They share a name and almost nothing else. An app directory (HubSpot, Slack, Freshworks) is a discovery surface for that platform's existing customers, so it drives trials and stickiness rather than large deals. An app store (Shopify) can be a genuine business with revenue share and its own economics, but you live under their review and policy rules. A cloud marketplace (AWS, Azure, Google) is procurement plumbing for enterprise deals, not a discovery channel, and treating it as marketing will disappoint you. Pick based on where your buyer already spends money, and give the listing an owner rather than treating it as a one time launch task.
4 hand-picked resources, 4 link-checked. Pick how you want to dig in.
Why we picked it A concrete look at what an app directory listing demands (demo video, eight screenshots, scope groups, testing instructions), which is a useful reality check on 'we will just get listed'.
From HubSpot Developers 12 min read
Open developers.hubspot.com →Why we picked it Shows the part founders underestimate about app stores: you are subject to someone else's review, pause and resubmission cycle, on their timeline, before a single customer sees you.
From Shopify Developers 10 min read
Open shopify.dev →Why we picked it The third cloud's own partner documentation, covering SaaS, VM and now AI agent listings, plus the billing integration work that decides how long a listing really takes.
From Google Cloud Documentation 10 min read
Open docs.cloud.google.com →Why we picked it The clearest example of a platform treating partners as a real business: 1.3 billion dollars paid to partners in 2025 across apps, themes, store builds and referrals, with docs and tooling to match.
From Shopify 6 min read
Open shopify.com →How channel, resellers and marketplaces reads from a different seat.
The same ground, over in Scale, fund & exit, our D2C track.
