10 Best User Story Software in 2023

FigJam is an online whiteboard tool that's part of the Figma family. It can be used for various purposes, including developing user stories, outlining work processes, managing projects, and more. The whiteboard has various elements you can use to map out your user store. They include stickers, comments, shapes, lines, arrows, images, and more.

In addition to freeform boards, the software also comes with several pre-built templates. These can help you get started on meetings like brainstorms and retrospective, or help you manage your work with project management and roadmapping structures. There's plenty to draw from (so to speak).

Your team can collaborate virtually in FigJam using its audio and live chat tools. Commenting, stamp and emoji reactions, and even bitmoji avatars are also available, keeping things human and conversational. It even has a music player to spice up your collaborative work sessions.

Integrations include Figma, Microsoft Teams, Asana, Jira, Mixpanel, and Github. Paid plans start from $3 per user per month, but a freemium plan is also available with unlimited users and up to 3 FigJam files.

Productboard is a product management platform to help product managers understand their customers’ needs for consideration during product development. It has customizable roadmaps with filtering options letting users identify project goals and achievements easily.

Productboard also allows users to tailor roadmaps to different audiences like end-users and stakeholders making them easier to understand. If you want a user story software to help you determine the features important to end-users, then Productboard’s prioritization feature can help you out.

Productboard allows end-users to assign scores to product features, so developers know which features to concentrate on and which ones they need to develop further. You can also use Productboard to identify key features that end-users find critical to ensure that you include them in future products.

Productboard integrates with other product development and collaboration tools like Slack, Microsoft Teams, Trello, Salesforce, and Zendesk.

Productboard pricing starts at $20/user/month and offers a 15-day free trial.

Avion is a user story mapping tool for agile software development that allows you to visualize your product by building detailed user journeys. Users attach files and documents to user stories, ensuring other team members have access to critical documents.

Avion gives your team visibility not just of the user story roadmap but all changes in criteria ensuring that you’re all on the same page throughout the product development process. If you frequently handle sensitive product development projects then Avion is the best user story software for you because of its role-based access control. This feature enables administrators to define the level of access that team members have according to their roles.

With Avion’s access control feature, you can bring in outside talent or freelancers in for specific projects without worrying about them accessing sensitive information not essential to their roles.

Avion integrates with other product and software development tools like Jira Cloud, Jira Server, Trello, GitHub, Zenhub, etc. Avion pricing starts at $15.75/first three users/month, and they offer a 14-day free trial.

Easy Agile is a user story software that allows product developers to build simple yet collaborative story maps in Jira. The software allows users to map out user journeys alongside agile boards in Jira. Product devs can add new or existing stories to the story map and prioritize them according to their users’ value.

Easy Agile is the best user story software to break down your user story into smaller and more manageable sections because it has a sprint planning feature. It gives the product owner or scrum master a clearer idea of the product timeline to prevent delays.

Easy Agile also has a version planning feature giving product developers the freedom to experiment with new features without worrying about damaging the active version or model.

Easy Agile pricing starts at $8,000/year/up to 50 users, and they offer a 30-day free trial.

Cardboard is an online whiteboard that your development team can use to create user stories during product development. You can use Cardboard to invite remote team members for real-time collaboration, ensuring that writing user stories becomes a team effort. Cardboard has a drag and drop functionality, making it user-friendly and reducing the learning curve for new users.

Cardboard is an ideal user story software that promotes accountability because it has a swimlanes and dividers feature. Cardboard’s swimlanes and dividers can help users visually distinguish who is responsible for each step in the project, giving them a better idea on who to collaborate with for interconnected steps or tasks. This feature can also help promote accountability because users can visualize how delays on certain steps can impact the overall progress of a project.

Cardboard integrates with other software development tools like Trello, Azure DevOps, VersionOne, and Confluence.

Cardboard pricing starts at $8.50/user/month and offers a 14-day free trial.

Featmap is an open-source user story software to help you envision what actions the ideal user might take when interacting with your product. You can use Featmap to assign user personas to team members to capture the behaviors and needs of your end-users, allowing you to create user-centric products.

Featmap allows you to share your product vision with team members and stakeholders with unlimited guest accounts (read-only).

Featmap is the best user story software for you if you want to customize it to meet your team’s unique needs because it is open-source software. As open-source software, you can add or remove features depending on your needs to have a user story software with all the critical features and none of the extra ones you don’t need. You can host the software on your own server to save money and increase the security level of your products.

Featmap pricing starts at $9/editor/month and offers a 15-day free trial.

Agile User Story Map for JIRA is a user story mapping tool that supports product backlog refinement, allowing you to quickly assess tasks that need completion so you can conduct follow-ups on team members. It also lets users see dependencies to prioritize tasks and promote accountability.

The software uses a Gantt-like timeline, giving you a birds-eye view of your project, so you know if you need more human resources or adjust your budget to meet deadlines. If you need a user story software that’s easy to use even for new users, then Agile User Story Map for JIRA by DevSamurai is an excellent choice because of its drag and drop functionality.

You can add and remove elements with a simple action making the software easy to use and customize. This feature allows you to change, add or remove elements as you discover vulnerabilities and opportunities during the different stages of product development.

Agile User Story Map for JIRA is free for up to 10 users, while the pricing of the paid version starts at $13.75/11 users/month.

Visual Paradigm is a comprehensive modeling and design tool that helps teams create user stories and design user interfaces. It provides a systematic approach to product development by allowing users to collaborate on the same project and track progress in real time. The software enables teams to create textual and graphical representations of user stories, making the process more intuitive and engaging.

The software supports multiple platforms, including web, mobile, and desktop. It provides a versatile environment for designing and modeling user interfaces, allowing users to create different levels of user story details, such as epics, user stories, and tasks. Its requirement management feature enables teams to capture, analyze, and manage requirements for new product development. It allows the team to communicate and collaborate effectively, set priorities, and establish clear goals. Additionally, it provides strong traceability, allowing developers to understand precisely how their work fits into the larger project.

It can be integrated with various project management platforms, such as JIRA and Trello, and with development tools. The platform provides a range of project templates and customizable workflows, which can be adapted to suit the needs of different teams and projects. Visual Paradigm offers high-level encryption and data isolation to secure confidential information against unauthorized access. It also has robust backup and recovery mechanisms, which can be helpful in case of data loss or corruption.

Featuremap is a user story mapping software to structure content and set priorities. You can use the software to plan several steps ahead, allowing you to anticipate issues and plan contingencies.

Featuremap also allows you to break down large tasks into smaller ones to make them easier to complete and avoid overwhelming team members. Featuremap is the best user story software for users who prefer an on-premise tool that works well even in areas where internet connectivity is unstable. Being an on-premise tool also means that the lack of internet connection won’t delay product development because users can still access crucial files and documents.

Featuremap is also an excellent option for developing critical products because it is more secure compared to user story software that relies on cloud storage.

Featuremap has a free version, and the pricing of the paid version starts at $6/user/month. They offer a free two-week trial.

Miro is a digital whiteboard you can use on various projects like brainstorming, webinars, remote meetings, and Agile workflows. It has video conferencing and screen sharing features to make online meetings more engaging and informative. It also has many pre-built templates you can use on almost any type of project, helping you launch projects quickly.

Miro is the best user story software for working on multiple projects because it allows an unlimited number of team members, ensuring that you can deliver products even when pressed for time. With an unlimited number of team members, you have the luxury of bringing in as much talent as you need onboard, ensuring that you have a specialist for unique functionalities you want to implement.

Having an unlimited number of team members also means you can pull out team members and reassign them on other projects without affecting productivity on the current project greatly.

Miro integrates with other productivity and product management tools like Jira Cards, Google Drive, Slack, Google Calendar, and Microsoft Active Directory.

Miro pricing starts at $8/user/month.