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Publish SharePoint Add-ins

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Important

The SharePoint Add-In model in SharePoint Online has been deprecated as of November 27th 2023, checkout the full retirement announcement to learn more.

Deprecation means that the feature will not get any new investments, but it's still supported. SharePoint add-in model is retired fully on April 2nd, 2026 and is no longer available after that time. Primary replacement technology for the SharePoint add-in model is SharePoint Framework (SPFx) which continues to be supported also in future.

You've finished developing your SharePoint Add-in—the final step is to make it available to your users. You can do this by publishing the add-in to one of the following:

  • AppSource - Publish your add-in to AppSource to make it publically available, so that it can be acquired by users of any SharePoint deployment.
  • An internal organization add-in catalog - Publish your add-in to an internal organization add-in catalog, hosted on your SharePoint deployment, to make it available to users who access that SharePoint deployment.

For information about how to package your add-in for publication by using Visual Studio 2012, see Publish SharePoint Add-ins by using Visual Studio.

Publishing to AppSource

Important

As of March 1, 2024 net new Add-Ins are not accepted anymore for submission to AppSource. Check out the full SharePoint Add-In retirement to learn more.

To publish an add-in to AppSource, you must first open a developer account.

When you upload an add-in to AppSource for publication, Microsoft performs a validation check. For example, it checks that the add-in is free of viruses and that the add-in manifest markup is valid and complete, and verifies that any SharePoint solution packages (.wsp files) that you included in the add-in do not contain elements that aren't allowed, or SharePoint features with a scope that is broader than web. The package is also inspected for objectionable content. If the add-in package passes validation, it's wrapped into a file and signed by Microsoft.

Important

Add-ins are registered in Partner Center and from there published to AppSource. As part of the Partner Center registration there's also an option to setup a client id and secret for your add-ins. The use of this client id and secret is only supported when the add-in is also published. Leaving add-ins as unpublished in partner center, but relying on the created client id is an unsupported scenario.

Note

Pricing model management is not supported for Office marketplace products. Existing paid products that migrated from Seller Dashboard will need to move to a SaaS model or be made free by July 2020. For details, see Moving from paid to free add-ins. You can monetize your add-in through the Microsoft Commercial Marketplace; for details, see Monetize your add-in.

Publishing to an add-in catalog

If you're creating SharePoint Add-ins for your own company's use or a specific corporate client, instead of the general public, you'll likely want to publish your add-in to an internal add-in catalog hosted on SharePoint. A private add-in catalog is a dedicated site collection in a SharePoint web application (or a SharePoint Online tenancy) that hosts document libraries for SharePoint Add-ins and Office Add-ins. Putting the catalog into its own site collection makes it easier for the web application administrator or tenant administrator to limit permissions to the catalog.

Uploading a SharePoint Add-in to a corporate add-in catalog is as easy as uploading any file to a SharePoint document library. You fill out a pop-up form in which you supply the local URL of the add-in package and other information, such as the name of the add-in. When you upload the add-in to an add-in catalog, there are similar checks, and add-ins that do not pass are marked as invalid or disabled in the catalog.

Deciding where to publish your SharePoint Add-in

The following table offers a comparison of publishing to AppSource or to an add-in catalog, and lists issues to consider when deciding where to publish your add-in. We recommend you decide where you plan to publish your add-in before you design and develop it; in some cases, such as licensing, where you publish your add-in will affect the design and development of your add-in.

Table 1. Considerations for where to publish your add-in

AppSource Add-in Catalog
Add-in is publicly available. Add-in is available to users with access to this SharePoint deployment.
Licensing framework is available. Licensing framework is not available for use.
Add-in package is verified by Microsoft for technical and content adherence to policies. Add-in package verification is performed by SharePoint when add-in is uploaded.
You must be signed up with Partner Center to upload add-ins. No registration with Microsoft is required.

See also