Setting up your own developer account is the very first step before you can publish anything on Google Play or the Apple App Store, and most guides skip the parts that actually cost people days: the account type you are allowed to choose, and how long identity verification really takes.
Disclosure: I work with ZoopCoder, an Indian dev studio that offers these as fixed-price setup services — Play Console at ₹999, Apple Developer at ₹1,999. Everything below is sourced straight from Google's and Apple's own developer documentation, linked inline.
What each one actually costs
- Google Play: a one-time US$25 registration fee, ever. Google's own account creation guide confirms it is a single payment, not a subscription.
- Apple: US$99 every year, and it does not lapse quietly — when the membership expires, your apps come off the App Store. Apple confirms the fee is recurring here.
The account-type trap nobody mentions
Both stores let you pick Personal/Individual or Organisation — but Google's documentation says the choice is not actually optional for everyone. Straight from Google's account-type page:
"You should choose an organization account if you provide any of the following services: Financial products and services, including but not limited to banking, loans, stock trading, investment funds, cryptocurrency software wallets, and cryptocurrency exchanges... Health apps... Apps approved to use the VpnService class... Government apps"
So if you are building a lending app, a health app, a VPN, or anything government-facing, Google requires the Organisation account type regardless of team size — Personal is not an option for you.
The D-U-N-S number timeline that blows up launch dates
An Organisation account (either store) needs a D-U-N-S number from Dun & Bradstreet. It is free, but Google's own setup requirements page says plainly: "This process can take up to 30 days, so you should plan ahead." People assume it is instant because the number itself is free — it is not, and if your org does not already have one, that is a month added to your timeline before you can even start creating the account.
What breaks accounts after they are already live
One thing almost nobody warns you about: your payments profile (legal name + address) has to keep matching your D-U-N-S record exactly. If it drifts — say your company's registered address changes — Google shows a "your organization name or address is no longer verified" banner and restricts the account, which removes your apps from Google Play, until the mismatch is fixed.
Quick reference
| Google Play | Apple App Store | |
|---|---|---|
| Fee | US$25 one-time | US$99/year, recurring |
| Org account requires | D-U-N-S number (up to 30 days to get) | D-U-N-S number |
| Personal account extra step | 12 testers, 14-day closed test (accounts opened after 13 Nov 2023) | none |
| Consequence of lapse | none — one-time fee | apps pulled from the App Store |
If you would rather have someone walk you through the forms instead of hitting these gotchas cold: ZoopCoder does the Google Play side for a fixed ₹999 (Play Console Developer Account Setup) and the Apple side for a fixed ₹1,999 (Apple Developer Account Setup) — both done on a screen share, D-U-N-S filing included where needed.
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