Product Comparison
Test Management
Features | Legacy Squad | New Squad |
---|---|---|
Requirement management | Yes (via Jira) | Yes (via Jira) |
Requirement and test case coverage traceability | Yes | Yes |
Test case as Jira issue | Yes | No |
Test case folder structure | No | Yes |
Test steps | Yes | Yes |
Test step wiki formatting | Yes | Yes |
Test step wiki editor | No | Yes |
Import test cases | Yes | Yes |
Test case repository | No | Yes |
Test case archiving | No | Yes |
Test case history | Yes | Yes |
Test case search | Yes | Yes |
Test case JQL search | Yes | No |
Test case saved filter | Yes | Yes |
Test case bulk creation | Yes | Yes |
Test case bulk edit | Yes | Yes |
Test case clone | Yes | Yes |
Test Planning and Execution
Features | Legacy Squad | New Squad |
---|---|---|
Test cycles | Yes | Yes |
Test cycle history | No | Yes |
Test cycle folder structure | Yes | Yes |
N-level folder structure | No | Yes |
Flexible move and copy across cycle folders | Yes | Yes |
Test Execution | Yes | Yes |
Test Step Results | Yes | Yes |
Test Execution history | Yes | No |
Defect link on Test Execution | Yes | Yes |
Defect link on Test Step Results | Yes | Yes |
Time tracking (during the execution) | Yes | Yes |
Search Test Execution | Yes | No |
Export Test Cycles | CSV, HTML, XML | Excel |
User Management
Features | Legacy Squad | New Squad |
---|---|---|
Roles and groups | Yes (via Jira) | Yes (via Jira) |
Permission control | Yes (via Jira) | Yes |
Reports and Advanced Analytics
Features | Legacy Squad | New Squad |
---|---|---|
Built-in reports including traceability | Yes (Up to 5) | Yes (Up to 5) |
Jira dashboard gadgets | Yes (Up to 9) | Yes (Up to 13) |
Test execution details gadget | Yes | No |
Top Defects Impacting Testing Gadget | Yes | No |
Executions By Date gadget | Yes | No |
Behaviour-Driven Development (BDD)
Features | Legacy Squad | New Squad |
---|---|---|
Integration with Cucumber/Gherkin | Yes | Yes |
Advanced features (Gherkin validations, tag management) | Yes | No |
Automation
Features | Legacy Squad | New Squad |
---|---|---|
Supported automation frameworks |
|
|
CI/CD script integration | Bitbucket Pipelines, Team City, CircleCI, GitLab, Azure DevOps, and others | Bitbucket Pipelines, Team City, CircleCI, GitLab, Azure DevOps, and others |
CI/CD native integrations | Jenkins and Bamboo | Jenkins and Bamboo |
SmartBear tools integration | ReadyAPI, TestComplete, CrossBrowserTesting, and LoadNinja | No |
Rich Set of API’s For Custom Integrations | Yes | Yes |
Import test cases from other tools | Yes | Yes |
Others
Features | Legacy Squad | New Squad |
---|---|---|
Team-managed (Next-Gen) project support | Yes | Yes |
Internationalisation support (i18n) | Yes | Yes |
Server to Cloud migration support | Yes | Yes |
GDPR complaint | Yes | Yes |
Cloud Security participant | Yes | Yes |
More Details
More details on legacy Squad and new Squad feature differences can be found below:
Test cycle folder structure
Main differences:
In legacy Squad, cycles are organized by releases.
In legacy Squad, folders can be created within the cycle to allow another depth of an organization
Details:
Legacy Squad
New Squad
Legacy Squad UI allow users to group test cycles in a hierarchical structure grouped by releases (or unreleased cycles - cycles not tied to any release). Test cases can be added to the Cycle in a flat list or users can create a folder structure within the cycle to create a new level of hierarchy to organize the test cases
New Squad UI allow customers to group cycles into hierarchical folders. There is not tie to releases, the folders are just folders. Test cases can be added to the Cycle in a flat list. There is no folder structure to organize test cases within the Cycle
Test Execution history
Main differences:
In legacy Squad the Test Execution History is logged for the following operations on test executions:
Status change
Attachments add/update/remove
Assignee add/update/remove
Comments add/update/remove
Custom fields add/update/remove
Nothing in new Squad for the test execution. However, all other changes are tracked in the Test Cycle.
We could use the test cycle history engine to log any changes during the execution. In the execution screen, we could add a new section to display only the entries related to that execution.
Time tracking (during the execution)
Main differences:
Legacy Squad offers to disable the option
New Squad provides a timer
There is no workflow in new Squad, but in progress is a default status for test execution
New Squad doesn’t allow to enter time in a natural way (ex: 2h)
New Squad doesn’t log the time tracked in the test execution history
Search Test Executions
Main differences:
In legacy Squad Search Test Executions page allows searching for the test executions present in the application. It has a few different options to allow the selection of search criteria.
Basic Search
Basic search has different fields added as dropdowns where the users can select the field values. The fields that are present in the Basic Search view are as follows:
Project
Fix Version
Cycle Name
Folder Name
Execution Workflow Status
Execution Status
Executed By
Executed On
Priority
Assigned To
Creation Date
Component
Advanced Search
Advanced search uses the ZQL(Zephyr Query Language) which is similar to JQL(Jira Query Language).
Search filters
Users can save the selected search criteria as a saved search filter.
Pre-defined filters
In addition to using the saved search filters, users can use the already-defined filters from the left panel to perform a quick search.
Nothing in new Squad for search test execution.
Export Test Cycles
Main differences:
Legacy Squad UI allows to export test cycles:
from two different pages:
Cycle Summary
Search Test Executions
The supported export options are: CSV, HTML, XML
Cycle Summary Export Body
Search Test Execution
New Squad allows users to export test cycles:
from reports that can be exported.
The supported export options are: Excel
The exported file includes a list of execution with:
the corresponding test execution information (including custom fields)
cycle information (including custom fields) for each of the execution
test case information (including custom fields) for each execution
Built-in reports including traceability
New Squad has 13 reports available for the users' which is way more than in legacy Squad(5 reports). However, new Squad does not have an exact analog of the legacy Squad reports. Legacy Squad reports can be reproduced with the use of filters for the reports in new Squad.
The Top Defects Report does not have an exact equivalent in new Squad. With a bit of set up using filters, it could be reproduced using the Test execution results by coverage report
The Top Defects ReportThis metric provides information about which defects are currently holding up the maximum number of tests from passing.An option to select 5/10/15 maximum defects is provided and users can select the statuses of defects they want to see in the chart.
Test Execution Chart does not have an exact equivalent in new Squad. A similar graph can be generated by Test execution results by test cycle or Test execution results by component or Test execution results by tester.
The Test Execution gadget displays totals of tests that have been executed for a particular project-fixVersion combination. This can be customized to show the data grouped either by Test Cycles, Folders, Components or Users.
Test execution details gadget
The Test execution details gadget have no equivalent in new Squad. This gadget fetches data based on a saved ZQL search (i.e. a test execution filter) or a free-form ZQL query.


Top Defects Impacting Testing gadget
The Top Defects Impacting Testing gadgets have no equivalent in new Squad.
This metric provides information about which defects are currently holding up the maximum number of tests from passing. An option to select 5/10/15 maximum defects is provided and users can select the statuses of defects they want to see in the chart.


Executions By Date gadget
The Executions By Date page has no equivalent in new Squad.
The information is available in several reports in new Squad and in a single page in legacy Squad

Integration with Cucumber/Gherkin
Main differences:
No feature editor in new Squad.
No tagging capabilities.
New Squad generates one feature file per test cases when exporting feature file while legacy Squad creates feature file including all the test cases since the feature concept exist.
Test case result view is better in new Squad compared to legacy Squad with more details and errors message being included.
In new Squad, the results file can only be uploaded using the automation endpoint for cucumber.
Supported automation frameworks
Main differences:
No UI to create an automation task in new Squad.
Some frameworks supported by legacy Squad are only supported by new Squad if the users transform their results in a Junit format.
Legacy Squad is allowing more in terms of Junit XML results attributes size.
CI/CD script integration
Main differences:
In legacy Squad, the support on CI/CD tools is provided via the post-build actions. To do this, users can create a script file that works with Zephyr Squad through API.
In new Squad, The support on CI/CD tools is supported using the REST API or our Jenkins Plugin or Bamboo plugin via the post-build actions. There are 3 endpoints supporting Cucumber, JUnit 5, and JUnit 4 file formats.
SmartBear tools integration
Main differences:
Legacy Zephyr Squad provides integration with the following tools of SmartBear:
TestComplete
ReadyAPI
LoadNinja
CrossBrowserTesting
No integration in new Squad. Only capabilities to upload results using the new Squad REST API.
Rich Set of API’s For Custom Integrations
The APIs for legacy Zephyr Squad and new Zephyr Squad are not similar although they cover the same functionalities. Customers must review them before using it.
Legacy Zephyr Squad - Zephyr Squad Cloud REST API (formerly Zephyr for Jira) · Apiary
New Zephyr Squad - Zephyr Scale for Jira Cloud API