Forum Discussion
Teams App & Marketplace Offer Rating
I know this is a discussion about Teams apps but the same is true for my Excel Add-in. The confusion of the "app" vs. the "SaaS" app is mostly related to when you have a 1-to-1 SaaS-to-App. I think of it as only one app "inside" your SaaS app (and I try to convey it that way to my customers because they are confused). However, if I develop and link another add-in to my SaaS app (which I intend to) then I will have 2 apps "inside" my 1 SaaS app and I would think it would actually be more helpful to have the apps rated separately.
On another note, the confusion for my customers is not just related to ratings but installation in M365 Admin portal. When a customer clicks "Get it now" in AppSource they are brought to the M365 Admin portal where the screen they are navigated to has both the SaaS app and the Excel Add-in checkbox automatically checked to install. For my SaaS app, there really is NOTHING to install as it is just the landing page where customers activate their subscription. I'm sure customers are just scratching their heads wondering what to do.
All of this said, I don't have a better solution for the SaaS app vs app issue. This is the new infrastructure and I honestly don't want Microsoft to change this again. I think they need to change their methods for aggregating ratings so ISV's, like Alon Ekelund, don't miss out on Marketplace incentives.
jba33 A comment. It is very important for me to say that this is not only regarding Teams App. This is the case for all Apps that are published through AppSource (old term - Office Apps). Outlook, Office (Word, Excel and PowerPoint), Teams and SharePoint. If we want to monetize and sell our Apps the only option, we have is to make a transactable SaaS App for the AppSource App. As I see it, we have a challenge on M365 Apps with a 1-to-1 SaaS-to-App.
I also agree on your second note 
. And I also don't think we are ready for a big change. What you guys have done is great - and thank you for that. However, there are still several areas of improvement, and we can take them step by step 
with no rushing.
That is also why at the moment I am only looking at the rating and reviews. And I do believe a synchronization would be the easiest model as it is a backend change and process. The SaaS Apps that are connected to an AppSource App all have the App ID of the AppSource App. Technically it seems that you guys have what you need to made the sync.
Thank you.