Why Atlassian Forge Is the Best Way to Build Jira & Confluence Apps Today

But with Atlassian Forge, everything changed.

Forge is a serverless, fully managed development platform created by Atlassian. It eliminates infrastructure overhead, simplifies security, and allows developers to focus purely on building features - not running systems.

As a result, the time from idea → working prototype shrinks dramatically.

Top Advantages of Atlassian Forge

1. Zero infrastructure: no servers, no DevOps, no headaches

Forge runs your backend code in Atlassian’s own serverless environment. No servers to maintain. No SSL certificates. No hosting bills. No containers.

Forge = deploy code, not infrastructure.

Example: Let’s say you want a scheduled job that checks Jira issues every 30 minutes and posts a summary to Slack.

With Connect, you’d need:

• your own backend server
• API authentication setup
• monitoring
• secure hosting

With Forge, the entire solution fits in a single function:

import api, { schedule } from '@forge/api';

export const run = schedule('0 */30 * * * *', async () => {
  const response = await api.asApp().requestJira('/rest/api/3/search?jql=project=TEST');
  const data = await response.json();

  await api.fetch('https://slack.com/api/chat.postMessage', {
    method: 'POST',
    body: JSON.stringify({
      channel: 'C12345',
      text: `Total issues in TEST project: ${data.total}`
    }),
    headers: { 'Content-Type': 'application/json' }
  });
});

That’s it. No DevOps setup whatsoever.

2. Enterprise-grade security built-in

Forge rides on Atlassian’s zero-trust architecture:

• isolated secure sandbox
• permissions declared in the manifest
• OAuth handled automatically
• no exposed secrets
• automatic security patches

This dramatically reduces risk and simplifies compliance.

Real-world example: A company building a Connect app discovered their banking clients rejected any solution requiring external servers. Migrating to Forge solved the issue instantly: Forge apps run inside Atlassian’s cloud, not a vendor’s server.

3. Fast UI development — Custom UI + UI Kit

Forge provides two UI models:

1. UI Kit – native Atlassian components
2. Custom UI – a full React app running inside Jira/Confluence

Example (React Custom UI)

import { invoke } from '@forge/bridge';

export default function App() {
  const [issues, setIssues] = useState([]);

  useEffect(() => {
    invoke('getIssues').then(setIssues);
  }, []);

  return (
    <div>
      <h2>Project Issues</h2>
      {issues.map(issue => (
        <p key={issue.id}>{issue.key}: {issue.fields.summary}</p>
      ))}
    </div>
  );
}

Backend resolver:

import api from '@forge/api';

export const getIssues = async () => {
  const res = await api.asApp().requestJira('/rest/api/3/search?jql=project=TEST');
  return await res.json();
};

This gives you a native-feeling UI fully embedded inside Jira.

4. Deep native integration with Atlassian products

Forge code runs “inside” Jira and Confluence, which means:

• direct access to Jira/Confluence APIs
• actions and UI elements embedded anywhere
• no external auth flows

Example: a custom button inside a Jira issue panel

manifest.yml:

modules:
  jira:issuePanel:
    - key: example-panel
      function: panel-function
      title: "Create Confluence Page"

UI Kit code:

export const run = () => {
  return (
    <Button
      text="Create Confluence Page"
      onClick={async () => {
        await api.asApp().requestConfluence({
          method: 'POST',
          url: '/wiki/rest/api/content',
          body: JSON.stringify({
            title: 'Automatically generated',
            type: 'page',
            space: { key: 'DOC' }
          })
        });
      }}
    />
  );
};

A new Confluence page - right from inside the Jira issue view.

5. Instant deployments and effortless environments

Forge provides:

• instant deploys (forge deploy)
• one-command installation into a Jira/Confluence site
• built-in environments (development, staging, production)
• built-in secret storage

Sharing your app with teammates takes seconds, not hours.

6. Marketplace monetization without extra infrastructure

Forge apps can be sold on the Atlassian Marketplace with the same revenue model as Connect.

But since Atlassian hosts everything, your operational costs drop close to zero — meaning higher margins and lower barriers for solo developers or new startups.

What You Can Build on Forge (Real Use Cases)

• Auto-generate Confluence documentation from Jira issues
• Interactive dashboards built with React
• Integrations with external APIs without external servers
• Scheduled background jobs (cron-style automation)
• New UI extensions: sidebars, issue panels, workflow validators

Anything that used to require a backend server — now doesn’t.

When Forge Is the Best Choice

Conclusion: Why You Should Switch to Forge Today

Forge isn’t just another app framework. It’s a modern, secure, fully managed ecosystem that:

• accelerates development 3–5×
• eliminates infrastructure overhead
• provides enterprise-level security
• integrates deeply with Jira and Confluence
• makes publishing and selling apps effortless

If you develop solutions for the Atlassian ecosystem — Forge is now the most efficient, scalable, and future-proof path.