Publish your App to the App Marketplace

Millions of sellers use the Square App Marketplace to discover and connect apps to their Square accounts that they rely on daily to run their businesses. As a Square App Partner, you can offer and monetize your apps directory to Square sellers in the Square App Marketplace. Read about the full benefits of an app partnership.

If your app is built and ready to be published in the App Marketplace, click Get started.

Create a developer account and use the Developer Dashboard to build your app integrated with Square APIs. Use Square SDKs and developer tools to build an app that you can list in the Square App Marketplace. Follow the App Marketplace requirements, including the OAuth API protocol, as you develop your app. The approval to publish in the App Marketplace depends on whether you meet these requirements.

It's a good practice to start your integration guide when you start development. Your documentation should describe how you’re integrating Square into your app and what the Square APIs are being used for. When you engage with Square to test your app, this information is added to an integration guide, which is a required part of the app approval process and needs to be accurate and complete. Square reviews the documentation for outstanding issues with your app design. To pass the review, your app needs to meet the App Marketplace API usage requirements.

To launch your app in the Square App Marketplace, you need to be part of our App Partner program. Get started now by using our self-service workflow to sign up to become an App Partner and agree to our App Marketplace Partner Terms.

In addition, if you feel you’re a candidate for elevated benefits of app partnership, contact Square to inquire. These benefits might include having a partner manager, receiving a profit share from Square for payments processed through your app, or both. You should hear back within seven business days on whether you’re a fit. If Square determines that you’re not currently a fit, you're encouraged to join the App Partner program using our self-service sign-up workflow.

1. Start working with Square by simply replying to your welcome email.
   A few days after signing up to become an App Partner, you’ll receive a welcome email with the subject "Welcome to our Partnerships Program" from the partner launch team. Simply reply to the welcome email to indicate you’re ready to test your app and the team will send you information about the next steps.

   Did you know?

   Didn’t receive the welcome email? Contact support and we’ll help you get started.

2. Collaborate with Square on your integration guide.
   Shortly after engaging with Square, we’ll start the process of reviewing your app. The first step is to add your app and wireframe details to the integration guide template that we provide. This guide will showcase your app and demonstrate that it meets the App Marketplace API usage requirements. When you have all Square API calls coded and a complete wireframe diagram, you should submit that document to the partnerships team by replying to your open email thread. Square will then complete a review, which might identify required changes, additions, or suggested improvements to your codebase or UI.

3. Draft your Square App Marketplace listing content.
   After you're engaged with Square, you’ll be granted access to a content submission tool, which is accessible in the Developer Dashboard. You can then find the tool by opening your app registration in the Developer Dashboard and choosing App Listing in the left pane under App Marketplace. You can start drafting your App Marketplace listing content as soon as you’re granted access to the tool. You don’t need to wait until the QA phase of the app submission is complete.

   For guidance about creating effective marketing content, see Square App Marketplace Listing Guide.

4. Get your app tested and approved.
   After your implementation guide has been completed, submitted for review, and approved, you should expect to complete the following tasks:

   1. Complete any required changes in your app - If you haven’t already, ensure that your app is code-complete and in release-candidate status. At this point, it's ready for quality assurance testing.
   2. Quality assurance testing - Square creates a QA checklist based on the scope of your Square API usage. Your team will run all required test cases against your code-complete app. All test cases need to be completed before you submit your completed QA checklist for Square QA testing and approval. Reply back to your existing email thread with the partner launch team when you’re ready to submit your QA checklist.
      1. Square-side QA - To let Square know your app is ready to be reviewed, simply reply to your existing email thread with the launch team and this will trigger a status update for them to start testing.
      2. Follow-up QA - If there are further requests for you to make updates or additions to your app, you need to address them before the team can launch your app.
   Important

   Be sure to provide the testing credentials in the QA checklist on a Credentials tab. Square uses the credentials to sign in and run QA tests on your app.

After the QA process is complete, you'll receive an email from the partner launch team notifying you that your app is ready to be published. Publication doesn't happen automatically after QA testing is complete. The partner launch team will contact you to coordinate a launch date. Alternatively, you can reply to your existing email thread with the team for support. When a date is set, Square creates an App Marketplace listing based on the approved content you created in the submission tool and proceeds to publish your app.

After launching your app, you might choose to increase the scope of your app by adding additional Square API calls. To start this process, contact support and we’ll help you get started. This process typically involves updating your integration guide and submitting it to our partner launch team for a limited round of QA testing on the new scope.

The following resources provide guidance to get your app approved for publication:

• App Marketplace API Usage Requirements
• Video: Sandbox Short: App Marketplace
• Video: Sandbox Short: App Marketplace & Solution Partner Programs
• Forums and Discord

Get help acquiring more users

• Partner Marketing Resource Hub - Resources for marketing your app.
• Square Co-Marketing Guide for Partners - Requirements and best practices for partners to feature Square in co-marketing.
• Add tracking for better analytics - Add a tracking cookie to your OAuth authorization URL to generate better usage statistics.