APIPricingModels
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API Pricing Models
Who is going to use it?
- hobbyists/passionate developers
- non-profits
- developers of small site for targeted feature
- large sites/corporations
How is it going to be used?
How should pricing be structured?
- Amount of use
- Type of use (commercial, non-profit org.)
What is definiton of commercial use? When is an app commercial? Why should it matter if an app is commercial?
If not ready to charge, set your TOS and have developers apply for waivers
What tools need to be in place to support playing API users? As soon as people are paying, they need to know what they’re using
- utilization monitors are a given
- rate estimate calculators
How much will the collective API’s cost to the developer?
- it’s up to the developer to manage their own costs and decide if it’s a viable product
What about a licensing model?
Caching?
- typically prohibitied w/ the free models and allowed w/ specific biz relationships
Who is responsible for the API costs?
- the developer
- the end publisher (in cases where more people are publishing via the mashup, this could keep the end usage below free thresholds)
What is the long term reliability of the partner?
- are they going to compete w/ you?
- Are they going to change their terms?
Examples/what people are charging
- Ebay – free up to 1.5 mill calls/???
- Amazon – cost per call
- Google – free to a limit; varies by product
- Yahoo – free rate limited w/ no sla. Some products have affiliate programs
- Microsoft - free rate limited w/ no sla up to licensed w/ sla
- Shopping.com – affiliate program
- Mapquest – free w/ no sla
- Limited consistency w/ APIs internally within companies
- StrikeIron - free for http://www.strikeiron.com/sdp with SLA - others vary by API
