Overview of the Microsoft commercial marketplace

The Microsoft commercial marketplace is a catalog of solutions from our independent software vendor (ISV) partners. As an ISV member of the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, you can create, publish, and manage your commercial marketplace offers in Partner Center. Your solutions are listed together with our Microsoft solutions, connecting you to businesses, organizations, and government agencies around the world.

The commercial marketplace is available in more than 100 countries and regions, and we manage tax payment in many of them. If you sell to established Microsoft customers, they have the added benefit of including commercial marketplace purchases in their existing Microsoft purchase agreements to receive a consolidated invoice from Microsoft.

The following video provides more information about transacting in the commercial marketplace.

Why sell with Microsoft?

Our goal is to help you accelerate your business in partnership with Microsoft, and to connect Microsoft customers with the best solutions that our partner ecosystem offers. To do that, we support you throughout your journey, from onboarding to publishing and growth. Take advantage of the capabilities in the commercial marketplace to grow your business.

• Expand your solution portfolio to new markets and segments.
• Generate new marketing leads and sales opportunities.
• Upsell and cross-sell your solutions as your customers move their workloads to the cloud.
• Market your solutions for specific workloads and industry scenarios to reduce sales cycles, accelerate projects, and increase deal profitability.
• Get actionable insights on your listing performance and orders to learn how to maximize campaign activities for your solution.

Partners who list with the commercial marketplace are eligible for a diverse set of free technical, marketing, and sales benefits to help grow your business:

• Get the technical resources you need to get your application ready for launch, from technical support, application design, and architecture design, to Azure credits for development and testing.
• Access free Microsoft Go-To-Market Launch Fundamentals to help you launch and promote your solution. You might also be eligible for Microsoft marketing campaigns and opportunities to be featured in the commercial marketplace.
• Reach more customers and expand your sales opportunities with the Cloud Solution Provider (CSP) program, the co-sell program, and Microsoft Sales teams.

To learn about these benefits in more detail, see Your commercial marketplace benefits.

Commercial marketplace online stores

The Microsoft commercial marketplace as discussed in this article has two main online stores:

• Microsoft AppSource for business solutions
• Azure Marketplace for IT solutions

Note

Other commercial marketplace software and services can also be found in Microsoft products such as Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, Microsoft Power Platform, and Azure. Our online stores and in-product experiences draw millions of potential customers each month. Each online store offers different scenarios to make sure your solution or service is available to the right customers.

Microsoft AppSource

Microsoft AppSource is for business solutions, such as software as a service (SaaS) applications, and also apps that extend directly into Dynamics 365, Microsoft 365, and Microsoft Power Platform. AppSource consulting services are professional services offerings that help customers get started with or accelerate usage of Dynamics 365 and Power BI.

Here's an example of an offer listing page in AppSource:

AppSource in-product experience

Customers can also access your AppSource offers through Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, the Power Platform, and Azure. The following example shows how to access AppSource add-ins from the Power BI File menu.

This option opens a window where the customer can search for Power BI add-ins by name or category.

Azure Marketplace

Azure Marketplace is for solutions that are built on or built for Azure and intended for IT professionals and developers. This store includes listings for consulting and managed services. Azure Marketplace consulting services are professional service offerings that help customers get started with or accelerate the use of Azure.

Here's an example of an offer listing page in Azure Marketplace:

Azure Marketplace in the Azure portal

Azure customers can discover and deploy Azure Marketplace solutions through the Create a resource option in the Azure portal.

This option opens Azure Marketplace within the Azure portal, where they can search for solutions by name or by category.

Which store should I choose?

When you create a commercial marketplace offer in Partner Center, it might be listed on either store based on the offer type, categories, and other options you select. In the rare case that the offer is relevant to the users of both online stores, it can appear in both. To learn more, see Listing and pricing options by online store.

Related content

• Get an Introduction to the Microsoft commercial marketplace.
• Find videos and hands-on labs at Mastering the marketplace
• For new Microsoft partners who are interested in publishing to the commercial marketplace, see Create a commercial marketplace account in Partner Center.
• To learn more about recent and future releases, join the conversation in the Microsoft Partner Community.