How to List Your SaaS on Microsoft Marketplace: A Step-by-Step Guide
To list a SaaS product on Microsoft Marketplace, you set up a Microsoft Marketplace account in Partner Center, choose how customers will buy (a lead form, a free trial, a free sign-up or a purchase billed by Microsoft), build a sign-in landing page for any option except a lead form, connect to Microsoft's billing if Microsoft sells it for you, and submit the offer for review. In our experience, a simple "Contact me" listing can go live fairly quickly. A listing that Microsoft bills for takes longer because of the engineering work and Microsoft's review.
Below is the path we walk early-stage SaaS companies through, in the order that saves the most rework.
Why list on Microsoft Marketplace at all?
Most founders hear "get on the marketplace" from an investor, a customer's procurement team or a Microsoft rep. The reasons behind that advice are practical:
Simpler buying. Customers can buy through Microsoft instead of setting you up as a new vendor.
Budget that's already committed. Some larger Azure customers have a Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC), a contract to spend a set amount with Microsoft over time. Purchases of eligible marketplace offers can count toward it, so buying you uses money they already plan to spend.
Access to Microsoft's sales teams. Offers that meet Microsoft's co-sell requirements can be put in front of customers by Microsoft's own sellers. Co-sell simply means Microsoft's sellers help you win deals.
The listing on its own doesn't produce pipeline. But almost every co-sell benefit starts with a listing that's set up the right way.
Step 1: Set up your Partner Center account
Everything happens in Partner Center, Microsoft's partner portal. You'll need:
A work account on your company's email domain. Personal Microsoft accounts aren't supported.
Your company's legal name, address and a primary contact.
Someone with authority to sign agreements for the company.
If you're new to Partner Center, you enroll in the Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program, accept its agreement, then accept the Microsoft Publisher Agreement. If you're already enrolled, an account Owner adds the Microsoft Marketplace program under Settings → Account settings → Identifiers → Publisher. Microsoft checks your company details during sign-up, so start early; it can take time if your records don't match. (Microsoft's account setup guide)
Step 2: Choose how customers will buy
This is the decision that matters most, because one choice can't be undone. Microsoft gives SaaS offers four options (Microsoft's SaaS planning guide):
Contact me: the customer fills out a lead form. No technical work. Best for getting visible fast and for complex enterprise sales.
Free trial: the customer starts a trial on your site. Needs a sign-in landing page. Best for product-led products.
Get it now (free): the customer signs up on your site. Needs a sign-in landing page. Best for freemium products.
Sell through Microsoft: the customer buys and is billed by Microsoft. Needs a landing page plus billing integration (Step 3). Best for MACC, co-sell and enterprise deals.
You can switch between the first three later. Once you publish a Sell through Microsoft offer, you can't change that choice. A Sell through Microsoft offer can still include a free trial of 1–180 days on each plan.
Only Sell through Microsoft offers are "transactable", meaning Microsoft handles the billing. That matters because free offers and bring-your-own-license offers (where the customer buys from you directly) can't count toward a customer's MACC or qualify for Microsoft's top co-sell tier. To count toward MACC, an offer must be transactable, meet Microsoft's IP co-sell requirements and run only in Azure; each offer qualifies on its own. (Microsoft on MACC eligibility)
Our usual advice: if enterprise buyers are your target, plan for a transactable offer from the start, even if you launch with "Contact me" while engineering catches up.
Step 3: Build the technical integration
Every option except Contact me needs a landing page that accepts sign-in with both personal Microsoft accounts and Microsoft Entra ID (Microsoft's work-account sign-in), with single sign-on for work users. A Sell through Microsoft offer also needs:
A landing page that runs 24/7. After a purchase, Microsoft sends the buyer here. Your app then uses Microsoft's SaaS Fulfillment APIs (the connection to Microsoft's billing) to confirm the purchase and start the subscription.
A webhook that runs 24/7. This is an address where Microsoft sends your app automatic updates, such as cancellations.
A Microsoft Entra app registration, whose IDs your app uses to call those APIs.
It's often a few weeks of work, depending on your app. Two ongoing duties to plan for: Microsoft can change the APIs, and you must support critical changes within 24 hours. And customers can cancel at any time, except multiyear subscriptions with payments still due.
In our experience, marketplace integration tools such as WeTransact, Clazar, Tackle and Suger can shorten this step by handling much of the integration for you.
Step 4: Set up plans and pricing
Each transactable offer needs at least one plan. The main choices:
Pricing model: flat rate (with optional usage-based charges on top) or per user. Every plan in an offer must use the same model, and it can't be changed after publishing.
Contract terms: from one month to five years, with upfront, monthly or annual billing depending on the term length.
Fees: Microsoft bills the customer, keeps a marketplace service fee and pays you the rest. In Microsoft's own example, the fee is 3%. Build it, and any Azure hosting costs, into your price.
Private plans and private offers: private plans show special pricing only to customers you pick. Private offers go further, with custom-negotiated terms for a specific deal.
Keep public pricing simple. Enterprise deals usually end up as private offers anyway.
Step 5: Write a listing that sells
The listing is a product page that Microsoft sellers and buyers will read. Treat it like one:
Lead with the business problem you solve, not your feature list.
Name the Microsoft products you work with, such as Microsoft 365, Teams, Dynamics 365 or Azure.
Add screenshots, a short demo video and at least one customer proof point.
Use the words your buyers actually search for in the summary and description.
Step 6: Test, certify and go live
When you select Publish, the offer goes through automated checks, then Microsoft's certification review of your listing and technical setup. If it fails, you get a report and can fix it and resubmit. Next you review a preview version that only the people you list can see, and only then select Go live. (Microsoft's publishing steps)
Two tips save a lot of pain:
Test the full purchase flow in a separate test offer that you never take live. Test purchases are real charges, so use small amounts.
Review and fix every validation warning before you select Go live. Unresolved warnings can fail certification and delay your launch.
What happens after you're listed?
Going live is the start. Customers rarely find you by browsing the marketplace. Pipeline comes from Microsoft sellers who know when to bring you in, and from your own team pointing enterprise buyers to the marketplace to use their MACC.
That means co-sell readiness, a short pitch Microsoft account teams can repeat, and a plan for which Microsoft sellers to approach first. We'll cover each of those in upcoming articles.
How we help
Technique Sales helps early-stage SaaS companies and ISVs (Microsoft now calls them Software Development Companies, or SDCs), usually 1–3 years in and recently funded, get listed on Microsoft and AWS Marketplace and turn that listing into co-sell pipeline. We choose the right listing type, coordinate the technical work and get you in front of the Microsoft sellers who cover your customers. We do the same on AWS Marketplace for SaaS companies selling on both clouds. See our Cloud Marketplace & Co-Sell service or read our answers to common questions.
Book a free 30-minute call to talk through where you are and a realistic path to your listing.
Sources checked October 2026: Microsoft Learn pages on account setup, planning a SaaS offer, publishing and MACC eligibility, linked above.
Comments