How to audit your Jira app costs before the next renewal

Start with the work your team needs to keep. An app review becomes useful when it connects each subscription to a workflow, an owner, and a decision—not just a lower number on a spreadsheet.

1. Put the full app bill in one place

List each paid app, the site it serves, its billing cycle, current cost, renewal date, and business owner. Record annual invoices as well as monthly charges. Converting an annual invoice into a monthly equivalent helps comparisons, but it does not turn an annual commitment into a cancellable monthly subscription.

Check what actually drives each bill. Under the standard Marketplace billing model described in Atlassian’s Forge documentation, the charge covers all users in the Atlassian app instance, even if fewer people use the app. Confirm the model and terms for the specific app instead of estimating from employee headcount. Source: Atlassian’s billing models documentation.

Download the app review worksheet (CSV) ↓ Open it in your preferred spreadsheet and use one row per app. Keep actual account information in your own systems.

2. Ask what would break if the app disappeared

A usage count alone misses dependencies. A report opened once a month may drive an important billing process. An app used by one administrator may support a workflow that everyone relies on.

Ask the workflow owner to demonstrate a normal task and an exception. For a time-entry workflow, that might mean submitting a week, correcting an approved entry, and producing the monthly export. Record which fields, permissions, and outputs must survive a change.

• Essential: the task cannot be completed correctly without it.
• Useful: it saves effort, but a workable alternative exists.
• Unused: no current owner can identify a continuing need.

Treat an unanswered question as something to investigate. It is not evidence that the feature can safely disappear.

3. Look for overlap before commissioning software

Map essential features against your other apps and the capabilities included in your current Jira plan. Check whether a configuration change would solve the problem. If a native feature looks promising, test it against the same real task and exception; matching a feature name is not enough.

Then compare the remaining choices: keep the current setup, change configuration, switch to another existing option, or build a focused app. A custom build deserves consideration when the necessary scope is understood and the full cost works. It should not be the automatic result of the review.

4. Separate theoretical savings from removable costs

Suppose an app costs an illustrative $1,700 per month and a replacement would cost $200 per month to maintain. The recurring difference is $1,500. That does not mean the company can save $1,500 next month.

If the subscription is prepaid, another team still needs a feature, or the migration is incomplete, the existing cost may remain. Record the earliest date a charge can actually end, along with any overlap, implementation, migration, and internal training costs. Use the savings calculator for an initial scenario, then add the costs it explicitly excludes.

5. Finish with a decision someone can act on

For each app, write one sentence: “We recommend [action] because [evidence], subject to [unresolved condition].” Assign a person to resolve the condition and set a decision date ahead of the renewal deadline.

Choose the first project by both value and feasibility. A manageable workflow with a willing owner and accessible data can be a better starting point than the largest invoice with unclear dependencies.