Growing our thriving app ecosystem is a journey Xero has been on for over a decade. After opening our APIs in 2009 to a handful of developers, it was in 2011 we certified our very first app. Which is why, 10 years on, we’re rapt to announce that we’ve passed a milestone in the growth of our platform, with over 1,000 connected apps in our ecosystem. You can check out many of these apps in the Xero App Marketplace. 

In the early days, we knew we couldn’t build every niche feature a small business needed to succeed ourselves, so we encouraged other innovators to build them and integrate with Xero, so our subscribers could reap the benefits. That helped form the foundation for the global small business platform Xero is today, which allows our 2.7 million global subscribers to pick and choose from over 1,000 apps to create their own customised cloud solution to suit their unique needs.

Why we’re so passionate about apps and our community

Since our humble beginnings, we’ve been on a mission to get more apps into the hands of small businesses and their advisors, because we know they not only help businesses survive, but thrive. 

During the vast challenges of 2020, the power of apps became more apparent than ever. We saw a surge in demand for cloud technology, as small businesses reached for the tools they needed to stay operational. And we were proud the Xero App Marketplace was there to support, with apps to help with everything from cash flow management to moving sales online. We know for some small businesses, it was the technology they used that helped make all the difference. Xero’s Pandemic Insights report found during the peak of COVID-19’s impact, small businesses using apps lost less revenue, and suffered fewer staff losses, compared to those not using apps.

Our app partners are central to helping us make life better for people in small business, their advisors, and communities around the world. And with many of our 1,000 app partners being small businesses (or once small businesses) themselves, it’s been amazing to see the power of this community, innovating to help other businesses succeed

Celebrating the journey to 1,000 apps in 10 years

We’ve been on quite the journey over the past decade, as our community and the innovation on our platform has grown from strength to strength. Who could have dreamed that 10 years ago that we would one day have apps in our ecosystem like Aider, which you can literally talk to ‘siri-style’ and ask questions like “What’s our revenue today?”, and then get a reply pulled from information in Xero? Or that one of our imaginative colleagues would build an integration between Xero and a fax machine? 

We now welcome over 10 new apps to the Xero App Marketplace every month, each one personally reviewed by a developer evangelist and goes through a detailed certification process. Last year, our open API strategy and ecosystem was even recognised in the IDC MarketScape report, as a key strength.