An Apple developer account costs $99 a year. That's the Apple Developer Program membership, and it's the only way to put an app on the App Store; Apple's enrollment page (checked October 24, 2026) says prices may vary by region and are shown in local currency when you pay. Google Play is $25, once, per the Play Console help. So publishing one Lovable app on both stores costs $124 in the first year and $99 every year after that.
The fee is the easy part. What actually slows founders down is picking the wrong account type.
Individual or organization?
Apple gives you two ways to enroll, and the price is the same.
As an individual, you need an Apple Account with two-factor authentication and your legal name and address. Fast and simple. The catch: your personal legal name becomes the seller name on your App Store page. A founder we helped this spring launched a meditation app as an individual, then spent two weeks trying to get "Daniel K. Morrison" off the listing once the company existed. You can convert later, but it's a support ticket, not a setting.
As an organization, you need:
- a legal entity that can sign contracts (Apple says no DBAs, trade names or branches)
- a D-U-N-S Number, which is free in most countries (check yours here)
- a work email on your company's domain
- a public, working website on that domain (a social media page or a parked domain gets rejected)
- legal authority to bind the company
If you already have a company, enroll as the organization from day one. The website rule catches more Lovable founders than anything else on that list, which is a bit funny when your product is literally a website builder: publish the landing page on your own domain before you apply.
Nonprofits, accredited schools and government bodies can ask for a fee waiver. The $299 Apple Developer Enterprise Program is something else entirely, for internal company apps that never go on the App Store. You don't want it.
The Google Play side
$25 one time, card only (no prepaid cards), plus ID checks. The real cost is time: personal Google Play accounts created after November 13, 2023 must run a closed test with at least 12 testers who stay opted in for 14 days in a row before production access opens. Testers who drop out early don't count. That rule doesn't apply to organization accounts, which is another reason to set up the company first.
What happens if you stop paying Apple
Apple's renewal page is clear: when the membership expires, your apps are no longer available for download and you can't submit updates. People who already installed the app can keep using it. Renew, and free apps come back within 24 hours without a resubmission; paid apps come back after you accept the Paid Applications Agreement again.
So put the renewal on a company card that won't expire. We've seen a live app vanish from the App Store for four days because the card on the founder's personal Apple Account was replaced after a fraud alert.
What $99 doesn't buy
The account lets you submit. It doesn't make a Lovable app acceptable to Apple. A web app wrapped in a WebView with no native features gets rejected under guideline 4.2, and that's where most first submissions die. Budget for:
- the Capacitor build itself, plus icons, splash screens and the screenshots App Store Connect wants
- native features Apple can see (push notifications, camera, offline storage)
- a reviewer demo login and an in-app account deletion option, both required
- a Mac with Xcode, or a cloud build service, to produce the iOS build
If you'd rather not learn Xcode for one app, we publish Lovable apps to the App Store and Google Play at fixed prices from $300, and if Apple has already rejected yours, our App Store rejection fix is $350 flat. Either way you pay Apple's $99 yourself, on your own account. Never let anyone publish your app under theirs.
Originally published on lovable2app.com. Aakash Verma, software developer and founder of Lovable 2 Live.
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