Apple and Google Play accounts for your company

Every mobile project we deliver reaches the same point: the app is ready, and it cannot go anywhere until the client has a verified developer account on each store. The work is not hard, but it is slow in a way that surprises people. Most of the elapsed time is waiting on third parties, and almost every delay we have seen came from doing the steps in the wrong order or typing a company name slightly differently on two forms.

This is the guide we give our clients. It covers both accounts end to end. It does not cover app submission, signing certificates or release pipelines, which are ours to handle once the accounts exist.

Who has to do this

The founder has to do it personally. Both platforms require someone with legal authority to bind the company to their agreements, and Google asks for a government photo ID of the account owner. Whoever signs becomes the Account Holder on both accounts.

That person stays the Account Holder afterwards. Once the accounts are live you grant your development team admin access, which is a separate role. Nobody should ever be sharing the Account Holder login, us included.

Register as an organization, not as an individual

Both stores let you register as a person. For a company app, do not.

The practical reason is a Google rule. New personal Play accounts have to run a 14-day closed test with 20 testers before they are allowed to publish to production. Organization accounts are exempt. Registering personally can therefore cost you a fortnight and twenty recruited testers before your first release reaches anyone.

The other reason is ownership. An app published under a founder’s personal account is tied to that individual, which becomes an awkward conversation during diligence or when someone leaves.

Start the D-U-N-S number before anything else

A D-U-N-S number is a free nine-digit business identifier from Dun & Bradstreet. Apple and Google both require the same one for an organization account, and it can take up to five business days to issue, plus roughly two more for Apple to sync it. Nothing else can proceed until it exists.

Request it through Apple’s free lookup tool. Search for your company by legal name and address first, because you may already have one without knowing: D&B assigns them to registered businesses whether or not anyone asked. If no record comes back, the tool hands you off to request one at no cost.

Give the exact registered legal name and address, as they appear on your official company register. Not your trading name, not the office you actually work from if it differs from the registered seat.

That last point is worth dwelling on, because it is the single most common cause of a rejected verification. The legal name and address have to match across four places: the D-U-N-S record, your Apple enrollment, your Google payments profile, and your incorporation documents. A comma in a different place, a legal-form suffix abbreviated on one form and spelled out on another, or a stale address will bounce the review, and you find out days later.

Apple Developer Program

99 dollars a year. Roughly one to two business days after you submit, occasionally longer.

Before you start, have four things ready. Your D-U-N-S number. An Apple ID on a company email address with two-factor authentication switched on and the founder’s real legal first and last name on it. Your website live on its own domain, because a social media page or a parked placeholder gets rejected. And a payment card.

Then enroll at developer.apple.com/programs/enroll, or through the Apple Developer iPhone app, which in our experience often verifies faster. Sign in with the company Apple ID, choose to enroll as an organization, and enter the legal entity name exactly as it reads on the D-U-N-S record along with the number, your website and your role. You will be asked to confirm you have authority to bind the organization.

Apple may telephone the company to verify. Make sure whoever is on the listed contact number knows the call is coming and what it is about. A missed call here costs days. Once you are approved, pay the 99 dollars to activate. It renews annually, and letting it lapse pulls your apps from sale.

Google Play Console

25 dollars, once, not annually. Verification runs anywhere from a few hours to several days.

You will need the D-U-N-S number again, a company Google account, the founder’s passport or ID card ready to upload, and an official company document. A certificate of incorporation, a business license or a VAT registration all work.

Sign up at play.google.com/console/signup, choose “An organization or business” as the account type, and enter the legal name, address and D-U-N-S number. Google pulls your business details from the D-U-N-S record, so anything that disagrees with it will surface here.

Then set up the Google payments profile under the same legal name and address, pay the 25 dollars, and complete the two verification steps: identity, with the government photo ID, and organization, with the company document. You will get an email when the account goes active.

Once both are approved

Four things happen, and then you are out of the loop.

In App Store Connect, add your development team with Admin or App Manager roles, and stay the Account Holder yourself. In Play Console, invite them under Users and permissions. Give them the bundle ID and package name for the app. Tell them both accounts are live, and they will wire up the store credentials and turn the delivery pipeline on.

What it costs and how long it takes

Step	Cost	Typical wait
D-U-N-S number	Free	Up to 5 business days, plus ~2 for Apple to sync
Apple Developer Program	$99 / year	1 to 2 business days after submitting
Google Play Console	$25 one-time	A few hours to several days

Around two hours of actual work, spread across five to ten business days. Plan for the calendar time rather than the effort, and start the D-U-N-S request the day the project does. We have watched finished apps sit for a week waiting on a nine-digit number nobody thought to request early.

Store fees and verification requirements change. The figures above are what we saw on our most recent client setup, and Apple’s enrollment help and Google’s account requirements are the sources worth checking against.