Towards the end of your Salesforce app development, you’ll start shifting your focus on how to list it. There are two main ways to list an app:
- As an unlisted app
- On the Salesforce AppExchange
As an unlisted app, you simply need to share a published link with your client. There’s no cost, but your clients really need to trust you that your app is secure.
In order to be on the AppExchange, you need to pass their security review. This is where you install your app in a sandbox environment, and Salesforce’s engineers test it. The goal is to provide a greater level of safety for clients.
Which option you choose is not always obvious, so here are some considerations:
Pros
- It gives your app greater credibility
- You have a great level of exposure by being on the AppExchange
Cons
- The security review is currently priced at $1000 per review. There’s a chance they will need to review it multiple times, which becomes costly
- The review is not as technically easy as it could be, and there are some pre-steps you need to do which are not well documented
- When clients find you on the AppExchange, you must pay 15% of your revenue to Salesforce
The takeaway
Despite the cons, new app developers should strongly consider doing the security review to be published on the AppExchange