How to choose a Jira or Confluence app: 10 questions to ask
The Atlassian Marketplace lists thousands of apps, and many look alike on their listing page. These ten questions, asked before you install, avoid most surprises later. They work for any app, ours included.
1. Where does the app run, and where is your data kept?
Some apps run entirely on Atlassian’s infrastructure. The Runs on Atlassian badge on a listing means the app is hosted by Atlassian, keeps its data in Atlassian’s storage and sends nothing outside. Other apps run on the vendor’s own servers: then ask where those servers are, who can access your data and which subprocessors are involved.
2. Does it follow your data residency?
If your Jira or Confluence site is pinned to a region, check that the data the app stores is pinned to the same region and moves with your site.
3. Which permissions does it ask for?
The listing shows the access an app requests. Prefer apps that ask only for what their features use and that act with the permissions of the person using them, so nobody sees more through the app than in Jira or Confluence.
4. What happens to your data if you stop using it?
An app that keeps your content as ordinary pages, comments or work items leaves it in place when you uninstall. For records only the app holds, such as signatures or audit trails, check that you can export them first, as PDF or CSV.
5. Can the vendor answer your security team?
Look for a public security page, a contact for reporting vulnerabilities and answers to the usual questionnaire items. If your policy requires a certification such as SOC 2 or ISO 27001, ask what it covers: the company, the app, or only the hosting platform.
6. For regulated teams: is there validation support?
In GxP or ISO 13485 environments, look for signatures bound to the exact content that was approved, a complete audit trail and documents that separate what the app does from what stays your responsibility, ideally with test scripts you can run yourself. Be wary of the word “compliant”: no app is compliant on its own; compliance comes from your validated system and your procedures.
7. Does it speak your users’ language?
An app that follows each person’s Jira or Confluence language is adopted faster. Check the documentation and support languages too.
8. What will it cost as you grow?
Marketplace apps are usually priced per user, by tier. Look at the price for your size today and for twice that size, using the full table on the listing’s Pricing tab, not only the entry price.
9. Is it maintained?
Read the release notes and the date of the last update. Badges such as Cloud Fortified show that an app meets additional reliability, security and support requirements set by Atlassian. Read recent reviews, and keep in mind that a new app has few reviews yet: judge it on a trial.
10. Try it on your real case
Use the free trial on a real project or space, with the people who will use it every day. One afternoon on your own data tells you more than any listing.
How Clearlane answers these questions
Every Clearlane app runs on Atlassian and keeps its data in your site. Our trust center answers the security questionnaire, our validation support maps 21 CFR Part 11 and ISO 13485 requirements with ready-to-run test scripts, and the apps work in English, French and German. Clearlane holds no certificate of its own: what we do is documented on those pages.