Price changes to marketplace products
Independent software vendors (ISVs) selling their products via Azure Marketplace are allowed to update the plan (or SKUs) prices from time to time. The new price of the SKU can be higher or lower than the previous price. The price change is updated on a product/SKU/market level. So, there could be price updates that are relevant for some markets but not for all.
In certain cases, the price change can affect products that were purchased in the past, and the customer will see a price change on their monthly invoice. Azure Marketplace notifies the customers using these products at least 90 days before new price taking effect.
Which offer types can be affected from price change?
All transactable products sold via Azure Marketplace and AppSource, for example products that have one or more plans.
Can a free SKU turn one day into a paid one?
No. The ISV can't turn a free SKU into a paid SKU. An ISV who wants to make a product billable needs to publish a new paid SKU.
Price increase awareness in the marketplace product pages
As mentioned, ISVs who want to publish a price increase must give at least 90 days warning before the new price takes effect. This warning gives notice to customers planning to purchase a product. Marketplace product pages are updated at least 90 days in advance on the coming change. The pages are updated with a message detailing the upcoming date of the price change and the new rate.
Note
The pricing in the previous image is for example purposes only. Actual prices can vary.
Such notification shows only if the price goes up, and not if the price goes down.
When is the new price taking effect?
The new price effective date is always on the beginning of a calendar month. With the 90 days notice period a typical price update timeline looks like this:
Jan-15 - ISV update a future price update to a SKU in the catalog.
Jan-16-18 - product page is updated with a warning message on upcoming price increase that takes effect on May 1 (End of January + 90 days).
May-1st - new price takes effect.
Customers affected from a price change (post purchase)
Purchasing a product before the price increase effective date doesn't guarantee the purchase price for the lifetime of the product deployment. Different offer types that are affected are:
- Consumption based products (for example, VMs) that are billed by the hour or price of metered usage of SaaS or managed app offer. Once the new price is effective, their consumption unit cost increases. In cases of customers who are billed in the middle of the month, there are two lines on the monthly usage report: one for consumption until the new price effective date (in the previous example: May 1) and one for consumption post effective date
- Consumption based products with monthly fee (such as SaaS with custom meters), consumption units price will be affected as the new price take effect in the marketplace. The monthly fee is kept unchanged until the end of entitlement period.
- Seat based products (such as license-based SaaS services), if the price change effective date occurs post-purchase, then the purchase price is guaranteed until the next renewal date, be it monthly renewal or annual renewal date.
- Adding or removing seats after the price change effective date but before the renewal date of the contract is kept at the original purchase price. Upon renewal, the new price takes effect.
- Changing SKU, changing SKU after the price change effective date is considered as new purchase and is subject to the new price. This change also applies to scenarios in which changing the number of seats requires changing the SKU of the customer. For example, moving from 400 seats to 500 seats, which can require the customer to purchase a new tier/SKU of the product.
Customer notifications
Customers who are already using the product/SKU in a market that is affected by the upcoming price increase are notified by email about the coming change. This is so they can take actions about it if they choose to do so. The email notification is sent 90 days before the new price taking effect and a second message is sent 30 days before the price change effective date. The message is sent to the invoice section (project) owner, billing group owners and billing account owners of the subscription.