diff --git a/.changeset/quiet-badgers-cheer.md b/.changeset/quiet-badgers-cheer.md
new file mode 100644
index 0000000000..e22bf9492c
--- /dev/null
+++ b/.changeset/quiet-badgers-cheer.md
@@ -0,0 +1,11 @@
+---
+'@backstage/create-app': patch
+---
+
+Removed `plugins.ts` from the app, as plugins are now discovered through the react tree.
+
+To apply this change to an existing app, simply delete `packages/app/src/plugins.ts` along with the import and usage in `packages/app/src/App.tsx`.
+
+Note that there are a few plugins that require explicit registration, in which case you would need to keep them in `plugins.ts`. The set of plugins that need explicit registration is any plugin that doesn't have a component extension that gets rendered as part of the app element tree. An example of such a plugin in the main Backstage repo is `@backstage/plugin-badges`. In the case of the badges plugin this is because there is not yet a component-based API for adding context menu items to the entity layout.
+
+If you have plugins that still rely on route registration through the `register` method of `createPlugin`, these need to be kept in `plugins.ts` as well. However, it is recommended to migrate these to export an extensions component instead.
diff --git a/packages/create-app/templates/default-app/packages/app/src/App.tsx b/packages/create-app/templates/default-app/packages/app/src/App.tsx
index 1ed7aa030a..026771ce4f 100644
--- a/packages/create-app/templates/default-app/packages/app/src/App.tsx
+++ b/packages/create-app/templates/default-app/packages/app/src/App.tsx
@@ -21,11 +21,9 @@ import { UserSettingsPage } from '@backstage/plugin-user-settings';
 import { apis } from './apis';
 import { entityPage } from './components/catalog/EntityPage';
 import { Root } from './components/Root';
-import * as plugins from './plugins';
 
 const app = createApp({
   apis,
-  plugins: Object.values(plugins),
   bindRoutes({ bind }) {
     bind(catalogPlugin.externalRoutes, {
       createComponent: scaffolderPlugin.routes.root,
diff --git a/packages/create-app/templates/default-app/packages/app/src/plugins.ts b/packages/create-app/templates/default-app/packages/app/src/plugins.ts
deleted file mode 100644
index df53885723..0000000000
--- a/packages/create-app/templates/default-app/packages/app/src/plugins.ts
+++ /dev/null
@@ -1,9 +0,0 @@
-export { plugin as ApiDocs } from '@backstage/plugin-api-docs';
-export { plugin as CatalogPlugin } from '@backstage/plugin-catalog';
-export { plugin as CatalogImport } from '@backstage/plugin-catalog-import';
-export { plugin as GithubActions } from '@backstage/plugin-github-actions';
-export { plugin as ScaffolderPlugin } from '@backstage/plugin-scaffolder';
-export { plugin as TechDocsPlugin } from '@backstage/plugin-techdocs';
-export { plugin as TechRadar } from '@backstage/plugin-tech-radar';
-export { plugin as UserSettings } from '@backstage/plugin-user-settings';
-