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On the Google Apps Marketplace Vendor Listing page, Google says the following:

Google charges a one-time fee of $100 for submitting your first listing.

I've searched Google Groups and other forums, and I cannot seem to find the answer to the question of whether or not the one time $100 fee applies to only my individual Google Apps login or if it applies to other Google Apps logins on my domain as well.

For instance, If I, james@mydomain.com, pay the $100 fee so I can submit N listings, does this also apply to john@mydomain.com or does John have to pay the $100 fee to so he can publish his apps without having to ask me to do it?

Is it best to use a single, group login like admin@mydomain.com or development@mydomain.com when paying the $100 Listing fee? What is your experience in this regard with posting multiple listings to the marketplace where N developers are involved?

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  • why not just make an llc and release everything under myllc@mydomain.com regardless of how it works.
    – Ryathal
    Mar 2, 2012 at 19:01
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    They work on a "legal entity" basis when it comes to Adwords, Adsense and Google Checkout. You set this up, individual or corporate, when you create the account and I think it can be changed later if need be. Since I haven't worked with Apps Marketplace, I don't know if the same applies there. I'd guess it does but I don't know for sure.
    – jfrankcarr
    Mar 2, 2012 at 19:14
  • @Ryathal - Do you know what the advantages/disadvantages are of doing that? If you don't know them, and you disregard how things work, how do you know you won't find yourself painted into a corner?
    – jmort253
    Mar 2, 2012 at 19:35
  • @jmort253 an LLC is its own entity legally, so its only one "person" regardless of how many people work for it. An LLC also protects your personal assets. there are other ways to do this, but LLCs are one of the most common, onstartups.se might be able to give you more information as well. I highly recommend making some kind of company/corporation though, because there are a lot of people out there that may try to sue you because your app caused them harm or made them blow up a school bus.
    – Ryathal
    Mar 2, 2012 at 21:11
  • @Ryathal - I wasn't asking about an LLC. We're an established medium sized business so that's not the point. I was asking you why I should use your suggestion which implied that I should do absolutely no research on the best practice for selling apps in the marketplace and just use a single account "regardless of how it works."
    – jmort253
    Mar 2, 2012 at 22:42

2 Answers 2

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Going through the website it seems really unclear. I would assume that it is per email address (think, if you did yours at x@gmail.com, does that mean every one from gmail should get it free).

I would just say make one email for publishing, for example support@domain.com, and everyone can custom make their own applications on a separate email, but when going to post it to the Google Market, be forced to post under one email.

UPDATE: A Google Groups posting confirms that the Marketplace Vendor fee covers one account only.

One possible issue is that the vendor logo is the same for all apps published under that account.

Thus, if all apps are going to be published using the same brand logos, use the support@domain.com account and pay the $100 fee once. But if the apps are going to be released using different brand logos, then separate Vendor accounts must be created.

For instance, brandA@mydomain.com and brandB@mydomain.com would be 2 separate accounts on the same Google Apps domain but could have different brands associated with them. Thus, if you require different Vendor logos for your apps, you'll need to setup separate accounts and pay separate fees. Again, separate accounts doesn't mean separate Google Apps domains, just separate accounts under that Google Apps domain. The logos you use for the vendor accounts do not need to be the same logo you use for Google Apps logo.

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  • This answer was the closest to being correct, so I edited it and accepted it as the best answer.
    – jmort253
    Mar 10, 2012 at 23:53
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After taking a look at the steps to become a Vendor for the Apps Marketplace, it looks like the form is setting you up to be a company and not an individual developer by default. So that one time $100 fee covers you and your company of x number developers, to post apps under your "Company Name" that will be used in the Apps Marketplace.

EDIT: However, all x developers must login to the same Google Apps account, like marketplace@yourdomain.com and not bob@yourdomain.com, bill@yourdomain.com, etc.

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  • This information is not 100% clear. The one time fee only covers one account under the Google Apps organization. This was confirmed by Google here: groups.google.com/group/apps-marketplace-dev-community/msg/…. This doesn't mean it's incorrect to say that it can't cover x developers, but I am editing this answer to show that each developer must login to the same account.
    – jmort253
    Mar 10, 2012 at 23:54

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