From time to time, we hear that a certain lore has developed around AppSumo. The good news is that 99% of it is pure fun:
But certain myths have built up that aren’t totally accurate. Truth be told, we’ve often failed to clarify misconceptions as they come up—and that’s on us.
If you’re reading this, we want to use this space to address some of these myths and give you more information about how we do things at AppSumo.
So without further ado, let’s set the record straight.
We partner with some of the best SaaS companies to give Sumo-lings (our customers) awesome deals on the tools they need to grow their businesses.
But we want to clear this up: Our business model isn’t about taking a big cut from our partners—it’s about building long-lasting partnerships that drive sustainable growth.. We’re here to do everything we can to help our partners succeed, including reinvesting our revenue into their marketing.
So let’s start with the first misconception.
Misconception: AppSumo takes 70%+ revenue from partners
Truth: We negotiate fair revenue split with each partner that evolves based on the marketing and exposure we’re driving, so both sides can grow together.
We put significant resources into getting your deals in front of the right audience. Marketing is a big, ongoing expense that fuels the magic behind successful campaigns. Our revenue share model is designed to ensure both AppSumo and our partners benefit equally.
To make this happen, we reinvest a large portion of revenue into key areas, including newsletter placement, paid advertising, affiliate programs, and payment processing. Our goal is to drive traffic and conversions for your deal, so it can reach a wider audience.
Picture this: if you’re a new startup, you’d have to spend around $20K+ just for a newsletter placement for a list of AppSumo’s size. If you wanted to run ads and test creative, it’d take weeks of campaigns in learning mode and an additional four figures to actually start seeing sales. And building an affiliate program? We’ve been working on ours for 7 years, and have invested in refining our processes to make sure the best advocates are working for our partners.
Here’s a deeper breakdown of where that marketing spend goes to promote partner deals:
To learn more about our revenue share, check out our breakdown here.
Every AppSumo partner also receives 100% commission up to $100 for every new buyer they bring in, in addition to their revenue share. This way, partners can actually make more money on our platform than if they did a lifetime deal (LTD) on their own.
Here’s Olman (“Olo”) Quesada, our Head of Business Development:
Olo: Some of our best partners have taken advantage of their exclusive partner affiliate link to make their commission. Past partners have sent their link to cold email lists or used it to re-engage customers who churned. We firmly believe partners should be compensated adequately for new buyer acquisition, and this is our way of doing it.
Let’s run the numbers. Say a partner launches a $69 LTD on AppSumo. If they share their link with certain cold segments of their list, getting 50 new buyers to purchase their deal, here’s their extra revenue:
$69 x 50 = $3,450 in extra earnings from a cold list
In AppSumo's earlier years, some partners were in the beta stage when they launched on AppSumo. Back then, we found many diamonds in the rough like Lemlist, which launched on AppSumo out of beta, scaling to $1M ARR in less than two years.
Zapier also famously used AppSumo to launch out of beta back in 2012:
In these cases, Sumo-lings were like early adopters who kickstarted SaaS products.
But as we’ve evolved, so has our criteria. Today, we partner with companies that are at least in the startup phase. At a minimum, that means the business has launched, is actively acquiring customers, and is focused on growth. On the other end of the spectrum, we also work with mature SaaS companies that have a stable revenue stream and a large customer base, with the goal of maintaining market position and optimizing profitability. In fact, it’s actually increasingly common for established SaaS products to run promotions in our store. Whether it’s entering the North American market from abroad, promoting a major rebrand or product overhaul, or just avoiding spending hundreds of thousands of dollars on a major Facebook ads campaign, all kinds of SaaS companies partner with us to promote their products.
Here are a few of our notable partners:
When you launch on AppSumo, you’re joining a community that includes names like Twilio, ClassPass, Shopify, Zendesk, Intercom, Bill.com, Optimizely, UserTesting, Buffer, Freshbooks, WP Engine, Audible, Evernote, and many more.
While we do launch beta products, we’ve evolved to give our community of 1M+ entrepreneurs, agency owners, and freelancers a wide range of deals—from all types of partners.
According to Lighter Capital, 92% of SaaS startups fail within 3 years—even with a 20% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). Despite that alarming statistic, our team has still managed to partner with a very high percentage of winners over the years, and has brought our community millions of dollars in savings along the way.
Olo: We do our best to partner with tools that are in it for the long run. But no selection process is ever going to be 100% foolproof.
However, as we’ve run the numbers, we’ve found our partners to follow the opposite trend: Over 90% of products we’ve launched are still live.
Our vetting process is no small feat—it involves extensive research, partner calls, and multiple checkpoints across different teams to ensure only the best tools make it to our platform. With an acceptance rate of around 50% from initial leads, we prioritize quality over quantity, focusing on tools that deliver real value to entrepreneurs. Because of our rigorous Business Development and Beta-ling vetting process, an AppSumo launch could even signal to VCs that you’re worth a closer look.
In 2024, our thorough vetting process keeps delivering, with many featured products seeing standout growth. This isn’t just chance—we’re picky about the tools we bring on, choosing the ones with solid features and strong demand to set them up for long-term success beyond their AppSumo launch. Our approach has allowed us to build a high level of trust with our community and partners, positioning AppSumo as a launchpad for sustainable growth.
A successful launch can provide a valuable proof of product/market fit, a key validation VCs obsess over. Former partners like HeySummit, Grammarly, Headspace, UserTesting, 99designs, Bonsai, Help Scout, and many more prove this.
We get it—when you see glowing reviews, it can seem too good to be true. But at AppSumo, we take authenticity seriously. Sumo-lings write their own reviews, and we approve them as long as they meet our Community Guidelines. While reviews are a major part of our ecosystem, we don't manipulate ratings or control how many tacos (our rating system) a product receives.
Here’s how we ensure reviews stay fair and transparent:
We’ve heard concerns about reviews from users who “joined today” or purchased just one deal. But for context, roughly 7,000 new Sumo-lings join the community every month. We love it when they leave reviews. It’s an important part of being a part of this community.
Rest assured, all reviews go through a vetting process to ensure they align with our guidelines, regardless of how long a Sumo-ling has been a part of our community.
By following these practices, we maintain a community that supports honest feedback and fair evaluations, so you can trust the reviews you see on AppSumo.
We intentionally added visibility into the number of purchases a reviewer has made to increase transparency, so Sumo-lings can weigh each review however they see fit. We want each buyer to be empowered, knowing when a given reviewer bought their deal, joined AppSumo, and how many deals they’ve bought. We invite everyone to assess the credibility of each review—and ultimately judge for themselves.
Over the past 10 years, we’ve done over 3,000 unique launches with SaaS partners. While it’s true that some partners eventually close their doors, the majority continue to grow and succeed, building on the momentum gained from their AppSumo launch.
In fact, we’re more committed than ever to helping partners grow sustainably. In 2024, we’re raising the bar by prioritizing deal structures that support long-term success beyond AppSumo. We’re not just focused on the initial launch—we’re also investing in resources, strategies, and guidance to help partners scale and achieve sustainable growth well into the future.
The AppSumo community has essentially been micro-investors for the past 10 years. Our partners have raised over $17 billion in funding, making waves across the technology world. Here’s a small sampling of recent partners:
Olo: We like to say that AppSumo is like training at high altitude: On launch day, you get to see what it looks like to onboard hundreds of customers in real time. This allows you to stress-test your product—and your team.
The customer base you get from an AppSumo launch is the base you use to grow. Sumo-lings make phenomenal affiliates. If they love your product, there’s no way you can keep them from talking about it a lot, publicly, all over the internet. We encourage our partners to capitalize on the noise and energy of a launch. If your product is solid and you have a dedicated team to support your users, you will thrive. But on the flip side, AppSumo isn’t going to save you if you don’t have those elements in place.
The truth is, the type of company that has a great launch would have been fine without us. We just help our partners reach that next level of success faster and stronger. But what we’re looking for is companies with a healthy run rate. We make sure partners have at least a year’s worth of runway to launch a deal with us.
There’s a lot of lore out there about AppSumo, but we’re here to clear things up.
We’re all about helping SaaS companies grow and thrive—not just for launch day, but for the long haul. Our partners get more than just exposure. They get a community of die-hard Sumo-lings, smart deal structures, and a marketing push that makes scaling feel a little less like climbing Everest.
Sure, some companies stumble, but the vast majority crush it and keep growing.
AppSumo isn’t just a one-time boost—it’s a launchpad for long-term success.
How does AppSumo calculate revenue share? We strategically reinvest money made from our revenue share back into resources that help you grow (AKA, everything that fuels your campaign to make it successful).
We’ll walk you through why lifetime deals can be an awesome strategy and how to make them work for your business. Let’s dive in.
Sumo Day is our biggest sale of the season! If you’ve got a product listed on AppSumo, here’s how to best promote your product and make the most of this event.
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