How do Jira admins currently track which Marketplace apps are actually being used?

Question

Hey everyone,

I was told to post here by @Tinker Fadoua so just wanted to reach out.

I've been sitting with this problem for a while: a few months back someone asked me to pull a report on our Jira app usage and I realized, I have no idea what's actually being used in my org. We're paying for apps that might be gathering dust and I can't even tell which ones.

I dug around and found ECO-470 on Atlassian's feedback board (383 votes, open for over 4 years).  We're all hacking together workarounds, emailing vendors, squinting at audit logs.

What are you all doing today to track app usage? I'm curious from both sides:
- As a vendor: do your apps provide usage analytics to customers? How do you share that data?
- As an admin: what's your process for auditing which Marketplace apps are still valuable vs. dead weight?

Also interesting that Jira Data Center had some app usage tracking but Cloud doesn't  seems like a gap that's been open for years (ECO-470, ECO-985, CLOUD-12134).

Would love to hear your approaches, even the messy ones. And if any of you are building tools in this space, I'd love to learn what you're working on.

David Day: Appcento · Answer

For everyone else reading: what's been your biggest headache when trying to figure out which apps are actually being used? Are you relying on manual checks like Sami described, or has anyone found a more automated approach that actually works at scale? And if you were building a tool for this today, what would be the one feature you couldn't live without?

David Day: Appcento · Answer

Sami, huge thanks for this. The "scream test" idea is brutal but honestly smart, I'm stealing that. And the config footprint audit makes sense too.
Been poking around at building something in Forge to tackle this since there's really nothing out there that does it well yet, just figured I'd mention it in case anyone else was down the same rabbit hole.

Sami Shaik · Answer

Hi @David Day_ Appcento

You've read the situation correctly. There's still no native app usage analytics in Jira Cloud as of today, and ECO-470 remains open. The DC comparison is fair: App Usage for Jira exists there (bundled into DC 9.15+, pulled from Marketplace on 1 July 2026), and Cloud has no equivalent.

Here's what I actually do on client instances today:

1. Turn on third-party app API request logs. Atlassian Administration → Insights → Audit log → Settings. This logs Jira/Confluence API requests per app, the closest thing to a real usage signal Cloud gives you. Important: Atlassian disabled these logs by default for orgs that didn't opt in before 1 December 2025, so check your toggle.

2. Audit the configuration footprint, not just activity. An app that's wired into your instance is "used" even if nobody clicks it daily:

* Workflows: app-provided post functions, validators, conditions
* Custom fields: the Fields admin page shows which app provides each field
* Automation rules, dashboard gadgets, Confluence macros

An app with zero footprint anywhere is your first removal candidate.

3. Ask the vendor. Most serious vendors can pull your tenant's usage on request, and some expose it in-app. Costs one email.

4. The scream test, now with a safety net. Unsubscribe suspected dead weight about 30 days before renewal but keep it installed, and see who objects. Atlassian is currently rolling out soft delete for Marketplace apps, which makes this less risky than it used to be.

5. Watch Portfolio insights. Atlassian opened a beta in Atlassian Administration (April 2026) for discovering and managing your app portfolio. No per-app usage metrics in it yet from what I've seen, but it's the first sign Atlassian is building in this direction. Worth enabling and watching.