Guide
How to get your business app on the App Store and Google Play
Getting an app into the stores is less about writing code and more about accounts, rules and paperwork. This is the process we go through for our own apps and for clients, step by step.
Published 7 October 2026 · DH Website Services
1. Set up the developer accounts
Both stores need a developer account, and it should be in your business name rather than your developer's.
- Apple Developer Program: an annual fee (99 US dollars, charged in local currency). For a company account Apple needs your D-U-N-S number, a free business identifier that can take a few days to come through.
- Google Play Console: a one-off registration fee of 25 US dollars. Google checks your identity, and new personal accounts have to run a closed test with real testers before they can publish.
Having the accounts in your name means the app, its reviews and its downloads belong to you.
2. Build something the stores will accept
Apple in particular rejects apps that are just a website in a frame. Its review guidelines call this minimum functionality. An app has to do something an app is good at, such as:
- Push notifications for bookings, offers or order updates
- Working offline or saving things to the phone
- Using the phone itself: camera, location, Apple Pay or Google Pay, sign in with Apple
This is why even our simplest app package includes push notifications rather than only showing your website.
3. Test it on real phones
Before anything goes public, test builds go onto real phones through TestFlight on iPhone and internal testing on Google Play. You use the app exactly as a customer would, and nothing is released until you have signed it off.
4. Prepare the store listing
Each store needs:
- An app name and short description, with the words people actually search for
- Screenshots at the sizes each store requires
- A privacy policy on a public web page
- A support web address customers can reach you on
5. Fill in the privacy declarations
Apple's App Privacy section and Google's Data safety form ask exactly what data the app collects, why, and whether it is linked to the user. They must match what the app really does. Getting these wrong is one of the most common reasons an app is held up or pulled later.
6. Submit for review
- Apple reviews every version. Most reviews finish within a day or two. If your app has a login, Apple needs a working demo account.
- Google reviews new apps too. The first review can take several days.
If a reviewer rejects the app, they say which rule it broke. You fix it, reply and resubmit.
7. After launch
Keep the app working with each new version of iOS and Android, reply to reviews, and update the privacy declarations whenever you add something that collects data.
How long does it take?
For a straightforward app with the accounts already in place, from finished build to live in both stores is usually one to two weeks. The developer accounts are often the slowest part, so start those first.
What we do
We set up the store listings, write the privacy declarations, submit the builds and deal with the reviewers for you. Our own apps, Fish Tank and Fam & a Half, went through exactly this. App prices start at £349 and are on the pricing page.