Atlassian Marketplace
Confluence comes with a lot of great features right out of the box. There are, however, use cases that it can’t quite match or very useful features that aren’t included. Fortunately, there’s a robust application (app) marketplace available which allows admins a lot of options in expanding what Confluence can do.
What is the App Marketplace?
The app marketplace (https://marketplace.atlassian.com/) is essentially a webstore for Atlassian products that allows developers a place to offer extensions. These range from simple UI changes, to in-depth product adjustments. Some are free, while others are paid. The marketplace itself is fairly well organized, making it easy for admins to quickly search and find things they’re looking for.
Like many app stores, users can rate their apps on a scale of 1-4. This rating gives admins a good feeling for how well an app could meet their needs. You can also see how many times a particular app has been installed, giving further confidence in it (or not!).
How do I find apps?
The marketplace has a built-in search feature, making it easy to look for apps. It is also organized into a wide range of categories (“administrative”, “project management”, “communication” and the like), giving admins an easy way to browse and see what’s in there.
Admins can also easily see which apps apply to specific products - for example getting a list of just apps that work with Confluence. This is another easy way for admins to browse what is available, or to just get ideas on what they might need.
How much does it cost?
All apps offer a free 30 day trial - regardless of your team’s size. This means you can test of any app for a month to see if it’s a good fit. On top of that, many apps also offer a free tier for groups under 10 users. This means that smaller organizations can benefit from many of these apps without having to pay anything.
For Confluence Cloud each app will have its own monthly and yearly pricing. Monthly pricing tends to be by the number of users you have, and will be slightly more expensive than if you purchase yearly. Yearly pricing tends to be broken out by tier (e.g. 51-100 users) and will just be a yearly charge instead of a monthly one.
If you’re on Data Center pricing is done on a yearly basis and pegged to user tiers (e.g. 101-200 users is $X, 201-500 is $Y).
What does subscribing include?
In addition to getting the app itself, subscribing will also include support for the app, as well as automatic updates. This means you’ll never be on an “old” version of an app (at least if you’re on Cloud!). Data Center versions of apps may require manual updates to ensure compatibility with your version of Data Center.
Wrap
While “stock” Confluence offers a lot of great features, there are many things it just doesn’t do - and this is where the marketplace steps in. It’s definitely worth taking time to browse and see what is available - you never know when you’ll find the tool that perfectly meets your needs.
