First-time App Store launch: Is this timeline and cost realistic for an individual developer account?

Question

Created 1w

Replies 3

Boosts 1

Participants 4

I'm building my first mobile app with a developer, and I'm trying to understand the full App Store publishing process before making a decision on how to move forward.

Another developer I'm considering working with instead of my current developer told me the following:

"If you do it yourselves, your developer will have to learn everything for the first time. Registering a business and getting the corporate key takes about a week, getting a D-U-N-S number can take up to a month, rebuilding a web app into a mobile UI is a skill in itself, Capacitor is a skill, push notifications can be very challenging, then there's App Store compliance, submission, possible rejection and resubmission. You'll also realistically need a Mac to publish to the App Store. Overall, expect 2–3 months and well over $2,000 before you might be on the App Store."

My situation is:

I'm a solo founder. The app already exists as a web app. We plan to wrap/build it into a native mobile app (likely using Capacitor or a similar approach). I'm happy to publish under an individual Apple Developer account for now if that simplifies things. I don't necessarily need an organization account at this stage.

My biggest priority is speed. I'm not trying to build the perfect long-term company structure right now. I want to get my app into people's hands as quickly as possible so I can validate the product, learn from real users, and iterate. If there are trade-offs that let me launch faster without creating major technical debt or problems later, I'm very open to that.

I'm hoping to understand from developers who have actually been through this process:

Which parts of the statement above are accurate? Which parts only apply if you're publishing as an organization rather than an individual? Is 2–3 months a realistic estimate for someone who already has a working web app and an experienced developer? If your goal was simply to get an MVP into users' hands as quickly as possible, how would you approach it? Are there any hidden hurdles or costs that first-time founders commonly underestimate?

Also for better context: this developer who made this comment to me said they're charging $1100 AUD to ONLY convert our web app into a mobile app. They also proposed a $450/month retainer after the migration for maintenance, tweaks, etc.

I'd really appreciate hearing from anyone who's published apps to the App Store recently. Thanks!

Answer 1

Tomato OP

1w

getting a D-U-N-S number can take up to a month

That's probably an exaggeration. When I told the company I was working for to get a number, it took them only several days. That was 2021.

Answer 2

Claude31 OP

6d

Welcome to the forum.

First, some warning

We plan to wrap/build it into a native mobile app

Take care, that may be non compliant with guideline 4.2, risking rejection:

4.2 Minimum Functionality

Your app should include features, content, and UI that elevate it beyond a repackaged website. If your app is not particularly useful, unique, or “app-like,” it doesn’t belong on the App Store.

In any case, my advice is that it is better, if you have the skills, to do it by yourself. Going with an external developer will make you loose control of your app, likely causing problems rapidly.

And much cost:

$450/month (5400/year) for maintenance, that's a lot
plus the upfront: in addition they do not guarantee that app will be accepted. So you could pay $1100 for a useless code.
that will eat all the money (and much more) than you may get from selling the app.

So it's worth spending even a few more months and go by yourself. And to start use, you can start as individual developer, you'll convert to corporate (requiring DUNS) later.

Just register the app name rapidly on the AppStore to avoid anyone stealing it.

Answer 3

lazyvar OP

4d

Normally I'd say that the business side of things takes about a week (in part also depending on how easy it is to register in your jurisdiction).

But processing times on Apple's side has apparently skyrocketed due to a huge influx of people struck by a gold rush. So a conservative estimate is a few weeks to a month nowadays.

As for the actual app-side of things, it's going to take more than throwing a wrapper around your web app to get through review.

Especially now with the huge influx of apps, not only does it take longer to get through review, but App Review is also much more sensitive to poor experiences, things that could've just been a web app or web page, dime a dozen type apps (what they consider spam) and the like.

Any "MVP" that doesn't feel like a first-class experience runs the risk of getting scrutinized.

2-3 months could be realistic if it's a rather small project, but I'd expect at least 3-6 months to be more likely for something solid and elaborate provided the backend is in place in a proper way and already suitable to support his app.

The fact that a web app version already exists has very little bearing on this.

As for the price, honestly it sounds a bit too good to be true.

The average iOS engineer makes about ~$10,000 USD/month (actually closer to $70 USD per hour) on a salaried job. A contractor typically starts at around $100 USD per hour because they have some significant self-employment taxes to offset.

Instinctively you might feel that these rates aren't relevant to you if you're not in the US, but keep in mind that the contractors in your area can just as easily do jobs for US clients at $100/hr via platforms like Upwork and the like.

Besides, wherever you are, there is no way that the going rate is 10% of this.

So at this point I'm wondering if they just severely undervalue their work combined with simply extremely lucking out on this quote or if they're quoting you very low to get a foot in the door with the idea of it ballooning once you've got sunk cost. Either way, I'd immediately start to get suspicious of these low numbers.

Even if you were to outsource it to extremely cheap overseas labor and it does end up being just 2-3 months, I'd get ready to expect it to cost in the $5,000 USD - $10,000 USD range.