Price changes to marketplace products
Independent software vendors (ISVs) selling their products via Azure Marketplace are allowed to update the plan or stock keeping units (SKUs) prices from time to time. The new price of a product can be higher or lower than the previous price. The price change is updated on a product, SKU, and market level. So, there could be price updates that are relevant for some markets but not for all.
In certain cases, the price change affects products that were purchased in the past. The customer then sees a price change on their monthly invoice. Azure Marketplace notifies the customers using these types of products at least 90 days before the new pricing taking effect.
Price changes affect which offer types?
Price changes affect all transactable products sold in Azure Marketplace and AppSource, for example, products that have one or more plans.
Can a free SKU ever turn into a paid one?
No. The ISV can't turn a free SKU into a paid SKU. An ISV who wants to make a product billable must publish a new paid SKU.
Price increase communications in the product pages
As mentioned, ISVs who want to publish a price increase must give at least 90 days warning before the new price takes effect. This warning gives notice to customers planning to purchase a product. Marketplace product pages are updated at least 90 days in advance on the coming change. The pages are updated with a message detailing the upcoming date of the price change and the new rate.
Note
The pricing in the previous image is an example only. Actual prices can vary.
Notification shows only if the price goes up, and not if the price goes down.
Date a new price takes effect
The new price effective date is always on the beginning of a calendar month. With the 90 days notice period, a typical price update timeline looks like this:
Jan-15 - The ISV decides on a future price update to a SKU in the catalog.
Jan-16-18 - The product page is updated with a warning message on an upcoming price increase that takes effect on May 1 (End of January plus 90 days).
May-1st - The new price takes effect.
Customers affected from a price change after purchase
Purchasing a product before the price increase effective date doesn't guarantee the purchase price for the lifetime of the product deployment. The different offer types that are affected:
- Consumption-based products (for example, VMs) billed by the hour or price of metered usage of SaaS or managed app offer. After the new price is effective, their consumption unit cost increases. In cases of customers who are billed in the middle of the month, there are two lines on the monthly usage report: one for consumption until the new price effective date (in the previous example: May 1) and one for consumption post effective date.
- Consumption-based products with a monthly fee (such as SaaS with custom meters), consumption units price are affected as the new price takes effect in the marketplace. The monthly fee is kept unchanged until the end of entitlement period.
- License-based products (such as license-based SaaS services), if the price change effective date occurs post-purchase, the purchase price is guaranteed until the next renewal date, be it a monthly renewal or annual renewal date.
- Adding or removing licenses after the price change effective date but before the renewal date of the contract is kept at the original purchase price. Upon renewal, the new price takes effect.
- Changing a SKU after the price change effective date is considered as a new purchase and is subject to the new price. This change also applies to scenarios in which changing the number of licenses requires changing the SKU of the customer. For example, moving from 400 licenses to 500, which can require the customer to purchase a new tier/SKU of the product.
Customer notifications
We notify customers by email who are already using the product/SKU in a market affected by an upcoming price increase. Notification gives the customer a chance to take actions about the price change if they choose to. We send the email notification 90 days before the new price takes effect. We send a second message 30 days before the price change effective date. We send the message to the invoice section (project) owner, billing group owners, and billing account owners of the subscription.