Read from Apple and Google
Apple developer account price in the UK, and what Google Play charges (2026)
The Apple developer account price is 99 US dollars a year, in local currency where available, and on the UK App Store Apple lists it at £78.99. Google Play charges a one-off US$25. Those are the fees for getting an app into the two stores. If your app sells digital things, each store also takes a share of those sales, and Google’s share for UK users changed on 30 June 2026. Several of the UK guides that come up for this search give older or wrong figures, so we read Apple’s and Google’s own pages instead.
The short version
- Apple: £78.99 a year on the UK App Store, through Apple’s own Apple Developer app. Apple’s price is 99 US dollars, in local currency. It renews every year, and if it lapses your apps stop being available to download.
- Google Play: US$25, once. New personal accounts also have to run a closed test with at least 12 testers for 14 days before they can publish.
- On digital sales, the stores take a share. Apple takes 30%, or 15% in its Small Business Program. For UK users, Google now takes 10% on your first 1 million US dollars a year, plus a 5% billing fee when the sale goes through Google Play’s billing.
- Selling real things is different. A booking, a takeaway or a delivery can’t be paid for through either store’s in-app payment system.
- To publish as a business, you need an organisation account, and both stores then ask for a D-U-N-S number.
| Apple App Store | Google Play | |
|---|---|---|
| To join | 99 US dollars a year, in local currency (£78.99 in the UK App Store) | US$25, once |
| Commission on digital sales, for a small developer | 15% in the Small Business Program, otherwise 30% | 10% on the first 1 million US dollars a year, plus a 5% billing fee where it applies (UK users, since 30 June 2026) |
| Before you can publish | Apple verifies every membership; organisations need a D-U-N-S Number | Organisations need a D-U-N-S number; new personal accounts need a 14-day closed test with 12 testers |
This post is about the stores’ own fees, read on 10 and 12 October 2026. What it costs to build an app depends on the app, and that is a different question.
How much is an Apple developer account in the UK?
Apple’s enrolment page gives the price in dollars: "The Apple Developer Program annual fee is 99 USD and the Apple Developer Enterprise Program annual fee is 299 USD, in local currency where available." It adds: "Prices may vary by region and are listed in local currency during the enrollment process."
None of the Apple pages we read gives a pound figure. To find one, we looked at the UK App Store listing for Apple’s own Apple Developer app, where you can join from your phone. Under In-App Purchases it lists the Apple Developer Program at £78.99. The same app in the US store lists it at $98.99.
That is the price for joining through the app. If you join on the web, Apple shows the local price at the payment step, which we didn’t go through, so we can’t confirm it is the same to the penny.
It is a yearly fee, not a one-off. Apple says: "If you’re enrolling using the Apple Developer app, membership is provided on an annual basis as an auto-renewable subscription that renews until cancelled." And its renewal page says what happens if you stop paying: "If your Apple Developer Program membership expires, your apps will no longer be available for download and you won’t be able to submit new apps or updates or access Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles. However, your apps will still function for users who have already installed or downloaded them". So the fee keeps your app in the store. It doesn’t stop the app working on phones that already have it.
Two other things on Apple’s pages:
- The Apple Developer Enterprise Program, at 299 US dollars, is a separate programme. Everything in this post is about the standard Apple Developer Program.
- Some organisations pay nothing. Apple’s enrolment requirements say: "If you’re a nonprofit organization, accredited educational institution, or government entity and meet certain requirements, you can request a fee waiver".
How much does it cost to put an app on Google Play?
Google’s Play Console help says: "There is a US$25 one-time registration fee". There is no yearly fee. Google gives the figure in US dollars, and we haven’t converted it into pounds.
The bigger cost for a newcomer is time. If you sign up as an individual, Google’s testing rules apply: "Developers with personal accounts created after November 13, 2023, must run a closed test for their app with a minimum of 12 testers who have been opted in continuously for at least 14 days." New personal accounts must also verify that they have access to an Android device, using the Play Console app.
Google has two kinds of account, and its account-type page says: "Choose an organization account if you’re creating an account for an organization or business." For that, "To create a developer account for an organization, you must have a D-U-N-S number." It also warns that "Applying for a D-U-N-S number through Dun & Bradstreet is a completely free process", and that some third-party services charge "high administrative fees for this free registration".
Whose name appears on the app
This catches people out. On the App Store, the seller’s name is whoever holds the developer account.
- If you join as an individual or sole trader, Apple says "your personal legal name will be listed as the seller on the App Store".
- If you join as an organisation, "Your organization’s name will be displayed as the seller name of your apps on the App Store." The organisation must be a legal entity, and Apple is specific: "We do not accept DBAs, fictitious business names, trade names, or branches." It also says "Your organization (excluding government entities) must have a D-U-N-S Number".
In practice, a sole trader who trades as "Smith’s Plumbing" will show up as their own name. To have the business name on the store listing, the account has to belong to the company, a limited company for example.
Paying the fee is the easy part. Both stores also have rules an app must meet before it’s accepted, from a privacy policy link to letting people delete their account from inside the app. Our post on what vibe coding is quotes those rules, and they apply however the app was made.
We build mobile apps for businesses. You don’t have to know exactly what you want before you start: you have the real app on your phone from the first version and shape it by reacting to it. When it goes live, it is published in your business’s name, on your own App Store and Google Play accounts, and we can look after those accounts for you. More on how our mobile apps work.
What Apple and Google take from your sales
Apple
Apple’s membership page says: "The commission on the sale of digital goods and services through the App Store is 30% (15% if you’re enrolled in the App Store Small Business Program, Video Partner Program, Mini Apps Partner Program, or News Partner Program) and 15% for qualifying subscriptions."
The Small Business Program is the one most small businesses would use: "Existing developers who made up to 1 million USD in proceeds in the prior calendar year for all their apps, as well as developers new to the App Store, can qualify for the program and the reduced commission." Note "if you’re enrolled": you have to join it.
The same page lists the places where the rules differ: "Different commission rates and fees may apply for certain apps distributed in Brazil, the European Union, Japan, the Netherlands, Russia, and South Korea." The UK isn’t on that list, so the standard rates above apply here.
Google Play: lower fees for UK users since 30 June 2026
This is the change most guides have missed. Google’s announcement page says "As announced on March 4, 2026", the new fees roll out region by region, and its service fee page gives the start date as "June 30, 2026 for the EEA, UK, and US". For transactions with UK users, the fees are now:
| Google Play service fee | Auto-renewing subscriptions | Other transactions, new installs | Other transactions, existing installs |
|---|---|---|---|
| First $1M (USD) of annual earnings | 10% + 5% billing fee | 10% + 5% billing fee | 10% + 5% billing fee |
| Standard | 10% + 5% billing fee | 20% + 5% billing fee | 25% + 5% billing fee, or 20% for external web links |
| In the Play Games Level Up or Apps Experience programs | 10% + 5% billing fee | 15% + 5% billing fee | 20% + 5% billing fee, or 15% for external web links |
Three things make the table easier to read:
- The billing fee isn’t charged on everything. Google says: "Billing fee applies when a user completes a purchase of an in-app digital service or feature using Google Play Billing or for the initial purchase of a paid app or game". For the UK it is 5%: "In the AU, JP, US, UK, and the European Economic Area (EEA), the billing fee is set at 5%."
- "New" and "existing" are about the customer, not the app. A new install is a customer who first installed or updated the app from Google Play on or after the start date for their region. An existing install is one from before it.
- Most apps pay nothing. The same page says: "97% of developers distribute their apps and take advantage of all Google Play has to offer at no charge." A free app with no in-app purchases has no sales for a fee to come out of.
Where does "15–30%" come from? It was Google’s old structure, and it still applies in the regions that haven’t switched yet. Google’s page keeps it for "all remaining markets until the announced updated service fees are rolled out globally": "15% for the first $1M (USD) revenue earned by the developer each year", and 30% above that.
If your app sells real things, not digital ones
A lot of small-business apps sell something you can’t download: a table booking, a haircut, a delivery, a call-out. The stores treat that differently.
- Apple. The App Review Guidelines, section 3.1.3(e), say: "If your app enables people to purchase physical goods or services that will be consumed outside of the app, you must use purchase methods other than in-app purchase to collect those payments, such as Apple Pay or traditional credit card entry." And the commission quoted above is on "the sale of digital goods and services".
- Google. Its Payments policy page lists, under "Purchases that are not supported by Google Play's billing system", both "Purchases or rentals of physical goods (such as groceries, clothing, home appliances, or electronics)" and "Purchases of physical services (such as transportation services, airfare, gym memberships, or food delivery)".
So a real-world sale is paid for outside the stores’ in-app payment systems, through whatever payment provider you use. Google’s fee pages don’t spell out a fee for those sales in so many words, so if your app sells anything physical, read those two pages for your exact case before assuming either store takes a cut.
What the guides on page one get wrong
On 10 October we read the UK guides that come up for this search, and four of them opened for us. We read those four again on 12 October. They don’t agree with each other or with Apple:
- One gives Apple’s fee as £99 a year, one as £75, and one as £79. Apple’s UK App Store listing says £78.99, so the £79 one is right, rounded.
- The £99 guide also gives Google’s fee as £25, where Google’s own figure is US$25, and puts Apple’s small-business threshold at £1 million, where Apple’s is 1 million US dollars.
- One, updated in August 2026, after the change, still gives Google’s commission as 15–30%.
- None of the four mentions Google’s 30 June change.
None of this is surprising. Fees change, and guides go out of date. It is why we quote the stores’ own words and give the date we read them.
What argues the other way, and what we couldn’t check
- £78.99 is the in-app price. We read it from the UK App Store listing for Apple’s own app, not from a checkout on Apple’s website. Apple’s pages say only that the web price is "listed in local currency during the enrollment process".
- Prices change. Google’s fees changed this year, and Apple lists six places with different terms already. Check the date on any guide, including this one.
- We haven’t converted dollars to pounds. Google’s registration fee and the 1 million thresholds are in US dollars, and any conversion would go out of date as the exchange rate moves.
- We have an interest. Lola Squared builds mobile apps, and a post saying it costs little to get into the stores suits a company like ours. That is why every figure is linked to Apple’s or Google’s own page.
Sources, and what we checked
- Apple: Program enrollment, Renewal, Enrollment requirements, Membership details, App Store Small Business Program and the App Review Guidelines (marked "Updated: June 8, 2026"), read on 10 and 12 October 2026.
- The Apple Developer app on the UK App Store (£78.99) and the US App Store ($98.99), read on 10 and 12 October 2026.
- Google Play Console Help: Get started with Play Console, App testing requirements for new personal developer accounts, Choose a developer account type, Service fees, Understanding Google Play’s lower service fees and Understanding Google Play’s Payments policy, read on 10 and 12 October 2026.
- Four UK guides from the first page of results for this search, read on 10 and 12 October 2026. We describe what they say rather than naming them.
- Every quotation above was tested automatically against the text of its source before publication.