AWS Marketplace SaaS Registration Page Checklist

An AWS Marketplace SaaS registration page is the page on your side that a buyer reaches after subscribing to your SaaS product, where they create an account or sign in to one. AWS’s SaaS product guidelines set what it must do, and AWS reviews products against them when they’re submitted and continuously afterwards.

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Acme is preparing its first SaaS listing on AWS Marketplace, and its engineering lead has one item left on the plan: the page a buyer lands on after subscribing. What does that page have to do to pass AWS’s review, and does Acme have to build it?

AWS answers the first question across three documents: its SaaS product guidelines, onboarding guide and integration checklist. The second is a choice between building the page and using a sign-up form that Fours hosts. What happens around the page, from subscription events to when access should start, is covered in why a buyer who pays can end up with no access.

What is an AWS Marketplace SaaS registration page?

An AWS Marketplace SaaS registration page is the page AWS sends a buyer to after they subscribe, where your product turns the purchase into an account. AWS describes it as “a website you create and manage as a part of your SaaS product to register their account and configure the product.” Its documents also call it the registration landing page or the fulfillment landing page, and its address the fulfillment URL.

The handoff is a form post:

1. The buyer subscribes, then chooses Set Up Your Account, which takes them to your website.
2. “The customer’s browser sends a POST request to your software’s registration landing page URL,” with one parameter, x-amzn-marketplace-token. For a free trial, AWS adds a second: x-amzn-marketplace-offer-type, with the value free-trial.
3. Your page calls ResolveCustomer to redeem the token for the buyer’s AWS account ID, LicenseArn and product code. AWS says new integrations get no CustomerIdentifier in the response and must identify the buyer by CustomerAWSAccountId and LicenseArn.
4. The buyer is “instructed to either create an account in your product or sign in to an existing account.”

Resolve the token straight away. The same AWS page gives it two lifetimes: “each generated token has an expiration window of 4 hours,” and, under Security and ordering, “it may expire after approximately one hour.” Plan on the shorter one.

What changes when Fours receives the buyer first?

Fours takes AWS’s post, resolves the token, and sends the buyer on to your page with a Fours entitlement ID instead. The fulfillment URL on your AWS listing points at Fours, and a second URL, set in Fours, says where the buyer goes next:

• Fours handles the token. It decodes the token and registers the entitlement and the buyer’s details, so your page never sees AWS’s token.
• Your page gets three parameters: sugerEntitlementId, partner (aws) and offerType, such as DEFAULT for the listing’s public offer.
• Your app stores the ID with the buyer’s account, and uses it to fetch the entitlement and buyer from the Fours API and to meter usage.

One AWS-only detail shapes the page. Fours’ docs note that the AWS event announcing a new purchase can take up to five minutes to reach Fours, so a buyer who sets up an account at once can arrive before Fours knows which offer they bought. The entitlement can then start on the default offer and be updated in place when the event arrives: its ID and status stay the same, and your webhook receives an entitlement update event. Treat the first offerType as provisional, and read the offer from the entitlement once that update arrives.

Our suggestion, not a rule: the ID arrives as a plain URL parameter, so look it up through the Fours API before attaching it to an account, and if it’s already attached to one, send the buyer to sign in rather than create a second. The parameters and the AWS timing note are in Fours’ signup URL redirect documentation.

Google Cloud Marketplace works differently: Google posts a signed JWT to your sign-up page, and the buyer’s account needs an approval before an offer can go through. That path is in Google Cloud Marketplace sign-up: verify the JWT.

Should you build the registration page or use the Fours-hosted form?

Use the Fours-hosted form when your team sets up accounts by hand, and build your own page when buyers should get in straight away. Fours’ docs add a practical test: your own page if you already have one, and the hosted form “if you don’t have a custom signup page yet.”

Fours builds the hosted form from basic details such as your company name and logo. You set it up under New Client Signup in the Fours Console, where Preview shows the form and gives you its URL. Text you add in Public Notes appears on the form, and when a buyer submits it, Fours emails them a confirmation, copying the addresses in CC Emails.

That is the route AWS describes when “setting up or linking to an existing customer account in your product requires a manual process by your team”: a contact-us form, a message that the account is being set up, “the expected turnaround time and your contact information,” and an email “with the same details.”

In the table, the left-hand column is AWS’s; the other two are our reading of Fours’ docs.

AWS requirement	Your own page, behind Fours	Fours-hosted form
Accept AWS’s post and resolve the registration token	Fours’ endpoint, before your page	Fours’ endpoint, before the form
Create an account and reach a web console	On your page, straight away	After your team sets the account up
An input field for the buyer’s email address	You build it	On the form, which emails the buyer
If access isn’t immediate, a message on when it will start	You write it	Your real turnaround, in Public Notes
Log in from the landing page, for existing customers	A sign-in option on the page	Your sign-in address in Public Notes; your team links the subscription
Support contact options on the landing page	On the page	In Public Notes
An account-created notification with clear next steps	Your app sends it	Fours confirms the submission; your team sends the account-created email
Subscription status in your application	Your app, from the entitlement in the Fours API	The same, once the account exists

Use the hosted form when:

• Your team creates accounts by hand, after a call or a provisioning step: the contact-us route AWS describes.
• You have no self-serve sign-up yet and want the listing ready before engineering builds one.

Build your own page when:

• Buyers should create an account and reach your web console straight away, the experience AWS’s guidelines describe first.
• Existing customers will subscribe and need to sign in and attach the subscription themselves.

You can switch later. Your AWS listing’s fulfillment URL keeps pointing at Fours, so moving from the hosted form to your own page changes only the URL you set in Fours with Edit Fulfillment URL. Changing the URL on the AWS listing itself is a change request that sits “Under review” in AWS Partner Central. Either page has to meet the same rules: AWS keeps reviewing products after they’re public.

How do you check a registration page before AWS reviews it?

Run the page against AWS’s SaaS product guidelines, the flow behind it against AWS’s integration checklist, and both through a test purchase, before you request public visibility. Moving a listing from Limited to Public starts a workflow in which AWS’s Seller Operations team will “review and audit your product against AWS policies.” The first three groups below are AWS’s rules; the test purchase is how we’d check them.

On the page (SaaS product guidelines)

• An input field for the buyer’s email address. Other fields are optional; AWS names name, ZIP code, phone number, company information and product setup preferences.
• An English-language view, if the page uses more than one language.
• Sign-in for existing customers, who “must have the ability to log in from the fulfillment landing page.”
• Support contact options, which “must be specified on the fulfillment landing page.”
• If access isn’t immediate, “a message with specific instructions on when they will gain access.”
• No payment fields: “You cannot collect customer payment information for your SaaS product at any time, including credit card and bank account information.”
• No language that sends buyers to “other cloud platforms, additional products, upsell services, or free trial offers that aren’t available on AWS Marketplace.” AWS applies that rule to product software and metadata; we’d read it as covering the page.

Behind the page (SaaS product integration checklist)

With Fours in front, the first three happen at Fours’ endpoint, and the fourth can’t arise, because your page never holds AWS’s token.

• An HTTPS registration page that accepts HTTP POST requests.
• ResolveCustomer, called to obtain the ProductCode, CustomerAWSAccountId and LicenseArn.
• The token resolved “with no delays.”
• The token never stored in a cookie.
• No block on addresses from email services such as Gmail.
• Incomplete registrations and multiple registration attempts accepted. AWS prompts a buyer who doesn’t finish setup to complete it when they revisit your product, so the same buyer can arrive twice.
• One account per AWS account ID, from AWS’s onboarding guide: “Verify that no other accounts in your system share the AWS account ID.”

After registration (SaaS product guidelines)

• A notification “confirming that their account has been created along with clear next steps.”
• Subscription status in your application, “including any relevant contract or subscription usage information.”

The test purchase

• Subscribe from a different AWS account, added with Update allowlist in AWS Partner Central: AWS recommends a test subscription “to evaluate and confirm the customer experience,” but “prevents sellers from buying their own products.”
• Choose Set Up Your Account and confirm you land on your page or the Fours-hosted form, and that the purchase created an entitlement in Fours.
• Register with a Gmail address, then abandon a registration and start it again.
• Read the page, or the hosted form’s Preview, and the confirmation email as the buyer: do they say how to get help, what to do next, and when access starts, in terms your team can meet?

The rest of the listing, from the EULA and logos to AWS’s review timeline, is on our cloud marketplace listing readiness checklist, and the security policies on the same AWS guidelines page are in AWS Marketplace SaaS security requirements.

Frequently asked questions

What must an AWS Marketplace SaaS registration page include?

An input field for the buyer’s email address, an English-language view if the page uses several languages, a way for existing customers to log in, and support contact options. If access isn’t immediate, AWS also requires a message saying when the buyer will get it.

Can an AWS Marketplace registration page ask for credit card details?

No. AWS’s SaaS product guidelines say you cannot collect customer payment information for your SaaS product at any time, including credit card and bank account information. Your product is billed entirely through the pricing dimensions on your AWS Marketplace listing.

How long does an AWS Marketplace registration token last?

AWS’s onboarding guide gives two figures: an expiration window of 4 hours, and, in its security section, approximately one hour. Plan on the shorter one and resolve the token as soon as the buyer arrives. With Fours in front, Fours’ endpoint resolves it.

Do you have to build your own AWS Marketplace registration page?

Not if you use Fours. The fulfillment URL on your listing points at Fours, which resolves the buyer and sends them to your own page or to a sign-up form Fours builds from details such as your company name and logo.

Why can a new AWS entitlement start on the default offer?

Fours’ docs say the AWS event announcing a purchase can take up to five minutes to reach Fours. A buyer who sets up an account straight away can arrive first, so the entitlement can start on the default offer and be updated when the event arrives.

How do you test an AWS Marketplace registration page?

Subscribe from a different AWS account allowlisted on the Limited listing, because AWS prevents sellers from buying their own products. Choose Set Up Your Account, register with a Gmail address, abandon one attempt and retry, and read the confirmation email as a buyer would.

Takeaways

• AWS requires an email field, an English view for a multilingual page, sign-in for existing customers, support contacts on the page and, when access isn’t immediate, a message on timing. Payment fields are never allowed.
• With Fours in front, Fours resolves AWS’s token and hands your page a sugerEntitlementId. On AWS, treat the first offer as provisional: Fours’ docs say the purchase event can take up to five minutes.
• Use the Fours-hosted form when your team sets up accounts by hand, and your own page when buyers should get in straight away. Switching later changes the URL in Fours, not the one on your AWS listing.
• Before you request public visibility, run a test purchase from an allowlisted account and read every page and email as the buyer.

Fours creates your AWS Marketplace listing, receives each buyer at its fulfillment URL and hands them to your registration page or to a sign-up form it hosts. See how listings, entitlements and metering connect in Fours’ AWS Marketplace seller software.