The Apple Developer Program: Cost, Setup & What You Get (2026)
Before a single screenshot, keyword, or privacy policy matters, there's a gate you have to pass through: enrolling in the Apple Developer Program. It's the account that gives you permission to put an app on the App Store at all, and it trips up more first-time makers than the actual build does — usually because they didn't know it existed, didn't know the cost, or picked the wrong membership type and had to start over.
Here's the short answer: the Apple Developer Program is Apple's paid membership that lets you publish apps to the App Store and distribute betas through TestFlight. It costs $99 per year, and you can enroll as an individual (fast) or as an organization (slower, but the app appears under your company name). This guide covers exactly what you pay, how to enroll without hitting the common snags, and what the membership actually unlocks.
How much does the Apple Developer Program cost?
The membership is $99 per year, billed annually. That's the same price whether you enroll as an individual or as an organization — the fee doesn't change based on how many apps you publish or how many downloads you get.
A few cost details worth knowing:
| Item |
Cost |
| Apple Developer Program membership |
$99/year |
| Google Play Console (for comparison) |
$25 one-time |
| App icon, screenshots, listing copy |
Free or one-time unlock with tools |
| Nonprofit / education / government fee |
May be waived (see below) |
The $99 is a recurring cost. If you don't renew, Apple removes your apps from the store until you pay again — so treat it as an annual subscription, not a one-time setup fee. This is the opposite of Google, where the Play Console is a single $25 charge that never renews.
Registered nonprofits, accredited educational institutions, and government entities can apply for a fee waiver through Apple's fee waiver program, which makes the membership free for qualifying organizations. Everyone else pays the $99.
Individual vs. organization membership: which one?
This is the decision to get right up front, because switching later is a hassle. Both memberships cost $99/year and give you the same technical capabilities. The difference is whose name appears on the App Store and how long approval takes.
|
Individual |
Organization |
| Seller name on the App Store |
Your personal legal name |
Your company/legal entity name |
| Enrollment speed |
Often same day |
Days to ~2 weeks |
| Requires a D-U-N-S number |
No |
Yes |
| Requires a legal entity (LLC, corp) |
No |
Yes |
| Team member roles & permissions |
No |
Yes |
| Cost |
$99/year |
$99/year |
Choose Individual if you're a solo maker or indie shipping under your own name and you want to be live fast. The tradeoff: your personal legal name shows publicly as the app's seller.
Choose Organization if you want the app to appear under a business name, need multiple people on the account with different permissions, or plan to build a real company brand around the app. The tradeoff: you need a registered legal entity and a D-U-N-S number (a free business identifier from Dun & Bradstreet), and verification takes longer.
If you're not sure whether you even need a company to publish, that's a separate question worth answering before you enroll — see our guide on whether you need an LLC to publish an app.
How to enroll in the Apple Developer Program
The enrollment flow is straightforward once your prerequisites are ready. Here's the order:
- Create or use an Apple ID with two-factor authentication enabled. A free Apple ID is required as the base account. Two-factor auth is mandatory — enrollment will block without it.
- Download the Apple Developer app (or go to developer.apple.com) and start enrollment. You can enroll on iPhone/iPad via the app, or on the web.
- Choose your entity type — Individual/Sole Proprietor or Company/Organization.
- Provide your details. Individuals confirm personal legal name and address. Organizations enter the legal entity name, address, website, work email, and D-U-N-S number, and must be authorized to bind the company legally.
- Pay the $99 annual fee.
- Wait for verification. Individual accounts are often approved within a day. Organizations wait while Apple confirms the entity and D-U-N-S details.
Before you enroll: get these ready
- A verified Apple ID with two-factor authentication turned on.
- Your legal name (individual) exactly as it appears on official records.
- For organizations: a registered legal entity and its D-U-N-S number (request one free from Dun & Bradstreet ahead of time — this is the most common cause of an organization enrollment stalling).
- A payment method for the $99 fee.
How long does enrollment take?
Individual enrollment is frequently approved within a day, sometimes within hours. Organization enrollment is the wildcard: because Apple independently verifies your legal entity and D-U-N-S number, it commonly takes anywhere from a few days to about two weeks. If your D-U-N-S record is missing, outdated, or doesn't match the details you entered, expect back-and-forth that adds time.
The practical lesson: start enrollment before you finish your app, especially for an organization account. Verification running in the background while you build costs you nothing; discovering a two-week D-U-N-S delay the day you're ready to submit costs you a launch date.
What the $99 membership actually gets you
The membership isn't just permission to submit — it unlocks the whole distribution and testing toolkit:
- App Store distribution — the only way to publish a public app to the iOS App Store.
- App Store Connect — the console where you create your app record, upload builds, enter metadata, and manage releases and pricing.
- TestFlight — invite up to 100 internal testers and up to 10,000 external testers to beta-test before you go live. See our TestFlight beta testing guide for how to run this well.
- Certificates and signing — the credentials that let your builds be signed and accepted by Apple. (If you build in a no-code platform, this is handled for you — you'll typically supply an app-specific password instead of wrangling certificates by hand.)
- Beta access to new iOS versions and APIs, plus advanced app capabilities (push notifications, in-app purchase, and more).
- App analytics and sales/trends reporting inside App Store Connect.
Where this fits in your launch
Enrolling is step one of publishing, not the whole job. Once your membership is active, the work shifts to preparing the app record and store assets: your listing copy, App Store screenshots at the correct sizes, your privacy policy, and your app icon. Much of that can be prepared in parallel while your build compiles.
That parallel prep is where Adalo Studio saves the most time for no-code makers. Its App Store screenshot generator exports frames at Apple's exact required sizes, its store-listing generator drafts your name, subtitle, keywords, and description, and its app privacy policy generator gives you a hosted URL to paste into App Store Connect — none of which require you to be a designer or a lawyer. If cost is the deciding factor, the pricing page shows exactly what's free versus a one-time unlock so you can budget the whole launch, membership included.
With enrollment done and assets ready, the last piece is knowing the store rules — the full walkthrough lives in our pillar guide on how to publish an app without code.
Frequently asked questions
How much does the Apple Developer Program cost?
The Apple Developer Program costs $99 per year for both individual and organization memberships. It renews annually, and if you let it lapse your apps are removed from the App Store until you renew. Registered nonprofits, schools, and government entities may qualify for a fee waiver.
How long does Apple Developer Program enrollment take?
Individual enrollment is often approved within a day, and sometimes within a few hours. Organization enrollment takes longer — usually a few days to two weeks — because Apple verifies your legal entity and D-U-N-S number before approving. Start early so verification isn't what delays your launch.
Do I need the Apple Developer Program to publish an app?
Yes. You must have an active $99/year Apple Developer Program membership to submit any app to the App Store or distribute through TestFlight. A free Apple ID only lets you build and run an app on your own device for testing, not publish it publicly.