scale | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Time in Status | SaaSJet | 4.5★ · ~207 | ~5.4k installs, Forge + SOC 2 | Enterprise reporting, proven leader |
| Timepiece (Time in Status) | OBSS | 4.8★ · ~270 | ~4.5k installs | Highest-rated, deep charts |
| Time in Status Reports | votazz | 4.5★ · ~36 | ~1.5k installs | Mid-market reporting |
| Time in Status, Cycle & Lead Time | Broken Build | 5.0★ · ~7 | ~880 installs | Small, well-rated |
| Linger | Datum | New | Free per-issue time in status | Small teams wanting free + simple |
The honest read: SaaSJet and Timepiece are the two leaders — neck and neck on installs, with Timepiece carrying the higher rating (built largely on its pre-Forge reputation) and SaaSJet carrying the “Runs on Atlassian” trust badge. Both are Forge-native now, so “we’re Forge and they’re not” is not a real differentiator in this category anymore. If you want the most proven, feature-complete tool, start with those two.
At a glance: which one actually fits you
Both incumbents below are genuinely good tools with years of reviews — this isn’t a “Linger wins” table. It’s meant to route you to the right one by what you actually need, not by feature count.
| What you need | Linger | SaaSJet (Time in Status) | Timepiece (OBSS) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free tier, forever (not just a trial) | ✓ | ✗ ¹ | ✗ ¹ |
| Time in status on the issue, out of the box | ✓ | ⚠ ² | ⚠ ² |
| Working-hours / business-calendar aware | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Simple pricing — one paid tier, no edition maze | ✓ | ✗ ³ | ✗ ³ |
| Deep cross-project reporting & pivot builder | ✗ | ✓ | ✓ |
| Dashboard gadgets & charts | ⚠ one Flow Report gadget, not a full chart suite | ✓ | ✓ |
| Scales to large, multi-project issue volumes | ✗ | ⚠ ⁴ | ✓ |
| Proven track record (installs / reviews) | ✗ ⁵ | ✓ ~5.4k installs, 4.5★ (207) | ✓ ~4.5k installs, 4.8★ (270) |
| Runs on Forge (no separate vendor infra) | ✓ | ✓ | ✓ |
¹ Both are per-user paid apps with Standard/Advanced editions — neither has a maintained always-free plan the way Linger does. ² Both show time in status on the issue, but you configure workflow-status mapping and calendars first to get a trustworthy number. Linger’s panel works the moment you install it. ³ SaaSJet and Timepiece each sell a Standard and an Advanced edition, priced per user. Linger is one free tier plus one simple paid tier. ⁴ SaaSJet’s own docs note a cap of roughly 3,000 issues on its dashboard-gadget pivot report — fine for most teams, a real limit at enterprise scale. ⁵ Linger is new and still building its review history. That’s the honest cost of free and simple over proven and deep — not a hidden flaw. Forge is listed for context, not as a point in Linger’s favor — SaaSJet and Timepiece both moved to Forge too, so it no longer differentiates anyone in this category.
Pick Linger if you want a free, simple answer to “where are issues getting stuck?” for a small team. Pick SaaSJet or Timepiece if you need deep, proven cross-project flow reporting — they’ve earned that reputation.
What actually separates these apps
- Working-hours accuracy. Every serious app counts business hours and holidays, not raw calendar time. This is table stakes — a cycle-time figure that counts weekends reads as wrong to anyone who’s used a competitor. Confirm it’s there.
- Cross-project scale. Portfolio-wide reporting is where tools diverge. Some cap cross-project pivot reports at a few thousand issues (SaaSJet’s own docs note a ~3,000-issue cap on its gadget pivot); others claim far higher. If you report across many projects, ask about the limit.
- Report surface. Issue-panel view vs dashboard gadget vs full report page. Match it to where your team actually looks.
- Price model. The leaders are per-user with tiered editions. For a small team, that adds up; for an enterprise, it’s justified by the reporting depth.
Best for a small team: free and simple beats feature count
If you’re a small team, the enterprise leaders can be more tool than you need — and priced per user. What usually matters more is: can I see time in status on an issue for free, without a heavy reporting setup? That’s the gap a simpler, free-first app fills.
Where Linger fits (and where it doesn’t)
Linger is Datum’s entry, and it’s honest about the landscape: this is a crowded, well-served category, and the incumbents above have years of reviews Linger doesn’t have yet. Linger isn’t trying to out-feature SaaSJet or Timepiece. Its shape is deliberately simpler:
- Free per-issue time in status — see how long an issue sat in each status, right in the view, at no cost. Cross-project cycle-time and lead-time reports — plus a Flow Report dashboard gadget — are the paid Standard tier.
- One free tier, one paid tier — no Standard-vs-Advanced edition maze to decode.
- Part of the Datum family — if you also use other Datum apps, it’s one vendor and one consistent, no-egress Forge posture.
The honest limits: Linger is new, so it’s building its review base, and if you need the deepest enterprise cross-project analytics today, the leaders have more surface area and a longer track record. Where Linger fits is the small-to-mid team that wants an accurate, free, simple answer to “where are our issues getting stuck?” without an enterprise reporting project.
For the underlying concepts, see cycle time vs lead time and how to measure cycle time in Jira.
How to decide, quickly
- Enterprise cross-project reporting? Start with SaaSJet or Timepiece — proven, deep, and confirm the cross-project issue cap fits your volume.
- Highest rating / deepest charts? Timepiece leads on both.
- Small team, want free and simple? A free-first app like Linger covers the core “time in status” need without per-user cost.
- Whatever you pick: confirm working-hours support — it’s the one feature that makes the numbers trustworthy.
The best time in status app isn’t the one with the most charts — it’s the one whose scope and price match how your team actually reports. Size the tool to the need.
Frequently asked questions
- Can Jira show time in status without an app?
- Not directly. Jira stores the status-change events in an issue's history, but it has no built-in report that sums how long issues sat in each status. You either compute it by hand from the changelog or add an app that does it for you.
- What's the difference between time in status and cycle time?
- Time in status is how long an issue spent in each individual status (To Do, In Progress, Review). Cycle time is the total from when work started to when it finished. Most apps in this category report both, plus lead time.
- Do these apps count only working hours?
- The good ones do. Counting weekends and nights as active time makes a cycle-time number look wrong to anyone who's used a competitor, so working-hours and business-calendar support is effectively table stakes — check that any app you consider has it.
- Which is best for a small team?
- A small team usually wants a free or low-cost app that shows per-issue time in status without a heavy reporting setup. The enterprise leaders are feature-rich but priced per user and tuned for large cross-project reporting.