How to publish an app on the App Store

Publishing takes four things in order: a paid Apple Developer account at $99 a year, a signed agreement, an app record in App Store Connect, and a build attached to it. Apple then reviews it, and reviews 90% of submissions in under 24 hours.

Most first submissions do not fail on code. They fail because something in that list was skipped.

What you need before you can submit anything

Step	Detail
Apple Developer Program	$99 per membership year. Individuals need a real legal name, not a nickname, and a street address. No P.O. boxes.
D-U-N-S number	Organizations only. Free from Dun & Bradstreet, up to 5 business days to issue, then up to 2 more for Apple to receive it.
Agreements	The Account Holder signs. Selling anything, including in-app purchases, requires the Paid Apps Agreement plus tax and banking details.
Bundle ID	Registered under Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles. Explicit for a single app.
App record	Created in App Store Connect before your first upload. Xcode will offer to create it for you.
Build	Uploaded and finished processing. Apple emails you when it is done.

The order is Apple's own: sign the agreement and enter tax and banking information, add users and roles, add your app and upload a build, test and submit, then monitor.

If you are an organization, start the D-U-N-S request first. It is the only step on that list with a queue you do not control, and it can eat a week before you have written a line of store copy.

What has to be filled in

Required: app name, primary category, content rights declaration, age rating, version number, build. Optional but worth doing: subtitle, promotional text, support URL, secondary category.

Two things people miss.

The privacy policy URL. Apple's own pages disagree about whether it is technically required, but Guideline 5.1.1 says every app must include a link to its privacy policy, and it has to be reachable from inside the app too, not only from your listing. Treat it as required.

App Privacy details. You declare what data your app collects and what your third-party partners collect. That second half is where people get caught: you are answering for the SDKs you embedded, not just for your own code. Since May 2024, apps that do not describe their use of required-reason APIs in a privacy manifest are rejected by App Store Connect before a human ever sees them.

Screenshots need one size for iPhone and one for iPad. The screenshot guide has the dimensions and the content rules.

The button that does not submit your app

In App Store Connect you click Add for Review. The status changes to Ready for Review.

Your app has not been submitted. Ready for Review means you have declared an intention. The submission goes to Apple only when you open the draft submission and click Submit for Review, at which point the status becomes In Review.

People lose days to this. Check the status, not the button you last pressed.

The guideline that fails most first submissions

Apple publishes the number: over 40% of unresolved issues relate to Guideline 2.1, App Completeness.

That guideline is not about code quality. It is about whether the reviewer can actually use your app. In Apple's own words, submissions should be final versions with all necessary metadata and functional URLs, and placeholder text and empty websites should be scrubbed before submission.

The specific things that catch people:

No demo account. If your app has a login, you must supply working credentials, and Apple adds a parenthetical that tells you how often this goes wrong: turn on your back-end service. A demo account that points at a server you switched off is the same as no demo account.

Generic review notes. Guideline 2.3.1 requires new features to be described with specificity in the Notes for Review field, and says plainly that generic descriptions will be rejected.

In-app purchases that are not live. They have to be complete, visible to the reviewer, and functional.

No account deletion. Guideline 5.1.1(v): if people can create an account in your app, they must be able to delete it in your app. Not by emailing you.

TestFlight, and whether you need it

You do not. Apple recommends beta testing but does not require it.

If you do use it: up to 100 internal testers, up to 10,000 external ones. Internal testing needs no review. External testing does. The first build you add to an external group goes to App Review, and subsequent builds may not need a full review. Builds expire after 90 days.

That first external review is worth knowing about before you promise a beta to anyone. It is a separate queue with its own statuses, and Apple publishes no timing for it.

Choosing how it goes live

Three options, in Apple's own labels: manually release this version, automatically release this version, or automatically release after review no earlier than a date you pick.

Manual release parks the app in Pending Developer Release. Apple emails a reminder if it sits there over 30 days. After you press release, it can take up to 24 hours to appear on the store.

Phased release is for updates, not for new apps. It rolls out over seven days at 1%, 2%, 5%, 10%, 20%, 50%, then 100%, and it only governs automatic updates. Anyone can still download the new version manually the whole time. You can pause for up to 30 days total and resume where you stopped, or end it early with Release to All Users.

For a first release the useful choice is scheduled: pick a date far enough out that review cannot make you miss it, and move it forward if you clear early.

Four things that changed recently

Xcode 26 SDK is the floor. Since 28 April 2026, uploads must be built with Xcode 26 and the iOS 26 SDK or later.

Age ratings were rebuilt. The tiers are now 4+, 9+, 13+, 16+ and 18+, and everything migrated on 31 January 2026. The questionnaire now asks about in-app controls, medical and wellness topics, and AI assistant or chatbot functionality.

Social media questions became mandatory in September 2026. They add a Social Media descriptor to your product page and feed parental Time Allowances. If you disable social features for under-13s, your app is not counted in that allowance.

EU trader status applies even if you do not ship to the EU. You still have to declare it. If you do distribute there, your verified address, phone and email are published publicly on your product page across all 27 territories. Individuals can supply a P.O. box for this one.

For contrast, Google Play

Twenty-five dollars, once, not annually. Identity verification with a government ID and a credit card in the same legal name.

The catch is newer: personal Play Console accounts created after 13 November 2023 must run a closed test with at least 12 testers opted in continuously for 14 days before they can apply for production access. That application is itself reviewed, usually within seven days.

So the shape is inverted. Apple costs more per year and can have you live in a day. Play costs less and can hold a first-time solo developer for three weeks before the app is even reviewable.

What Uprate does with it

The submission agent checks your Apple and Google submissions for blockers and comes back with the exact field and the fix. Before you submit, not after Apple sends it back.

Nothing goes live until you approve it.