What the "Runs on Atlassian" Badge Actually Means
Disclosure: I'm part of the team at Narva Software, an Atlassian Gold Marketplace Partner.
When we started migrating our apps to Forge, I assumed most of our users wouldn't notice or care much. I was wrong. We got a lot of questions. So this is my attempt to answer the most common ones in one place.
A bit of background
Forge is Atlassian's platform for building apps that run natively inside Jira, Confluence, and the rest of the suite. The older approach (Connect) worked differently: your data left Atlassian's environment, got processed on a vendor's external server, and came back. Forge removes that middle step. The app runs inside Atlassian's infrastructure, full stop.
That's what the "Runs on Atlassian" badge is telling you.
What this actually changes for you
The security story is the most straightforward. If your data never leaves Atlassian's environment, there's no external server to worry about, no third-party database holding your Jira issues somewhere else. For IT admins going through procurement or security reviews, that's one less thing to audit.
Performance is less dramatic but more noticeable day-to-day. Without outbound API calls, Forge apps tend to load faster and time out less. This is especially noticeable on large Confluence pages or busy Jira projects.
The compatibility piece is easy to underestimate. With older app frameworks, every Atlassian product update was a potential source of breakage. Something would stop working and you'd wait for the vendor to push a fix. Because Atlassian actively maintains Forge, that friction is much lower. The app and the platform stay in sync.
The longer-term picture
Atlassian has been consistent about where they're investing: Forge is the platform for what comes next. Legacy frameworks aren't going away tomorrow, but new capabilities are being built around Forge. Apps that haven't migrated will gradually fall behind. Not all at once, but steadily.
The Marketplace is already reflecting this. Enterprise teams increasingly filter for Forge apps when evaluating tools. That's a shift worth paying attention to.
Questions worth asking when you evaluate any app
- Does it carry the "Runs on Atlassian" badge?
- Does the vendor publish their security posture, like SOC 2 or Cloud Fortified status?
- Can they explain clearly how your data is handled, or is it buried in marketing language?
These are reasonable things to ask. Any vendor worth working with should be able to answer them without hesitation.
Migrating our full lineup to Forge took real work, but it was the right call. Especially for the teams at organizations like Deloitte and Harvard who depend on these tools daily.
Have you looked into Forge apps for your team, or are you still weighing the move? Would love to hear what's driving the decision either way: drop your thoughts in the comments.