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A package listed as a priced product card with an install button, sold through marketplace and private offer paths that converge on a customer install
Products are sellable wrappers around Packages. A Product gives a Package catalog metadata, marketplace visibility, and sale paths so customers can purchase and install your software through the or a private Offer. A Product points at a Package version and controls how that Package is presented for sale. When a customer purchases, Akua creates an order draft, provisions a private installation repository for that customer, and installs the selected Package version with the customer’s inputs.
This page is about the Products you create and sell. For Akua’s own platform capability catalog, see Platform capabilities.

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How sellable products work

Products package your software for sale. Each Product includes:
  • Package binding: the Package and version customers install
  • Display settings: name, description, images, and visibility options
  • Sale paths: public marketplace listing, reusable Offer, or private customer Offer
  • Commercial setup: optional payment configuration for customer billing
When customers purchase your product, Akua automatically provisions a per-customer installation repository and applies the rendered manifests to the selected cluster. Each customer gets their own isolated with dedicated resources.

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How a product becomes an installation

Package version + product metadata
        │
        ▼  customer purchases via offer or marketplace
Per-install repository (akua.toml + package.k + inputs.yaml + upstream/ + manifests/)
        │
        ▼  cluster syncs
Running installation
Every installation gets its own repository with vendored sources, the customer’s inputs, and the rendered Kubernetes manifests. The repository is the install target: your cluster reads from it, your team can edit it, and every change ships with a commit history. See Concepts for the full picture.

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Products and offers

Products can appear in the marketplace or stay private behind Offers: shareable short URLs (akua.dev/i/<hash>) that take customers directly into the install wizard. An Offer can pre-fill and optionally lock specific input fields. The wizard form is generated from the selected Package version’s input schema, so customers configure their install without any hand-coded form on your part. Input schema quality (docstrings, grouping, ordering, widget hints) is the main lever for a great customer experience.

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When to use products

Use sellable products when you want to sell software to customers:
  • Open source monetization: offer managed, dedicated installations of your OSS project (databases, dev tools, analytics, CMS) as a cloud service without building multi-tenant infrastructure
  • SaaS with dedicated instances: enterprise customers who need isolation get their own installation (healthcare, finance, collaboration tools)
  • Managed database services: offer dedicated database clusters (PostgreSQL, Redis, ClickHouse) per customer
  • Custom applications: B2B SaaS, industry-specific software, white-label solutions, or internal tools turned into products

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Sellable products vs direct installs

Sellable productsDirect installs
PurposeSell software to customersInternal tools, shared databases, monitoring
PricingOptional Stripe integrationNo pricing
MarketplaceListed when catalog visibility is enabledNot listed
OffersYes (shareable install wizard links)No
Per-install repositoryYes, one per customerYes, one per install
Both flavors generate per-installation repositories from Package versions and inputs. Learn more about installations →.

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Creating a product

Create a product from the Products dashboard. You will:
  1. Select an existing Package or create one from an authored package.k and supported package dependencies.
  2. Choose the Package version that the Product should sell.
  3. Add product metadata and decide whether the Product is public in the marketplace or only sold through private Offers.
  4. Configure payment when the Product should collect money during checkout.
To collect payment, enable the workspace’s commerce payment path, then configure the commercial terms used by the listing or Offer.

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API

Products API

Create, update, archive, and list products.

Offers API

Create and manage offers for your products.

Packages API

Create Packages, inspect versions, and fetch input schemas.

Packages

Manage versioned install definitions and input schemas.

Platform capabilities

Map Akua’s platform catalog categories to docs areas.

Offers

Share short URLs that drive the generated install wizard.

Order drafts

How customer purchase journeys are tracked.

Installations

How products create customer installations.

Pricing

Plans, quotas, and platform billing.