In this guide 6 sections
Your company should own the Google Play Console account, the Apple Developer account, the signing key, the store listing and the source code. Add the vendor as a team member. Otherwise the app cannot be moved, updated or sold without the vendor’s consent, and a dispute over one invoice can freeze your releases.
The accounts are the app’s legal home
An app on Google Play or the App Store lives under one developer account, and whoever holds that account is the publisher in the public eye. Their name appears on the listing. The store’s emails land in their inbox.
Vendors often offer to publish under their own account for speed, and it works, because the first release goes live in days. It also makes your app a guest in their house, with a landlord who can change the locks, raise the rent or sell the building.
Open both accounts in your company’s legal name, using a shared company mailbox rather than a personal address, and attach a phone line that two named people can answer.
- Google Play Console in your company’s name
- Apple Developer Program in your company’s name
- A shared mailbox for store emails
- Two named owners inside your business
The signing key and the listing matter just as much
Every Android app is signed with a key. Lose the key, or leave it on a vendor’s laptop, and updates can become impossible without a recovery request that the store may or may not grant. Play App Signing lets Google hold the release key, but the upload key and its password still need a careful owner.
Apple uses distribution certificates and provisioning profiles tied to the developer account, and both expire, so a build that uploads cleanly today can fail to sign next year. Someone must renew them every year. Put a name against that job.
The listing carries value too, since reviews, download history, screenshots and the privacy page all stay with the account that first published them.
What goes wrong when a former vendor holds them
A vendor closes, changes staff or falls out with you over an invoice, and from that day nobody on your side can sign in to the console. When a new payment rule or a new phone version arrives, the live app begins to fail, and nobody can push the fix.
Moving an app between accounts is possible in some cases but slow, and reviews, ratings and sometimes users can be lost along the way. The vendor may also refuse. Some ask for a fee.
A quieter risk is a lapsed membership. If the vendor forgets to renew the Apple programme, the app can vanish from the store while customers are using it, and the renewal email reaches only the vendor.
- Cannot release an urgent fix
- Ratings and reviews stranded
- Renewal missed, app removed
- Handover held up by a dispute
Write the handover into the contract
Add a clause stating that store accounts, certificates, keys, source code and the listing belong to your company, and that the vendor works inside them as a team member. Grant roles that let developers upload builds and read crash reports but not transfer the app, edit payment settings or remove users from the account.
List the handover items. Repository access, build instructions, the upload key with its password in a sealed record, the API keys and the server logins. Ask for written confirmation signed by both sides.
Pay the last instalment only after you have logged in to each item yourself, from your own laptop, with the vendor watching.
Check your position this week
If an app is already live, find out today whose legal name sits on the Play Console, on the Apple Developer account and on the domain. Ask your vendor to open the developer console on a shared screen and show your company as the owner in the account settings.
If the answer is no, ask for a transfer plan, because both stores have an official path for moving an app between accounts. Start with the app that matters most to your daily takings, since that is the one whose outage you would feel before lunch.
Then diarise the renewal dates, the certificate expiries and the custodian’s name on a shared calendar that someone other than the vendor can see, with two names beside each. No exceptions.
App ownership handover checklist
A single sheet with four columns: item, held by, proof seen and date checked, so that every line records who holds the item and who saw the proof. Rows cover the Play Console, the Apple Developer account, the upload key, signing certificates, repository, server login, domain and privacy page. A renewal-date strip sits at the foot.
Open a blank worksheet to printQuestions owners ask
Can my vendor publish the app under their account?
They can, but it is a risk. The app and its reviews then belong to their account, and if you part ways you may be unable to update or move the app.
Do I need a company to open these accounts?
Both stores offer account types for businesses and individuals, and a business account in your company’s name is cleaner for ownership than an individual account in a director’s name. Apple asks for a company identification number during enrolment and may phone to verify who is applying, so gather the details first and keep the phone line staffed.
What is the signing key?
It is the secret that proves an update comes from you, and without the right one updates to the same app can be blocked, so keep a secured copy. Name its owner.
Can I move an existing app to my own account?
Yes in most cases, through the stores’ official transfer features, though the current owner must start the process and accept the terms on their side. Ask early.