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This post is part of a series on replicating apps from AWS to Azure. View all posts in this series.

For AWS-based software companies aiming to broaden their footprint, the marketplace offers a strategic path forward. By publishing your solution, you gain visibility across Microsoft’s digital storefronts—Azure Marketplace and Microsoft AppSource—as well as in-product experiences like the Azure Portal. This presence enables 24/7 global selling and simplifies procurement for enterprise customers, especially those with Azure Consumption Commitments who are motivated to buy Azure-based solutions through the marketplace.

Publishing in Azure reduces friction when selling to Azure-centric enterprises, enables consistent branding and offer management across clouds, and allows you to leverage both ecosystems without duplicating engineering investments.

You can also join ISV Success to get access to over $126K USD in cloud credits, AI services, developer tools, and 1:1 technical consults to help you replicate your app and publish to the marketplace. To replicate your app faster get cloud-ready reference code to replicate AWS apps to Azure.

1. Introduction

Unlock new growth opportunities by tapping into the marketplace and reach enterprise buyers more effectively. Whether you’re migrating from AWS or building natively on Azure, the marketplace enables you to expand into new geographies, co-sell with Microsoft’s extensive salesforce, and simplify procurement for customers with pre-committed Azure spend. In this guide, we’ll walk you through the key steps to publishing and selling successfully—from selecting the right offer type to optimizing billing, pricing, and co-sell incentives.

Through the marketplace, your business can:

• Sell to millions of monthly shoppers: Sell 24/7 across 141+ geographies, 17 currencies, and 50+ value-added tax IDs,


• Maximize your sales reach: Sell directly on marketplace storefronts and in-product experiences used by 95% of Fortune 500 companies.


• Access pre-committed cloud budgets: Stand out to the more than 85% of Microsoft customers with pre-committed Azure spend using the marketplace.


• Co-sell with 35,000 Microsoft sellers: Sell even more with collaborative sales through the marketplace,


• Expand to new markets with recurring revenue: Scale through 500,000 Microsoft partners, who can sell on your behalf or sell jointly to customers.

This article walks you through the essentials of publishing and selling through the marketplace, including offer types, billing and pricing models, tools, incentives, and financial programs that can accelerate your success.

2. Selecting the right marketplace offer type

When publishing to the marketplace, choosing the right offer type is key. Each type supports different ways customers use and deploy your solution.

Common Offer Types and What They’re Best For

• Software as a Service (SaaS)
  Best for apps deployed on your Azure infrastructure that customers access through subscriptions. For customers who want a turnkey ready-to-use, hosted solution with minimal set-up.


• Azure Virtual Machine (VM)
  Best for software that runs on a pre-configured virtual machine. Similar to Amazon Machine Image (AMI) offers. For customers who want full control over a virtual machine running your software.


• Azure Container
  Ideal for containerized apps that customers deploy and run themselves like Amazon Elastic Container Service (ECS) or Elastic Kubernetes Service (EKS). For customers who want to run your app in their own container environment.

• Azure Application
  Used to deploy multiple Azure resources like VMs, storage, or networking. This is ideal for customers who want packaged deployments that automate setup in the customer’s environment.

Azure also supports other offer types. See the full list at App Advisor – Offer Types.

3. How marketplace billing and pricing work

A key advantage of publishing through the marketplace is the seamless integration with Azure’s billing system, which simplifies procurement for customers and streamlines revenue collection for software development companies.

Integrated Azure billing

When customers purchase through the marketplace, charges are seamlessly applied to their existing Azure account, eliminating separate invoicing and procurement workflows. Purchases can count toward Azure Consumption Commitment, enhancing appeal for enterprise buyers, while customers benefit from consolidated billing and simplified expense tracking.

Publisher earnings

Microsoft manages billing and collection. After deducting a standard transaction fee, earnings are disbursed on a regular schedule—reducing overhead and ensuring predictable cash flow.

Pricing models

The marketplace supports a variety of pricing models to align with your business model and customer expectations:

• Flat-rate: A fixed monthly or annual fee for access to your solution.


• Per user pricing: Charges based on the number of users accessing the solution.


• Usage-based (metered): Charges based on actual usage metrics (e.g., API calls, compute hours).

 

A flow chart shows the Azure offer types and billing options.

 

After choosing your pricing model, you can configure multiple tiered plans (SKUs) for different service levels or feature sets at varying price. Renewing a private offer with an existing paid customer—whether the original deal was through the marketplace or not— reduces your transaction fee by 50% for the entire renewal term.

How to grow sales with negotiated deals

For many enterprise customers, closing deals means negotiating pricing and terms. Most co-sell deals also happen through negotiated terms. If co-selling with Microsoft sellers is a path you want to pursue, make sure you learn about these options.

• Private offers: Depending on the plan you have selected, you can create personalized pricing and terms for specific customers that are only visible to them. Offers can include custom billing schedules, discounts, and contract durations.


• Multiparty private offers: If you sell through channel partners or need to for a specific deal, then you can use multiparty private offers (MPO) to offer negotiated terms and pricing. MPO is currently available in the United States, United Kingdom and Canada, with support for more geographies coming soon.


• The Private Offers API allows you to programmatically create and manage custom deals with enterprise customers.

These capabilities allow you to maintain pricing flexibility while benefiting from the streamlined procurement and billing experience of the marketplace. Learn more on your options for negotiated deals through marketplace.

Transactable professional services

In addition to software, you can also list professional services (e.g., onboarding, training, consulting) as transactable items. This allows customers to purchase both your product and value-added services through a single, unified channel—further increasing your Azure Consumption Commitment alignment and revenue potential. These offers are currently not discoverable via storefront search and must be shared via direct link with customers. Transactable services are supported in select markets and must follow specific publishing guidelines.

Learn more about selling transactable professional services.

4.Tools to help publish your marketplace offer

Microsoft provides a rich set of tools and resources to help ISVs confidently publish, manage, and grow their offers in the marketplace. These assets can streamline your journey and maximize your impact.

Joining as a partner to create and publish your marketplace offer

To publish and manage your marketplace apps, sign up for the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program and set up your Partner Center account. Partner Center is where you configure offers, manage referrals and claim incentives. The best way for software companies to sign up is to join ISV Success, which offers over $126K USD in benefits, including Microsoft products, Azure cloud credits, and technical consultations. See the benefits. You can also enroll as a partner through Partner Center without joining ISV Success.

 Once your account is set up, assign roles to your team for tasks like publishing, marketing, and managing referrals. This helps streamline the marketplace process.  Learn about marketplace-specific roles needed to publish and manage apps, payout and tax settings, and access marketplace insights

 

Step-by-step guidance through App Advisor
App Advisor provides curated step-by-step guidance—through replicating your app, publishing it to marketplace, and growing your sales—helping you make informed decisions at every stage.

 

Reference code on transactable webhooks

For SaaS publishers, implementing transactable webhooks is essential for provisioning, metering, and managing customer subscriptions. Microsoft offers reference implementations like the SaaS Accelerator, which simplifies webhook integration and accelerates time to market. The Mastering the Marketplace GitHub repo also provides hands-on code samples and walkthroughs to help you build production-ready integrations. You can review Mastering the SaaS Accelerator – Mastering the Marketplace.

 

Marketplace documentation and offer creation guides

Microsoft maintains detailed documentation to guide you through the publishing process ensuring your offer is compliant, discoverable and optimized.

• The marketplace documentation hub organizes all the marketplace documentation for app publishers.


• The Publishing Guide by Offer Type provides technical and business requirements for each offer type (SaaS, VM, Container, etc.).


• The marketplace offer listings best practices helps you craft compelling branding and go-to-market strategies.

 

Engaging with Microsoft to go-to-market 

Microsoft offers multiple programs, incentives, and offerings to help you amplify your reach, earn by selling through marketplace, and differentiate in marketplace:

• Marketplace Rewards unlock benefits like listing optimization, up to $400K USD in Azure cloud credits, go-to-market support, and co-sell readiness.


• Transact & Grow financial incentive can pay you up to $20K USD to sell through marketplace.


• Solutions Partner with certified software designations help you stand out in the marketplace, differentiate with Microsoft sellers, and grants you marketing and sales benefits.
  
  

Accelerating visibility, credibility, and access

Publishing through the Azure gives you access to Microsoft’s extensive sales ecosystem, including:

• Tip: Enable a free trial period for your paid marketplace plans to get the most customer engagement in marketplace.


• Microsoft field sellers: who can co-sell your solution to their accounts.


• Partner Center insights: that help you track performance and optimize your listing.


• Marketplace rewards tiers: that unlock additional benefits as your offer gains traction.

Visit this link to learn more about additional benefits: Transacting on the marketplace – Marketplace publisher | Microsoft Learn

5. Qualifying for Azure IP Co-sell to incentivize Microsoft sellers and help customers with commitments

Software companies can leverage Azure IP Co-sell (AZIPCS) to enhance enterprise reach, seller engagement, and deal velocity via the marketplace. Offers that achieve Azure IP co-sell eligibility gain these marketplace benefits:

• Marked as Azure benefit eligible for eligible customers in the marketplace and Azure Portal.


• Sales of your offer through the marketplace contribute toward customers’ pre-committed cloud budget otherwise known as Azure consumption commitment (MACC). This helps software companies align with enterprise procurement strategies and unlock larger opportunities.

Microsoft sellers are highly interested in marketplace offers that can help customers meet their Azure consumption commitment.

 

Requirements for Azure IP co-sell eligible offers 

To qualify:

• Your marketplace offer must be configured to transact through the marketplace and have at least one non-$0 pricing plan.


• You need to create a co-sell solution for your offer


• You must reach a company-level revenue threshold over the trailing twelve-month (TTM) period of either $100K USD of marketplace billed sales (MBS) OR Azure Consumed Revenue (ACR).

Learn how to make the most of co-sell.

Key resources:

• Microsoft Azure Migration Hub | Microsoft Learn


• Publishing to commercial marketplace documentation


• Get over $126K USD in benefits and technical consultations to help you replicate and publish your app with ISV Success 


• Maximize your momentum with step-by-step guidance to publish and grow your app with App Advisor


• Accelerate your development with cloud ready deployable code through the Quick-start Development Toolkit


• Earn exclusive benefits for your software company business with Marketplace Rewards.

• Private offers overview – Marketplace customer documentation | Microsoft Learn


• Marketplace FAQs – Microsoft Tech Community