Introduction to Sitecore Marketplace for custom and public apps

Sitecore Marketplace is the home for extending and customizing SitecoreAI.

The Marketplace enables every Cloud Portal organization to build and use applications that add new capabilities to SitecoreAI. Depending on your role, you use the Marketplace in the following ways:

As a developer, either on the customer or partner side, you build Marketplace applications and authorize Sitecore organizations to install them.
As a Cloud Portal organization admin or owner, you manage (for example, install and update) the Marketplace apps that are available in your organization, and control which organization users have access to each app.
As the SitecoreAI product user, such as a marketer or content author, you can use Marketplace apps to enhance your daily work with new capabilities tailored to your needs.

Benefits of using Marketplace apps

Using Marketplace apps lets you access brand new capabilities in SitecoreAI. From AI plugins to translation or web analytics tools and more, the Marketplace unlocks the ability to customize SitecoreAI for your own needs.

In the public Marketplace, you can discover apps built by Sitecore and its trusted partners. If you already have a Marketplace app available to you, you can start using it in the SitecoreAI user interface. If you don't have a Marketplace app to solve your unique requirements yet, contact your in-house developer or Sitecore partner to build one for you.

Benefits of building for the Marketplace

Building apps for the Marketplace is the most modern and efficient way to extend Sitecore, offering the following benefits:

Easily extend SitecoreAI - customize a SitecoreAI environment without modifying or conflicting with its internal code. This simplifies upgrades and reduces technical debt and complexity.
Modern development workflows - use modern JavaScript/TypeScript frameworks and manage your source code in public or private GitHub repositories.
Faster time to value - the Marketplace speeds up customizing SitecoreAI by providing ready-to-use apps.
App access control - choose which organizations can install and use your app, or offer it to all Sitecore customers.
Growth and enablement - access a variety of modern solutions developed by Sitecore and its trusted partners.
Community contribution - make an impact in the Sitecore community by building free, freemium, or paid apps for all Sitecore customers.

App ideas

As a developer, a key question to consider is what Marketplace application to build. Marketplace apps should meet the needs of Sitecore organizations and solve specific problems for them. Therefore, before starting development, it's important that you clearly identify the organization's needs and challenges your app will address.

Start by reviewing your or your organization's unique requirements that you can address by building an app. Alternatively, consider the following ideas for apps that can improve the SitecoreAI workflow:

AI plugins that suggest alt texts or taxonomy tags, or any other content improvements.
AI-powered apps, such as AI agents and agentic workflows.
Content transfer services for an organization's SitecoreAI environments.
Translation plugins.
Third-party web analytics tools.
Extensions for measuring website performance.
SEO tools that help a website rank higher in search results.
Custom field controls, such as color pickers and icon libraries.

App types

The Marketplace supports two types of applications:

Custom apps - available in the organization where you originally create them, and in any other Sitecore organization of your choice.
Public apps - available to all Sitecore organizations and listed in the public Marketplace.

Workflow for creating apps

The workflow for creating a custom app and a public app is nearly identical. The main difference is that public apps require approval from Sitecore before you can make them available to organizations.

The typical workflow from start to finish includes the following activities:

Custom apps

Decide what to build - usually, your organization's unique requirements determine what you develop. If you don't yet know what to build, get inspired by reviewing some app ideas.
Plan your app - understand user needs, collect requirements, and identify your app's functionalities and features. Based on these requirements, choose your app architecture and authorization. Also consider where in SitecoreAI you'll display your app because this affects how you design and build it.
Design your app - we strongly recommend that you design your app based on Blok, the Sitecore product design system. You don't have to install Blok itself, but you should implement its guidelines so your app matches the Sitecore look and feel.
Create your app in the Cloud Portal - so you can start development.
Build your app - develop your app using the Marketplace SDK. Start by completing one of the SDK quick starts, which describe the prerequisites, installation, and initialization process. Then, complete the developer guides.
Prepare to make your app available to one or more organizations - you need to host the app yourself. Sitecore does not host your Marketplace apps. Then, organization team members can find your custom app and start using it.

Additional resources

Find more information about the Marketplace:

On the Sitecore Developer Portal.
On the Discover Sitecore YouTube channel, in the Sitecore Marketplace playlist.

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