About Foundation

Foundation is a Forge-native portfolio management app for Jira Cloud. It gives teams cross-project hierarchies, Gantt charts, inline editing, and JQL-driven automation — in a modern, fairly priced alternative to Structure, BigPicture, and Jira Plans. Built by HumanR, launching on the Atlassian Marketplace in 2026.

Why does Foundation exist?

Cross-project visibility in Jira is broken. The Epic-to-Story hierarchy stops at a single project, and the incumbent PPM plugins that fill that gap were built on Atlassian's legacy Connect framework, which routes customer data through external vendor servers. Tempo, the vendor behind Structure, has raised prices more than 30% in eighteen months across several tiers, and buyers are rightly asking whether a Connect-era plugin is still the right answer when Atlassian itself has moved to Forge. Foundation exists because the category needed a modern entrant: one that keeps data inside Atlassian's cloud, prices honestly, and treats migration away from incumbents as a first-class feature instead of an afterthought.

What makes Foundation different?

Four positioning assets the incumbents cannot easily copy. Forge-native: Foundation runs entirely on Atlassian Forge, which as of September 17, 2025 is the only platform accepting new Marketplace listings — a one-way-door decision Atlassian made for every future app. Price-under-Tempo: every paid tier sits below the equivalent Structure tier, with no history of mid-contract increases. Rovo-ready: Foundation ships with a Rovo Agent so you can manage your portfolio conversationally inside Atlassian Intelligence. Migration-first: one-click importers for Structure Cloud and BigPicture Cloud, a CSV/Excel wizard, and a Data Center extractor mean switching costs are measured in minutes, not consulting engagements.

Who builds Foundation?

Foundation is built by HumanR (Human Renaissance Corporation), led by founder Justin Leader. HumanR is a small, focused team that treats Jira as the serious system of record it actually is for tens of thousands of companies. We are not a venture-funded rollup chasing fifty product lines — we ship Foundation, we support it, and we talk to customers ourselves. Every page on foundationforjira.com is written by a human on the team, not generated by a content farm. Every feature ships behind Justin's email, which means when something breaks you reach the person who wrote the code. That is how the Atlassian ecosystem worked in the early days of the Marketplace, and we think buyers are ready for that again.

What do we commit to?

Data residency. Because Foundation is Forge-native, your Jira data never leaves Atlassian's cloud. Zero egress, zero external processors, zero vendor servers between you and your issues. Honest comparisons. The vs Structure and vs BigPicture pages are written by a direct competitor, and we say so on every page. When Structure's Expr formula engine is genuinely the right answer for your team, we'll tell you. A real free tier. Foundation is free for the first ten users, matching the Marketplace convention. Migration paths for everyone. Every major Jira PPM tool has a documented Foundation migration path. If yours doesn't, email us and we'll build it.

Where are we today?

Foundation is in a closed beta as of April 2026, with general availability on the Atlassian Marketplace targeted for Q3 2026. Beta participants who actively test the product receive a one-year free credit of the paid tier upon launch. The changelog tracks what has shipped publicly, and the author page links to the research and comparison content I publish as the product matures. If you run Jira Cloud and want early access, you can install Foundation from the Marketplace today or join the waitlist on the homepage. If you have questions, feedback, or corrections, email me directly at [email protected].

Frequently asked questions