Tesbo vs Xray
If your team runs everything through Jira and writes tests in Gherkin, Xray is hard to beat on fit. The question is the licence, because Atlassian counts your Jira users rather than your testers.
Claims last checked against Xray’s own pages on Aug 22, 2026
The short answer
Xray is the strongest Jira-native choice, especially for BDD with Cucumber, and at ten Jira users it costs $100 a year — cheaper than Tesbo. Above that its price follows your total Jira headcount, reaching $7,280 at 100 users. Tesbo links to Jira and stays at $360 a year per workspace. Pick Xray for deep Jira and BDD work; pick Tesbo when your Jira instance is far bigger than your QA team.
Where Tesbo is different
You stop paying for people who never test
Atlassian sets your Xray tier from your Jira tier. Five testers inside a hundred-person Jira instance means buying a hundred seats of Xray, at $7,280 a year. Tesbo asks what your workspace needs, not what your company headcount is.
The cases get drafted for you
Write one line about the behaviour you want covered. Tesbo returns full preconditions, steps, expected results and the edge cases it thinks you missed, in the format your suite already uses. You review, then decide.
Free on your own servers
Tesbo Community is self-hosted, free forever, with unlimited projects and unlimited people. Running Xray on your own hardware means Jira Data Center, which is a large licence in its own right before Xray is added.
Test history that outlives your tracker
Xray stores tests as Jira issues, which is elegant until you change tracker. Tesbo links to Jira but keeps the tests itself, so moving to Linear or anything else does not put your run history in question.
Tesbo and Xray, side by side
| Capability | Tesbo | Xray |
|---|---|---|
| How it is pricedAtlassian requires the app tier to match the Jira tier. | Per workspace. $360 a year at any team size. | Per Atlassian user tier, through the Marketplace. |
| Cost at 10 Jira usersXray is cheaper here. For a small Jira team this row outweighs the rest. | $360 a year | $100 a year |
| Cost at 25 Jira users | $360 a year | $1,820 a year |
| Cost at 100 Jira users | $360 a year | $7,280 a year |
| BDD and CucumberIf your suite is Gherkin, this row probably decides it. | Not a first-class feature today | Built in, and one of the main reasons teams choose it |
| Where tests are stored | In Tesbo, linked to Jira issues | Inside Jira as Jira issues |
| Works without Jira | Yes | No — Jira is required |
| Free option | Community edition, self-hosted, free forever | No free tier; trial through the Marketplace |
What it costs
Xray is sold through the Atlassian Marketplace at annual cloud list prices of $100 for 10 users, $1,092 for 15, $1,820 for 25, $3,640 for 50 and $7,280 for 100. Those tiers are set by your Jira user count, not by how many people touch a test. Atlassian’s licensing policy is explicit: buy the tier that matches your host product, and the app only works if the tiers match, "even if only some of your licensed users need to use the app". Tesbo Cloud Pro is $30 per workspace a month billed annually — $360 a year — at any size, and Tesbo Community is free forever self-hosted. Marketplace figures read from Atlassian’s own pricing data on 22 August 2026.
Which one should you pick?
Pick Tesbo if
Your Jira instance is far bigger than your QA team and the tier maths has become painful. Or you want a free self-hosted option, or you want the case writing drafted for you, or you do not want your test history locked to Jira.
Pick Xray if
You write tests in Gherkin and run them with Cucumber — Xray is built for that and Tesbo is not. Or you have ten Jira users or fewer, where $100 a year is unbeatable. Or your team wants tests to be Jira issues so they inherit the same permissions, boards and JQL as everything else.
Xray vs Tesbo: common questions
Can I import my test cases from Xray?
Yes, through Xray’s CSV export and Tesbo’s CSV import. Check the Jira custom field mapping first. Gherkin scenarios need a separate decision, because as plain imported steps they are no longer executable Cucumber features.
Does Tesbo support BDD and Cucumber like Xray?
Not to the same depth. Xray has first-class Gherkin and Cucumber support inside Jira, and if your suite is built that way Xray is the better tool. Tesbo’s strength is drafting conventional test cases quickly with a human approving each one.
Why does Xray cost so much more at 100 users than at 10?
Because Atlassian ties the app licence to your Jira user tier. At 10 Jira users Xray is $100 a year. At 100 it is $7,280, even if only five people ever open a test. The number that moves your bill is company headcount on Jira.
Is Tesbo cheaper than Xray?
Above roughly eleven Jira users, yes, and the gap grows. Below that Xray is cheaper at $100 a year against Tesbo’s $360. Tesbo Community is free at every size if you self-host.
Try it against your own suite
Check your Jira user tier against $360 a year. If your instance is much larger than your test team, the free self-hosted edition is a cheap way to compare properly.
Sources
- Atlassian — Marketplace app licensing policy
- Atlassian Marketplace — Xray pricing
- Xray — how Xray licensing works
- Tesbo — pricing page
Last verified Aug 22, 2026.
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