The Rise of Forge: What It Is, Why It Matters, and How to Stay Ahead

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What Is Forge and Why Does It Matter?

Forge is Atlassian’s cloud-native development platform, and it’s quickly becoming the foundation of app development for Jira, Confluence, and other cloud products. Starting September 2025, only Forge apps will be accepted into the Atlassian Marketplace, making it a must-know technology for every vendor.

But this shift is about more than a technical requirement—it’s a chance to build better, more integrated, and more scalable apps with less infrastructure and overhead.

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Why Forge Is a Smarter Choice for Cloud App Development

Feature	Forge	Connect
Hosting	Serverless (Atlassian-hosted)	Vendor-hosted
Security	Built-in data protection, egress control	DIY security setup
Integration	Deep product-native modules	Limited or API-only integration
Performance	Auto-scaled in Atlassian Cloud	Depends on vendor infra
Frontend	UI Kit / Custom UI (React)	Fully custom
Future support	Active development	Phasing out for new apps

Forge simplifies many aspects of app delivery—letting vendors focus on features and customer value rather than infrastructure or compliance overhead.

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The Ecosystem Is Growing—Fast

Using Marketplace Insights (powered by GPT), we analyzed Forge app releases over recent quarters. Here’s what we found:

Quarter	Unique Forge Apps Released
Q4 2024	50 apps
Q1 2025	150 apps

That’s 3× growth in just one quarter—a clear signal that vendors are moving quickly to adopt Forge and take advantage of its benefits.

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How Marketplace Insights Helps Vendors Thrive in the Forge Era

With Forge adoption accelerating, Marketplace competition is rising too. Marketplace Insights is designed to give you the competitive edge they need—not just by tracking data, but by helping answer real strategic questions:

✅ Find Gaps in the Market

• Which categories have seen rapid app growth?

• Where are there only a few Forge apps with high demand?

• Which use cases are underrepresented?

→ Use case: Spot an underserved category—like AI assistants in Confluence—and build before the market catches up.

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✅ Validate Product Ideas

• Are similar apps already live?

• What are users saying in reviews?

• How often are top competitors updating?

→ Use case: Avoid spending months on an idea that’s already saturated or has low engagement.

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✅ Benchmark Against Competitors

• Track app installs, ratings, review volume, and update cadence.

• See who’s dominating each niche and how fast they’re growing.

→ Use case: Set internal goals based on real competitors’ trajectories—like reaching 500 installs within 3 months of launch.

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✅ Track Forge Migration Trends

• Identify which Connect apps are being rebuilt on Forge.

• Watch how vendors evolve their portfolio during the shift.

→ Use case: Prioritize migration or modernization efforts that align with proven vendor strategies.

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✅ Forecast Demand Based on Historical Data

• View app release timelines and growth patterns quarter-over-quarter.

• Detect seasonal trends or spikes tied to product launches or events.

→ Use case: Time your app launch or marketing campaigns to coincide with peak discovery periods.

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Forge Is the Future. Insights Are the Advantage.

Atlassian’s transition to Forge is opening the door to new capabilities—but it’s also intensifying competition. Success will depend not just on building great apps, but on making informed, data-backed decisions about what to build, when, and for whom.

Marketplace Insights helps you cut through the noise and move with confidence—whether you're building your first Forge app or expanding an entire product line.

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Final Thoughts

Forge is simplifying development and enabling better apps. But with the ecosystem evolving quickly, keeping up is no longer optional. Marketplace Insights brings clarity to a complex, competitive environment—helping you identify trends, validate ideas, and seize opportunities before the window closes.

The Forge era is here. Are you building with the right data?

[Eren Kalelioğlu]

Thanks @Olha Yevdokymova_SaaSJet 

[Sami Shaik]

It is very interesting to learn about Atlassian Forge.

At present, in our Jira & JSM cloud instance, all apps have been using Connect. Can we expect that by September the apps will have moved to Atlassian Forge?

Is Atlassian making it mandatory to move all the apps to move to Forge? 

[Elena_Communardo Products]

Great article @Olha Yevdokymova_SaaSJet ! 

[Olha Yevdokymova_SaaSJet]

Hi @Sami Shaik 

Atlassian is not requiring all existing Connect apps to migrate to Forge by September 2025. The upcoming deadline applies specifically to new Marketplace app submissions.

Here’s what’s happening:

• 🗓 Starting September 17, 2025, Atlassian will only accept new cloud apps built on Forge.

• ⚠️ Existing Connect apps will continue to function and receive support for now.

Stage 2: Notice Period Begins: September 2025 - Enforcement Begins: March 2026

• Connect apps will no longer be able to receive feature or bug fix updates in the Marketplace.

• Vendors will only be allowed to publish critical security fixes.

This gives app vendors a transition window of several quarters to migrate existing apps to Forge or build replacement solutions.  However, starting in March 2026, those apps may stop receiving regular updates unless the vendor has migrated them to Forge.

You can read the full Connect deprecation plan from Atlassian here.