Microsoft Store Opens for Free to Individual Developers Worldwide

Microsoft has just made a remarkable new move to attract the developer community to its ecosystem. Accordingly, registering and publishing applications on the Microsoft Store will now be completely free for everyone. This change applies globally, in nearly 200 markets, eliminating credit card requirements and one-time registration fees - barriers for many small developers.

According to Microsoft, this decision makes the app store more open and accessible, and responds directly to feedback from the developer community.

The Microsoft Store now has more than 250 million monthly active users. Some independent developers such as HUXSoft and Good2Create said that the number of users and revenue increased sharply thanks to recent improvements. In particular, HUXSoft saw the number of new installs per day increase 10 times. Meanwhile, Good2Create increased from 10,000 to 40,000 daily active users, thereby increasing revenue 6 times.

Microsoft Store Opens for Free to Individual Developers Worldwide Picture 1

Quick registration process, supports a variety of applications

Microsoft says the new sign-up process is streamlined and modern, taking developers from account creation to app submission in just minutes. Some highlights include:

Simple identity verification.
Automatically fill in profile information.
Visit Partner Center now.

The supported application types are very diverse: Win32, UWP, PWA, .NET MAUI, Electron… without editing the source code. Microsoft also emphasized that the Store platform is growing rapidly thanks to AI and the new PC Copilot+ line.

In addition, the flexible revenue sharing policy is also quite attractive. For non-game applications, developers can use their own payment system and keep 100% of the revenue. In addition, Microsoft also provides free storage (MSIX), free digital signing, automatic updates, reducing the operational burden. Thanks to that, programmers can focus on innovation and optimize profits.

Anyone interested can get started now at: storedeveloper.microsoft.com.