The Best Free DORA Metrics Tools in 2024

An emerging trend in software engineering leadership is the desire to make organizational decision-making more data-driven. DevOps Research and Assessment (DORA) metrics have emerged as a gold standard for assessing DevOps health. These metrics—deployment frequency, lead time for changes, change failure rate, and time to restore service—offer a comprehensive view of a team's efficiency and effectiveness. 

Fortunately, several companies offer free tools to help you track these vital statistics. Here, we explore the best free DORA metrics tools provided by LinearB, Swarmia, Sleuth, and Apache DevLake.

LinearB

LinearB’s free DORA dashboard stands out because, unlike all other platforms on this list, hosted DORA metrics are completely free for companies and teams of all sizes. LinearB chose to make DORA metrics completely free to help engineering leaders around the world start their engineering metrics program.

The LinearB free version combines git and project management data to build holistic DevOps metrics that span all sources of work. LinearB integrates with GitHub, GitLab, and BitBucket for code-based metrics, and Jira, Shortcut, and Azure DevOps for task management data. The paid version of LinearB extends beyond DORA metrics to help your team create and manage working goals, efficiently allocate engineering resources, and better plan project delivery dates.`

Swarmia

Swarmia offers a surprising amount of features for free users, including all four key DORA metrics. However, user limits and a lack of integrations may limit the value most teams find from Swarmia. The free Swarmia platform only lets you view data for a maximum of 9 developers, meaning that only the smallest engineering teams will be able to use it.

Swarmia also lacks integrations with many popular developer tools, such as GitLab, Shortcut, and Azure DevOps, so your team may not be able to use Swarmia at all due to compatibility issues. Paid versions of Swarmia primarily enable you to add additional users and gain higher levels of support, meaning that most users will need to upgrade to a paid version to take full advantage of Swarmia's DORA metrics.

Sleuth

Sleuth includes DORA metrics as part of their platform and has a free demo environment for you to get a sample of what DORA metrics might look like for your organization. However, due to severe user and data source restrictions on their free platform, it's unlikely that you will be able to leverage Sleuth's free DORA platform to get actionable insights. Moving to Sleuth’s paid alternative primarily grants additional tracked users and data sources, reinforcing the perception that their free platform was primarily designed as a demo for their paid offering.

Apache DevLake

Apache DevLake is the only open source option on this list, and it leads in flexibility and depth, assuming you're willing to manage maintenance and upkeep yourself. DevLake has customizable dashboards and extensive integration capabilities and may be a good option for teams that want a more hands-on approach to creating DORA metrics dashboards. Since Apache DevLake is open source, it's not backed by a company that offers support and hosted services. If you want help using DevLake, you'll need to manage this yourself or hire third-party support and customization services.

Conclusion

Choosing the right free DORA metrics tool can significantly impact your team's DevOps performance, so use the following table to quickly decide which feature set best fits your needs. If you're ready to get started, sign up for a free LinearB account to get your DORA metrics today.