SoftwareApplication schema

01What is software application schema?

Software application schema is markup built on SoftwareApplication, the schema.org type for a software application. Its schema.org page lists properties such as applicationCategory, operatingSystem, softwareVersion and softwareRequirements, and more specific types including MobileApplication, WebApplication and VideoGame.

Google's software app documentation describes the purpose plainly: mark up software application information in the body of a page to better display app details in Google Search results. Those details are the app's rating, its price and, where you provide them, its category and platform.

SoftwareApplication schema sits in the handbook's schema types section next to the product and review guides it borrows from. If you are new to markup, start with the handbook overview of what structured data is and how machines read it.

02When should you use SoftwareApplication?

Use it on a page that is mainly about one piece of software: an app's landing page, a WordPress plugin's page, a desktop program's download page, or an editor's review of a single app. The page should show the facts the markup states, including the price and the rating.

Pages about many apps, such as a category page or a ranking, are lists. Mark up the list itself, and keep SoftwareApplication for the pages that cover one app in depth.

The same rule holds for a plugin with free and paid editions on one page. It is still one piece of software, so it gets one SoftwareApplication block, and the editions are described through its offers and the visible pricing table rather than as separate apps.

03Which properties does Google require?

Google's required properties are short: a name, an offer with a price, and a rating or review. applicationCategory and operatingSystem are recommended.

Free apps still need an offer. Google says that if the app is available without payment, set offers.price to 0, and if it costs more than 0, add priceCurrency as well. That differs from shop products: merchant listings require a price above zero, as our guide to product schema and AI shopping answers explains.

The rating is not optional for this result either. Google requires an aggregateRating or a review, and both follow the review snippet guidelines. Under those guidelines a star average copied from an app store or a plugin directory is a rating aggregated from another website, which Google says not to do. Ratings must come from the page's own users, and they must be visible.

04How do applicationCategory and operatingSystem work?

applicationCategory is the type of app. schema.org accepts free text or a URL, but Google's list of supported app types is fixed: GameApplication, SocialNetworkingApplication, TravelApplication, ShoppingApplication, SportsApplication, LifestyleApplication, BusinessApplication, DesignApplication, DeveloperApplication, DriverApplication, EducationalApplication, HealthApplication, FinanceApplication, SecurityApplication, BrowserApplication, CommunicationApplication, DesktopEnhancementApplication, EntertainmentApplication, MultimediaApplication, HomeApplication, UtilitiesApplication and ReferenceApplication.

There is no plugin category. Choose the value that describes what the software does for its user. A plugin that helps developers build sites is closer to DeveloperApplication; a plugin for invoicing is closer to FinanceApplication or BusinessApplication.

operatingSystem names the systems the app requires, with Google's examples given as Windows 7, OSX 10.6 and Android 1.6. A WordPress plugin runs inside WordPress rather than on an operating system of its own. schema.org's softwareRequirements property describes dependencies such as runtimes and shared libraries, which fits a minimum WordPress and PHP version. Google does not list softwareRequirements among the properties it reads, so treat it as extra description.

For subtypes, Google supports MobileApplication and WebApplication. It adds one trap for games.

The fix Google documents is to co-type, for example ["VideoGame", "MobileApplication"], so the game is also a software app. Without the second type, the page has valid markup and no app result.

05How do ratings work for software?

Ratings for software follow the same rules as any review snippet, set out in our guide to review schema and review snippets. The self-serving restriction in the review snippet documentation is written for local businesses and organizations, not for software, so a developer can mark up genuine ratings that users leave on the developer's own product page.

Pricing plans need a decision. schema.org lets offers hold several Offer objects, one per plan, but Google's software app documentation shows a single offer. If a page lists three plans, put the plan the page leads with first, make sure every price in the markup appears on the page, and keep currency and billing period clear in the visible text.

Version details are optional but useful. softwareVersion states the current release, and a visible changelog on the same page gives readers and crawlers the same fact. Update both in the same release step, or leave the property out.

Genuine is the operative word. The ratings must be collected on that page, shown to readers, and counted honestly. An editor's review of an app on an independent site nests as a single Review inside the SoftwareApplication, with the editor as author and the score on a declared scale.

06SoftwareApplication JSON-LD examples

The first example is a fictional free mobile app with ratings from its own users. The second is a fictional WordPress plugin page, using softwareRequirements for the platform. Every value is an example.

1{2  "@context": "https://schema.org",3  "@type": "MobileApplication",4  "name": "Example Habit Tracker",5  "operatingSystem": "Android 10, iOS 16",6  "applicationCategory": "LifestyleApplication",17  "offers": {8    "@type": "Offer",9    "price": 0,210    "priceCurrency": "USD"11  },12  "aggregateRating": {13    "@type": "AggregateRating",14    "ratingValue": 4.6,15    "ratingCount": 212316  }17}

1{2  "@context": "https://schema.org",3  "@type": "SoftwareApplication",4  "name": "Example Schema Helper",5  "applicationCategory": "DeveloperApplication",6  "softwareVersion": "2.4.0",7  "softwareRequirements": "WordPress 6.5 or later, PHP 8.1 or later",18  "offers": {9    "@type": "Offer",10    "price": 29,11    "priceCurrency": "USD"212  },13  "aggregateRating": {14    "@type": "AggregateRating",15    "ratingValue": 4.4,16    "ratingCount": 3817  }18}

07How do AI shopping and answers use it?

Google's guidance on AI features in Search says no special schema.org markup is needed to appear in AI Overviews or AI Mode, and lists keeping structured data in line with the visible text among the basics. SoftwareApplication markup is not a ticket into an AI answer about the best app for a task.

What the markup does is put the name, price, platform and rating in fields any parser can read without guessing. Answer engines outside Google have not published how much weight they give it, so the safe course is the one Google states: make the visible page complete, then let the markup repeat it.

Before you publish, run the page through the checks in testing structured data the right way. Include a look at the raw HTML, since markup injected by JavaScript may not reach every crawler.