ISV stands for Independent Software Vendor: a company that builds its own software product and sells it to many customers, rather than selling services, hardware, or somebody else's software. Microsoft, Adobe and Atlassian are ISVs. In the Salesforce ecosystem, an ISV is a partner that packages its product as a managed package and lists it on AgentExchange, the marketplace formerly branded AppExchange.
What does ISV stand for?
ISV stands for Independent Software Vendor. All three words carry weight. Independent means the vendor is not owned by the platform it builds on. Software means it sells a product, not a consulting engagement. Vendor means it sells that product to many customers rather than building one system for one client.
Outside enterprise software the term is rare. Inside it, ISV is how platform companies label the partners who extend the platform with paid products: Salesforce ISVs on AgentExchange, HubSpot ISVs on the App Marketplace, Microsoft ISVs on AppSource, Atlassian ISVs on the Atlassian Marketplace. If you are weighing which program to join, the HubSpot partner programs split along similar product-versus-service lines.
One caveat before the table. In the payments industry the same three letters describe a software vendor that embeds card payments in its own product, which is why a search for ISV returns processors alongside cloud platforms. Stripe's definition of an ISV covers that sense. This page covers the platform-ecosystem sense, the one Salesforce, AWS and Microsoft use.
The table below separates ISV from the three labels it gets confused with most often.
| Term | What they sell | How they make money |
|---|---|---|
| ISV (Independent Software Vendor) | Their own software product | Licenses or subscriptions, to many customers |
| VAR (Value Added Reseller) | Someone else's product, plus setup and support | Reseller margin, plus services |
| SI (System Integrator) | Time and expertise | Billable hours or fixed-fee projects |
| MSP (Managed Service Provider) | Ongoing operation of software someone else built | A monthly retainer |
What ISV means in Salesforce
ISV stands for Independent Software Vendor. In the Salesforce ecosystem it means a partner that develops a commercial software product on the Salesforce platform and distributes it, typically as a managed package listed on AgentExchange. The defining trait is that a Salesforce ISV sells a product to many customers, rather than delivering custom work to one.
The marketplace name changed in April 2026. Salesforce's partner program documentation is now titled AgentExchange ISV Track, effective April 2026, and the public Become an ISV Partner page tells partners to publish their listing on AgentExchange. Readers still searching for AppExchange are looking at the same marketplace, and our guide to the AgentExchange rebrand covers what carried over.
When a customer installs an ISV's app, they add a managed package to their own Salesforce org. The ISV maintains and upgrades that package over time. The managed package format, which is upgradeable, namespaced and source-protected, is central to the ISV model.
You will also see the term ISVforce. That is Salesforce's name for the standard ISV distribution model, where your app depends on Salesforce technology and your customers already hold their own Salesforce licenses. The alternative is OEM, and the two models are compared in the partner-type section below.
What is an ISV app?
An ISV app is the packaged product an Independent Software Vendor sells through a platform's marketplace, installed into the customer's own tenant rather than run only on the vendor's infrastructure. On Salesforce that means a managed package the customer installs into their own org. On HubSpot it means a listed app that connects through HubSpot's public APIs.
The distinction that matters to a buyer is repeatability. An ISV app is a commercial product with a version history, an upgrade path and a support contract behind it, not a one-off customization built for a single org.
Salesforce customers install a lot of them. Salesforce's own partner program deck, effective April 2026, reports that 91% of Salesforce customers use one or more AgentExchange apps and counts more than 14 million installs across the marketplace.
Examples of ISVs
Outside any marketplace, an ISV is simply a company whose business is its own software. Microsoft, Adobe and Atlassian all qualify: each builds a product and licenses it to many customers instead of billing for implementation hours.
Inside a marketplace the label is sharper, because it separates the partners selling products from the partners selling hours. Salesforce named four ISV partners when it launched AgentExchange in March 2025, each shipping prebuilt components rather than services.
| ISV partner | What its AgentExchange components do |
|---|---|
| Docusign | Generates agreements, routes them for signature, tracks status |
| Box | Extracts insights from unstructured data for Agentforce agents |
| Google Cloud | Grounds agents in Google Search through Vertex AI |
| Workday | Runs employee self-service flows such as onboarding and benefits |
Salesforce said the marketplace launched with more than 200 initial partners and hundreds of ready-made actions, topics and templates that had passed its security and customer reviews.
ISV vs SI vs PDO vs OEM
These four partner labels get used interchangeably and they describe four different businesses. The table shows what each one is and who it sells to.
| Type | What they are | Who they serve |
|---|---|---|
| ISV (ISVforce) | Builds and sells its own product on Salesforce | Existing Salesforce customers, via AgentExchange |
| SI (System Integrator) | Implements and configures Salesforce | One customer at a time, as a service |
| PDO (Product Development Outsourcer) | Builds marketplace apps for other companies | ISVs that lack in-house Salesforce developers |
| OEM | An ISV model that embeds Salesforce licenses in the product | Existing Salesforce customers and non-Salesforce customers |
The cleanest test is product versus service. If you sell a repeatable product on AgentExchange, you are an ISV. If you sell hours configuring Salesforce for a client, you are an SI.
Salesforce draws the same line in its April 2026 ISV Track deck, which splits partners into Apps and Integrations, meaning those extending Salesforce products for Salesforce customers, and Platform Partners, meaning those building and selling solutions independently to their own customers.
PDO stands for Product Development Outsourcer. Salesforce's partner education material describes PDOs as consulting partners and vendors with expertise in building commercial apps, alongside services such as training, supporting, marketing or selling your app. A PDO is a supplier to an ISV, not an alternative to being one: the ISV still owns the product and the listing.
The ISV and OEM distinction is the one that actually changes your economics, because it sets the revenue share and decides whether your customer needs their own Salesforce license. The AppExchange Starter Pack for ISVs records that ISVforce partners can sell to existing Salesforce customers only, while OEM partners can sell to existing Salesforce customers and non-Salesforce customers. Our ISVforce vs OEM comparison covers that choice in full, and the AppExchange revenue share breakdown covers what each model costs.
How a company becomes a Salesforce ISV
You join the Salesforce Partner Program, build your product, sign a commercial agreement, pass the security review, and publish the listing. Salesforce's Become an ISV Partner page gives the sequence as joining the Partner Community, then building your solution, executing a commercial agreement, completing a security review, and publishing your listing on AgentExchange.
Partners are then placed on a tier ladder. The April 2026 ISV Track deck lists Registered ISVs at entry, for partners who have joined but have no commercial relationship yet, then Tier 4 Exploration, Tier 3 Build for partners with a signed distribution agreement, Tier 2 Select for partners with paid listings live and distributing, and Tier 1 Summit for Salesforce's largest and most strategic ISV partnerships. Salesforce re-evaluates tiers quarterly.
The build step is where most SaaS companies stall, because a managed package is Salesforce platform work rather than ordinary product engineering. Companies either hire Salesforce developers, engage a PDO, or outsource the build. Our Salesforce ISV Partner Program guide walks the full path, and there is a separate guide to building a managed package without a Salesforce developer.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is an ISV in simple terms?
A company that writes its own software and sells it to lots of customers. It is independent because it does not belong to the platform vendor whose ecosystem it sells into, and it is a software vendor rather than a consultancy because the thing it sells is a product.
What is the difference between an ISV and a VAR?
An ISV builds the software. A VAR, or Value Added Reseller, resells software somebody else built, usually adding installation, configuration and support on top. An ISV earns license revenue on its own product; a VAR earns a margin on someone else's.
What does ISV stand for in Salesforce?
ISV stands for Independent Software Vendor: a partner that builds its own commercial product on the Salesforce platform and distributes it on AgentExchange as a managed package, rather than delivering services to individual customers.
What is the difference between an ISV and an SI?
An ISV builds and sells its own product to many customers through the marketplace. A System Integrator, or SI, delivers implementation and configuration services to one customer at a time. Product versus service is the key distinction.
What is the difference between an ISV and a PDO?
An ISV owns and sells the product. A PDO, or Product Development Outsourcer, is a partner that builds marketplace apps on behalf of ISVs that lack in-house Salesforce developers. Hiring a PDO does not make you a PDO: you remain the ISV, because you own the listing and the customer relationship.
What is an ISV partner?
An ISV partner is an Independent Software Vendor that has formally joined a platform's partner program, rather than one that merely builds software for that platform. In Salesforce that means signing up through the Partner Community and executing a commercial agreement, which is what unlocks the ability to package, list and sell through the marketplace.
What is ISVforce?
ISVforce is Salesforce's name for the standard ISV distribution model, where your app depends on Salesforce technology such as Sales Cloud or Service Cloud and your customers already hold their own Salesforce licenses. The alternative model is OEM, where Salesforce platform licenses are embedded in what you sell.
Is Salesforce an ISV?
Salesforce is a platform vendor rather than an ISV partner in its own ecosystem. It builds and sells its own software, which fits the general definition of an independent software vendor, but inside the Salesforce Partner Program the ISV label describes the partners who build on the platform and list on AgentExchange.
About the author
Sunny Chauhan is the founder and CEO of Appnigma AI, a done-for-you engineering service that builds native Salesforce and HubSpot managed packages for B2B SaaS companies. He works with teams taking a product through the Salesforce partner path without an in-house Salesforce engineering team.
Related Articles
- What is a managed package in Salesforce
- Salesforce ISV vs OEM
- Salesforce ISV partner program and how to join
- Build a managed package without a Salesforce developer
Sources
Last reviewed on September 16, 2026 by Sunny Chauhan. The adoption figure, the AgentExchange naming, the ISV tier structure and the ISVforce and OEM selling rules below were re-checked against these Salesforce sources on that date.
- Salesforce, Salesforce Partner Program AgentExchange ISV Track, effective April 2026: adoption figure, install count, tier structure, partner model split.
- Salesforce, Become a Salesforce ISV Partner: the steps to join and the instruction to publish on AgentExchange.
- Salesforce, Salesforce Launches AgentExchange: launch date, initial partner count, named ISV partners.
- Salesforce, The AppExchange Starter Pack for ISVs: ISVforce and OEM distribution models and who each can sell to.
- Salesforce, What is AppExchange: the marketplace adoption statistics as originally cited on this page.
