In short
How do you open an App Store developer account?
An App Store developer account is opened by enrolling in the Apple Developer Program; the list fee is 99 US dollars a year, charged in lira from Türkiye — the amount shown on Apple's payment screen for Neuros's own enrolment in September 2026 was 1,029 TRY. An individual enrolment needs an Apple Account with two-factor authentication and your legal name; an organisation enrolment asks for legal entity status, a D-U-N-S number, authority to bind the company, an email on the corporate domain and a live website. Neuros runs this on the client's own account.
Steps
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Prepare the Apple Account
The Apple Account used for the enrolment must have two-factor authentication enabled. Tie it to a durable company address; an account bound to a personal email becomes a problem when that person leaves.
Watch out: Bind this account to an address at least two people inside the company can reach.
Decide the account type
On an individual account the person's legal name appears as the seller and team members cannot be added. On an organisation account the company name appears and the team is managed with roles. For a company the right answer is almost always organisation.
Get a D-U-N-S number if enrolling as an organisation
It is free, and your company is probably already registered — opening a new request without looking it up adds a week.
Watch out: The company name and address on the number must match the trade register record exactly.
Have the corporate email and website ready
The enrolment asks for an email address on the company's own domain and a live website on that domain. The site has to work and describe the company; a placeholder page delays the enrolment.
Submit the enrolment
Organisation enrolments are made on the web only; the Apple Developer app does not carry that flow. The person enrolling must have authority to bind the company to agreements: an owner, founder, member of the executive team, or an employee granted that authority.
Wait for verification
For organisation enrolments Apple verifies legal entity status and authority, and depending on the region may ask for notarised documents. This step can take days, so start the account before development does.
Watch out: Waiting on the account once development is done is the single most common cause of delay.
Pay and accept the agreements
Individuals and sole proprietors accept the licence agreement and pay at the time of enrolment. Organisations pay once verification is complete and Apple gets in touch. The charge is in lira; in September 2026 it was 1,029 TRY.
Set up roles in App Store Connect
Once the account is open, add the development team with their roles. The development firm is given the rights to upload and test the app; ownership of the account and finance rights stay with you.
Watch out: Never transfer the account holder role to an agency; that is not the role the technical work needs.
Can I get the Apple Developer membership cheaper?
Apple offers two channels for an individual enrolment: the web, and the Apple Developer app on iPhone or iPad. An organisation enrolment can only be made on the web — the app does not carry that flow.
The difference is more than convenience. The two channels use different Apple price tiers, and the lira amounts they display can diverge. We verified the web side on our own enrolment: in September 2026 the payment screen showed 1,029 TRY for the year. On the in-app purchase side developers report 649.99 TRY — we have not verified that on our own account, so it is passed on as a report rather than as our own finding. In either channel the binding figure is the one on the payment screen.
But there is a limit most write-ups skip: the difference only applies to individual enrolments. If you are publishing on behalf of a company you need an organisation enrolment, and that flow is not merely available on the web — it is web-only. So the cheaper channel is the channel you will probably not use. Opening an individual account to save a few hundred lira costs you the company name as the seller and the ability to add team members; for almost no company is that a good trade.
Should I open an individual or organisation Apple account?
The fee is the same either way, so the decision is not about price. On an individual account the person's legal name appears as the seller on the App Store, and no team members can be added; everyone managing the app has to sign in with the same identity. On an organisation account the company name appears, roles are separated, and the account survives a change of staff.
| Item | Individual | Organisation |
|---|---|---|
| Annual fee | 99 USD — 1,029 TRY (Sept 2026) | 99 USD — 1,029 TRY (Sept 2026) |
| Seller shown on the App Store | The person's legal name | The company's legal entity name |
| Team members and role management | No | Yes |
| D-U-N-S number | Not required | Required |
| Email and website on the corporate domain | Not required | Required |
| When payment is taken | At enrolment | After verification completes |
What documents does an organisation Apple account need?
Apple looks for the company to be a recognised legal entity able to enter into contracts. Trade names, fictitious business names and branches are not accepted; the name shown as the seller on the App Store is the legal entity's own name. On top of that, identity verification requires a D-U-N-S number, authority to bind the company, an email address on the corporate domain and a live website on that domain.
D-U-N-S request, organisation verification and, where required, notarised documents — this band moves in weeks, not days.
Starting the account after development finishes. The code is ready and the release waits weeks on verification.
Why is my Apple developer enrolment taking so long?
- The name on the trade register not matching the name on the D-U-N-S record exactly — a single letter of difference sends verification back.
- Enrolling as an organisation from a personal email address.
- A website that is still under construction, or that is only a link to social media.
- The enrolment being submitted by an employee without authority to bind the company.
- Starting the account only after development is finished.
How do I set permissions in App Store Connect?
Add the development team with their roles and keep the account holder role yourself. Uploading an app, distributing test builds and preparing the store listing do not require account ownership; those are done with narrower roles. Handing ownership to an agency is the single decision that makes every future change of vendor expensive.
Once the app is live, the account has to be renewed annually. If renewal is missed the app is removed from the App Store; put the reminder in the company's own calendar, not in one person's memory.
How many people can use an Apple account?
An organisation account takes near-unlimited team members, each signing in with their own Apple Account and their own permissions. An individual account has none of that: everyone touching the app signs in with the same identity and the record of who did what is lost. Adding team members is the most concrete day-to-day difference between individual and organisation.
What happens if the membership is not renewed?
Your apps are removed from the App Store. They keep working for users who already installed them, but there are no new downloads and you cannot ship updates. Put the renewal reminder in a company calendar; auto-renewal tied to one person's credit card stops silently when they leave, and it is usually noticed when the app disappears.
Can I transfer an app to another account?
Apple provides a process for app transfer, but it is not possible in every case: certain capabilities and contract states block it. So the plan "open individual for now, move to organisation later" is not guaranteed. Opening the organisation account from the start removes the possibility of a rejected transfer entirely.
How does the company name appear on the App Store?
On an organisation account the seller shown is the legal entity's official name — not your trade name or brand. So "ABC Technology Ltd" appears, and if your brand is "ABC" that name only shows in the app title. Companies unaware of the distinction try to change the displayed name after verification; changing it requires changing the legal entity's name.
Does an Apple account need tax and bank details?
If you will sell paid apps or use in-app purchases, yes: bank and tax details are set up separately in App Store Connect and no payments arrive until they are approved. For a free app the step is not needed. Teams moving to a paid model later discover this on launch day and sales get delayed by weeks.
Sources
- 01Enrollment — Apple Developer ProgramApple · 2026
- 02D-U-N-S Number — Apple Developer Program membershipApple · 2026
- 03App Store Review GuidelinesApple · 2025