Subscription requirements for revenue generating apps

[SimonPGIS]

Good morning,

I am currently designing a mobile application project (.NET Maui). The strategy considered is licensing by named user. The goal is to publish an application on the AppStores with the aim of earning income from it.

I recently came across some posts in Esri Community that it would be necessary for a commercial application to have an ArcGIS Developer subscription at Builder level (US$1500/year) or higher to publish a commercial application.

Is this really the case even with licensing per named user? I looked everywhere in the license agreements and couldn't find the info that corroborated it. As I am not sure that I will actually make any profit and I am carrying out the project on my own, this point is important given the costs.

Also, in my architecture phases, I had kept this Esri blog article from 2021 that states:

“ArcGIS Platform removed the requirement for revenue generating apps to have an associated purchased ArcGIS Developers subscription. Instead, a freely obtainable ArcGIS Developer Subscription may be used. »

Developing & Licensing ArcGIS Runtime Applications, Demystifying the Requirements | Esri Australia T...

Thanks for your help,

[MichaelBranscomb · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Overall, as a developer planning to create a revenue generating app, if your users are using ArcGIS Platform location services via authentication (either an API key or an ArcGIS identity) then you can use the free Essentials tier to create those applications. 

In terms of deployment, there are two aspects to consider: 1) licensing the API/technology in your deployed applications, and 2) authenticating for use of location services. The named user (ArcGIS identity) approach can achieve both, where specific types of user roles can license the API (e.g. an ArcGIS user of type Viewer provides a runtime license at the Lite level) and as an authenticated user they can consume organizational credits for accessing location services. 

Otherwise, it would be necessary for a commercial application to have an ArcGIS Developer subscription at Builder level or higher to publish a commercial application, if the application wasn't consuming authenticated ArcGIS Platform location services. 

Thanks

[SimonPGIS]

@MichaelBranscomb  Thanks for your time and for the information. Have a nice day.