Atlassian tweaks licenses to reward those who buy more, but gets its sums wrong

Atlassian has notified its customers of a new “maximum quantity billing” scheme that is good news for those who want more of its wares, but less fun for others.

An Atlassian support document explains the new plan with the example of a customer who has a ten-seat subscription at $18 apiece and five days into the month adds additional three seats.

The document spells out that Atlassian will prorate the cost of new subscriptions, meaning it will charge only for the part of the month after a user signs up for extra seats.

However, when The Register read the document on May 30, Atlassian’s calculations assumed that the pro-rated cost was $18 – the same as the full monthly fee – and the cost of 13 seats would be $234.

We pointed out Atlassian’s error, which we preserved here [PDF], and the Australian collaboration corporation has since corrected the example and now pro-rates the total so it comes in at $225 - $180 for the ten subs in force at the start of the month, plus $45 for three subs used for five sixths of the month.

Hopefully Atlassian only made that error on its support page and not its billing systems!

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We also asked Atlassian about another feature of maximum quantity billing that means it will charge a user who removes some seats midway through a billing period for the full month.

A spokesperson told us the company bills retired seats for the full month “so that teams can reassign it if their needs change.”

The spokesperson said both billing policies are “common industry practice designed to provide customers with predictability and simplicity.”

Atlassian customers will enjoy that predictability and simplicity starting in July when the company begins its phased rollout of maximum quantity billing. It expects all users will be on the new plan by October.

The scheme covers the following Atlassian products: Compass, Confluence, Guard, Jira, Jira Product Discovery, and Jira Service Management. It also applies to apps sold on the Atlassian Marketplace. Atlassian’s Loom short video product already uses the arrangement. ®