AppExchange is a Salesforce marketplace where vendors can publish their custom solutions. We decided to build a native stripe integration called Lite Pae an ISV app and publish it on Appexchange. There is an entire process that you need to follow to be officially listed on Appexchange. And here's a quick summary of that process. If you need any more details feel free to reach out to us.
Applications listed on Appexchange provides lot of benefits. First and foremost is, it builds customer's trust in your solution as it goes through rigorous security review process. Appexchnage is also a great way to get leads. On technical and business side, it comes with few additional features:
Now let's talk about what the process looks like to list your app on Appexchange.
This is the first step towards becoming an ISV Partner. You would go to Salesforce partner site and sign up. After successful sign up, you should have a PBO org with 12 month trial which will be converted to production org with 2 free Sales cloud licenses after listing process is completed. From here, you can go ahead and start developing your solution using all the tools/features PBO org provide. Although you can start developing your solution in a developer edition org before this step but eventually you would need a PBO org. In our case we started with developer org but then there was no way to move our namespace from that org to this new PBO org so we ended up creating new namespace. Meanwhile, connect with Salesforce Partner Manager which can help you with any questions you might have about the whole process.
Build your MVP solution and submit for security review. Keep in mind, Salesforce requires at least 75% test coverage for your application. And, documentation around your application architecture. Partner Security Portal hosts Source Code Scanner (Checkmarx) to identify any vulnerabilities in your solution, so make sure to run it and get report which is required for submission. Depending on the arcthitecture, you may also need to submit additional reports. If you have any questions about the prcoess you can always reach out to Salesforce security review team by booking office hours from same Partner Security Portal.
It starts with a questionnaire about your business and app. It was 8-9 page document wizard with lot of questions about your business entity, your purpose to build the app etc. Salesforce also had legal department review it and they may also ask further questions if needed. Part of this process also include pricing which has different options like if it is paid,free,freemium, paid add-on required. And on top of that if it is one time, per org or per user. So do your research about pricing.
This is where you add information which will be available to public on your listing. Like listing name, tagline, description, Screenshots of your solution, Videos etc. This is the first impression of your application, so worth spending time on it. You can also add additional links to your resource guides, documentation etc. Listing will also provide way to capture Leads who expressed interest, which is the key feature. To activate this feature connect your business org under Organization tab.
Besides business plan, you will need to provide some more information about yourself and your business and prepare some documents as well:
The whole process could take 6-8 weeks, depending on complexity of your solution, once you provided all the documents and started the security review. Hope it is helpful.