What the Deployed on AWS Badge Proves, and What It Doesn't

The Deployed on AWS badge is AWS Marketplace’s designation for SaaS products that run entirely on AWS. It answers where your product runs, not whether a particular buyer’s purchase counts toward their AWS commitment.

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When an enterprise buyer asks whether your product will count against their AWS commitment, they are asking two questions with different owners. Does the product qualify for the Deployed on AWS badge? AWS settles that by reviewing the architecture details you submit. Does this purchase count toward this buyer’s commitment? That depends on one product under one buyer’s agreement with AWS, which you are not party to and won’t see.

The badge is evidence for the second question, not the answer to it.

What is the Deployed on AWS badge?

The Deployed on AWS badge is a designation AWS Marketplace gives SaaS products that run entirely on AWS, including the application and control planes. Those products “receive a special designation in the AWS Marketplace search results and their product details pages.”

It dates from a policy change AWS announced on February 25, 2025, effective May 1, 2025, which opened AWS Marketplace to SaaS products “regardless of where the product is deployed.” With every architecture listable, the badge is how a buyer tells the AWS-hosted ones apart. It is optional: “Sellers can publish products that do not entirely run on AWS.”

The approval does a second job: it is a prerequisite for the streamlined Foundational Technical Review (FTR) in AWS Partner Central, which requires “an approved AWS hosted architecture.” If an FTR is part of your AWS Software Path plan, get the architecture approved first.

Does the badge mean a purchase counts toward the buyer’s commitment?

Not on its own. AWS’s buyer documentation answers the committed-spend (EDP/PPA) question in a FAQ for Multi-Product Solutions: “Yes, if the products are eligible for AWS committed spend drawdown. Products deployed on AWS typically qualify. Eligibility is determined separately for each product in the solution.”

“Typically” is doing real work there. The 2025 announcement was equally careful: badged products “will continue to count towards additional customer benefits,” a phrase it leaves undefined, and “may qualify for additional AWS customer benefits.” Nothing in it says every badged product counts for every buyer. (Background on the EDP itself: AWS EDP: what marketplace sellers need to know.)

	Badge question	Commitment question
Asks	Does our product run entirely on AWS?	Does this purchase count toward this buyer’s commitment?
Depends on	Your product’s architecture	This product, under this buyer’s agreement with AWS
Confirmed by	AWS, reviewing your architecture details	The buyer, with their AWS account team
Where you see it	The product’s Architecture details tab	Only in what the buyer tells you

These AWS pages don’t say how a product without the designation is treated, so promise neither outcome.

What does AWS require before it grants the badge?

In the AWS whitepaper the guidelines cite, the control plane is the services used “to onboard, authenticate, manage, operate, and analyze a multi-tenant environment,” and the application plane is “where the multi-tenant functionality of your application resides.” AWS’s rule, effective May 1, 2025, as a checklist:

#	Check	AWS’s wording
1	Both planes on AWS	”your product must run entirely on AWS. This includes the application and control planes.”
2	Application plane in an AWS account	”The application plane can run in the seller’s AWS account, the buyer’s AWS account, or both.”
3	Third-party services that handle application data on AWS	”Third-party services used by the product to transmit, store, or process application data—except content delivery networks (CDNs), domain name systems (DNSs), and corporate identity providers (IdPs)—must also run entirely on AWS.”
4	Agents and gateways outside AWS send only to AWS	”Agents or gateways used by the product for security, monitoring, data replication, or migration can run on buyer-owned environments outside AWS, including on premises, but must send data only to AWS for storage and analysis.”
5	A diagram, in PNG or JPG	”Group and label components as part of the application plane or control plane.”

Check 3 is the one to do slowly. AWS defines application data as “data that belongs to or is generated for the buyer.” List every external service your product sends buyer data to (model inference, search, email, analytics, error tracking, support tooling) and, for each one that isn’t a CDN, DNS or corporate identity provider, get the vendor’s answer on where it runs. One non-AWS service in that path fails the check as written.

The diagram rules close the obvious shortcut: “For any components outside of AWS that are part of the core business logic of your product, group them with the application plane.” The diagram needn’t name services, can be high-level or detailed, and “is not published and not publicly available to buyers,” so draw the product as it actually runs.

How do you submit architecture details to AWS?

As a change request on an existing product, so the listing comes first; our listing readiness checklist covers that part. AWS’s steps, verbatim except for its cross-references:

1. Sign into the AWS Marketplace Management Portal.
2. On the Build menu, choose SaaS.
3. In the SaaS products table, choose your product.
4. For Request changes, choose Update architecture details.
5. Choose a hosting pattern. If you select a hosting pattern that AWS Marketplace considers deployed on AWS, complete the following two additional steps.
   1. If prompted, in the Architecture diagram section, choose Choose file to upload your architecture diagram in PNG or JPG format.
   2. If prompted, in the Application plane, choose where your application runs.
6. Choose Update architecture details.

Three details are easy to misread:

• “Succeeded” is not the verdict. “Once the request completes, Request status changes to Succeeded” on the Request log tab; your assessment results are on the Architecture details tab. Read that before telling sales you have the badge.
• It is not one and done. “If your hosting pattern changes, you must update your product’s architecture details.”
• Two portal names. AWS’s link for the Management Portal opens AWS Partner Central, where the same page says this update is made.

AWS gives no review time for this request, so keep the badge off any launch plan with a date on it.

How do you verify commitment drawdown on a specific deal?

Ask the side that holds the agreement. Before any proposal or forecast says the purchase counts, have the buyer confirm it with their AWS account team, for the specific product, in writing:

1. Name every product in the deal, with listing name and product ID. Eligibility “is determined separately for each product,” and an AMI or container image deployed into the buyer’s account must be published as its own add-on product.
2. Ask a closed question: “Does [product] count toward your commitment under your agreement with AWS, and does the full purchase amount count?”
3. Record the answer on the opportunity: what was confirmed, by whom, and when.
4. Ask again at renewal, and after any change to the product’s architecture details.

Until the buyer confirms, borrow AWS’s hedge. Instead of “this purchase counts toward your EDP,” write:

[Product] is deployed on AWS and carries AWS Marketplace’s Deployed on AWS designation. AWS says products deployed on AWS typically qualify for committed spend drawdown; please confirm with your AWS account team how this purchase applies under your agreement.

Keep the first sentence only if the Architecture details tab confirms the designation; the question to the buyer is the same either way.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Deployed on AWS badge?

It is the designation AWS Marketplace shows in search results and on product detail pages for SaaS products that run entirely on AWS, including the application and control planes. AWS grants it after reviewing architecture details the seller submits.

Does the badge mean a purchase counts toward the buyer’s AWS commitment?

Not by itself. AWS says products deployed on AWS typically qualify for committed spend drawdown, and that eligibility is determined separately for each product. Whether a given purchase counts depends on the product and the buyer’s agreement, so have the buyer confirm it with their AWS account team.

Can a product that does not run entirely on AWS be sold on AWS Marketplace?

Yes. Since May 1, 2025, AWS accepts all SaaS architectures. A product that does not run entirely on AWS can be published and sold, but it does not receive the Deployed on AWS designation.

Which third-party services can run outside AWS?

Content delivery networks, DNS services and corporate identity providers. Any other third-party service that transmits, stores or processes application data must run entirely on AWS. Agents or gateways for security, monitoring, data replication or migration may run outside AWS if they send data only to AWS.

Takeaways

• The badge answers where your product runs. Drawdown is a question about one product under one buyer’s agreement.
• AWS says “typically qualify” and “determined separately for each product.” Write nothing stronger.
• Per deal: name each product, get the buyer’s written confirmation, record it, re-ask at renewal.

For the rest of the AWS motion, from listing types to private offers and co-sell, see the complete guide to selling on AWS Marketplace.