What Is a Cloud Marketplace?

Reach more customers, simplify sales, and drive growth with a marketplace for software

A cloud marketplace makes it easier to buy, sell, and manage cloud software. These cloud app marketplaces connect trusted partners and customers in a single destination, helping expand their reach, streamline sales, and grow faster.

Cloud marketplaces streamline how organizations buy, sell, and deploy software and cloud solutions.
Software development companies () gain faster access to enterprise buyers through trusted, ready-to-use channels.
Buyers benefit from curated, secure platforms that build confidence and improve efficiency.
Marketplaces simplify billing and procurement by consolidating purchases within existing cloud agreements.
Microsoft Marketplace delivers global scale, connecting partners and customers across more than 140 countries.

Cloud marketplace defined

A cloud marketplace is a digital catalog where organizations can find, buy, and deploy cloud solutions and applications. It serves as a single destination for businesses to shop for solutions that run on or integrate with cloud platforms.

Unlike traditional distribution models that depend on manual contracts or physical delivery, cloud marketplaces simplify every step—from discovery and trial to procurement and billing. Transactions take place within a secure, digital environment, so customers can deploy software directly into their existing cloud environments.

Why they’re on the rise
Cloud marketplaces are growing in popularity because they accelerate go-to-market efforts by connecting software providers with a ready audience of enterprise buyers. They help shorten sales cycles, reduce procurement complexity, and connect software companies to customers who already use trusted cloud services.

For software development companies and technology partners, this means:

Faster onboarding and distribution.
Access to new customer segments.
Streamlined billing and compliance processes.
Greater visibility within a larger partner ecosystem.

A hub for modern cloud solutions
Most cloud marketplaces support multiple solution types, including:

Software as a Service (SaaS), which are subscription-based applications hosted in the cloud.
Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS), which are cloud-based compute, storage, and networking solutions.
Platform as a Service (PaaS), which are developer platforms for building and integrating applications.

PaaS, IaaS, and Saas marketplaces give software companies access to a global ecosystem of parters, sellers, and committed cloud buyers, enabling them to expand their reach, go to market faster, and make bigger deals—all through one platform.

Real-world examples of cloud marketplaces
There are numerous cloud marketplaces where organizations can procure solutions and applications. A few of the most well-known marketplaces include Microsoft Marketplace, AWS Marketplace, Google Cloud Marketplace, and Oracle Cloud Marketplace.

Five advantages of buying from a cloud marketplace

An increasing number of organizations are shopping for solutions in cloud marketplaces. That’s because these platforms make it easier than ever to discover and adopt technology.

A cloud marketplace for software can help your business streamline procurement, strengthen governance, and give you access to solutions that align with your existing cloud strategy.

Here are a few more benefits of shopping in cloud app marketplaces:

1. Centralized and secure procurement
Instead of managing multiple vendor relationships, you can purchase through a single, verified source. For example, every listing in Microsoft Marketplace meets strict security and compliance standards—so procurement teams can buy with confidence, knowing the solutions are validated and continuously monitored.

2. Simplified billing and management
Cloud marketplaces make it easier to track and manage costs. Your purchases can be consolidated into one invoice that aligns with existing cloud billing, reducing administrative work and improving visibility across your departments and projects.

3. Faster time to value
When you purchase pre-integrated solutions, this leads to less setup and rapid results. Whether it’s a SaaS application or an infrastructure add-on, your organization can quickly deploy the solution within your cloud environment. This leads to faster adoption and greater value for your business.

4. Alignment with cloud commitments
Marketplace purchases often count toward your company’s existing cloud spending commitments or credits. This helps you make the most of your cloud investment while expanding your solution portfolio.

5. Trusted partner validation
Most cloud marketplaces offer trusted, verified solutions. For instance, every solution in Microsoft Marketplace is reviewed and published by verified partners. This helps ensure reliability, performance, and long-term support—so you can adopt new tools with confidence.

Reap the benefits of selling through a cloud marketplace

A cloud marketplace creates new paths for software companies to reach customers and grow revenue. By joining a trusted ecosystem like Microsoft Marketplace, you’ll gain access to the tools, customers, and credibility you need to scale faster.

Here are the top five benefits of selling through a cloud marketplace:

1. Global reach
When you publish to a platform like Microsoft Marketplace, it connects you to a global network of customers and partners. Your offers can be discovered by organizations already using Microsoft products, supported by built-in marketing programs and sales channels that accelerate your exposure.

2. Access to enterprise-ready customers
Marketplace participation opens doors to enterprise buyers who prioritize security, compliance, and reliability. These customers often prefer pre-vetted solutions that integrate with their existing Microsoft environments, helping your company shorten sales cycles and build lasting relationships.

3. Marketplace incentives and co-sell opportunities
When you sell through a marketplace for software, you’ll often gain eligibility for programs and incentives that boost your visibility and revenue potential. Through co-sell opportunities, Microsoft sales teams work alongside partners to reach shared customers, providing direct support that helps you close deals faster and more efficiently.

4. Simplified procurement and contracting
Cloud marketplaces streamline how buyers purchase and deploy solutions, reducing the need for lengthy contract negotiations. This simplified process makes it easier for you to scale your sales operations and focus on innovation instead of administration.

5. Visibility alongside trusted vendors
When you list in a trusted marketplace, it places your solutions in a curated catalog alongside other industry leaders. This shared presence builds confidence with customers and strengthens your company’s brand reputation in a competitive market.

Delving into the different types of cloud marketplaces

Cloud marketplaces come in different forms, each designed to meet specific business and technology needs. While their structures vary, all aim to simplify how organizations buy, sell, and manage cloud-based solutions and AI apps and agents.

Public cloud marketplaces: These are large-scale, provider-operated platforms where businesses can discover and purchase software that runs on a specific cloud. Examples include Microsoft Marketplace, Amazon Web Services (AWS) Marketplace, and Google Cloud Marketplace. They offer thousands of solutions—from developer tools to enterprise applications—integrated directly with the provider’s infrastructure and billing system.

Vertical marketplaces: Some marketplaces focus on serving a specific industry or business function. These vertical platforms host solutions tailored for sectors like healthcare, finance, manufacturing, or retail. They help organizations find specialized applications that address regulatory requirements, security standards, or workflow needs unique to their field.

App marketplaces: App marketplaces support cloud-based software ecosystems, such as SaaS environments or productivity suites.

Hybrid and multi-cloud marketplaces: As many organizations operate across multiple clouds, hybrid marketplaces are emerging to connect solutions and billing systems across providers. They enable unified procurement, management, and governance, supporting flexible deployment strategies.

SaaS marketplaces: A growing number of organizations are looking for subscription-based applications hosted in the cloud, including productivity or CRM tools. These companies often turn to SaaS marketplaces, which help them find subscription software faster.

How Microsoft supports all marketplace models
Microsoft bridges these models, enabling partners and customers to engage across public, industry-specific, and multi-cloud environments within one connected ecosystem.

Explore cloud marketplace use cases for different types of businesses

Cloud marketplaces serve a wide range of organizations, from early-stage startups to global enterprises. These platforms make it easier for businesses of all types and sizes to reach customers, manage procurement, and accelerate innovation in the cloud.

Here are a few ways different businesses can tap into cloud marketplaces:

1. Software development companies—Expanding reach to enterprise buyers
For growth-oriented software development companies, a cloud marketplace offers a direct path to enterprise customers who already trust that marketplace brand. The software company’s offerings appear where loyal buyers search for secure, compliant, and ready-to-deploy solutions. This helps the company shorten their sales cycles and expand globally without building new distribution channels.

2. Startups—Scaling distribution more efficiently
Startups use cloud marketplaces to expand reach without the need for large sales teams or complex infrastructure. By publishing in a trusted cloud marketplace, they gain exposure to a global audience and access to marketing resources and incentive programs that support sustainable growth.

3. Enterprises—Consolidating software spend
Enterprises use marketplaces to simplify procurement and control costs. Many cloud marketplaces offer centralized purchasing, consistent billing, and governance tools. This helps procurement and finance teams track usage and optimize budgets while maintaining compliance with corporate policies.

4. Developers—Testing and deploying new solutions
Developers gain immediate access to pre-configured software, services, and APIs available through cloud marketplaces. This accelerates testing, integration, and deployment, enabling development teams to build and scale cloud solutions faster.

Microsoft partner success stories
Across industries, Microsoft partners use Microsoft Marketplace to expand globally, co-sell with Microsoft sales teams, and reach customers in more than 140 countries. This demonstrates how cloud marketplaces can help drive growth for every stage of business.

Overcoming cloud marketplace obstacles

While cloud marketplaces help simplify the process of selling and buying software, there are a few potential challenges to consider. If you want to get the most from your marketplace strategy, it’s important to plan for these possible hurdles.

Marketplace fees and revenue share
Most cloud marketplaces charge transaction fees or take a percentage of sales to support platform operations and partner services. You should account for these costs in pricing strategies and evaluate the potential return based on the marketplace’s reach, visibility, and support programs.

Competition within the catalog
With thousands of listings available in a marketplace, it’s essential to make sure your offering stands out. Competing alongside other sellers requires clear messaging, accurate categorization, and a well-optimized listing that highlights the solution’s business value and technical differentiation. By adding case studies, deployment guidance, or customer reviews, you can build trust and credibility with buyers exploring similar solutions. Additionally, listing your offering under a Certified Software designation can help you differentiate your solutions within the catalog.

Governance, compliance, and security
Operating in a marketplace also means meeting the platform’s standards for data protection, accessibility, and regulatory compliance. These checks ensure a consistent level of security and reliability across all listings, which is especially important for enterprise customers.

Responsible AI and secure innovation
In the era of AI, responsible and secure innovation is more important than ever. Microsoft is committed to responsible AI principles and robust security safeguards across Microsoft Marketplace. Every partner solution undergoes validation and monitoring to protect customer data and uphold the highest standards of privacy, transparency, and compliance.

Growth starts with Microsoft Marketplace

Microsoft Marketplace connects a global network of buyers, sellers, and partners in one trusted ecosystem. It brings together everything organizations need to sell, buy, and scale cloud-based solutions with confidence.

For software development companies, Microsoft Marketplace allows your business to reach more customers, simplify selling, and drive growth—all from a single destination.

Reach more customers
Microsoft Marketplace is one of the largest business-to-business cloud marketplaces in the world, serving customers across more than 140 countries. This allows you to put your cloud-based solutions in front of millions of customers, including 95% of the Fortune 500.

Accelerate sales with through the Microsoft ecosystem
Collaborate with Microsoft sellers and an ecosystem of more than 500,000 partners to expand your reach and tap into deal opportunities. Through co-sell opportunities, partners gain access to global sales teams and shared customer networks. For example, you can publish AI apps and agents that integrate directly into Microsoft 365 Copilot and Azure AI Foundry. This collaboration helps you expand reach, close deals faster, and align with Microsoft-led customer initiatives.

Secure, compliant, and enterprise-trusted platform
Microsoft Marketplace is built on the same secure, compliant cloud foundation that powers Microsoft Azure and Microsoft 365. Every solution listed undergoes verification for security, performance, and compliance, giving customers confidence that they’re choosing dependable software and services.

Partner incentives and marketing benefits
Gain access to marketing support, partner incentives, and promotional programs designed to increase visibility and accelerate growth. These benefits make it easier to attract the right customers and scale efficiently.

Scale across Microsoft’s go-to-market ecosystem
Participation in Marketplace extends beyond listing visibility—it’s an entry point into the broader Microsoft go-to-market ecosystem, which helps partners grow faster through shared resources, co-marketing, and ongoing support.

RESOURCES

Explore more Marketplace resources

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Curated resources

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Get resources to help you build, publish, and sell apps on Microsoft Marketplace.

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Marketplace Rewards

Grow faster and close more deals with Marketplace Rewards

Earn exclusive sales and marketing benefits based on your Microsoft Marketplace performance.

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Microsoft Marketplace

Expand your reach with Microsoft Marketplace

Reach more customers, simplify sales, and drive growth from a single destination.

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FAQ

A cloud marketplace is a digital catalog where businesses discover, purchase, and deploy cloud-based software, applications, and services. It differs from traditional distribution by streamlining procurement, licensing, and deployment directly through a provider’s platform with built-in security, compliance, and cloud integration.
Buyers gain centralized procurement with verified security and compliance, simplified billing, and faster time to value through pre-integrated solutions. They also get access to cloud apps and services aligned with existing cloud credits, and confidence that the marketplace partners and products meet trusted standards.
The advantages for independent software vendors (ISVs) in cloud marketplaces include faster time to market through existing cloud channels, exposure to enterprise-ready customers, incentives like co-sell programs, and simplified contracting and procurement. They also get to showcase products alongside trusted vendors, which boosts credibility.
There are public cloud marketplaces, vertical marketplaces focused on specific industries, SaaS or app-based marketplaces, and hybrid or multi-cloud marketplaces combining solutions from more than one provider.
Companies use cloud marketplaces as digital catalogs to discover, purchase, and deploy cloud-based software, applications, and services. These marketplaces help companies streamline procurement, licensing, and deployment directly through a provider’s platform, while offering built-in security, compliance, and cloud integration.
Microsoft Marketplace allows software development companies to reach more customers, simplify sales, and drive growth from a single destination. It offers one of the largest global B2B cloud ecosystems with 500,000+ partners and millions of customers, including 95% of the Fortune 500. Marketplace provides a secure, enterprise-trusted platform and incentives, including sales and marketing benefits.
AI apps and SaaS marketplaces are key components of cloud marketplaces. They offer subscription-based software and intelligent solutions that can be discovered, purchased, and deployed directly through cloud platforms. This helps companies streamline procurement, accelerate innovation, and access advanced tools and services within a secure, unified ecosystem.