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IUL Partners — really need to ticket every Marketplace vendor just to add users?
Hey all,
Hoping to sanity-check something with other Partners on the free Internal Use License (IUL) program, because if this is really how it works, it's a pretty rough look for the whole ecosystem.
We're approaching the 100-user cap on Jira Software and went to process a routine tier upgrade. Simple enough, right? Instead, we were told we'd need to individually open a ticket or reach out to every single Marketplace app vendor we use — half a dozen-plus apps — to request promo/discount codes just so our app licensing matches the new user tier.
To be clear: I'm not chasing discounts here. I'd happily pay full price across every app in our stack if it meant skipping this entirely. But apparently that's not even an option — the promo code process seems to be baked into how the tier upgrade works, not something you can opt out of by just paying more. So even Partners willing to forgo any vendor discount still get stuck doing one-by-one, vendor-by-vendor outreach, each with its own turnaround time, just to add headroom to our own internal instance.
If that's genuinely the expectation, it's hard to overstate how backwards it feels. Adding users to your own license shouldn't turn into a multi-week scavenger hunt across every vendor in your Marketplace stack — especially when the customer is explicitly willing to pay more to avoid it. It puts the burden of Atlassian's own tiering/licensing architecture entirely onto the customer, with no "just charge me full price" escape hatch.
A few questions for the community:
- Is this actually standard across the IUL program, or are we getting an unusually painful answer from support?
- Has anyone been able to pay full price and skip the vendor promo-code process entirely? If so, how?
- Has anyone found a faster path — does your Partner Manager or Atlassian rep coordinate vendor outreach on your behalf, or is it really all on you?
- For those who've upgraded tiers recently, how long did the vendor-by-vendor coordination actually take, start to finish?
If this is working as intended, it's a genuinely bad partner/customer experience and I'd love to know if others have pushed back on it successfully. Thanks for any insight.
1 answer
1 accepted
Hi Kent,
There are two separate things getting mixed together here: the Marketplace app tier requirement and Marketplace partner discounts/promotions.
For paid-via-Atlassian Cloud apps, the Marketplace app tier is tied to the Jira user tier. Atlassian’s current Marketplace documentation says that Cloud app tiers are automatically updated with the host product tier, so the app license needs to match the Jira tier even if only some users actually use that app.
The promo code is a separate mechanism. Marketplace partners can offer promotions for upgrades, but promotions are controlled by the individual Marketplace vendor. They are not the licensing mechanism itself. Atlassian’s documentation explicitly describes promo codes as optional vendor promotions that customers apply separately.
So, if the issue is simply that increasing the Jira tier requires the Marketplace apps to move to the corresponding tier, that part is expected. What I would question is the idea that you must obtain a promo code from every vendor in order to perform the upgrade. The documentation does not indicate that a Marketplace promotion is a prerequisite for upgrading an app; the promotion is a discount, while the tier change is the licensing requirement.
For an IUL/Partner environment, there may be additional program-specific rules around how the benefits are applied, so the exact workflow can depend on how the IUL entitlement is being administered. But from the Marketplace licensing side, "app must match the Jira tier" and "vendor must provide a promo code" are not the same requirement.
That distinction may explain why you were given the vendor-contact process, but I don't see anything in the current Marketplace licensing documentation saying that paying the normal price should require a promo code from each vendor.
Hi Aditya - thanks for the info!
I did manage to get my license tier upgraded, but I'm still not sure Atlassian themselves understand the process, let alone myself.
Long story as short as I can make it I reached out to my Partner rep, who connected me with someone else, who eventually connected me with someone else. That third someone created an Atlassian support ticket for me with the following description:
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"CAI (an Atlassian Silver partner) needs to upgrade Jira Software from the 0–100 user tier to 101–200. Because they're on Partner Billing, they can't self-serve the quote, so this has run through <second person's name> since Aug 11."
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One note -- when CAI became a Silver Partner, early this year, I did get promo codes from 6 Marketplace app vendors and had them applied.
Here is what I thought would happen now --> my user license tier would be upgraded from 1-100 to 101-200. Yes, my prices for the Marketplace apps would increase since they are based on license counts. But the original promo codes (free for 1 year; 50% off for one year; etc.) would stay intact.
But in the ticket the Atlassian support rep wrote:
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"Thanks for reaching out to Atlassian. After carefully checking the details provided, I see your cloud site is marked as Internal Use for your organization."
Regarding your questions:
The Jira product falls under the Internal Use licensing and this product is handled by a specialized team.
Regarding the Marketplace apps, you can reach out to the Marketplace vendors and ask them to provide you with promo codes for the Internal use licensing.
Afterwards, I can edit the quote for you and apply the promo codes for the apps accordingly. Once this step is completed, I can transfer this ticket to the specialized team to provide you the internal use licensing for the Jira product accordingly."
---
Implying that Atlassian was not going to process the license tier upgrade until I reached out to every app vendor and got a new promo code.
I sent him the promo codes that I already had and he said:
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"I attempted to apply the provided promo codes. The system has returned on all the promo codes “+Expired+” status."
---
Reaching out to all vendors could be time consuming so I said:
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"I will pay for the apps like any non-partner company. I will forgo whatever discount the vendors would give me via promo codes for the sake of time."
---
And the upgrade was processed shortly after.
Now I wonder:
1. If I am getting any discounts on the Marketplace apps due to the original promo codes or if they were all removed and I am paying full price -- which is fine if true, but...
2. I wonder if I should reach out to the Marketplace vendors now and get new promo codes to replace the old ones to save a little money.
Bottom Line:
I'm still confused why promo codes on apps would prevent Atlassian from being able to upgrade my license tier. But I don't know the backend to their billing system, so there is probably something I'm not aware of that makes it this way.
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Hi Kent,
That additional context makes the situation much clearer. I think the confusing part is that three different things are being handled together here: the Jira IUL entitlement, Partner Billing, and Marketplace app promotions.
From what you were told, it sounds like the Marketplace promo codes were being handled as part of the quote preparation, rather than being a technical prerequisite for changing the Jira user tier itself. That would explain why, once you explicitly said you were happy to pay full price for the Marketplace apps, the upgrade could proceed without waiting for new promo codes.
Regarding your two questions:
1. Are the original Marketplace discounts still active?
The "Expired" response when Atlassian tried to apply the old codes strongly suggests those particular promo codes can no longer be applied to the new quote. However, that does not necessarily tell us whether the underlying discounts were removed from your existing subscriptions.
I would check the actual Marketplace app subscriptions/invoices after the tier change and compare the current app price against the normal price for the 101–200 user tier. That will give you the definitive answer on whether any discount is still being applied.
2. Should you contact the vendors again for new promo codes?
It would make sense to ask them, particularly since you previously received IUL-related promotions. But I would first confirm what is currently being charged for each app.
The important distinction is that the Jira tier upgrade and a Marketplace promotional discount are separate commercial arrangements. A vendor may need to issue a new promotion for the new quote/tier, but that does not necessarily mean the Jira tier itself cannot be upgraded without those promotions.
Based on your experience, it looks like the practical problem was the Partner Billing/IUL quote workflow, where the Marketplace discounts were being incorporated into the quote by the Atlassian side. Once you opted out of the discounts and accepted the standard Marketplace pricing, there was no longer anything holding up the quote.
So I think your confusion is completely understandable. The process presented to you made the promo codes sound mandatory, while the outcome suggests they were actually part of the quote/discount process rather than a requirement for the license-tier change itself.
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