What it costs

The short version

Getting an app onto the App Store means paying a few people who aren’t us. None of those charges are hidden, and none of them happen without you being told first. This page lists who charges what, and where to check the current figure yourself.

Why we don’t print the numbers here

Because we’d get them wrong. Prices change, they differ by country, and VAT is handled differently depending on who you are and where you live. A figure on this page would go stale, and a stale figure is worse than none. So we name who charges you and link straight to their own pricing, which is always current.

We’d rather tell you a cost exists and let you look it up than quote you something we can’t stand behind.

Apple

To publish an app on the App Store, Apple requires you to be a member of the Apple Developer Program. There’s an annual fee, paid to Apple, and it’s charged in your local currency. This is not optional and it is not something Ideaship can do on your behalf — the app must be published under your name or your company’s.

Apple shows the current fee for your country during enrolment: developer.apple.com/programs/enroll

If you’re enrolling as a company rather than an individual, Apple also asks for a D‑U‑N‑S Number. It’s free in most countries. We’ll walk you through getting one when the time comes.

A domain name

Optional. If you want your app to have its own web address, you buy the domain from a registrar and they charge you annually. Prices vary enormously depending on the ending you choose. You keep ownership of it, not us.

Taking payments

Only relevant if your app charges its users. You’d open your own Stripe account — free to set up — and Stripe takes a percentage of each transaction. If you sell digital goods inside an iPhone app, Apple takes a commission too. Both publish their rates.

Advertising

Entirely optional, and a long way down the road. If you later choose to advertise, Meta or Google charge you for the ads. You set the budget, you set the cap, and nothing is spent without you approving it first.

What Ideaship charges

Evaluating an idea is free. Ideaship’s own pricing for the rest isn’t set yet, and we’re not going to invent a number to fill this space. When it is decided, it will appear here, and you’ll see it before you’re asked to pay anything.

The promise

You will never reach a step that costs money without being told, in advance, that it costs money and who is charging you. Finding out about a fee at the moment you need to pay it is exactly the kind of surprise this page exists to prevent.

Questions

Write to 786 Infinite Ltd, 128 City Road, London, EC1V 2NX.