Any good experience selling an API via AWS Marketplace
Does anyone have positive or negative experience with the AWS marketplace. I am building an API and was thinking of using their API gateway anyways so then billing intigration would also be super easy. But I found it surprising that non of my compeditors are selling their API's over AWS.
Hi Ruben. I'm selling my API service (www.openuv.io) directly to customers without any proxy marketplace. For billing I'm tracking requests on a backend and have integration with Stripe. For me it was easy to implement that mechanism rather than share 30% of revenue. But it's good for API marketing if you will be listed in any of the API related directories like:
https://www.programmableweb.com/
https://market.mashape.com
https://github.com/toddmotto/public-apis
http://apis.io/apis/add
https://apis.guru/add-api/
https://apiharmony-open.mybluemix.net/public/welcome/contribute
https://algorithmia.com
http://www.apiforthat.com/
https://sdks.io/SDK/New
You could also check my short article where you could market your API for free: https://medium.com/@alex_ershov/places-to-promote-your-api-for-free-495b5c86bda5.
Hope it'll help.
Same thing happened to me. I use some of the marketplaces and directories listed by Alex as a way to promote the API of my side project Apility (https://apility.io), but I decided not to use the billing and account services because I did not see a significant value giving them such a percentage of the revenue.
My question to both you & @aershov is why not test it out? It doesn't matter if someone is taking a 30% cut if they 5x your revenue, right? The idea behind a marketplace is to give you access and visibility to a much larger customer base who, in the AWS case, is filled with high-quality, low-friction leads (customer is already paying for related services, doesn't need to pull out their CC, etc.). Also, you're accessing a lot of customers that have "free money" to spend - AWS credits.
I'm not saying that you guys are wrong, perhaps the 30% is not worth it, but what's the harm in testing that hypothesis?
I have not tested AWS Marketplace yet, but I have tested Mashape and I had to develop a custom integration to get all the advantages of its model. So I started offering the free version of my API without any billing or accounting integration. I thought that maybe if a user wanted to pay for the full API features or more hits per day they would opt-in for the payment plans directly in our site. Wrong. That didn't happen.
At the beginning, I thought it was because nobody cared about my service, no matter if it was through a marketplace or landing on my site. But more and more users started using the service and paying for it. But there wasn't any kind of 'upselling' or even referral from Mashape.
So the question is: was Apility.io or Mashape fault? I mean, maybe the problem was the marketplace and not me. That's why I think I have to give a second chance to other marketplaces. I think AWS Marketplace is lighter than Mashape in terms of requirements of integration. So probably I will check how AWS SaaS marketplace works this August!
Just to be clear: So you put an api for free on Mashape hoping to get referrals but in the end you did all your sales through your landing page leads directly
Correct.
Haha maybe you can just give the user a 15% discount to buy right from your landing page. I actually was just thinking that going with AWS would reduce my time to market.
Do you have some evidence/anecdotes indicating that selling on AWS Marketplace increases sales?
My main surprise was that non of my competitors are selling on there. If its a good place to get sales why woudln't every one go
No, I don't. That's why I'm recommending testing it out. I'm not advocating for or against AWS Marketplace - I have no experience with selling on it. I'm saying that it'd be smarter to test it out and make the decision based on real data rather than trying to figure out whether it's worth it or not just based on a guess.
I agree with @zk here. The pros outweigh the cons when deciding whether or not to try selling on the AWS (or GCP, Azure) marketplace. It's worth becoming an accredited seller for the exposure, customer capture, and allowing your customers to test and use your product with minimal hassle. Also, I bet you can acquire customers through that channel and then sell to them directly once you've built some trust. If you don't see an increase in sales after X number of months you can always stop.
You bring up some good points here @BibHack. My experience suggests that these cloud marketplaces are still emerging. I'm shocked by the number of companies and makers that aren't aware of these sales channels. Those that are aware aren't always in a position to expend the resources necessary to apply and manage that channel. There are business logistics and compliance mechanisms you must have in place to become an accredited seller. Those two pieces, awareness and available resources, may explain why your competitors aren't selling there currently.
I don't have sales increase numbers for you but take a look at Splunk. They generated 1.27 billion dollars in revenue last year and they use the AWS marketplace so their customers can easily utilize the core product.
I have the same question. We are considering using AWS marketplace after our GA launch. I did some basic research online and was unable to find answers from smaller software companies. Let me know if you find anything out!
@BibHack and @CoTT this is such a timely question! Do you mind if I reach out to you both to chat and ask some questions? I'm working on a project to make these marketplaces more accessible for software creators. Check out the landing page for more info. Your software doesn't have to be open-source it's just how the idea originated.
Victor, please feel free to reach out to me anytime. My email is ben@cott.io Thanks!
This comment was deleted a month ago.
The OP isn't talking about the decision to host their API/service on AWS cloud infrastructure, but specifically selling that API/service on the AWS MarketPlace, which they linked.