Dependencies are one of those features that every project management tool has an opinion on. Some bury them in settings. Some make them so complex that teams stop using them after the first sprint. Some do not distinguish between types at all. Here is how the four most common tools for dev teams handle them.
Jira
Jira has the most comprehensive dependency system of any tool in this list, which is also its biggest problem. It supports a wide range of link types: blocks, is blocked by, clones, is cloned by, duplicates, relates to, and more. In practice, most teams use two or three of these and ignore the rest. The full list becomes a dropdown that slows people down rather than helping them.
Dependencies in Jira are managed through the issue link dialog on each ticket. There is no dedicated dependency canvas for sprint-level visualization. The Advanced Roadmap feature in Jira Premium shows dependency lines on a timeline, but it is locked behind a higher pricing tier and is mostly used by program managers, not the engineers actually working the sprint.
For a small dev team, Jira's dependency system is more than they need and harder to use than it should be. The relevant functionality is there, but you will spend more time configuring it than using it.
Linear
Linear supports issue relations with types including blocks, is blocked by, duplicate of, and relates to. The interface is clean and fast to use. Relations are added from the issue detail panel and show up as linked items below the description.
What Linear does not have is a visual dependency canvas. You can see which issues an issue blocks or is blocked by, but you cannot look at a sprint and see the full shape of your dependency graph at once. If you have a chain of three or four related stories, you are piecing it together by clicking through individual issues.
Linear also does not distinguish between an active blocker and a planned sequencing constraint. A blocks relationship is used for both. That works fine until your board starts filling up with blocks labels on stories that are not actually creating any urgency today.
Asana
Asana has dependencies as a first-class feature, and it has built the UX around the idea that a task cannot start until a predecessor is complete. You can mark a task as waiting on another task, and Asana will surface a notification when the predecessor is finished and the dependent task is ready to start.
The timeline view in Asana shows dependency arrows between tasks, which gives you a visual sense of the project structure. For teams doing project management across longer timelines and non-sprint work, this is genuinely useful.
The limitation is that Asana is built around tasks and projects, not sprints and backlogs. If your team works in two-week sprints with a dedicated backlog, the mental model does not quite fit. Dependency management in Asana is designed for a waterfall or Gantt-style workflow more than an agile one. It also does not distinguish between a planned sequencing constraint and an active blocker the way a sprint team actually needs.
Orvezo
Orvezo built dependencies specifically for sprint-based teams. The two supported relationship types are Blocks and Depends on, which map directly to the two situations a dev team actually encounters: something is actively stuck, or something is sequenced after something else in the plan.
The dependency canvas is the main differentiator. It arranges stories in vertical columns by sprint, ordered chronologically, with the backlog at the right. You can click any story to see its full dependency graph drawn immediately on the canvas, with arrows color-coded by type. Amber for blocks, teal for depends on. Arrows follow the cause to effect direction, so arrows flowing left to right are expected, and arrows going backward are a signal worth investigating.
Adding a dependency from the canvas puts you in a direct link mode where you click the target story and the relationship saves immediately. You can also manage dependencies from within any story modal using an inline search picker. Both paths work, and neither requires leaving your current context for long.
Orvezo also separates the Blocked checkbox from Blocked by dependencies. The checkbox is a manual operational flag for stories stuck on anything: a vendor, a decision, a meeting. The Blocked by dependency is a structured link to a specific story. Teams that use both get a cleaner picture of what is stuck and why without mixing external blockers into the formal dependency graph.
The short version
Jira has the most options and the most overhead. Linear is fast and clean but lacks a canvas and blurs the distinction between blocker types. Asana has solid visual tooling but is oriented toward project timelines rather than sprint backlogs. Orvezo is built around the sprint workflow, separates the two dependency types that matter most, and gives you a canvas to see the full picture across your active and planned sprints.