Welcome to Atlassian Forge Series by TitanApps (part 3 of 5)

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Understanding the cost structure behind Forge is essential for anyone building or migrating apps on Atlassian's modern cloud app development platform. While Forge apps are currently free to build, deploy, and host, Atlassian has made it clear that usage-based pricing is coming soon. Here's what you need to know

Why Pricing for Forge Matters

Forge is Atlassian’s answer to simplifying cloud app development across Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, and other Atlassian products. It removes the need for external hosting, handles authentication and permissions out-of-the-box, and tightly integrates with Atlassian's REST APIs, UI Kits, and workflows.

As Forge adoption increases, especially among developers moving away from Atlassian Connect, understanding upcoming pricing changes helps teams plan their app architecture, estimate operational costs, and build for scale.

How Atlassian Plans to Charge for Forge

Forge pricing will follow a serverless usage model similar to AWS Lambda and other FaaS (Functions-as-a-Service) platforms. This means you'll be billed based on:

• Compute time: How long your Forge backend functions run.

• Storage usage: How much data your app stores using Forge’s Key-Value Storage, Entity Storage, or (eventually) RDBMS.

Forge App Tiers

• Free Tier: Designed for prototypes, internal tools, or smaller apps with limited traffic.

• Paid Tiers: Scale up based on your app’s actual usage. Ideal for production apps or customer-facing add-ons in the Atlassian Marketplace.

⚠️ Note: Developers can already track usage through the Forge Developer Console. While final rates haven't been announced, monitoring usage now helps project future costs.

Rollout Timeline

Forge pricing is expected to roll out gradually, with a full transition likely to happen around 2026. Atlassian will provide updates and support materials as the rollout approaches.

Comparing Forge and Connect Pricing Models

Hosting & Infrastructure

• Forge: Apps run on Atlassian Cloud. You don’t need AWS, Heroku, or any other external infrastructure. Atlassian manages compute, runtime, and scalability.

• Connect: Developers host apps themselves, meaning you need to set up and maintain cloud infrastructure, databases, and backend systems.

Cost Structure

• Forge: Usage-based (compute + storage). Predictable for apps with low or variable usage.

• Connect: Fixed infrastructure costs regardless of usage. This includes hosting fees, database licensing, and operations support.

Maintenance

• Forge: Minimal. Atlassian handles updates, uptime, scaling, and most security patches.

• Connect: Full responsibility remains on the vendor side.

⚠️ Note: Connect apps often require additional services like Redis, S3, or logging tools, which increase operating costs. Forge abstracts all that.

What This Means for Developers

1. Lower Entry Barriers

New developers can build and ship apps faster without worrying about provisioning infrastructure. It’s ideal for internal tools, team automations, or MVPs.

2. Predictable, Scalable Costs

For marketplace vendors, Forge’s pricing should offer more control. You only pay when your app gets used. This benefits apps with seasonal or variable workloads.

3. Long-Term Cost Savings

Teams migrating from Connect to Forge may see savings over time by offloading infrastructure, runtime scaling, and devops responsibilities to Atlassian.

4. Unknowns Still Exist

The full pricing model hasn’t been finalized. For complex apps that store large data volumes or run compute-heavy processes, Forge might be costlier than expected. Developers should monitor usage data and stay informed through Forge pricing documentation.

Summary

Atlassian Forge aims to simplify app development while offering enterprise-level scalability and security. The upcoming pricing model will reflect the value of that platform, aligning cost with actual usage.

Whether you’re building a custom Jira workflow tool, a Confluence reporting panel, or a Bitbucket integration, understanding Forge’s cost drivers now will help you design apps that are both efficient and cost-effective.

Stay tuned for future updates on pricing rollout, and start measuring your app usage today.

Up next in our Forge series: How to build the Forge app?

Learn more about Smart Checklist on Forge