Short answer: the Apple Developer Enterprise Program costs $299 a year and lets organizations with 100 or more employees distribute their own apps to their own employees, outside the App Store. Apple verifies every applicant, re-verifies at each renewal, and recommends the standard $99 Developer Program for most organizations.
We talk to companies about this every week, and the questions are always the same: can we get an Enterprise account, what happens if Apple revokes it, and is there a simpler way? Here is what Apple’s own documents say, plus what we see in practice.
What the Enterprise Program is for
Apple describes it as a program that “allows large organizations to develop and deploy proprietary, internal-use apps to their employees”, through the company’s own internal systems or device management[1]. Two words in that sentence decide most applications: proprietary — the app is developed by you — and employees — not customers, not the public.
Requirements
| Requirement | What Apple asks |
|---|---|
| Price | $299 per membership year[1] |
| Company size | 100 or more employees |
| Legal status | A legal entity; DBAs, fictitious businesses, trade names and branches aren’t accepted |
| Identity | D-U-N-S Number and a public website on the organization’s domain |
| Applicant | Someone with legal authority to bind the organization, with a separate Apple Account using two-factor authentication |
| Use | Proprietary in-house apps, distributed privately to employees, with systems that ensure only employees can download them |
| Verification | Pass Apple’s verification interview and continuous evaluation |
Why applications get rejected
During verification Apple checks not only who you are but whether you need the program at all. It explicitly validates that the App Store, Apple Business, Ad Hoc distribution or TestFlight “would not adequately meet your needs” — and may reject an application “at its sole discretion”[1]. Apple’s own page states that the standard Apple Developer Program is the right option for most organizations that distribute internal apps.
In our experience, rejections are common, and Apple rarely explains them in detail. Companies under 100 employees, agencies building apps for clients and teams that mainly need to test builds are the typical cases that don’t fit.
Renewal and revocation: the risk nobody budgets for
An approved membership isn’t permanent. “If you choose to renew your membership, your organization will be verified again”[1]. The Enterprise License Agreement adds two things worth reading before you depend on the program[2]:
- Internal use only (§3.2(g)). Internal-use apps may not be offered to other companies, customers, consumers, distributors or the public, or hosted on a public website or file-hosting service. Contractors are allowed only while they develop the app for you.
- Revocation at Apple’s discretion (§5.3). Apple “reserves the right to revoke any Apple Certificates at any time, in its sole discretion”, including when a term of the agreement is breached.
When a distribution certificate is revoked, apps signed with it stop launching — for every employee at once. The best-known case: in January 2019 Apple revoked Facebook’s enterprise certificates after an app was distributed to consumers, calling it “a clear breach of their agreement with Apple”; Facebook’s internal employee apps stopped working until the certificates were restored[3].
The alternative most smaller companies overlook
If your goal is to get your own apps onto your team’s and your testers’ devices, the standard Apple Developer Program is often the more direct path:
- $99 a year instead of $299, with no 100-employee threshold and no verification interview[4].
- Ad Hoc distribution to registered devices — 100 per device type (iPhone, iPad and so on) per membership year[5].
- Memberships simply renew. There’s no re-verification of your company’s eligibility each year.
Most teams we work with need a single membership. The device list is the one limit to plan for: a registered device keeps its slot until the membership year renews, even if the tester leaves. Companies whose tester group changes often sometimes keep two or three memberships — for around $200–$300 a year instead of $99, still less than one Enterprise membership. When a developer leaves the company, builds and testers can be moved to another certificate.
| Enterprise Program | Developer Program + Ad Hoc | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $299 / year | $99 / year per membership |
| Who can apply | Legal entities with 100+ employees | Individuals and organizations |
| Verification | Interview, continuous evaluation, re-verification at renewal | Standard enrollment |
| Who can install | Employees (and other permitted users) | Registered devices of your team and testers |
| Device limit | No device registration | 100 per device type per year |
| App Review before install | No | No |
Other options Apple lists — Apple Business custom apps and TestFlight — both involve Apple review before people can install. We cover them in the internal distribution guide and in AppSign vs TestFlight.
Questions companies ask us
Is this sideloading?
No. Ad Hoc distribution is a standard part of the Apple Developer Program: you sign your own app for devices registered in your own account. Sideloading usually refers to installing apps outside Apple’s programs and rules.
Can Apple block us?
Apple can revoke any certificate at its discretion, under both programs. In practice the risk comes from breaking the rules — distributing someone else’s apps or making builds available to the public — not from testing your own app with your own team.
What happens if a certificate is revoked?
Apps signed with it stop launching and need to be re-signed with a valid certificate. That’s why we insist on distributing only your own apps: prevention is far easier than recovery.
Do we have to juggle several Apple services?
Not with AppSign. It works under your developer account and keeps signing, registered testers, builds and install links in one place — so the team doesn’t switch between the developer portal, provisioning profiles and file-sharing links.
Where AppSign fits
We’re opening sales of flexible Enterprise plans for companies that test and distribute their own iOS apps internally: unlimited apps and signing requests, custom tester and storage limits, and billing that fits your procurement. If an Enterprise account was rejected, revoked or simply isn’t worth the process for your team, tell us about your setup.