In this guide 6 sections
Register both accounts under the company, not under a freelancer’s or founder’s personal name. Apple asks for a legal entity name, a D-U-N-S number, a website and someone with authority to sign. Google asks for similar organisation details and verification. Then invite your developer as a team member with limited roles.
Why the account must belong to the company
The developer account owns your store listing, your bundle identifier, your signing certificates, your push notification keys and your reviews. A freelancer’s registration makes it theirs.
When the relationship ends, you cannot update the app, answer a review or take the listing down unless the freelancer cooperates, and nobody enjoys that call. Transfers exist. They are slow. Starting clean is often the cheaper rescue.
People leave companies too. A founder’s personal Apple ID, tied to a phone number nobody can find after a change of provider, is the same trap in friendlier clothes. Fix this before the first build. It costs an afternoon.
Gather what Apple asks of an organisation
Apple checks the company, not the person. The legal name must match your registration certificate exactly, and the D-U-N-S record must carry the same name and the same registered address.
No D-U-N-S number yet? Request one before anything else. It is the usual cause of delay. The record can take days to appear in Apple’s check, so start several weeks before the launch date you promised your board.
The person enrolling must have authority to bind the company, or Apple will ask for proof of it, which means more days lost. A director or founder is simplest.
- Legal entity name exactly as registered
- D-U-N-S number matching that name and address
- A public website on a domain the company owns
- A company email address, not a free mailbox
- A phone number where someone will answer
- The authorised signatory’s name and role
Set up the Google Play account
Google Play Console offers both kinds. Choose organisation. Provide the legal name, address, D-U-N-S number, contact email, contact phone and a public website, and expect Google to verify each of them.
Use a shared mailbox such as apps@yourcompany for the owner login, so that verification codes and policy notices do not vanish into one person’s inbox. Policy notices carry deadlines.
Read Google’s current testing rules for new accounts before you promise anyone a release date, because the rules have changed before and the schedule depends on them. Check first.
Give your developer access without handing over ownership
Ownership stays with a director. Invite the developer by their own email address. In App Store Connect assign a role such as Developer or App Manager, and in Play Console grant permissions per app, never account-wide.
Do not share passwords. Shared logins break two-factor sign-in. Nobody can tell who did what. Give each person a seat of their own, and remove it on their last day, exactly as you would collect an office key from a leaver.
Ask the developer to keep signing keys and certificates in your company’s password manager or repository vault, and to hand over a copy at every release. A lone laptop key is a hostage. Review the member list every quarter.
- Apple Account Holder stays with a director
- Developer invited with the narrowest role that works
- Two-factor codes go to a company phone or authenticator
- Recovery codes printed and kept in the office safe
Order of work and keeping the account alive
Week one: D-U-N-S and a domain email. Then enrol with Apple, then Google. Create the app records and reserve the name. Invite the developer. Push a test build through TestFlight and Google’s internal testing track before any public release, and fix what the testers report before the reviewers see it.
Put both renewal dates in the company calendar. A lapsed membership removes the app. Pay from a company card, and send the reminder to two people so that one holiday cannot sink the renewal.
Tonight, write down who holds each login. That list shows how exposed you are.
Account ownership sheet
A grid on one page. It has a row each for Apple, Google, the domain, the shared mailbox, signing keys and push keys. The columns give the account name, legal owner, login email and two-factor device. More columns show who holds recovery codes, the renewal date and the developer role granted. A footer lists the people removed when staff leave.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Can a freelancer set it up and transfer it later?
They can, but transfers carry conditions and delays, and you rely on their goodwill. It is simpler to enrol under your company from day one. Then invite them as a member. Nothing is lost, and you keep the keys.
What if my company has no D-U-N-S number?
Request one through the provider before you apply. Apple and Google both use it to confirm the organisation. Expect a wait, so begin well ahead of your planned launch. Check the spelling of the company name on the record against your registration certificate.
Do I need separate accounts for each app?
No. One Apple account and one Google account hold all your apps. Roles and permissions control who may touch each one. Separate accounts only make sense for a separate legal entity, such as a subsidiary with its own brand and its own bank account.
What should the developer hand over at the end?
Source code, signing keys, build scripts and store listing texts. Check that you can build a release without them. Then remove their seats from both consoles and change any shared secrets.