This topic describes the following sales methods provided by Compute Nest for service providers: custom sales, Alibaba Cloud Marketplace product, and third-party-paid product. You can select a suitable sales method for your software based on your business requirements.
Select the sales method
Compute Nest provides three sales methods that you can configure. Service providers can configure sales methods for published services based on the business requirements before users can purchase and use the services.
Alibaba Cloud Marketplace product: the most commonly used sales method that provides comprehensive sales capabilities, including one-time sales and subscription. For more information, see Overview of selling Compute Nest services in Alibaba Cloud Marketplace.
Third-party-paid product: helps individual software developers quickly build their own software e-commerce platforms by providing an accessible web framework. The sales method is subscription-based. For more information, see What is Compute Nest SaaS Boost.
Custom sales: supports only private services. A service provider can specify the validity period of software in the Compute Nest console. The service provider can create services in the Compute Nest console and sell the services offline rather than online. For more information, see Custom sales.
You cannot select Alibaba Cloud Marketplace product and Third-party-paid product as the sales method at the same time.
Alibaba Cloud Marketplace product
When you (service provider) publish Compute Nest services to Alibaba Cloud Marketplace for sales, take note of the following sales information about private services and fully managed services.
Private service sales
Concept: Cloud resources of private services are deployed in the user account. Service providers charge software license fees, and Alibaba Cloud charges cloud resource fees.
Free trials: supported. If the free trials are enabled for services that are published to Alibaba Cloud Marketplace, free trials must also be enabled for the associated Compute Nest service templates or packages. The trial resource costs are covered by Alibaba Cloud.
Fee display: displays cloud resource fees and software license fees for price inquiries.
License management: Private services require license management. Service providers must check for the following issues before publishing products to Alibaba Cloud Marketplace:
Software license billing issues
Method for obtaining licenses when users purchase products
Method for generating licenses when the service providers place an order
Whether the licenses are manually or automatically activated
Vulnerabilities in software licenses
Whether vulnerabilities may be exploited if no license is activated, such as the vulnerability that allows users to manually deploy cloud resources and use the software without the need to purchase licenses
Whether the software signature verification is required to prevent unauthorized software acquisition
Expiration issues during renewal and unauthorized use
Whether core features are automatically disabled on license expiration to prevent unauthorized use
Whether the expiration date can be bypassed by changing the time or devices
ImportantIf one of the preceding issues exists, license management is required. For more information about licenses, see Subscription expiration check.
Fully managed service sales
Concept: also known as SaaS service sales. Cloud resources of fully managed services are deployed in the service provider account. The service providers must incorporate cloud resource costs into the software costs.
Free trials: supported. Resource fees incurred during the free trial period are covered by the service provider.
Fee display: displays the software fees, not the cloud resource fees, for price inquiries.