Apps overview
How native Laya features, built-in connectors and marketplace apps such as Laya Board for Jira fit together.
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Laya meets your work in three different ways: features built directly into Laya, connectors you configure inside Laya to mirror other tools, and marketplace apps that bring a Laya experience into another platform. Knowing which is which helps you pick the right setup and understand where each piece runs.
Three ways Laya meets your tools
Native features (inside Laya)
Native boards, docs and workspaces live entirely in Laya. Nothing needs to be installed anywhere else — you create a board and start working. See Native vs Connected vs Both for how native and connected work sit side by side.
Built-in connectors (configured inside Laya)
Connectors are set up from within Laya and mirror boards from your existing tools — for example the Jira connector is an OAuth connection you create in Laya's connect-Jira flow, and each connection then gets its own settings page with a health card, a mapped-project editor and a live sync log. Mirroring streams a live, editable mirror of your items — nothing is migrated. Start at the integrations overview.
Marketplace apps (installed inside another platform)
Marketplace apps run inside another product rather than inside Laya. The first of these is Laya Board for Jira — a free app from the Atlassian Marketplace, built on Atlassian Forge, that renders a fast Laya-style board over your real Jira issues inside Jira itself. It works fully without a Laya.net account, and optionally links to a Laya workspace to unlock more. Read the user guide or the admin guide.
Comparison at a glance
| Native Laya boards | Laya.net Jira connector | Laya Board for Jira | |
|---|---|---|---|
| What it is | Boards created and managed entirely in Laya | An OAuth connection from Laya to a Jira site that mirrors projects as connected boards | A marketplace app that shows a Laya board over Jira issues inside Jira |
| Where it runs | In Laya | In Laya | Inside Jira, as an Atlassian Forge app |
| Who installs or sets it up | Any workspace member can create a board | A workspace Admin or Owner (the connectors:manage capability) connects and chooses boards to mirror | A Jira site administrator installs it from the Atlassian Marketplace |
| Account needed | A Laya account | A Laya account plus Jira authorisation | Only your Jira account — a Laya.net account is optional and only needed for linked features |
| How it syncs | No sync needed — the board is the source of truth | Two-way sync: changes flow in via a webhook you add in Jira (with a polling fallback), and your edits are written straight back to Jira | Reads and writes Jira directly — mostly as you, with a few agile operations applied by the app after checking your own Jira permission; once linked to a workspace, Jira changes stream into Laya and Laya edits flow back through the app's write-back bridge |
Which should you choose?
- Your team lives in Laya and you want boards with no external dependency — use native boards.
- Your team lives in Laya but the work is tracked in Jira, Azure DevOps, monday.com, GitHub or GitLab — use the built-in connectors to mirror those boards into Laya. See choosing your setup.
- Your team lives in Jira and wants a faster board experience without leaving it — install Laya Board for Jira. Link it to a Laya workspace later if you want external boards, master boards and sharing.
A growing area
Apps are how Laya travels to where your team already works. Laya Board for Jira is the first marketplace app, and this area of the Help Centre will grow as more apps ship.
Email support@laya.net — include what you expected, what happened, and a link to the affected board or item so we can help quickly.