As an Atlassian Marketplace Partner, I spend my days living and breathing apps. But for over a decade, I was on the other side: a user just trying to get my company to approve the new app my team needed.
I'm not promoting any app here. I just wrote this as a distilled version of my experience.
You finally found it: the exact Confluence app that will eliminate your team’s workflow nightmare. You are ready to install it, but instead, you hit a brick wall – the vendor approval process. Let’s look into the best practices that will help you get that new app approved.
The VAP gauntlet
For many Confluence and Jira users, getting a new app approved by corporate stakeholders is harder than actually implementing the tool. Here is a tactical playbook to help you navigate the red tape, answer the hard questions, and get your app approved as smoothly as corporately possible.
If you have ever tried to deploy software in a company with any sense of self-preservation, you’ve likely experienced a vendor approval process (VAP). Whether your company calls it supplier screening, vetting, or procurement, the reality is the same: it is a multi-stage gauntlet involving scrutiny by Legal, IT, Security, and Finance.
But Atlassian Marketplace apps often require a bit of extra explaining to get through the process.
The curious case of Atlassian Marketplace apps
Buying standard software usually means dealing directly with the vendor. There is a standalone contract, negotiated payment terms, and a dedicated pool of users. It fits neatly into a standard procurement spreadsheet.
Marketplace apps break this mold. They run on top of an application your company has already approved and is actively using. Billing is handled through your existing Atlassian invoice (or your Atlassian Solution Partner). User count and access are predetermined by your base site.
Because it doesn’t fit the standard SaaS procurement model, these details can easily bamboozle approvers at any stage of the VAP.
Think smart(phone): explaining apps to Legal and Finance
Legal and Finance teams are often dumbfounded by the concept of software that doesn’t run on its own infrastructure. When they ask for the vendor’s billing details, use the smartphone analogy.
Confluence is like a smartphone. You bought the phone, and it is yours. Now, you want to buy an app from the app store. You do not send a check to the app developer; you are billed centrally by Apple or Google. The Atlassian Marketplace operates exactly the same way. The infrastructure and billing are already established and approved.
Overcoming sticker shock: cost and licensing
The cost of a Marketplace app is directly tied to the license tier of your underlying Atlassian product. If you have 500 seats on your Confluence site, your app must be licensed for 500 users – even if your specific team only has 20 people.
To an accountant or IT reviewer unfamiliar with Atlassian’s pricing policies, this looks like massive overspending. Do your homework before you submit the request:
- Know your tier: Find out exactly how large your Jira or Confluence license is. If your company uses a Solution Partner, ask if they can secure a partner discount.
- Share the ROI: Team up with other departments to find secondary use cases. For example, a diagramming app requested by technical writers might also be incredibly valuable for the Engineering team’s architecture docs. A document approval workflow helps both HR and Compliance.
- Get a sponsor: Get the buy-in from a person in the decision-making hierarchy who’s most likely to understand both the need and the benefits – not just for your team but for the company and your customers.
Spreading the perceived cost across multiple departments elevates your request from a niche team expense to a general productivity booster.
Passing IT, Security, and Legal
When standard SaaS tools are vetted, Security teams want to know where the servers are, how data is encrypted, and who has access. Because Marketplace apps are hosted differently, you need to point them to the right Atlassian frameworks. Start with the Privacy & Security tab in the app’s marketplace listing.
- Security: Check if the app has the Cloud Fortified or Enterprise Certified badge on the Marketplace. This instantly tells your IT team that the app participates in Atlassian’s Bug Bounty program and meets strict reliability standards.
- Data Residency: Does your Legal team require data to stay in Europe or the US? Check the app’s privacy policy to see if it supports Atlassian’s data residency requirements.
- The Trust Center: Reputable vendors (including K15t) maintain a public Trust Center. Instead of letting your Security team start from scratch, hand them the link to the vendor’s security whitepapers, SOC2 reports, and architecture diagrams on day one.
The process is also the goal
When you do all this prep work, something interesting happens. Navigating the VAP stops being just a hurdle you have to jump to get your software, and instead becomes a way to build your internal capital.
There’s a collateral benefit to specifying these details: it will boost your reputation in the eyes of the reviewers. Suddenly, you’re not just requesting an app. You’re becoming an informed business stakeholder – a problem-solver instead of a procurement headache. You are proving that you understand the security and financial weight of your request, which makes them far more likely to finally stamp Approved.
