The idea to distribute release version of iOS application to specified users only. This app shouldn't be available for any person except who was selected (using AppleID or something).
Is it possible to avoid using Enterprise Developer Program?
VPP as I understand will not work here, because app will be available to all business users.
Ad-Hoc distribution doesn't work for me: 6 months expiration, headache with udids, 100 device limitation.
Thanks!
Is there any way to distribute ios applications through my own website, not using app store?
I mean is there any way that enables end users to download the .ipa file from my website with their browser application and install it directly on their iOS devices?
I have looked around in the web and googled it, but it doesn't seem to be any option for it out there, I just want to make sure of it.
Thank You
There are several possibilities, which probably won't match your needs:
Since last month it's possible to test apps on a device without the need of a paid membership.
There's a possibility to deploy an app through a service like TestFlight, but this needs either a profile installed on the device (like HockeyApp) or always new build since the old ones expire after 30 days.
You could deploy an app with the Enterprise Program
The easy way you describe is not possible.
Apart from the options mentioned above there are 2 more methods.
Method 1:
You could ask the user to open a webpage in safari browser with the following link in it.
href="itms-services://?action=download-manifest&url=url of the manifest file"
The app is installed as soon as the user clicks the link.
Method 2:
You can also leverage iOS mdm solutions like Hexnode MDM though its bit of an overkill.
here is a link on how to distribute app without app store
UPDATE:
BuddyBuild service will stop on 1-3-2018, the other alternative I know is https://www.diawi.com
Old ANSWER:
Try BuddyBuild , after making a build you can take link to IPA file and distribute it as shown.
The options include:
App Store (free or paid)
Enterprise Distribution (must be within an organization)
Open source distribution
It does not sound like any of these will meet your requirements, so no.
Further explanation:
Just to be clear, the limitation is not in distributing your .ipa file, it is the ability for users to install it on their phone. iOS requires an app be signed by Apple (from the App Store), from an Enterprise certificate, or from a developer certificate when a valid provisioning profile includes the target device.
Basically there are three ways
App store
With this method anyone with an iPhone can have access to the application. You can distribute an unlimited number of applications like this. Apple gets a 30% cut. Of course, Apple must approve your application.
Ad hoc
You can distribute applications using ad hoc without going through the app store, but you are limited to a maximum of 100 devices. With this method you can distribute your application from a web site, email, etc.
Enterprise
The method is for internal distribution in companies with more than 500 employees. Apple does not provide any more public detail that I could find on this method.
It doesn't sound like any of these methods meet your criteria unless you have fewer than 100 customers and don't plan to exceed that number. It sounds like from the question your customers are not internal to your company.
I would advise contacting Apple. They might be able to arrange some kind of custom distribution deal.
You if don't want to upload your files to the already mentioned web services, you can host your IPA in your own computer and distribute over the internet using ngrok and the approach given by jithin.
I've created a server that does exactly that and also is protected by password. You can check it out here:
https://github.com/Edudjr/IPAServer
To send build to testers or client I am generally using installonair.com which allows to upload IPA file and generate short URL which we can provide to other users and they can download and install easily from that link.
There are other options as well like Apple Testflight, hockeyapp but I found installonair.com is the quick one.
If you have and Enterprise membership you can do this, but it really isn't what they want you to do on a large scale.
Take a look at this question: Deploying an iOS Application Using Apple Enterprise Developer Program
You can use enterprise distribution services like BuildCannon, but you still need an apple enterprise account. I use a custom solution, but it's a pain to maintain.
Is it possible to deploy an APP to apple app store, but only allow internal company user to download the APP by their own? Thanks.
Yes it is possible with Apple Enterprise Developer Program.
The Apple Developer Enterprise Program allows large organizations to develop and deploy proprietary, internal-use apps to their employees. This program is for specific use cases that require private distribution directly to employees using secure internal systems or through a Mobile Device Management solution.
Just to augment what others have said there. The Enterprise program is what you want. It allows you to distribute your app to as many devices as you like. But as it's not going through the Apple app store, you will have to work out how you want to do it. There are third party servers out there for doing this sort of thing.
You can also simply "roll your own" by simply creating a web page on your LAN with a like to the downloadable app. The Apple documentation has the details on doing that.
Also note one difference between an Enterprise app and a app store app, is that the Enterprise app certificates will need to be renewed every year. Which means that you will need to update the app every year or it will stop working.
I developed an iPad app for a donation campaign and want to distribute it to the iPads now. Since several iPads are effected, I dont wanna create a provisioning profile for each single iPad.
On the website: http://mdmclient.net I can easily download&install the app's plist file without giving them my iPads UDID.
So with other words, is it possible to distribute the app without registering all the UDIDs?!
I would like to avoid buying an enterprise license/account due to the limited amount of money of the donation campaign (I'm developing the app for free for them)...
Or do you think I can only install the app from http://mdmclient.net because they are using an enterprise profile/account?
Unfortunately the only way to distribute an app to many iPads without registering every device's UDID is an enterprise developer account. The guys at MDM Client seem to have an enterprise account.
So basically there are 2 ways you can go:
Distribute your app via the AppStore.
Purchase an enterprise developer account.
Or there is a third way (of course that's probably too late now, as your app is already finished): Do it as a HTML web app.
Is it possible to constrain an app to only 200 specific devices? I don't want that the app is installed on any device. For in-house distribution I can't select any devices ore something like that.
Is there any other way to get this done?
An In-house distribution profile can be installed on any iOS device, So it is impossible to limit an app built from this type of profile to be installed on a certain device.
One solution to your problem(what we do in our enterprise), could be to host the app on an intranet site for OTA. The access to the site can be limited to certain number of users. That way only these users would be able to download and install this app.
P.S: And of course this solution expects the employees with access, not to to distribute the app to others.
This is what the Enterprise Developer Program is designed for. Your app is downloadable from a website rather than from the App Store.