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Inconnu How to monetize and how much will AppExchange cost?
A colleague and I are designing an app for the App Exchange. The one fundamental question we have and for which we have not been able to find an answer is... how do we monetize, and how much do we have to pay Salesforce to join App Exchange?
We really have no idea of what it is going to cost us.
We would appreciate having a chance to learn from people who have monetized an app through the App Exchange.
Inconnu,
Two great questions. Have you joined the salesforce.com partner program? I would strongly recommend doing so as it will provide you with the answers to many of your questions as well as many other useful resources for building on our platform. To sign up, go to www.salesforce.com/partners and click on "Join Now".
Let me see if I can help answer your questions in the interim:
Cost to "join" the AppExchange:
From salesforce.com's perspective, this cost can be broken down into 2 components (1) cost of licensing Force.com and (2) cost of listing your app on the AppExchange.
(1) The cost of licensing Force.com varies based on the license you are using. Depending on your potential user base, as well as your product/feature set, different licenses may suit you better. Our platform editions range from Force.com Free Edition which costs you nothing and supports up to 100 users, to Force.com Unlimited Edition which costs $75/user/month. For a full overview of the editions and their costs, please consult our Full Edition Comparison Chart available at http://www.salesforce.com/assets/pdf/datasheets/DS_CustomCloud_EdCompare_2010-03-11.pdf
(2) The cost of listing your app on the AppExchange is based on annual security review fees. To ensure that your listed apps conform to salesforce.com's high standards for security, we must review your application annually prior to renewing your listing. The first time you list your application the security review fee is $5,000. Subsequent renewals of your listing cost $2,500/year.
How can you monetize on the AppExchange?
Another great question. Each partner app provides a different service and competes in a different space. Pricing is ultimately at your discretion but the typical pricing models our partners follow are either a $/user/month or ELA model. Take a look at http://sites.force.com/appexchange/home to see individual app listings and their pricing.
If you enroll in the salesforce.com partner program, one of the first conversations you will have with one of our reps will be going over your business model, and validating it against what we're seeing out in the field. You will also have access to many other go-to-market resources as pertains to the AppExchange.
Hope this helps!
Hello Indy Sen, thank you for the information. A page with information that is clear and straight to the point like this is needed for simple folks like me. I hope you won't mind my asking a few more questions.
I'm already a partner using the free edition. I haven't heard from anyone at Salesforce -- is it because I haven't committed any code yet? If not, what triggers this contact?
The free edition is obviously intended to attract new developers to build a prototype. But with the limits of 100 users, 10 tables (objects) and 1GB of data, it'll be necessary to move to the Enterprise Edition quickly if the application is successful.
= Is it permitted to monetize an application ("charge for it") built with the free edition?
= Is it possible to monetize an application without joining the AppExchange?
If we can monetize our application as early as possible, it will help us pay for entering the AppExchange and the annual renewal fee.
If the Enterprise Edition developers pays$50/user/month, am I right to assume that developers pass this cost onto the user (say, by charging $60/user/month, which would be a net profit of $10/user/month).
Finally, what is the dataspace limit for the Enterprise Edition? (Free Edition, 1GB.)
If you want to develop a Force.com app and sell it, you will want to use Developer Edition (free). Neither Free Edition nor Enterprise Edition is to be used if you are developing a custom application to sell to others. Developer Edition allows you to create Managed Packages which is the core Force.com vehicle for distributing applications.
Some helpful links:
1. All Application Distribution materials are listed here: http://wiki.developerforce.com/index.php/App_Distribution
2. Partner Environments available to our partners through the partner portal (www.salsforce.com/partnerportal): http://wiki.developerforce.com/index.php/Partner_Development_&_Test_Environments
Yes, you can sell your Force.com application if you are an OEM partner without listing on the Appexchange. As Indy suggested, please sign up at www.salesforce.com/partners to discuss this opportunity with a salesforce.com representative.
Lastly, data storage is calculated off the number of licenses purchased in that org. More information can be found here: https://na3.salesforce.com/help/doc/user_ed.jsp?section=help&loc=help&target=admin_monitorresources.htm%23d33428e189
Let me know if you have more questions.
See https://partners.salesforce.com/s/education/Security_Review
Could this be the difference between 'plugin' Apps and ISV Apps?