Stride vs Xray: Jira's most-installed test management app, or a connected delivery graph.

Xray, from Xblend, part of Sembi, is the most-installed test management app for Jira Cloud on the Atlassian Marketplace, built on Jira issue types, with AI test case generation in its Standard edition. Stride is the alternative when you want test management without first paying for Jira, connected to the stories, decisions and defects it covers.

Quick answers

Who makes Xray?

Xblend, which Idera bought in 2021. Xray is now part of Sembi, the quality-management portfolio Idera launched in January 2025 alongside TestRail and Testmo. It is sold on the Atlassian Marketplace in Standard and Advanced editions, with Xray Enterprise as a separate app.

How much does Xray cost?

Xray Standard costs $10 a month in total for up to 10 users, then $7.28 per user a month for 11 to 100 users. Advanced is $874 a month for 100 users, and the separate Xray Enterprise app $13.20 per user. The licence must cover every Jira user, and Jira is billed separately.

What are the best Xray alternatives?

Zephyr is the closest alternative inside Jira, QMetry is free in Jira for up to 10 users, and TestRail and Testmo run outside Jira with Jira integrations. Stride, our product, is the option when you want test management without a Jira licence, linked to stories and defects.

The best test management tools for 2026

Stride is best for

Teams who want test management connected to delivery work, without paying for or running Jira.

Xray is best for

Established Jira shops with mature BDD suites and Jira automations, who would lose more by leaving Jira than they would gain by switching.

Where Stride wins

No Jira required. Xray runs inside Jira, so you pay for Jira and for Xray; Stride bundles planning, design and test management for $39 a seat.
Test cases sit in one queryable graph with stories, ADRs, defects and release notes. Xray links tests to requirements through Jira, which gives a map of linked issues rather than typed delivery records.
Planning, design, process modelling and testing share one tool and one bill. Xray and Jira cover tracking and testing; diagrams, decisions and processes need other tools.

Where Xray wins

Xray's BDD support is mature: Gherkin scenarios are test cases, and it imports and exports .feature files for Cucumber, Behave and SpecFlow. Stride writes acceptance criteria in Given/When/Then form and exports AI-drafted tests as a .feature file, but imports no feature files.
Xray is the most-installed test management app for Jira Cloud, with more than 25,000 installs, and Xblend says more than 10,000 companies use it. Stride is newer, with far fewer teams using it.
Xray imports results in Cucumber JSON, JUnit, NUnit, Robot Framework, TestNG and xUnit formats. Stride reads JUnit XML, which most test runners can write, and results sent over MCP.

Feature comparison

Feature	Stride	Xray
AI generates test cases	From acceptance criteria	From Jira requirements (Standard edition)
BDD / Gherkin	Given/When/Then criteria; .feature export	Gherkin tests; .feature import and export
Stories, tests and defects on one graph		Via Jira issue links
Requires Jira
Traceability matrix	Derived from the graph	Built from Jira links
Per-user price	$39/seat/mo (Pro)	$7.28/user/mo for 11–100 users (Standard), plus Jira from $9.70

Xray Standard costs $10 a month in total for up to 10 users, then $7.28 per user a month for 11 to 100; Xray Advanced is $874 a month for 100 users, and the separate Xray Enterprise app $13.20 per user. Jira is billed on top: Standard is $9.70 and Premium $19.60 per user a month for up to 100 users since October 13, 2026, so Xray and Jira together come to about $17 a user, or about $28 with Advanced and Premium. Stride at $39 a seat sits above that and adds design and process modelling to planning and testing.

Xray alternatives: how Zephyr, TestRail, QMetry and Testmo compare

The test management tools Xray is most often weighed against, each in a line: what it is, how it is priced and how it differs from Xray.

Xray alternatives: how Zephyr, TestRail, QMetry and Testmo compare, checked 2026-10-25
Tool	What it is	Pricing	Compared with Xray
Zephyr	SmartBear's test management inside Jira, in Essential, Standard and Advanced editions.	Standard is $10 a month for up to 10 users, then $6.81 per user a month for 11 to 100; Essential $5.99 per user from 11 users.	The closest like-for-like: also a Jira app, slightly cheaper per user, with AI test case generation through its Rovo agent.
TestRail	Standalone test management from Gurock, part of Sembi like Xray, with a Jira integration.	Essentials $22 (cloud, up to 5 users), Professional $38 and Enterprise $78 per user a month, billed annually.	Runs outside Jira rather than as Jira issues, at a higher price per seat.
QMetry Test Management for Jira	AI-powered test management inside Jira, owned by SmartBear since December 2024.	Free for up to 10 users, then $4.18 per user a month for 11 to 100.	Cheaper per user and free for small teams, with a far smaller install base.
Testmo	A test management platform for growing QA teams, part of Sembi like Xray.	Team $59 a month with 5 users, Business $249 with 15 and Enterprise $599 with 25.	Runs outside Jira and is priced by plan, with users included, rather than per Jira user.

Checked on each vendor’s own site on 2026-10-25.

Frequently asked

Can I migrate Xray test cases?

Partly. Stride doesn't import test-case CSVs yet: its CSV importer brings in stories and defects. Uploading JUnit XML to a test run creates test cases from the test names it contains, so steps, executions and Cucumber feature files need rebuilding.

Does Stride support the Xray test types?

Xray's default test types are Manual, Cucumber, Generic and Exploratory. Stride's test cases carry steps, an expected result and a type such as unit, integration or end-to-end, and their results come from test runs or JUnit XML. Stride runs exploratory testing as sessions rather than as a test type, and has no Cucumber test type.

What about Test Repository folders?

Xray's Test Repository nests folders inside folders, and each test belongs to one folder. Stride groups test cases into suites, and suites into optional categories such as Smoke or Regression; there are no nested folders.