What Is an ONDC Seller App? Meaning, Examples, How to Choose

The phrase is slightly wrong. The question is exactly right.

There is no app on the Play Store called “ONDC Seller”. There is no badge that says “ONDC verified”. There is no counter at ONDC where a shopkeeper goes to register. What exists is a set of companies, each running its own software, each connected to the network under the same rules. One of them becomes your shop’s way in. That is the thing you are trying to understand, and choosing the right one matters more than most guides admit.

I will explain it the way I would across a counter. I run one of these seller apps, so I will also tell you where my own interest sits, and I will give you six questions you can put to any of us, including me.

What does a seller app actually do for your shop?

Quick answer: Four jobs. It lists your products on the network, it receives and manages your orders, it moves the money from the buyer app to your bank, and it handles complaints through the network’s grievance system. You run the shop. The seller app runs the online side.

Here is where a seller app sits. Notice that the buyer never opens your seller app, and you never open the buyer’s app. The network joins the two.

📊 Where a seller app sits

Now the four jobs, in the order they touch your day.

1. Catalogue. Your products go into the seller app with a photo, a name, MRP, net quantity, the manufacturer or packer details, and stock. The seller app turns that into the network’s format and answers every buyer-app search that matches. If a listing is missing a mandatory field, buyer apps quietly leave it out. (That filtering is real and it is the single biggest reason a live shop gets no orders; the label rules are in our Legal Metrology labels guide.)

2. Orders. When a customer taps “buy” in a buyer app, the order travels across the network to your seller app. The app rings you, shows the order, lets you accept it, pack it, and hand it to a delivery partner. Every status change (“packed”, “out for delivery”, “delivered”) goes back to the buyer through the same route.

3. Money. The buyer paid inside the buyer app. That money does not come to you directly. It moves buyer app → seller app → your bank account, after the network’s return window closes. The seller app deducts its fee and the statutory tax lines, then pays out with a bank reference (UTR) you can check.

4. Complaints. If the customer raises an issue, it arrives through the network’s grievance system (called IGM). The seller app must respond within the network’s time limits, and it works the case with you.

What is the full form, and what does “Seller Network Participant” mean?

Quick answer: “ONDC seller app” has no full form of its own. ONDC is Open Network for Digital Commerce. The formal name of a seller app is Seller Network Participant: a company that has signed the network’s participant agreement, is listed in the ONDC registry, and runs the seller-side software. You, the shopkeeper, are not a participant. You are a provider inside your seller app’s listing.

This distinction explains a lot of confusion, so it is worth two minutes.

The ONDC registry is a list of companies, not of shops. Each company on it has a role: buyer side, seller side, logistics, or gateway. A seller-side company signs the Network Participant Agreement with ONDC, gets a technical identity (a subscriber ID, which looks like a web address), and takes on every obligation the network places on sellers: honest listings, response times, complaint handling, settlement rules.

Your shop sits inside that company’s identity. When a buyer app searches, it sees “provider: your shop, via seller app X”. That is why you never sign anything with ONDC, never pay ONDC, and never log in to anything at ondc.org. Your seller app carries those duties for you, and it answers to ONDC if your listing breaks a rule.

📊 Three names for the same thing

In the technical documents the same company is called a BPP, and a buyer app is a BAP. You will not need those letters, but if a sales call throws them at you, now you know they mean the seller side and the buyer side.

MSN vs ISN: which kind of seller app is for a shop like yours?

Quick answer: ONDC’s rules describe two kinds of seller-side participant. An MSN (Marketplace Seller Node) is one seller app hosting many independent shops. An ISN (Inventory Seller Node) is one company selling its own stock through its own node. A kirana, an SHG, a papad maker, or any shop without a software team uses an MSN. Kaarobari is an MSN.

The network’s own participant list names both: NP-MSN and NP-ISN. The difference is simply whose goods are being sold and who carries the network duties.

📊 Which one is for you

One practical result of this: because an MSN carries the network duties for you, the MSN’s rules become your rules. Its fee, its settlement timing, its language, its exit terms. That is why the six checks at the end of this page matter more than the definition.

ONDC seller app examples (checked 4 September 2026)

Quick answer: There are many, and they are not all the same kind of company. Some were built for small shops. Some are business software that added a seller side. Some big buyer apps also run a seller side. Some are brands running their own node. Kaarobari is in the first group.

I checked these names against ONDC’s production registry on 4 September 2026, filtering for seller-side participants with an active (subscribed) status in the retail domains: grocery, food and beverage, fashion, beauty and personal care, and electronics. Many companies hold several entries, so “entries” is not “companies”. The anonymous lookup may also not show every participant. Treat this as a dated sample, not a census.

I am listing, not recommending. I am an interested party, and I say so. If you want a list that also checks which of these still accept new sellers, that is a separate question with its own dated page: ONDC seller apps that still accept sellers in 2026.

What a seller app on the ONDC Network is NOT

Quick answer: It is not ONDC itself, not a shopping app you download, not a login at ondc.org, not a marketplace that owns your customer, and not a badge. Nobody is “ONDC verified”.

Five things people assume, and the honest correction for each.

It is not ONDC. ONDC is the not-for-profit body that writes the rules and runs the registry. It sells nothing, lists nothing, and takes no fee from a shop. If you want the full picture of what the network is and how an order travels across it, read what the ONDC Network is and how it works first. This page is about the seller side only.

It is not a shopping app. The customer shops in a buyer app. Which apps those are, and what each is good for, is on our ONDC buyer apps list. Your seller app is invisible to the customer. As we saw above, some companies run both roles, but the roles are still separate.

It is not an “ONDC seller login” or “ONDC portal”. There is a participant portal at portal.ondc.org, and it is for companies like Kaarobari, not for shops. You log in to your seller app’s own dashboard. If a website asks you to “log in to ONDC” as a shopkeeper, close it.

It is not a marketplace that owns your customer. On a walled marketplace the platform controls who sees you and can change the rules on you. A seller app on the ONDC Network is one of many doors into the same network. Your product list is yours. If one seller app disappoints you, another one can carry the same shop.

It is not a badge. There is no “ONDC verified” seal. A seller app is either in the registry with an active status or it is not. Anyone selling you “ONDC verification” is selling air.

How does a seller app earn, and what should it cost you?

Quick answer: Most seller apps charge a percentage of each order; some sell monthly plans instead. ONDC itself charges a shop nothing to register. On a ₹1,000 delivered order, our fee is ₹20 plus ₹3.60 GST on that fee, so ₹976.40 stays with you before the buyer app’s fee and the statutory tax lines.

You cannot judge a seller app without its number, so here is ours, worked out on a ₹1,000 order.

📊 Our fee on a ₹1,000 delivered order

Two more lines leave the same order, and any honest seller app will tell you about both. The buyer app’s finder fee for bringing the customer (we quote 3% identically to every buyer app on the network, plus GST on it). And the statutory TCS and TDS lines, which are tax deductions the law requires at settlement and which come back to you through your returns. The full chain, line by line down to the rupee that reaches your bank, is in our seller app fees comparison, together with what other providers publish on their own pages. I am not repeating other companies’ numbers here; that page carries them with the date each one was checked.

What ONDC charges: a network fee that participants pay, not shops. As a seller you do not pay ONDC anything to register or to sell.

The 6 checks before you sign up with any seller app

Quick answer: Ask every seller app, including us, the same six questions: the total fee on a ₹1,000 order, the route without GST, Hindi support, the real settlement timeline, who does the catalogue work, and what happens when you leave. A good seller app answers all six with numbers on a public page.

A seller app is easy to join and, if you picked wrong, slow and painful to leave. So do the choosing before the signing. Here are the six checks, each with the question to ask, what a good answer looks like, and our own answer, verified against our live product this month.

📋 6 checks before you sign up with a seller app

1. Fee transparency

   Ask: “On a ₹1,000 delivered order, how many rupees do you keep, including GST on your fee? And what do you charge if the order is cancelled?”

   A good answer: A number, on a public page, with GST shown, and zero on cancellations. “Depends on category” is acceptable if the categories are listed. “Contact us for pricing” is not.

   Our answer: ₹20 plus ₹3.60 GST, so ₹23.60 on ₹1,000. ₹0 on a cancelled or fully refunded order. No monthly fee, no listing fee per product, no setup fee, no charge for catalogue photos, no fee for support. The buyer app’s 3% finder fee plus GST, and statutory TCS at 0.5% and TDS at 0.1%, are the other lines that leave the order, and they are all on the order screen in your dashboard.

2. The route without GST

   Ask: “I do not have a GSTIN. Can I still start, and what is the catch?”

   A good answer: Yes, through the GST enrolment number for unregistered sellers, with the catch stated up front: you can sell only within your own state until you take a GSTIN.

   Our answer: Yes. The enrolment number comes from the GST portal at no charge and takes about fifteen minutes. With it you sell inside your own state. Our fee does not change whether you have a GSTIN or an enrolment number; only the tax treatment on your side differs. When you outgrow your state, the GST 2.0 route gives small sellers a GSTIN in about three working days. The whole path is in sell online without GST, and the full document list, with and without GST, is on our seller documents page.

3. Hindi support

   Ask: “Can I use the dashboard in Hindi, and will a human talk to me in Hindi when an order goes wrong?”

   A good answer: Both, and a phone number with hours, not a ticket form.

   Our answer: The dashboard runs in Hindi and English, switchable from the top of every page. Phone and WhatsApp support, Monday to Saturday, 10am to 7pm, in Hindi or English. A person answers.

4. Settlement timing

   Ask: “From the day the parcel is delivered to the day money is in my bank, how many days? Do I get a UTR?”

   A good answer: A real timeline that explains the hold, not “T+2” copied from another industry. A UTR on every payout.

   Our answer: The buyer app holds the money first. In the settlement file we studied, that hold was about seven days after the order. Then it reaches us, and we pay your bank: one transfer per cycle with one UTR covering all your orders in it. Today a human at our end checks each payout before it moves, which is slower than an automatic cycle and we say so. Plan your cash on roughly seven to ten days from delivery, not on delivery day. The full timeline is in when ONDC sellers actually get paid.

5. Catalogue help

   Ask: “Who takes the photos, fills in MRP, net quantity and FSSAI, and who fixes it when my listing does not show?”

   A good answer: A named team, no per-listing charge, and a straight explanation of why listings go hidden (missing mandatory label fields, delivery radius, category attributes).

   Our answer: Our team does the whole journey on a call: getting documents made, signup, KYC (our review takes one to two business days), the catalogue, going live on the ONDC Network, and the first delivered order. No charge for any of it, and no charge for catalogue photos. We also tell you, in plain words, the label fields buyer apps filter on, because a listing that is missing them is live on paper and invisible in practice.

6. Exit terms

   Ask: “If I want to leave, what happens to my product list and my pending money?”

   A good answer: No contract period, no exit fee, catalogue is yours, pending settlements paid as normal.

   Our answer: No contract, no lock-in, no exit fee. One message closes the account. Your catalogue is yours. Pending settlements are released as normal.

Run the six checks on us. Start your shop: a ten-minute signup with your mobile number, then KYC, then live on the ONDC Network. If you would rather have a person walk you through it on a call, the box at the end of this page is how.

The registration steps themselves, screen by screen, are in ONDC seller registration: steps, documents, fees, time, and the whole journey from first document to first order is in how to sell on the ONDC Network.

Frequently asked

“Is Kaarobari an ONDC seller app? How do I know you are real?”

Fair question, and you should ask it of everyone. Kaarobari is a Seller App in the ONDC Network, which is the formal name for what people type as “ONDC seller app”. We are listed in ONDC’s production registry as api.kaarobari.com with an active status in the grocery domain. The company behind it is NEXSOL INFOTECH PVT LTD, CIN U62099MR2026PTC474666, in Dhule, Maharashtra, and all of that is on our About page. There is nothing to pay before your first order, and the account closes with one message.

“Do I have to pay ONDC anything?”

No. ONDC does not take money from shops. Seller apps set their own fees; ours is 2% plus GST on that fee, only on delivered orders. If any person or website asks you to pay “ONDC” to register, it is not ONDC.

“Is there an ONDC seller app to download, or a seller login?”

Not from ONDC. Each seller app has its own dashboard, and that is where you log in. Ours is a web dashboard that opens in your phone’s browser, in Hindi or English, with no separate installation. The “ONDC” names you see on the Play Store are guides and buyer-side apps, not a seller login.

“Which ONDC seller app is best?”

Nobody can answer that honestly for every shop, and I run one of them, so weigh my words accordingly. Run the six checks above on any two seller apps and you will have your own answer in a day. Our dated list of which apps still accept new sellers is the place to pick the two.

“What if the seller app I choose shuts down?”

Sahi sawaal hai. This is exactly why check 6 exists. Choose a seller app that publishes its exit terms, states its legal name and company number, and says in writing that your catalogue is yours and pending settlements will be paid. Your shop is not tied to one door; another seller app in the same network can carry the same products.

Read next

Sources & official links

• ONDC — official site, ondc.org — and its network participants directory at ondc.org/network-participants: the public list of buyer apps, seller apps and logistics participants (renders in a browser only)
• ONDC Network Policy — resources.ondc.org — the participant roles (buyer side, seller side, NP-MSN, NP-ISN) and their obligations
• ONDC production registry lookup (prod.registry.ondc.org), queried 4 September 2026 for seller-side participants with subscribed status in the retail domains. This is the source behind the examples section.
• GST portal — gst.gov.in — the enrolment number for unregistered sellers (Services → User Services → Generate User ID for Unregistered Applicant)
• Kaarobari’s own live product on the ONDC Network: fee lines, settlement flow and support hours as stated in our dashboard and pricing page, September 2026.
• ⚠️ “ONDC” never asks a shop for a fee, a deposit, or a login. Registration always happens through a seller app. The only official ONDC websites end in ondc.org.

Written by Tejas Ahirrao, founder of Kaarobari (NEXSOL INFOTECH PVT LTD, CIN U62099MR2026PTC474666, Dhule, Maharashtra), a Seller App in the ONDC Network. We list other seller apps as registry facts, not recommendations, and we change the content of this page, not just its date, when something changes.