There has been a lot of questions on this already that answer some of my questions. I am looking for someone who has direct experience with setting up and managing both accounts.
I have a situation where I need to send a private Beta test to more than 100 people (the ad-hoc device limit for iOS), but I still want to be able to publish publicly to the app store.
My solution is to obtain both an enterprise account and a regular developer account. The enterprise account allows me to distribute to anyone within my company, privately with no limit. The regular account gives me the ability to publish to the app store. Unfortunately this means I have two create two different apple developer accounts.
I am worried about the hidden caveats that are involved with this process.
Is there any caveats with managing two separate apple developer accounts for the same application?
Any problem with packaging names for applications? I'm assuming the identifier needs to be different.
I hear that you cannot test the storekit with the enterprise program. Any other problems similiar to that?
I have experience with managing both Developer and Enterprise a/c. We have multiple applications in appstore. We mainly use the enterprise a/c for testing and developer's a/c for publishing the application to app store. This has worked fine for us for more than a year now.
That being said, managing two accounts is cumbersome. I have no idea why Apple won't allow us to create App Store distribution profile using the Enterprise a/c! Here are few recommendations:
Choose the names of the accounts so that you could easily distinguish them e.g. "xxx developer" and "xxx enterprise".
It is possible to create the developer and ad-hoc distribution profiles in both the accounts. Overtime it can become messy especially if you have multiple developers and applications. So I would recommend forming some guidelines for the accounts usage beforehand.
You can use the Wildcard App Id when creating the distribution profile. So you can avoid changing the Apple Id for the same application in these accounts. However, if you use Push Notifications and/or In App Purchase then you will have to use explicit App Id, and App Id needs to be different in each account.
Related
My company has an Apple Enterprise Account, which we have used to deploy apps to employees using an MDM. Works fine.
We are developing an app with an outside developer. This app probably will be put in the App Store.
I generally understand the difference between Enterprise and Developer Accounts.
What I don't understand is the need to have 2 separate accounts? I cannot link my Ent to a Dev account? I have to maintain two separate accounts?
Our outside developer wants to use Test Flight for testing, which is fine by me, but we are just starting internal employee testing, so I want them just to send me the archive and I will distribute it internally using our MDM, until I can figure out if we can just "extend" our Enterprise account, and or we want to use Test Flight.
What is best practice regarding this?
The best practice is to decide as early as possible how the distribution of the app will work. If it is truly an internal app not intended for the App Store, then use your Enterprise account. If it is likely to be put into the App Store at some point, then use the normal non-enterprise account and TestFlight for pre-release builds.
It can be an involved process to later transfer the app from one account to the other and may involve intervention by Apple, or changing of the bundle ID. It's best to figure this out ahead of time and put the project into the proper account.
If using your MDM is an absolute requirement, you may be able to create an additional target within the project to use the enterprise account, while the main target uses the non-enterprise account.
Another advantage to using a non-enterprise account and external TestFlight builds is that your app will go though quick, periodic reviews by Apple which can catch many errors before submitting the App Store release candidate.
Our requirement is to distribute iOS app for more than 1000+ users within the Organization.
My question : Can we make Distribution iPA using iOS Developer Provisioning Profile (As We have $99 Apple Account Not Enterprise Account) and share it with VPP and Apple MDM (Memory Device Management) or should i opt for Enterprise Apple account ?
**Note1 - Dont want to use Adhoc Provisioning Profile as it require all devices registered in apple account and we have 1000+ Apple Devices.
**Note2 - Already gone through other related post but dint find the steps to disbtribute the iOS using VPP , all post suggest to use Enterprise Distribution (Our requirement is to use VPP since Our business customer have already have VPP )
**Note3 - We have developed an iOS app , not want to share purchased app through VPP .
Kindly Suggest any reference which guides me to deploy App through VPP.
If the one organisation is both the developer and the consumer of the app, then an enterprise program membership is a possible approach. With an enterprise membership you can:
Develop apps
Sign those apps for private distribution
Distribute those apps, without going through the Apple approval process
Distribute those apps via a private app store/intranet/MDM system etc.
If you want to provide apps to one or more enterprise customers that are independent of the developer then an individual membership and B2B distribution is the correct approach. The steps are outlined here but in summary:
You develop your app as you normally would
You create an entry for that app in iTunes connect, specifying Available privately as a custom B2B app in the Pricing and availability section
You can also specify the price tier that applies to this app. You can select the free tier and arrange payment directly with the customer if you prefer.
Nominate an AppleID associated with the VPP customer you are going to supply to
Submit the app for Apple approval as per usual
2019 addendum
It is now possible for an organisation to provide B2B apps to themselves. The advantage of B2B apps is that they never expire and don't require periodic provisioning profile validation and refresh. The disadvantage is that there is still a review process, so if you are doing things that won't pass review you can have an issue. The review process also introduces some release delay.
Been searching through the forum without much luck.
I have an app on iTunes that help users find the best mobile subscription plan based on their usage - and usage estimated by uploading picture from settings.
The plan is to create an enterprise version, and was wondering if it is possible to distribute the enterprise version through the existing one via a button in the app. (i.e. when clicking it automatically downloads the enterprise app).
Do you know if it is possible, and have you seen others doing the same thing?
And do you know if there are any limitations to the model? (if it is possible)
Enterprise distribution can not be done like that and its own kinda provisioning for distribution, you have to take the member for the enterprise distribution programme and create new binary for distribution.
Enterprise apps are only for in-house app development. For example IBM wants to make an internal mail app that logs into their private servers. Distributing to customers is in breach of the agreement and your account would be removed if you attempted this.
I have made an app for doctors only for education purpose only. because of copyright issues I don't want the app to be on the app store. So I am planning to host the app on the my website with authentication. I have distributed app this way to the clients before and I know the difference between apple enterprise program vs developer account. I came across the issue that you can not deploy app to your end user via this method because it is violating app store terms and condition. After reading many forums I came to know that b2b program can be the solution. I know that b2b app store you still have to go with app store standard procedure So my questions are,
1) If your app is free, will it still violate app store terms and condition.?
2) What is the flow for b2b program once you submit your app to apple.?
3) Is b2b also violating the terms and condition for my scenario.?
Note - I know already how to get enterprise account or apply for b2b program. I have an organization to deal with this. I also know that the enterprise program only allows you to distribute the application file among employees with registered devices in your company, not to anybody else. :)
Thanks.
1) Free apps are still held to the same approval standards of paid apps.
The best way is an iOS enterprise account. Once you have an enterprise account, you can host signed Apps on your own website and your clients can download them directly to devices using OTA distribution. There is no Apple review for distributing apps this way.
Note that enterprise accounts are meant for distributing apps in an organization and not publicly. I think as long as you limit distribution to a specific group (not publicly) then you will not violate license agreements. Read the actual agreement to make sure it fits your needs.
Check out this question for details of how to setup OTA distribution:
IOS Enterprise Distribution Through OTA
We have created a messaging app and regularly post updates to the appstore. This way, appstore contains always the latest & greatest, with a small risk of bugs.
We want to build a stable version for our business customers (who do in-house messaging), which updates very seldom or never. Our customers want to control the rate of updates themselves.
Telling their employees not to upgrade does not work, since new installs always get the latest version from the appstore.
Question:
Can I use the enterprise distribution certificate of my own company and deliver the app binaries to my customers (e.g. a different binary per customer)?
Or should I create a different version in the appstore for each customer?
Or should I force my customers to request their own enterprise distribution certificate, which is a hassle I would like to avoid?
I guess that the answer to my first question is NO, as indicated in Can the iOS enterprise app development program be used to distribute apps to other companies but not via the app store?
2 is annoying, since everybody in the world can see & install the app
3 is annoying, since it requires time of my customer plus a legal contract such that I can request a certificate for my customer, use their private key, ...
By your contract you are not allowed to do that.
But Everybody does it. And i had phone contact with a apple employe which told me that they won't go behind that case.
And imaging: should apple check all installations of all enterprise deployment programs? Impossible,... even for Apple.
I would just try to get not more installations than 1000.
The iOS developer program allows you to distribute Custom B2B Apps directly to your customers if they have Volume Purchase Program account.
Custom B2B Apps
You can also offer custom B2B apps directly to your business customers who have a Volume Purchase Program account. A custom B2B app provides a unique, tailored solution to address a specific business need or requirement.
If you have customers who are not located in the US, I recommend the third option: making our customers have their own iOS Enterprise Developer account.