Do databricks partners need to pay for databricks account?

[Swapnil-sriv]

Hi guys,
Our company is new to databricks and we want to become marketplace provider, so for that we have become databricks partner.
and now that we want to develop our app/accelarator that we will put on databricks marketplace, do we need to get a paid databricks account or does databricks provide it for free to their partner companies?
We already have free tier account but i don't think it will be possible to develop apps on it and use the free account to deploy app to marketplace.

this might be a stupid question, but we are new to databricks and still trying to figure out how things work here.

[Ashwin_DSA]

Hi @Swapnil-sriv,

Not a stupid question at all... It's a reasonable question when you're new to Databricks Marketplace.

If your goal is to become a Databricks Marketplace provider and publish your own app or accelerator, a Free Edition account is generally not enough. The provider requirements call for a Databricks account on Premium plan or above, plus a Unity Catalog-enabled workspace. You do not need to enable every workspace for Unity Catalog; you can create one specifically for Marketplace management. See Become a Databricks Marketplace provider.

Also, Databricks Free Edition limitations explicitly say that Free Edition is meant for non-commercial use and that Free Edition accounts cannot become Databricks Marketplace providers. The same page also notes that Free Edition does not include access to the account console or account-level APIs, which are important for more complete account administration.

So your assumption is basically correct...for building and deploying something intended for Databricks Marketplace, you should expect to use a paid Databricks account/workspace rather than Free Edition. For broader background, see What is Databricks Marketplace? and the provider onboarding guide above.

If your company is already in the Databricks Partner Program, the provider documentation says to contact partnerops@databricks.com for the Marketplace provider path.

Hope that helps clarify it.

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