Pricing for SaaS contracts - AWS Marketplace
SaaS contract upgradesAutomatic renewalsWhen a SaaS contract endsWhen a SaaS contract is canceled

Pricing for SaaS contracts

For software as a service (SaaS) contracts, the customer initiates a purchase of your software and enters into an agreement with you. Under the agreement, the customer is entitled to a specified quantity of use of your SaaS product. AWS Marketplace communicates these entitlements to your SaaS application. This is done through the AWS Marketplace Entitlement Service. When using the SaaS Contract pricing model, your application never sends metering records. Instead, it verifies entitlement by calling the AWS Marketplace Entitlement Service. You define the usage categories, dimensions, and the length of the contract.

AWS Marketplace bills your customers upfront or by the payment schedule that you define, based on the contract between you and your customer. After that point, they're entitled to use those resources. For additional usage above their contract, your software needs to report the usage and AWS Marketplace bills your customers based on the metering records received by us through the AWS Marketplace Metering Service.

Before you can publish a SaaS product with contract pricing, you must do the following:

  1. Create a new SaaS product in the AWS Marketplace Management Portal, and choose New SaaS Contract.

  2. Complete the fields in the General tab with the necessary information. Make a note of the product code.

  3. On the Pricing tab:

    1. For Set Pricing, choose the Contract Duration you want offer customers. You can enter different prices for each contract duration. You can select one or more of the following options: Monthly, 1 year, 2 Years, and 3 Years. If you are creating a private offer, you can choose a custom duration in months (up to 60 months).

    2. For Choose the contract type you want to offer, choose how you want customers to be able to purchase your product from the following options:

      • Buyer can choose one or more options offered – Customers can select a quantity for each pricing dimension you offer.

      • Buyer can choose one tier from multiple tiers offered – Customers choose a tier from options that include different sets of features, services, and usage amounts.

    3. Choose the usage unit category that describes your product’s pricing most accurately. The pricing category appears to customers on the AWS Marketplace website. You can choose from Bandwidth (GBps, MBps), Data (GB, MB, TB), Hosts (hours), Requests, or Users (hours). If none of the predefined categories fit your needs, you can choose the more generic Units category.

  4. After you choose a category, define your Pricing Dimensions. Each Pricing Dimension represents a feature or service that you can set a per unit price for. Examples of dimensions are users, hosts scanned, and GB of logs ingested. For each dimension you define, you add a name, a description, a price, and an API name. The name, price, and description are displayed to customers. You use the API name for tracking and reporting with AWS Marketplace as follows:

    For each pricing dimension in your contract, you can choose to let customers pay as they go for additional usage of that dimension above their contract. You can also add additional dimensions without contract prices that customers only consume by paying as they go.

    When using the wizard to create the contracts for your SaaS product, you must define the following fields for your pricing dimensions:

    • Dimension API Name – The name used when calling the Entitlements API. This name is visible in billing reports and reports that aren't external-facing. The maximum length for the API name is 15 characters. After you set the name, it can't be changed.

    • Dimension Display Name: – The customer-facing name of a dimension. This name should help the customer understand the dimension for the product. The name should be user-friendly, and its maximum length is 24 characters. This value can be changed.

    • Dimension Description: – The customer-facing description of a dimension that provides additional information about the dimension for the product. The maximum length for the description is 70 characters.

    • Dimension - Monthly Price – The software charge per unit for the 1-month option for this dimension. This field supports three decimal places.

    • Dimension - 1 Year Price – The software charge per unit for the 12-month option for this dimension. This field supports three decimal places. It's not a monthly charge. The price must reflect the 12-month one-time charge price.

    • Dimension - 2 Years Price – The software charge per unit for the 24-month option for this dimension. This field supports three decimal places.

    • Dimension - 3 Years Price – The software charge per unit for the 36-month option for this dimension. This field supports three decimal places.

Example: Data storage application
Monthly price 12-month price 24-month price Pay-as-you-go price for additional usage
Unencrypted data (GB) $1.50/GB $16.00/GB $30.00/GB $0.1/GB per hour
Encrypted data (GB) $1.55/GB $16.60/GB $31.20/GB $0.11/GB per hour
Example: Log monitoring product
Monthly price 12-month price Pay-as-you-go price for additional usage
Basic (10 hosts monitored, 5 containers monitored) $100 $1000
Standard (20 hosts monitored, 10 containers monitored) $200 $2000
Pro (40 hosts monitored, 20 containers monitored) $400 $4000
Additional hosts monitored per hour $0.1
Additional containers monitored per hour $0.2
Note

The prices can be for the following durations: 1 month, 12 months, 24 months, or 36 months. You can choose to offer one or more of these options for your product. The durations must be the same across each dimension. For example, assume that you have ReadOnlyUsers and AdminUsers dimensions. If you offer a yearly price for ReadOnlyUsers, you must offer a yearly price for AdminUsers, too.

SaaS contract upgrades

Customers can upgrade a contract to one of a higher value except for longer durations. For example, they can upgrade to higher quantities or higher-value entitlements. Customers are given a prorated credit for their existing contract. Customers can't decrease the size of their existing contract. They can only decrease the size at renewal, or cancel their renewal.

Entitlements are verified by your SaaS product, which makes calls to the AWS Marketplace Entitlement Service.

Automatic renewals

When a customer purchases your product through AWS Marketplace using SaaS contracts, they can agree to automatic renewal of the contract terms. The customer continues to pay for the entitlements every month or for 1, 2, or 3 years. The customer always has the option to modify the renewal settings. They can cancel the renewal or renew the contract for different quantities and durations.

When a SaaS contract ends

A SaaS contract product has a contract expiry. When a contract ends, the following events occur:

  1. Your SaaS product receives an entitlement-updated notification indicating the buyer's entitlement has changed. The AWS Marketplace Entitlement Service returns an empty response.

  2. You have 1 hour to meter any remaining usage for the customer. After this time has elapsed, you can no longer send metering records for this customer.

When a SaaS contract is canceled

Key points of the SaaS contract cancellation process include the following:

  1. Customers can request a cancellation and refund for SaaS contract products though AWS Support.

    Customers must request refunds within 48 hours through AWS Support.

    The full or prorated refund is typically granted in 3–5 business days.

  2. Your SaaS product is sent notification through the Amazon SNS topic for that customer.

  3. You have one hour to send a final metering record for the customer for any additional usage charges.

  4. You notify the customer from your product that the cancellation is in progress. If a customer indicates that they want to cancel through your product, direct the customer to AWS Marketplace. To guarantee that there will be no future charges, customers should confirm the cancellation with AWS Marketplace.