Inspire 2021: Microsoft reduces its marketplace fees and will bring paid apps within Teams this summer

Laurent Giret

Microsoft announced some big changes this morning for partners selling apps in the Microsoft commercial marketplace, which includes Microsoft AppSource and the Azure Marketplace. Starting on July 1, the company reduced its fees for transactions from an industry-standard 20% to 3%, but the software giant made the change official today while kicking off its annual Inspire partner conference.

The company has other good news to share for independent software vendors (ISVs) using Microsoft’s commercial marketplace. “In Addition to the transaction fee reduction, we are expanding the payment instruments available in Microsoft App Source. This means customers have the flexibility to purchase using credit card or invoice, and ISVs can offer custom pricing using private plans,” explained Charlotte Yarkoni, Chief Operating Officer, Microsoft Cloud + AI.

Microsoft said today that it saw a 70% YoY increase in transact-able applications in its commercial marketplace, and the company expects this growth to continue. Starting this summer, the software giant will also let Microsoft Teams users purchase applications right within the app.

With over 145 million active users, ISVs will soon have a new opportunity to reach customers, with the ability to offer private pricing to customers to secure larger deals. Teams IT admins will also be able to purchase and install these apps directly from the Teams admin center on behalf of their organization.