So, you’re thinking about making the move to Atlassian’s products and saw something about Atlassian licenses.
When you’re exploring whether to purchase Jira Software, Jira Core, Jira Service Management, Confluence, or any of the other members of Atlassian’s suite of tools, it’s easy to only think about the procurement and not the process of acquiring Atlassian licenses.
However, many don’t realize purchasing Atlassian licenses through an award-winning Atlassian license reseller like Oxalis, brings several benefits usually abandoned on the table.
We walk through many of the benefits to purchasing your license through Oxalis, but before diving in let’s cover the basics.
What is an Atlassian License?
Atlassian sells their products by way of selling licenses broken down by product, product tier, user/agent count, and deployment. These three factors can and should be considered before committing, whether you are purchasing or renewing your license. Since discontinuing Server licenses in February 2021, Atlassian’s licenses are only available on monthly (Cloud) or annual (Cloud and Data Center) terms. You can purchase both monthly and annual licenses with a partner, but purchasing an annual license is the most common between the two by a considerable margin. Ready to learn more?
Product
Atlassian sells licenses for each individual product. The most common products from Atlassian are Jira Software, Jira Service Management (formerly Jira Service Desk), Confluence, and Bitbucket. Atlassian does not bundle any of these products. Also, multiple products can be purchased for a single company. However, this is not advised, as Atlassian provides a volume discount for higher user counts (more on that below).
Product Tier (Cloud License)
As a recent update to Atlassian’s licensing model, they started offering different product tiers for their Cloud offerings: Free, Standard, Premium, and Enterprise. Each tier has incremental increases in pricing per user but also includes more features with the higher tiers. You can change your tiers at any time, given you’ve purchased on a monthly basis rather than an annual basis.
Note: purchasing annual licenses will result in lower cost per user. Data Center licensed products do not have different product tiers.
Choosing between these tiers can seem complicated—it’s tough to know what features your team needs and what seems like a good idea but really is unnecessary for the cost. Oxalis uncovers real needs based on informative interviews with company stakeholders to understand a list of requirements and a list of “nice to haves”, which is an important distinction when prices are increasingly expensive per product tier.
User/Agent Count
The second-largest factor in pricing differences is user/agent count. This is relatively self-explanatory: however many employees within your organization are going to use the software, make sure they are included in your user count. You can upgrade your user tier at any time, so you can purchase without fear of locking your company in to that user tier for 12 months.
It gets a bit more complicated with Jira Service Management, which operates with “collaborators” and “agents”.
- Agents can do the following:
- View the customer portal, queues, reports and SLA metrics within a project
- Add, edit, and delete customer-facing and internal comments on issues
- Add customers to a project
- Author and read knowledge base content (with a paid Confluence license)
- Manage Organizations (if allowed at the application level)
- Collaborators, on the other hand, are users holding licenses to another Atlassian tool like Jira Software or Jira Core that can work and communicate with JSM agents internally. If you have users that don’t need full JSM privileges, it would be more affordable to license the users with Jira Core or Jira Software.
Sectoring Agents and Collaborators is a prime example of how Oxalis helps customers optimize and streamline their Atlassian license. Get started.
Deployment
Atlassian offers two deployment options for their products: Atlassian Cloud and Data Center. The two options vary significantly in terms of pricing, security, and hosting.
- Cloud is the Oxalis preferred deployment option for most clients, given there are no compliance or regulatory requirements. Atlassian recently doubled-down on their Cloud offering, creating a robust ecosystem with built-in features and integrations that most companies can take advantage of.
- Data Center is highly configurable and customizable, with built-in security capabilities and no hosting restrictions. We have sold, maintained, and optimized Data Center licenses for our high-compliance customers who are required to meet certain regulations.
What about Server Licenses?
Atlassian announced they would end the sale of their Server license in February 2021. They are continuing the support until February 2024, but Atlassian has made it clear Server licenses are riding into the sunset and any Atlassian users should start planning on migrating to the Cloud or Data Center licenses. Find more information HERE.
Are there Atlassian License Cost Differences?
When you purchase an Atlassian license through a trusted partner like oxalis.io, you are not paying any more or any less. It’s simply a way to show our partners at Atlassian that your team is under our care.
There is a financial advantage should your company want to pay for licenses annually. Atlassian partners like Oxalis have the ability to procure annual quotes based on user tiers vs. actual user counts. These tiers generally see a scaled benefit if you’re coming close to the top third of the range.
For example, if a company had 130 Jira Software Standard Cloud users, they would pay approximately $939 per month (or $11,268 per year). The annual cost for that license tier (101-200 users) comes out to $14,000—in this case Oxalis will recommend and procure monthly payment. But, as that company grows to 170 users, that monthly cost jumps to $1,191 per month ($14,292 per year) while the annual cost stays the same at $14,000 per year.
Oxalis monitors this growth opportunity and has the capability to optimize while their clients are scaling up to ensure they’re not paying extra costs when there is a more affordable option. Get help.
The real cost savings come in when you need Atlassian consulting or optimization services. Being an Oxalis-licensed partner means that you have a consultant at the ready to upgrade your licenses, add Atlassian Marketplace apps, and offer license optimization advice.
Not to mention, our Oxalis-licensed partners receive exclusive services discounts as a thank you for committing to the partnership as much as we are.
What does Managing an Atlassian License Mean?
Many benefits follow with a partner like Oxalis managing your Atlassian license. The services discount aside, licenced partners with Oxalis are free from challenges surrounding the licensing process:
- User changes, upgrades, and instance additions
- If you were managing yourself, you would need to go through Atlassian’s support system with each change.
- With Oxalis, we have what we call the “Superman Red Phone” to Atlassian. We experience rapid response times from their partner team to ensure that any changes you may want to make are done on your timeline.
- Management of your license
- Oxalis offers expert advice on how best to configure your licenses and to make sure you’re paying for what you actually need (especially if it is paired with Oxalis services).
- Oxalis helps its partners pick out which Atlassian Marketplace Apps to add per their stated requirements.
- If your company has acquired several licenses from various products over the years for individual teams, Oxalis can analyze your license use and offer consolidation advice.
- As a partner, Oxalis is the first to know about changes within the Atlassian ecosphere and therefore our licensed partners are the first to know if it impacts or will impact them—allowing for ample preparation time with expert advice.
Actual license consolidation (rather than advice) is a service Oxalis offers. Contact us to learn more.
- Services Discount
- Purchasing your license through Oxalis allows us to discount services as a Prefered Oxalis Partner. Purchasing through Oxalis shows that your company is willing to partner with us for the length of your Atlassian journey.
Bottom line: Oxalis has the “red phone” that connects directly to Atlassian and we use it to make sure that you’re not only getting the licenses that you need, but also the correct configuration that will reduce tech debt, prevent sunk costs, and provide simple invoices for your accounting department.
What if I Have an Existing Atlassian License?
If you’ve already procured and paid for your Atlassian License, you cannot transfer your license to Oxalis management. However, when you’re ready to renew or upgrade your licenses, you can purchase those through Oxalis and that will bring your license into our management for the benefits stated above.
When you’re ready to get the most out of your Atlassian license, contact us to discuss your options.
Recommended blog posts
- Atlassian Cloud Migrations – Webinar [ON-DEMAND]
- The Official Oxalis Cloud Migration Strategy Playbook
- Atlassian Discontinuing Server Edition—Here is How to Prepare
