If Atlassian’s breakout products like JIRA Software, Confluence, and Bitbucket have got you hooked, you’re probably considering investing right now. And why not? Atlassian has been consistently outperforming competition (read Microsoft, IBM, or Salesforce) by providing you with:
- Seamlessly integrated do-it-yourself software
- Better automation and intelligent workflows
- A product suite that can bring your business technical success
- A transparent pricing model
Moreover, Atlassian’s industry-agnostic products can be deployed either on their server or their data centre, or can be seamlessly migrated to the Atlassian cloud, making it a flexible choice for organisations of all sizes.
However, what stumps prospective buyers or tenured customers at this point is Atlassian’s pricing structure. Although Atlassian makes it easy for you to calculate product prices with their handy pricing calculator, you may still have many unanswered questions, such as:
- How often do Atlassian product prices change?
- Can I try Atlassian products for free before purchasing them?
- Will I benefit from a monthly or an annual licensing plan?
- Can my Atlassian solution partner provide me with better pricing options or discounts?
In this blog, we attempt to offer you expert insights into Atlassian’s pricing trends and answer frequently asked pricing questions — so that you’re not only able to make an informed purchasing decision but are also able to maximise your ROI on your existing Jira, Confluence, and other Atlassian purchases.
How much do Atlassian products cost?
Since Atlassian’s portfolio encompasses a whole suite of products that can be deployed collectively or purchased as stand-alone software, it often becomes tricky to get at a final price. At any rate, your total cost of investment on Atlassian will depend on:
- The number of Atlassian products you choose
- The kind of integrations you opt for
- The type of storage (physical or virtual)
- The number of users you require licenses for
- And whether you opt for single or multiple instances or sites
For example, Atlassian offers a Free plan as well as three paid subscription plans for Jira software. These are Standard, Premium, and Enterprise, respectively. While the Free plan only allows 10 users to access Jira, you can purchase licenses for up to 35,000 users in the Standard plan. If you wish to avail of multiple Jira instances, you will benefit from the Enterprise plan, which only offers an annual licensing option.
Check out Atlassian’s detailed pricing plans for JIRA Software here.
How often do Atlassian prices fluctuate?
Atlassian product prices typically increase annually. Historically, Atlassian has announced price adjustments for its products once a year, usually around early- to mid-October. This annual price increase is part of Atlassian’s business strategy to support ongoing innovation, maintain product quality, and provide excellent customer service.
As Jay Simons, President, Atlassian puts it, “Our goal with our pricing is to get out of the customer’s way and to make it as easy as possible to get up and running with our software, without hassle or drawn-out sales processes. Point, click, buy and use.”
Atlassian’s annual price increase tends to apply to all its major products—whether cloud, server, or data centre.
What are the factors that influence Atlassian’s price adjustments?
To understand what prompts Atlassian to adjust pricing on their various software, we need to first look at the difference between their list pricing and advantaged pricing.
Atlassian list pricing, as mentioned above, offers four different pricing plans that help companies—whether SMBs, enterprises, or non-profit organisations—meet their differing needs. These prices are competitive and offer a variety of features for a lesser price, in comparison to Atlassian competitors.
Read this article by Forbes to see how Confluence has been attractively priced vis-à-vis competitors such as Basecamp.
Advantaged pricing plans, on the other hand, are prices offered below existing list prices to help tenured Atlassian customers ease gradually to list prices over time, without having to absorb the impact at one go. Customers opting for the advantaged plan still receive access to all the features and support of their chosen software.
Atlassian usually makes annual adjustments to both list and advantaged pricing based on the following factors:
- Product enhancements: Atlassian continually invests in improving its products, adding new features, and enhancing the end user’s experience. These investments require resources—and price adjustments help fund these innovations.
- Customer feedback: Atlassian values feedback from its customers and strives to meet their evolving needs. Price adjustments are a way to fund improvements and address customer requests.
- Market dynamics: Atlassian operates in a competitive market. Price adjustments may also be influenced by market trends and competitive pricing strategies.
- Inflation: Like any business, Atlassian faces inflationary pressures, which can impact the cost of running their operations. These cost increases may be passed on to customers through price adjustments.
Does Atlassian notify customers about their price increase?
Atlassian typically notifies customers about upcoming price adjustments well in advance. They communicate these changes through email notifications, updates on their website, as well as through their solution partners. This proactive approach gives customers time to plan for budget adjustments if needed.
If you have any queries about Atlassian server or cloud product prices and would like to get your questions answered by our Atlassian solution experts, please reach out to us today.
Can Atlassian customers prepare for a potential price increase?
Yes! Given that Atlassian follows a yearly cadence when it comes to increasing their prices, customers can prepare for a possible price increase well in advance.
In fact, if past price increases are anything to go by, you can most certainly expect a nominal increase in the pricing of Jira and Confluence products around October.
To start preparing for the same, consider the following steps:
1. Review license usage and Jira hygiene
Initiating and maintaining Jira hygiene is considered a best practice for Atlassian scrum masters. A hygiene report is a detailed instance-by-instance audit of your organisation’s usage of Atlassian licenses, based on your projects and configurations. It helps you review your license usage and identify if there are redundant licenses being paid for.
At Corptec, we usually advise our customers to begin a self-assessment of their team’s usage of Atlassian products at the beginning of the second quarter. This will not only help you document the exact number of product licenses being used but will also help you analyse if you’re currently paying for unused licenses.
However, we understand that this is not an easy task to attempt in the middle of a busy quarter, and usually requires dedicated resources. Corptec, therefore, offers three different types of usage audit and hygiene reports. They are:
- The Atlassian Instance Hygiene Report
- Products & Add-Ons Usage Analysis
- User Activity Analysis
Corptec usually recommends conducting these free licensing audits on a quarterly basis to help keep your Atlassian costs under control. These reports can:
- Give you a comprehensive user analysis
- Audit your instances, projects, and workflows
- Check for redundant or lesser-used licenses to offer you a possible price reduction
- Identify issues and mark areas for improvement
- Provide suggestions for a clean-up activity post project completion
These evaluations are conducted free of cost by Corptec and will go a long way in helping you adjust for potential price increases. To request a free assessment, please reach out to us today.
2. Consider a multi-year contract
Many organisations tend to start off their relationship with Atlassian by choosing to go for monthly subscription plans. This is a smart move if you have only availed of a trial version of Jira or Confluence and wanted to test the waters before accepting a long-term commitment.
But as new customers ease into using Jira workflows and get acquainted with the remote-friendly workspace of Confluence, they often forget to account for the increasing number of instances acquired. Typically, Atlassian’s Free, Standard, and Premium plans entitle you to only one product instance per plan. Companies tend to purchase more subscriptions to the same plan as their instances grow.
At Corptec, we advise customers to carefully analyse how many instances or copies of the product are being used across departments. If they have a fluctuating requirement of instances, we recommend continuing with their monthly subscriptions.
If, on the other hand, they see a steady incline in the number of instances being used and are confident about using Atlassian products in the long term, we advise them to consider an Enterprise plan as well as a multi-year contract to lock in their current Jira, Confluence, or Access pricing. An annual subscription with a multi-year commitment allows customers to maintain their current pricing for the duration of their contract, providing cost predictability.
Corptec offers our customers the option to lock in their prices for up to two years—ensuring that they are effectively safeguarded from Atlassian’s annual price increase. Moreover, we offer special discounts on their existing prices, which are only available with select Atlassian solution partners.
We recently helped a Fintech giant reduce their expenses on their Jira subscription by a whopping 60%—from around USD 1.6 million down to only USD 600,000—thus significantly accelerating their business growth! Read more about our customer success stories here.
Eager to see how much you can save on your existing licenses? Get the best possible deal by filling out this form today!
As a certified Atlassian Gold Solution and Implementation Partner since 2018, we at Corptec Technology Partners have been offering our customers a wide range of consulting services, training support, and customised solutions to help them extend the power of their Atlassian products. Our solution consultants come with extensive knowledge and experience dealing with Atlassian product suites and can help you overcome any Atlassian cloud challenge, regardless of the project size.
If you are interested in learning how Corptec can help you empower your business with Atlassian solutions, request a consultation today!
