Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently announced significant revisions to its AWS Marketplace policies, set to take effect on May 1, 2025. 

Under these changes, AWS Marketplace will now list all SaaS products, regardless of where they’re hosted (on AWS, another cloud, or on-premises). 

However, only Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) products hosted entirely on AWS will qualify toward a customer’s AWS spend commitments. This means that if any portion of a vendor’s SaaS offering runs outside of AWS, customers can no longer count that spending toward fulfilling their contractual commitments to AWS.

Below is a brief discussion of the current policy, what’s changing, and what customers and vendors should do to prepare.

Image source: AWS

What’s Changing in the AWS Marketplace

Here’s a quick look at how the AWS Marketplace policy has evolved and why the upcoming May 2025 shift matters.

Before 2022: 50% of a customer’s AWS Marketplace spend could apply toward an AWS contractual spend commitment, even if the Marketplace product was not fully hosted on AWS. 

2022 – May 2025: AWS began allowing 100% of an eligible SaaS purchase to count toward commitments, but generally capped at 25% of the overall commitment and excluding categories such as Professional Services. This was paired with a requirement that the product be “deployed on AWS,” meaning at least part of the solution’s infrastructure had to run in an AWS account.

After May 1, 2025, only SaaS products that are entirely hosted on AWS will qualify towards a customer’s AWS spend commitments. These will be marked with a “Deployed on AWS” Badge.

What are AWS Spend Commitments?

Spend commitments are prearranged dollar amounts that a customer agrees to spend on AWS services over a specified time. In return, AWS typically provides discounts, better pricing tiers, or other benefits. Meeting these commitments can unlock substantial savings or other contract advantages, so any changes to which purchases qualify for retirement can significantly alter both customers’ cloud spending strategies and their relationships with third-party SaaS providers.

Implications for Customers & SaaS Vendors

Let’s break down the practical effects of these new rules for both buyers and sellers on the AWS Marketplace.
Customers SaaS Vendors

  • Verifying Vendors: If you rely on AWS Marketplace spend to meet your commitments, confirm that your chosen SaaS providers will comply with the new hosting rules.

  • Check If You Need to Switch Products: If a favorite SaaS tool is partially hosted elsewhere, the spend no longer contributes to AWS commitments, which means you might need to reevaluate your product choices.

  • Budgeting Adjustments: Forecast your AWS spend carefully and ensure your chosen vendors plan to be “all-in” on AWS if the ability to meet your spend commitments with SaaS purchases matters to you.

  • Hosting Changes: You may need to migrate any non-AWS workloads fully onto AWS to maintain eligibility under the new rules. (Vendors running workloads concurrently in multiple clouds or giving customers a choice of cloud providers should pay extra attention).

  • Apply for a “Deployed on AWS” Badge: SaaS vendors must submit updated architectural diagrams and other requested details via the AWS Marketplace Management Portal (AMMP).

  • Communication With Customers: If your product is not 100% AWS-based, inform your customers early. Many have annual or multi-year contracts and depend on your AWS hosting status to meet commitments.

  • Competitive Positioning: Vendors fully on AWS may be more attractive to customers with AWS spend commitments. Like other cloud marketplaces, AWS’s new approach echoes similar rules from Azure and GCP, though each cloud handles these policies slightly differently.
Both customers and vendors should keep an eye on official AWS Marketplace guidance and tools released over the coming year. Early preparation—verifying SaaS hosting details and planning potential migrations—can help avoid last-minute surprises as the May 1, 2025 deadline approaches.

Looking to track & optimize your AWS spend commitments?

To stay ahead of these AWS Marketplace changes and ensure you’re meeting your spend commitments, try the new AWS PPA and EDP Tracker from nOps. It gives you real-time visibility into your Private Pricing Agreements and Enterprise Discount Program usage — so you’ll always know whether you’re on track to hit your targets and keep your discounts.

You can monitor spend by service, track multiple agreements, and forecast future usage automatically.

nOps is fully deployed on AWS. nOps was recently ranked #1 with five stars in G2’s cloud cost management category, and we optimize $2+ billion in cloud spend for our customers.

Join our customers using nOps to understand your AWS costs and leverage automation with complete confidence by booking a demo with one of our AWS experts.