--- title: "Microsoft Marketplace Certification: Why Offers Fail" url: https://www.fours.com/resources/blog/microsoft-marketplace-certification/ canonical: https://www.fours.com/resources/blog/microsoft-marketplace-certification/ type: Blog description: "What Microsoft Marketplace certification checks in each phase, where the validation and failure reports appear, the SaaS policy rows, and how to resubmit." --- # Microsoft Marketplace Certification: Why Offers Fail > Canonical HTML version: https://www.fours.com/resources/blog/microsoft-marketplace-certification/ 1. [Home](/) 2. [Resources](/resources/) 3. [Blog](/resources/blog/) 4. Microsoft Marketplace Certification: Why Offers Fail # Microsoft Marketplace Certification: Why Offers Fail A SaaS offer that comes back Attention needed has failed a specific check, and Microsoft says which one. Here is what Microsoft reviews between Publish and Go live, the two reports that explain a failure, the policy rows a SaaS offer has to clear, and how to resubmit. [![Samantha Ho](/authors/samantha-ho.jpg)](/resources/blog/author/samantha-ho/) [Samantha Ho](/resources/blog/author/samantha-ho/) Oct 23, 2026 ![Microsoft Marketplace Certification: Why Offers Fail](/images/blog/microsoft-marketplace-certification/hero.png) Explore AI Summary [![](/logos/company/openai.svg)](https://chat.openai.com/?q=Read%20and%20summarize%20https%3A%2F%2Fwww.fours.com%2Fresources%2Fblog%2Fmicrosoft-marketplace-certification%2F%2C%20then%20cite%20the%20source.%20Focus%20on%20what%20it%20says%20about%20Azure%2C%20Marketplaces. 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"Summarize with Perplexity") Table of Contents - [What is Microsoft Marketplace certification?](#what-is-microsoft-marketplace-certification) - [What does Microsoft check between Publish and Go live?](#what-does-microsoft-check-between-publish-and-go-live) - [Why do Microsoft Marketplace offers fail certification?](#why-do-microsoft-marketplace-offers-fail-certification) - [Which general policies does a SaaS listing have to meet?](#which-general-policies-does-a-saas-listing-have-to-meet) - [Which SaaS policies does certification test?](#which-saas-policies-does-certification-test) - [Why does User.Read matter for a SaaS offer?](#why-does-userread-matter-for-a-saas-offer) - [How do you fix and resubmit a failed offer?](#how-do-you-fix-and-resubmit-a-failed-offer) - [What does Fours handle, and what stays with your team?](#what-does-fours-handle-and-what-stays-with-your-team) - [Frequently asked questions](#frequently-asked-questions) - [Takeaways](#takeaways) _Microsoft Marketplace certification is the review Microsoft runs on an offer before it can be published: whether the publisher is eligible, whether the listing meets Microsoft’s policies, and whether the offer works. An offer that fails gets a report naming each policy it broke, and can be fixed and resubmitted as many times as needed._ * * * Acme submits its SaaS offer in Partner Center on a Monday, planning to approve the preview by Wednesday. On Tuesday the offer’s status reads **Attention needed**, which Microsoft defines as “We discovered a critical issue during certification or during another publishing phase.” The engineer who owns the integration hasn’t seen an email. The alliances lead who did receive one doesn’t know which part of the offer to open. The cause doesn’t stay a mystery, because Microsoft says what failed. It says so in two reports, at two points in the flow, and only to the people set up to receive them. This post maps each publishing phase to what Microsoft checks in it, shows where each report appears, sets out the policy rows a SaaS offer has to clear, and walks through a resubmission. For where certification sits in the whole Microsoft seller journey, start with [how to sell on Azure Marketplace](/resources/blog/how-to-sell-on-azure-marketplace-isv-guide/). ## What is Microsoft Marketplace certification? **Microsoft Marketplace certification is the review phase of Partner Center’s publishing flow, in which Microsoft checks an offer against its certification policies before it can be published.** In Microsoft’s words, “Offers submitted to Microsoft Marketplace must be certified before being published,” and the review has three levels: - **Publisher business eligibility:** base criteria that “might include publisher Microsoft AI Cloud Partner Program status, competencies held, competency levels, and so on.” - **Content validation:** the listing details, pricing, availability and plans, checked “for quality and relevance.” Microsoft looks for an accurate title, descriptions with a value proposition, quality screenshots and videos, and an explanation of how the offer uses Microsoft platforms and tools. - **Technical validation:** malware scanning, network calls monitoring, package analysis and offer functionality scanning. The rules it applies are Microsoft’s certification policies: the general 100 series, which “apply to all offer types,” plus the section for your offer type, which for SaaS is the 1000 series. Take the current version from the change history, not from the policy page. The policy page’s header still reads “Document version: 1.67” and “August 26, 2024,” the version that added the SaaS landing-page policy, while its policy text has moved on. The change history’s latest entry is version 1.96, dated September 13, 2026, which “Updated 100.1.5 policies”; it gives no separate effective date. Versions 1.93 to 1.95 came between July 24 and August 19, 2026, and none of them touched the SaaS section. ## What does Microsoft check between Publish and Go live? **Microsoft runs automated validation, then certification, then builds a preview for you to approve, and runs final checks once you select Go live.** Before any of that, the Review and publish page has to show every page of the offer as Complete. “Some offer types require testing,” Microsoft adds, and those show a **Notes for certification** field for testing instructions to the certification team. The table follows Microsoft’s own example flow, which it says can vary by offer type. Phase What Microsoft checks What stops the offer What you get back Review and publish That every page of the offer is complete, with testing notes where the offer type requires them A page marked Not started or Incomplete A status for each page, before you can select **Publish** Automated validation Offer purchase flow setup (under 10 minutes), lead management (under 15 minutes) and, for SaaS only, offer validation of “content and technical configurations” (under 30 minutes) Each check has to complete before the offer moves on; offer validation issues don’t block preview creation A **View validation report** link on the Offer overview page when Microsoft finds issues that “can fail certification” Certification Publisher business eligibility, content validation and technical validation Any failed “listing, technical, or policy checks,” or a publisher not eligible for that offer type A certification failure report “through email and the Action Center in Partner Center,” and the status **Attention needed** Preview creation Nothing further is documented Nothing further is documented A preview for testing, which on a transactable offer only your preview audience can purchase Publisher sign-off Nothing new: you review and approve the preview Validation warnings left open, with which “you risk failing certification” An email asking you to approve, and the **Go live** button Publish That “the live offer is configured just like the preview version of the offer” Nothing further is documented The status **Live** once the final checks finish Two details move this sequence around. Microsoft says “The certification phase can happen during submission to preview or submission to live, depending on the offer type.” And Fours’ Azure listing guide describes the SaaS order this way: **Publish** (or **Submit**) sends the offer “for certification,” a preview appears “within approximately 45 minutes (allow up to 1–2 hours),” and selecting **Go live** then submits it “for Microsoft’s review.” Either way, the validation report from the automated phase is the earliest warning you get. ## Why do Microsoft Marketplace offers fail certification? **An offer fails when it misses a listing, technical or policy check, or when its publisher isn’t eligible for that offer type, and the certification failure report names each policy that failed.** That is Microsoft’s own list of causes. The report “contains descriptions of any policies that failed, along with review notes,” so the work is mapping each named policy to the part of the offer that holds it. For a SaaS offer, those policies come from two places: the general rules every listing meets, and the SaaS section’s technical rules. The next two sections set out the rows a SaaS offer has to clear in each, quoted from the policy. Microsoft doesn’t publish how often each one fails, so read them as a checklist, not a ranking. ## Which general policies does a SaaS listing have to meet? **The general policies govern the listing itself: what it says, how it’s categorized, what its images look like and what it may not mention.** These are the rows a SaaS listing touches most directly: Policy What it requires What to check before you submit 100.1.5 Active and visible presence Offers “must be commercially available and under active development and/or supported,” and the policy’s public-plan rule changed in version 1.96 Whether your plans still need a public one: [listing without public pricing](/resources/blog/marketplace-listing-without-public-pricing/) covers the change 100.2.1 Categories and Industries ”A maximum of two categories can be selected,” and the description should show how the offer applies to each Two categories at most, each one explained in the description 100.3 Graphic elements A logo “between 216- and 350-pixels square,” images that “must be 1280x720 pixel .png files,” and videos “hosted on YouTube or Vimeo” as direct links Exact pixel dimensions, PNG files, and no playlist, account page or short-URL video links 100.4 Acquisition, pricing, and terms ”You may not promote the availability of your offer on other cloud marketplaces within the offer listing,” or “redirect or up-sell customers to software or services outside Marketplace” Copy reused unchanged from your AWS or Google Cloud listing 100.7 Accurate source ”References to Business Programs participation or eligibility are not allowed,” with Microsoft Azure Consumption Commitment (MACC) and co-sell designations among Microsoft’s examples A description that advertises MACC eligibility or co-sell status 100.14 Testability ”Your offer submission must include any necessary instructions and resources for successful certification of your offer” Notes for certification that tell the reviewer how to reach the product and what to test The technical, security and commercial prerequisites that come before any of this, from the Entra app registration to listing assets and support contacts, are in [the marketplace listing readiness checklist](/resources/blog/marketplace-listing-readiness-checklist/), which covers AWS and Microsoft side by side. ## Which SaaS policies does certification test? **The SaaS section tests the integration: where the product runs, how buyers sign in, the fulfillment and metering APIs, and the landing page.** Four rows: Policy What it requires What to check before you submit 1000.1 Value proposition and offer requirements To be purchasable in the Azure portal, the offer “must be primarily platformed on Microsoft Azure” That your architecture matches one of Microsoft’s supported scenarios, such as hosted entirely on Azure, or Azure-platformed with external dependencies 1000.3 Authentication options Buyers activate with the sign-in they purchased with, through single sign-on on your landing page and in your application (the policy still says Azure AD for Microsoft Entra ID); “Offers must support both Azure AD and Microsoft Account (MSA) types”; Microsoft Graph requests limited to “User.Read” permissions during activation Entra single sign-on on the landing page and in the product, a Microsoft account tested as well as a work account, and no extra Graph permissions before activation 1000.4 SaaS Fulfillment and Metering APIs Integration with the SaaS Fulfillment APIs, “kept up to date”; a webhook built to Microsoft’s guidelines; the metered billing API if the offer uses meters; custom meters “for the offer IP only” Meters that bill your software alone, never hardware, services or additional IP 1000.6 Landing Page The landing page “must always be available and functional,” shows no sensitive customer data and prompts no installations or downloads A landing page that answers at any hour, shows clear errors and never displays a token, password or API key Certification is only part of the landing page’s job: it also resolves the purchase token, activates the subscription and has to cope with auto-activated plans. [Entitlement management on cloud marketplaces](/resources/blog/marketplace-entitlement-management/) covers that flow. For the policies AWS reviews SaaS products against, see [AWS Marketplace SaaS security requirements](/resources/blog/aws-marketplace-saas-security-requirements/). ## Why does User.Read matter for a SaaS offer? **Because policy 1000.3 limits Microsoft Graph requests during subscription activation to “User.Read” permissions, and an Entra app that asks for admin-consent permissions keeps non-administrators off your landing page.** Microsoft’s landing-page guide sets out the practical rules: - Register the landing page app with one of the **multitenant** options, so users from other companies can sign in. - Keep the default permission: “the default of User.Read is enough to gather basic information about the buyer.” - “Don’t request any API permissions labeled needs admin consent, as this will block all non-administrator users from visiting your landing page.” - Ask for elevated permissions after activation, through Entra ID’s incremental consent. The offer’s Technical configuration tab then takes that app’s Microsoft Entra tenant ID and application ID, alongside the landing page URL and connection webhook. Microsoft wants the landing page and webhook “up and running 24/7,” no pound sign in the landing page URL, and no secrets or tokens in either URL. ## How do you fix and resubmit a failed offer? **Fix each policy the failure report names, then select Review and publish and Publish again; Microsoft says “You can resubmit the offer as many times as needed until passing certification.”** In order: 1. **Find both reports.** The failure report arrives by email and in the Action Center in Partner Center. The **View validation report** link, if there is one, is on the Offer overview page. 2. **Make sure the right people get the next one.** The owner of your developer account is always notified. To add others, use the “Submission notification audience” section of the Review and publish page, which takes users with the developer or manager role. Microsoft also asks you to verify your email address in Action Center, under My Preferences, “To ensure that you receive critical email notifications.” 3. **Map each failed policy to where it’s fixed.** The 100 series points at your listing content; the 1000 series at Technical configuration, your Entra app or your own product. 4. **Update Notes for certification.** If the reviewer couldn’t test something, say how to test it: policy 100.14 makes those instructions part of the submission. 5. **Resubmit.** Select **Review and publish**, confirm every page is Complete, and select **Publish**. “The latest preview submission overrides the previous preview submission,” and the offer’s History tab records each submission. 6. **Clear the validation warnings before you select Go live.** Microsoft’s guidance is to address them “before selecting the Go live button,” or risk failing certification. Microsoft also asks you to purchase the offer while it’s in Preview, to test the purchase and setup flow end to end, and to open a support ticket first so it doesn’t process a charge. [Cloud marketplace test purchases before launch](/resources/blog/cloud-marketplace-test-purchase/) covers that step on AWS, Microsoft and Google Cloud. ## What does Fours handle, and what stays with your team? **Fours builds the listing in Partner Center and supplies the landing page and connection webhook that the SaaS rows exercise; the listing content, your Entra app, Azure hosting and the certification decision stay with your team and with Microsoft.** This is Fours behaviour, as Fours’ documentation describes it: - **The listing.** You create the product in the Fours Console, and the draft syncs to Partner Center, where it “may take up to 10 minutes” to appear. You then complete Supplemental content in Partner Center and submit from **Review and publish**. - **The technical endpoints.** Technical configuration takes a Fours landing page URL and a Fours connection webhook, with your own Entra tenant ID and application ID, and “These values must exactly match your Fours integration.” [Fours’ signup URL redirect guide](https://doc.fours.com/settings/signup-url-redirect/) warns against editing the landing page URL in Partner Center afterwards: “Overwriting it breaks the entire signup chain.” - **The landing page flow.** Fours’ landing page resolves Microsoft’s one-time token, activates the subscription unless Self-Managed Subscription Activation is on, creates the entitlement and redirects the buyer to your fulfillment URL. - **The image specs.** Fours’ guide warns that “If your files do not match the exact specifications, your listing will be rejected during certification”: a square logo from 216×216 to 350×350 pixels, and a screenshot of exactly 1280×720. - **The profiles.** To the question “My listing submission keeps failing. What setup am I missing?”, Fours’ FAQ answers: “The most common blocker is incomplete tax and payment profiles in Partner Center.” They “must be fully completed and verified before your listing can be published.” What stays with you: the description, categories and images that content validation reads; a product primarily platformed on Azure that buyers can sign in to with Entra ID or a Microsoft account; the Entra app registration and its permissions; the notes for the certification team; and the fixes a failure report asks for. Microsoft decides certification, and Fours doesn’t pass it on your behalf. ## Frequently asked questions ### Why did my Microsoft Marketplace offer fail certification? Because it missed a listing, technical or policy check, or because the publisher isn’t eligible for that offer type. Microsoft’s certification failure report lists each policy that failed, with review notes. Fix what it names, then resubmit from Review and publish. ### Where is the Microsoft Marketplace certification failure report? Microsoft sends it by email and to the Action Center in Partner Center. The owner of your developer account is always notified. To add others, use the submission notification audience on the Review and publish page, which takes users with the developer or manager role. ### How long does Microsoft Marketplace certification take? Microsoft gives no duration for the review itself. It times the automated steps: under 30 minutes for SaaS offer validation, and more than 30 minutes for the final publish. Fours’ Azure listing guide says the preview appears in about 45 minutes, allowing up to one to two hours. ### How many times can you resubmit a Microsoft Marketplace offer? As many as you need. Microsoft says you can resubmit “as many times as needed until passing certification.” Fix what the failure report names, update your notes for certification, then select Review and publish and Publish again. ### Which Microsoft Graph permissions can a SaaS offer request at activation? Only User.Read. Policy 1000.3 limits Microsoft Graph requests during subscription activation to “User.Read” permissions. Ask for more after activation, through incremental consent. Microsoft warns that permissions needing admin consent block non-administrator users from your landing page. ### Does Fours get my offer certified? No. Microsoft certifies the offer. Fours builds the listing in Partner Center and supplies the landing page and connection webhook in its technical configuration. Your listing content, your Entra app and the fixes a failure report asks for stay with your team. ## Takeaways - Certification is Microsoft’s review of publisher eligibility, listing content and technical behaviour against its certification policies. Take the version from the change history, which lists 1.96, dated September 13, 2026; the policy page’s header still says 1.67. - Two reports explain a failure: the validation report on the Offer overview page, from the automated phase, and the certification failure report, by email and in the Action Center. - For a SaaS listing, check two categories at most, exact image sizes, no mention of other marketplaces, no MACC or co-sell references, and notes for the certification team. - For the SaaS integration, check Azure hosting, Entra and Microsoft account sign-in with User.Read only during activation, current fulfillment and metering integrations, and a landing page that is always up. - Resubmit as often as you need, and clear every validation warning before you select Go live. Fours builds Microsoft Marketplace listings from the Fours Console, supplies the landing page and webhook your offer’s technical configuration points at, and turns each purchase into an entitlement your product can act on. See how it fits your next Microsoft offer on [Fours for Microsoft Marketplace](/solutions/microsoft-marketplace/), and keep [Fours’ Azure Marketplace listing guide](https://doc.fours.com/azure-marketplace/list-product/) open while you submit. ## Sources Primary sources for the platform rules cited above. Last verified October 23, 2026. Cloud providers change fees, eligibility, and program terms without notice — check the source before relying on a figure. - [Microsoft Learn: Review and publish an offer to Microsoft Marketplace](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/marketplace-offers/review-publish-offer) — The offer statuses, including Attention needed; the Notes for certification field; the example flow of automated validation, certification, preview creation, publisher sign-off and publish, which can vary by offer type; automated timings, including SaaS offer validation in under 30 minutes and the View validation report link; the three levels of certification validation; the certification failure report through email and the Action Center, and resubmission as many times as needed; certification during submission to preview or to live, depending on offer type; the purchase-in-Preview support ticket; notification roles, Action Center email verification and the submission notification audience; the History tab - [Microsoft Marketplace certification policies](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/marketplace/certification-policies) — General policies 100.1.5, 100.2.1 (a maximum of two categories), 100.3 (a logo between 216 and 350 pixels square, 1280x720 PNG images, videos on YouTube or Vimeo), 100.4, 100.7 and 100.14; SaaS policies 1000.1 (primarily platformed on Microsoft Azure), 1000.3 (Azure AD and MSA sign-in, User.Read only during activation), 1000.4 (fulfillment, webhook and metering APIs; custom meters for the offer IP only) and 1000.6 (landing page); the page header still reads Document version 1.67, August 26, 2024 - [Microsoft Learn: Change history for commercial marketplace certification policies](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/legal/marketplace/offer-policies-change-history) — Version 1.96, dated Sept 13, 2026, Updated 100.1.5 policies, the latest entry; versions 1.93 to 1.95 between July 24 and August 19, 2026, none touching the 1000 SaaS section; version 1.67, August 26, 2024, Added 1000.6 Landing page policy; no separate effective dates - [Microsoft Learn: Build the landing page for your transactable SaaS offer in Microsoft Marketplace](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/marketplace-offers/azure-ad-transactable-saas-landing-page) — Register the landing page app with a multitenant option; the default User.Read permission is enough; no permissions labeled needs admin consent, which block all non-administrator users from the landing page; incremental consent for elevated permissions; buyers arrive with a Microsoft Entra account or a Microsoft account - [Microsoft Learn: Add technical details for a SaaS offer](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/partner-center/marketplace-offers/create-new-saas-offer-technical) — The four required Technical configuration fields (landing page URL, connection webhook, Microsoft Entra tenant ID and application ID); landing page and webhook up and running 24/7; no pound sign in the landing page URL, and no secrets or tokens in either URL - [Fours docs: Azure Marketplace List Product](https://doc.fours.com/azure-marketplace/list-product/) — Fours behaviour: the product draft created in the Fours Console syncs to Partner Center within up to 10 minutes; the Fours landing page URL and connection webhook entered in Technical configuration with your Entra tenant and application IDs, which must exactly match your Fours integration; logo and screenshot specs, and the warning that mismatched files are rejected during certification; the preview in about 45 minutes, and Go live submitting the offer for Microsoft's review; the FAQ answer naming incomplete tax and payment profiles as the most common blocker when a submission keeps failing - [Fours docs: Signup URL Redirect](https://doc.fours.com/settings/signup-url-redirect/) — Fours behaviour on Azure: the Fours landing page resolves the one-time token, activates the subscription unless Self-Managed Subscription Activation is on, creates the entitlement and redirects the buyer to your fulfillment URL; the warning never to edit the landing page URL in Partner Center ## Keep reading - [AzureMicrosoft Publisher Agreement: AI and MPO RulesOct 15, 2026](/resources/blog/microsoft-publisher-agreement-ai-mpo/) - [AzureMicrosoft Marketplace MCP Server, ExplainedOct 12, 2026](/resources/blog/microsoft-marketplace-mcp-server/) - [AzureAzure Sponsorship on a Marketplace Deal: The RulesSep 29, 2026](/resources/blog/azure-sponsorship-on-marketplace-deals/) - [AzureMicrosoft Resale Enabled Offers vs MPO: Who Pays YouSep 19, 2026](/resources/blog/microsoft-resale-enabled-offers-vs-mpo/) [Browse every post on the Fours Blog](/resources/blog/) ### Stay Updated New posts, product updates and marketplace strategy are shared on LinkedIn as they publish. 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