Marketplace licensing for specific user group

[Abinash Deepak]

Hi,

Our JIRA organization consists of 1000s of users.

But we need some Marketplace Apps only for a specific set of users (around 50). But it seems that this is not possible and that we have to purchase the license for all the 1000s of users which seems ridiculous if the above statement is correct.

Is there a workaround for this and are there any plans to change this policy ? I worked with Azure Devops and they have the feature to limit the marketplace Apps only for specific projects or users. 

Is it possible in the future Atlassian ?

[Chris Power]

I've lost count of the times we've found a really good marketplace app which would be super useful for one team, or even one person, in our organization, but we've decided not to install it because we'd have to pay for a license for everyone in the organization.  Obviously changing this would have a short term impact on revenue for Atlassian and for app developers, but it's hard to believe it wouldn't result in increased revenue long term as users would be much more willing to install new apps.  There are multiple issues in the Jira backlog regarding this, with hundreds of upvotes and comments, and no response from Atlassian as usual, because keeping customers happy is not a priority for them.

[Abinash Deepak]

It's just unbelievable that such a popular request has been Ignored for more than 10 years. Goes to show what is the priority for such a big and popular product. Customer opinion has zero Impact. 

[Abinash Deepak]

Is there a user voice on this Issue ? I can't seem to find one. So, please let me know. 

[Abinash Deepak]

Thanks for the replies. While I understand the Implications, There can always be solutions found for existing users. At least, it can be made dependent on the specific JIRA project instead of the whole JIRA Instance which may even Include the end users of the products sometimes. If we need to buy a test management tool for 10 QAs in the team for example, it makes absolutely no sense to buy a license for 5000 users who will never use it.

Anyways, we are where we are. I'll check if there is some user voice for this. Thanks again.

[Oliver Siebenmarck _Polymetis Apps_]

Hi @Abinash Deepak ,

Welcome to the community!

I do not work for Atlassian, so I cannot speak about the future or any future plans.. However, currently it's like you described: The total amount of users in your instance is what drives the price of an app. I do not expect this to change in the near future, as it would have severe implications for tens of thousands customers and app vendors.

Speaking as a Marketplace vendor, we typically price apps on a curve, meaning that the 5000th user is much cheaper than then the 25th. I expect that most vendors would quickly adapt their prices if apps could be purchased for a subset of users in an instance.

Anyway, hope that helps,
  Oliver

[Krishnan]

Pricing "on a curve" is understandable, but not ideal. I think customers would highly prefer the CHOICE of selecting user subsets over "cheaper but an all-or-nothing price". That is simply how human psychology is. Moreover, there would have been no other pricing scheme to compare to anyway. So, it wouldn't really have mattered.

Almost seems like Atlassian's "pricing changes" 6-8 years ago was to take a shortcut -- avoid solving the real problem -- creating a complex billing management system. Again, as a software developer, understandable, but not ideal.

PS: This is very poor UX too. Once an app is enabled, it would start bothering EVERY user (on applicable projects), at least, annoy them with notifications like "hey check this new app available in your instance" (paraphrased of course).

[Oliver Siebenmarck _Polymetis Apps_]

Hi @Krishnan ,

Since my last reply on this topic, Atlassian have publicly posted an RFC on the developer community that might be an interesting read.

While RFC-60 (or any other RFC) is by no means a guaranteed roadmap entry, it does provide some insight into Atlassian thinking around a topic. 

The TL;DR of the RFC is that Atlassian is exploring/researching multiple different pricing options for apps, including offering multiple different pricing options at the same time. I do recommend reading the whole thing including the comments though, as there is a lot of nuance there. 

Best regards,
 Oliver from Polymetis Apps

[Fabio Racobaldo _Herzum_]

Hi @Abinash Deepak ,

welcome to the Atlassian community!

For now, App license has to match the highest Jira application tier. (https://www.atlassian.com/licensing/marketplace#licensing-purchasing)

I don't think that this policy will be changed in the future.

Fabio

[Tessa Tuteleers]

Hi @Abinash Deepak , 

for the moment it is not possible, please find more info on previous question.

For enterprise licensed cloud, you could choose to have a different instance for those 50 users and install the app on that instance. However, that would completely disconnect those users from the rest of your instance and thus probably not a great solution. 

- Tessa

[Robert Kneip]

There should absoultely be a way to limit the number of users who have access to paid applications. What makes Jira attractive is the cost savings after you have spent a thousand hours developing it yourself. This feature completely defeats that purpose.

If my monthly cost is twice what a fully developed platform would be due to add ons, why bother. Just subscribe to a turnkey solution. Your shooting yourself in the foot and driving away good money