According to IDG News Service, “Salesforce.com is raising the cost of an initial security review for paid applications in its AppExchange store from $300 to $2,700, saying the hike will allow it to deliver the reviews much faster.”

Beginning in September, the price hike will kick in for all new paid applications.  It will still cost $150 per year to list an application on the AppExchange, and those offered free of charge wouldn’t be affected by the price change.  Additionally, the fee for applications already in the review queue will remain at $300.

While I doubt that Salesforce.com is using AppExchange as a profit center, their AppExchange model is years old and I suspect that they are just attempting to recover costs.  Those who make a living by selling things in AppExchange won’t find this fee hike that much of an issue.

AppExchange underwent some nice growth in the last 5 years, and Salesforce.com remains the dominate player in the SaaS cloud space.