Bitbucket Data Center · self-managed policy

Bitbucket Data Center Got an Exception. It Still Ends in Cloud.

Bitbucket Data Center is excluded from the 2026 and 2028 sales cutoffs that hit every other Data Center product — a real concession, made because customers refused to move source code off-premises. It is not excluded from March 28, 2029. Atlassian's own page says the application goes read-only that day too, and the only way to keep it running afterward means buying into Bitbucket Cloud.

What Atlassian Actually Wrote

Straight from Atlassian's Bitbucket Hybrid License page, word for word:

“Existing Bitbucket Data Center licenses will remain available until March 28, 2029, at which point Bitbucket Data Center will be sold exclusively through the Bitbucket Hybrid License.”

“Bitbucket Data Center is a subscription product, so after March 28, 2029 at 23:59 PST, the Bitbucket application will switch to read-only mode and users will no longer be able to push code.”

“Offered to existing Bitbucket Data Center and Bitbucket Server customers only.”

Atlassian's Marketplace ecosystem post (September 8, 2025) confirms the same carve-out on the app side: Bitbucket Data Center apps “will continue to be available and supported in the Atlassian Marketplace” — up to the same 2029 date, not beyond it.

The Hybrid License, Fact by Fact

Check these against the source page yourself. We'd rather you catch us wrong than take our word for it.

What	Status
New sales & purchase cutoffs (2026 / 2028)	Bitbucket Data Center is excluded — keeps selling
Standalone Bitbucket DC licensing	Ends 28 Mar 2029 — same date as everything else
After 28 Mar 2029, 23:59 PST	Application goes read-only; no more code pushes
Only supported continuation	Bitbucket Hybrid License — requires a Bitbucket Cloud subscription
Hybrid License availability	Mid-2026 (per Atlassian)
Hybrid License eligibility	Existing Bitbucket Data Center / Server customers only
Hybrid License pricing	Not published

The Exception Is Real. It's Just Narrower Than It Looks.

Bitbucket Data Center is the one product Atlassian pulled out of the 2026 and 2028 end-of-sale milestones that hit Jira, Confluence, Jira Service Management, Bamboo, and Crowd — a real concession, and Atlassian's own stated reason is that enough customers refused to move source code off-premises to build around it. “Excluded from the sales cutoffs” is not the same as “excluded from the deadline,” though, and the two have been getting conflated across this market. Standalone Bitbucket Data Center licensing ends on the same March 28, 2029 date as everything else, and the application goes read-only that day too.

What the exception actually buys you is a different continuation path, not a different deadline: the Bitbucket Hybrid License, which requires an active Bitbucket Cloud subscription running alongside whatever you keep on-premises. Even the one product where Atlassian built a custom accommodation for customers who wouldn't go all-in on Cloud still ends up requiring a Cloud subscription to continue. If source code couldn't earn a clean, cloud-free exception, it's worth asking what in the rest of your estate would.

Where This Argument Runs Out

Three caveats worth knowing before you use this argument yourself:

This isn't a cloud-free future for Bitbucket. The Hybrid License requires a Bitbucket Cloud subscription running alongside it — it doesn't let an estate stay off Atlassian's cloud entirely past 2029, only lets Data Center keep running in addition to it.

The Hybrid License is open to existing Bitbucket Data Center and Server customers only. If you've already migrated off, it isn't a way back.

There's no published price. The license opens mid-2026 by Atlassian's own timeline, and paying for both a Cloud subscription and a Data Center license could easily cost more than either alone does now.

Bitbucket Got the Narrowest Exception Atlassian Offers. Price the Rest.

See what a self-managed alternative actually costs against your real Jira, Confluence, and Data Center footprint.

Size My Instance

Sources

Compiled August 2026 from Atlassian's own Bitbucket Hybrid License and Marketplace ecosystem pages, corrected September 11, 2026 after re-reading the Hybrid License page's own read-only and 2029 language in full. No Hybrid License pricing has been published as of this writing; re-check when it does, and verify current terms at atlassian.com before making decisions based on this page.