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Halfway Through 2025: Marketplace Momentum and Opportunities – An Interview with Atlassian



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We’re already halfway through 2025, and if you’re working in the Atlassian Ecosystem, you’ve probably noticed that the Marketplace is evolving quickly. Forge adoption is picking up speed, and enterprise teams are raising the bar on what they expect for security and integration.


Since so much of my work depends on our Marketplace solutions, I wanted to get a firsthand look at how things are going from Atlassian’s perspective. Our Partner Manager, Orestis Gkikas (huge shoutout to Orestis!) helped me connect with Chris Hemphill, who leads Partnerships, Innovation, and Ecosystem at Atlassian. Chris shared insights that offer a clear, honest mid-year update—and highlight some exciting opportunities Atlassian sees for partners.


I’m glad to share the full interview here and hope you find it useful. I’d love to hear what you think, drop a comment or send me a message if you’d like to connect.


Marketplace Goals and Progress

Now that we're halfway through 2025, what are the Marketplace’s biggest goals for the year—and how are things progressing so far?

Chris:

Having reached the midpoint of 2025, it's a great time to reflect on our progress and set the stage for what's next for the Atlassian Marketplace. As I navigate my first year here, I'm excited to share that we've achieved some significant milestones and set ourselves on a path for even greater success. The Marketplace has topped $5B in lifetime sales—an impressive milestone that reflects the remarkable sales generated by our thriving ecosystem of partners and customers. This achievement is a testament to the innovation our partners bring to the Marketplace.


We've made significant progress with the move to Forge and the announcement of the "Runs on Atlassian" initiative. We've introduced new monetization levers, starting with App Editions, to support our partners in growing their offerings. Additionally, our efforts to ensure smoother migrations have paid off, allowing Marketplace applications to transition seamlessly with us. Atlassian's announcement of Isolated Cloud and the onboarding of customers with FedRamp have opened up new opportunities for the Ecosystem.


Looking ahead, we're excited about the significant opportunities around the System of Work, AI, and Solutions. We can't wait to see what the rest of the year holds and are eager to build on these successes as we continue to support our partners and customers.

Trends and User Behavior


From your perspective, what are some of the most exciting trends or user behaviors you’re seeing emerge on the Atlassian Marketplace right now?


Chris: System of Work: The system of work is presenting entirely new opportunities for our Marketplace Partners. With a diverse range of knowledge workers joining the platform, there is a growing chance to create solutions that address both new user and business needs. We are seeing some partners invest in horizontal solutions that cater to new user groups, and I believe this opportunity will continue to expand. I'm eager to see partners unlock new industries for us!

Focus on Enterprise Readiness: There is a strong push for apps that meet enterprise requirements, including enhanced compliance, security, and data residency. Our strategic partnerships with Vanta and Bonterms are designed to simplify the compliance journey for both our partners and customers.

Runs on Atlassian: The “Runs on Atlassian” badge is now live on the marketplace, with over 600 apps already qualifying. These apps operate on Atlassian’s Forge platform, offering consistent security, strict data controls, and data residency—making it easier for enterprise customers to vet and trust Marketplace apps.

Community-Driven Purchases: Approximately 16% of purchases now come from Atlassian Community recommendations, highlighting the significant influence of peer recommendations.

App Editions: Under a single Marketplace listing, partners can now offer both a Standard and an Advanced edition. This approach unlocks new revenue streams by upselling premium features to customers with advanced needs, while still serving price-sensitive users with affordable options. For users, this means more choice and value—they can select the edition that best fits their requirements and budget, ensuring they only pay for what they need. This flexibility benefits both customers and partners, driving growth and satisfaction.

Leveraging AI: As AI continues to transform the tech landscape, there are vast opportunities for partners to enhance their offerings. By integrating AI capabilities, partners can create more intelligent, efficient, and personalized solutions that meet evolving customer demands. Embracing AI can be a significant differentiator and driver of innovation in the Marketplace.

Forge’s Impact and Opportunities

Forge has clearly become a cornerstone of the Atlassian Ecosystem. How is it shaping the future of app development, and what are some of the opportunities you think partners aren’t fully taking advantage of yet?

Chris: Forge is fundamentally transforming the future of Atlassian app development by offering a secure, compliant, and cloud-native platform that meets enterprise needs while accelerating innovation. By leveraging Atlassian’s robust infrastructure, Forge ensures data residency, enterprise-grade security, and seamless integration across products. This allows partners to focus on solving business challenges rather than managing backend operations.

Opportunities for Partners:

  • Cross-Product Apps: There's a tremendous opportunity for partners to develop apps that connect data and experiences across multiple Atlassian products like Jira, Confluence, and Trello. This capability can unlock entirely new categories and use cases, providing a more cohesive user experience and addressing broader business needs.

  • AI and Automation: As the foundation for Atlassian's Agentic AI initiatives, Forge enables partners to create intelligent, automated solutions that optimize workflows. By integrating AI capabilities, partners can enhance app functionality and drive efficiency for users.

  • Enterprise Readiness: With Forge’s architecture, partners can target large enterprise customers who have strict security and compliance requirements. By meeting these high standards, partners can tap into a lucrative market segment that values robust security features.

  • Custom Solutions: Many customers are interested in developing their own apps on Forge to meet unique needs. Partners have the opportunity to support and extend these efforts, fostering customer innovation. This not only helps partners expand their service offerings but also stimulates new use cases and potentially births new entrepreneurs.

By exploring these opportunities, partners can fully leverage Forge's capabilities to drive growth and innovation in the Atlassian Ecosystem.


Reaching a Broader Audience

The Atlassian Ecosystem supports a wide range of teams—from DevOps orgs to marketing, HR, and legal. How do you see Marketplace apps evolving to serve this broader audience of Confluence and Jira users?


Chris:

We’re seeing more integrations with popular collaboration tools, project management at scale, design, and HR solutions, making it easier for non-technical teams to tailor Atlassian products to their workflows. Partners are increasingly focusing on industry- and domain-specific solutions, such as compliance for regulated industries or specialized templates for marketing and HR.


The Marketplace is set to expand by offering curated solution bundles tailored to specific industries and business functions. This initiative allows partners to leverage their expertise in particular sectors or solutions, while also collaborating with fellow partners and Atlassian to address the needs of our most demanding customers.


With cross-product apps, suddenly we are also changing our frame of reference from Confluence and Jira apps to System of Work and Solutions. This really opens up the possibilities and value our Marketplace can bring.


Branding, Documentation, and Support


As the Marketplace continues to evolve, we’re seeing more emphasis on not just building powerful apps, but also helping users discover, understand, and connect with them. We recently rebranded one of our most-used apps to Just Add+—partly to give it a name, but more importantly to open up clearer ways for users to get help, learn, and give feedback. From Atlassian’s side, how do you see branding, documentation, and user support shaping app visibility and long-term growth—and where are you seeing Marketplace partners have the most success right now?


Chris:

Strong branding, like clear, memorable app names and consistent visual identity, helps apps stand out and builds user trust. I also believe there is an emerging opportunity as we have talked a bit about, our apps can break away from being x for Jira, or y for Confluence and instead speak to the business problems they solve.


Comprehensive documentation and onboarding resources reduce friction, enabling users to quickly understand value and adopt new solutions.


Partners seeing the most success are those investing in high-quality guides, video tutorials, and in-app prompts, as well as offering responsive support and feedback channels. Joint webinars, best-practice content, and targeted email campaigns further boost discoverability and engagement.


Atlassian is also enhancing the customer experience on the Marketplace by improving the search algorithm. We plan to introduce machine learning to enhance search capabilities, app recommendations, and enable natural language search.


Marketplace Visibility Tips


Atlassian has published a lot of helpful guidance around improving Marketplace visibility, everything from SEO and listing optimization to app categorization and Forge adoption. For our readers trying to grow their own apps, what are some of the most important tips or resources you'd recommend today? Are there any strategies you’ve seen stand out recently in terms of discoverability or Marketplace performance?

Chris: Getting your app noticed in the Atlassian Marketplace can feel like a challenge, but there are some great resources and tips to help you out:

  • Optimize Visibility: Start by checking out How to Optimize Your Marketplace Search Visibility. It's full of practical advice on using the right keywords, writing clear app descriptions, and including eye-catching visuals. Naturally integrate relevant keywords into your app title and description to enhance visibility both within the Marketplace and on search engines.

  • Understand Rankings: Dive into Marketplace Search Results and Rankings to learn what boosts your app's position in search results. Regular updates and good reviews can make a big difference here.

  • Perfect Your Listing: Make sure your app listing is top-notch with quality screenshots and genuine customer testimonials. A polished listing can really enhance your app's appeal.

  • Consider Forge: If you haven't yet, think about building or moving your app to Forge. It boosts security and performance, and aligns with where Atlassian is heading.

Recent Strategies and Experiments:

Over the past few months, we've been experimenting with new ways to improve our Marketplace search capabilities. While some ideas are still in the concept phase, they’re already giving us valuable insights. These insights are helping us create a better experience for customers, and staying tuned to these changes can provide you with new opportunities to enhance your app's visibility.


  • Engage with Users: Encourage feedback and reviews. Engaging with your users not only improves your app but also boosts its visibility.


  • Join the Community: Be active in the Atlassian Community. It’s a great way to build relationships and get your app more exposure.


By focusing on these strategies and keeping an eye on the latest developments, you can really enhance your app's discoverability and performance, helping you grow and succeed.


Balancing Innovation and Partner Collaboration


Atlassian has released native tools that overlap with apps built by Marketplace vendors, and we’ve also seen a rise in lookalike or copycat apps targeting similar functionality. From a partner’s perspective, this can feel like a challenge to long-term success. How does Atlassian think about balancing internal innovation with vendor collaboration—and what role do you play in managing Marketplace quality, app duplication, and differentiation?


Chris:

Navigating the balance between cloud-native capabilities and partner collaboration is a top priority for us. We see the Marketplace as part of a thriving Ecosystem where, through continuous collaboration, our partners can truly shine. We’re investing in co-marketing, growth programs, and helping partners differentiate their offerings, so the Ecosystem remains vibrant. We’re also committed to gathering partner feedback through advisory councils and surveys to guide Marketplace strategies.


My advice to partners is to look at what makes your app or integration unique, and how to position yourself as the best solution either for a particular team, or entire industry. With AI available to enhance your work, the opportunities to stand out in today’s market are limitless.

Advice for Partners in 2025If you could give one piece of advice to Marketplace partners looking to grow in 2025, what would it be?


Advice for Partners in 2025


If you could give one piece of advice to Marketplace partners looking to grow in 2025, what would it be?


Chris:

Dive headfirst into Atlassian's System of Work vision. Transform your products into indispensable solutions for your customers. Seize the opportunities that AI and specialized markets offer. Innovate with purpose, creating tools that truly make a difference for your users. By doing this, you'll not just grow—you'll dominate. Let's make 2025 your most successful year yet!


This Isn’t the End of the Story


At Modus Create, our Product Studio team is dedicated to building Atlassian Marketplace solutions that make life easier for teams using Atlassian tools. It’s just one part of what we do, but we’re passionate about creating solutions that help professionals do their best work. If you’re curious about what we’ve been building, check out Just Add+ and Notification Assistant for Jira along with our other apps in the Atlassian Marketplace.


I plan to write a follow-up opinion piece reflecting on this interview, but I wanted to share these insights right away. I’d love to hear your thoughts or feedback while I work on the next piece.


Drop a comment below or send me a message if you have ideas, questions, or want to talk about what you’re seeing in the Marketplace.


Thanks for reading. — Jerry Nettles


 
 
 

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