I'm developping an App in my company. We want to distribute this App to our customers but without using the AppStore from Apple, is it possible?
I heard about MDM (mobile device manager) but I'm not really sure if it will cover this need?
I heard also about Enterprise developer license for in house deployment but if I'm understanding correctly it means the App can be deployed only inside my company and not to our customers, is it correct?
Thanks for your clarifications.
Seb
If you are trying to get apps to customers without the App Store, you have options, but none of them are awesome.
There are many choices for over the air distribution of the binary, that really isn't the complicated part. You've got MDM solutions, HockeyKit, TestFlight, Manual server manipulation - all are fairly easy and well documented.
Where things get nasty is in the signing. If you definitely do not want to participate in the App Store environment (no app store, no Volume Purchase Program), you only have two real options:
Ad Hoc - Limited to 100 Devices. Devices must be explicitly added to a provision.
Enterprise - No device limit, devices do not need to explicitly added to provisions. In effect, these builds will run on any device; the caveat, you are not legally allowed to distribute these builds to anyone outside your company.
If you intend on developing an application for some other company and their employees, then your only viable option is to sign the final build with a signing certificate attached to said company's development account. The enterprise signing route is a really great approach, if you can get the company to sign all the paperwork to get their own developer account, owned by them.
For stock iOS devices, you really have only 4 choices:
1) Ad Hoc distribution to up to 100 total max devices per iOS Developer enrollment (including wireless Ad Hoc via manifest file & SSL.)
2) Enterprise distribution for distribution to employees of corporations with a D&B rating.
3) Apple's iTunes App store if your app is approved by Apple. (This includes the B2B program and account/password protected apps.) (This now also includes up to 1000 people using Apple's new Testflight service.)
4) Unlimited distribution to other people who have their own individual, company or enterprise iOS/Apple Developer enrollments. The distribution can be either as an Xcode project with source code or a pre-compiled library, or as an ipa or archive file that the customer can (re)codesign with their own Developer certificates. For applications priced at well over $99 per customer, the cost of this annual developer program enrollment might only be a slight additional cost to the customer (and given appropriate legal authorizations, might even be handled as an annual paid service.)
4 b.) ADDED UPDATE: As of Apple's release of Xcode 7 (in late 2015), anyone with just a free Apple ID can use Xcode 7 on their Mac to install apps from build-able Xcode projects directly to their own tethered iOS devices this way, with no need to pay $99 to Apple to enroll. See this answer.
This essentially allows unlimited distribution to anyone with physical access to a current Mac and who knows how to run Xcode.
Options (1), (2) and (4) do not require going through App store approval. There are no other options for distributing apps to stock OS iOS devices.
You could take a look at https://testflightapp.com/.
We use that a lot for customers that only need a app for testing doing the development phase and for apps that are used for conventions (limited time, limited number of units).
Testflight is very easy to use for both developers and end-users, but it is not very well suited for apps that are going to be used on a large numbers of devices, since all devices that are installed to needs to be in your provisioning profile which has a limited number of slots.
EDIT
The testfligt approch is no longer valid. You can now use the TestFlight integrated into itunesconnect. Alternatively you could integrate crashlytics.com, at use their distribution system. It works pretty weill
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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!
Heyo Guys
I got a question about the deployment of my App. I am currently doing contracting for a small to medium size business. The app is (as the title suggests) developped for iOS.
The app should be for internal use only so putting it on the app store would not be a good idea.
I have read about the enterprise developer program which sounds pretty much like the thing I need except for 2 aspects :
1. 299 per year
2. Enterprise apps are intended for really big companies.
Is there any other way to distribute the app to the 10+ people working at the business I am currently working for ?
Thanks for your advice
EDIT : Thanks for all your answers. I have plans to then further distribute the app to other companies (the app is for driving schools) so that means that there would again be a problem if each of those companies had to buy a licence in order to use my app
It doesn't matter about the size of the company, If they want an internal application not hosted on the App Store then the Enterprise program is the way to go.
This is something that the client should be paying for though, they could then use a service like Hockey to host their applications for employees.
If the company only needed the app for say 10 devices, they could technically just get away with an AdHoc build but there are drawbacks:
AdHoc builds are intended for testing rather than full scale distribution.
The devices would have to be registered on the developer portal, this means that if a new device needs adding then you would have to add it then re-generate a new provisioning profile.
You're limited on how many devices you can distribute to.
The provisioning profile will expire after 3 months.
Provisioning profiles currently expire after a year just like enterprise profiles however Apple have been known to change this.
If it's 10 people, you can ask them to hand over their devices and you install using Xcode. For 50 you can make them beta testers, but it is a pain. Testflight will work, but you have to upload a version once a month which they have to download. All of these might be against your license.
It would be by far the best if the company you are working for buys an enterprise license. (YOU can't buy the enterprise license, because the users are not YOUR employees).
You can distribute via TestFlight, but those 10 users will eat in to your limit of 25 total Beta testers.
You can explicitly take the target users' device UUIDs and provision your app to be able to run on them. Then, you can create ad-hoc deployments of your app which can be installed directly on the target devices using iTunes, or distribute them using something like Crashlytics.
You can add 100 devices per year as a registered developer.
I am developing an iOS app of which my clients would like roughly 50 people to beta test. However, I don't want to have to keep adding UDIDs to my developer portal account and to generate a new provisioning profile each time. Is there a way in which I can distribute the beta without having to go through the aforementioned painful process of adding a new user? I'm thinking something automatic!
Look forward to hearing your responses!
Using a standard individual Developer enrollment, testing any app on stock OS iOS devices requires generating profiles with each device's UDID. No exceptions.
So you have to keep adding UDIDs to your developer portal (or let testflight gather them for you), or tell the client no more. (I would consider charging the client a sufficiently large additional amount for each extra device to be added after the initial batch, that you will become happy to do so, instead of it being a "painful" task.)
The Enterprise program can only be used for employees of the enrolled developer, not clients or customers. If your client has a D&B rating, then they might be able to enroll themselves in this program to allow distribution to their employees without gathering UDIDs.
The developer portal has an option in which you upload a list of your user's UDIDs (look in the device tab and click "Upload file"). Just prepare your beta user's UDIDs and upload once, then you can just generate an ad hoc profile once and wirelessly distribute this.
Note the file format should be (tab delimited):
device_id_hex_40_chars description_text
... ...
The first line of the file is ignored, so you can add a header.
If you're willing to pay the $299, then you can join the iOS Enterprise Developer program and distribute applications using iOS Enterprise distribution. This lets you distribute to an unlimited number of users.
https://developer.apple.com/programs/ios/enterprise/
Otherwise I'd suggest Testflight.
I am currently developing iPhone app, and I use a "Apple standard program".
At the moment, I am deploying this app to users with OTA with distribution certificat and OTA (over the air) installation.
It's working but i'm limited up to 100 devices.
I read that the "Apple Enterprise Program" don't have this limit (of 100 devices).
Is it right ?
If I enroll to Enterprise program, will I need to get UUID devices in order to generate provisioning profiles to deploy my app (like I do now with standard program and my 100 devices users) ?
Thanks for feedbacks.
No you don't need to know the UDIDs for Enterprise distributed apps.
It's very important to note however that you're not allowed to distribute Enterprise Apps to People other than your employees or other members of the organization which enrolled in the Enterprise Dev Program.
You should be aware that Enterprise distributed apps are signed with a special distribution certificate and provisioning profile which only allow the app to run after the device had an opportunity to check with apples servers if your certificate is still valid. This means that Apple, should they happen to learn about illicitly distributed Enterprise apps, is perfectly able to shut these apps down by revoking the distribution certificate. Furthermore, those certificates expire each year anyway just like the regular distribution certificates do.
Unfortunately, there's no real solution to your problem - I happen to know, because the 100 device limit put a halt to a research project of one of my clients, too. In their current form, the available development programs as offered by Apple offer only a minimum of flexibility. You might want to contact them about it, if enough people do, maybe they'll change something one day.
The Apple Enterprise Program will only allow distributing within the organization. Further Apple restricts the Enterprise Program to large organizations and there are other restrictions as to membership.
If you are looking for general distribution the Apple Enterprise Program is not an option.
I have a question about the licenses of iOS and my application.
I am developing a application to run on a lot of iPad's for a consulters company. This company will download the (IPA) file from our web interface, and sync the devices on iTunes. Is this possible with the simple iOS Developer Program licence? I think that this is the famous ad-hoc, and not the in-house distribution from Enterprise Program. I am really confused about this licence and the Enterprise Program.
Thanks.
Since iOS 4 was released, you don't have to manually download the IPA and sync through iTunes, you can install by tapping on a link on a web page. You just need to create a plist file and point the link to it with a special pseudo-protocol. The details are in the developer library.
The individual / company developer account can handle that with ad hoc builds, but it sounds like the enterprise program is a better match for your needs. Ad hoc builds expire after a few months, it's limited to a hundred users and getting the UDIDs from the client can be a real pain. I've gone down that path before, and it's not unusual to receive UDIDs as screenshots of iTunes embedded in a Word document or incomplete/wrong, even after you give them step-by-step instructions on how to do it properly.
The enterprise program has its own drawbacks. It can take a while to get set up, and the company needs a DUNS number. However once it's set up, you'll find it easier to work with.
The standard developer program will let you distribute to 100 devices per year. That's the ad-hoc mechanism, and it isn't intended for what you're doing, although it certainly will work assuming you have fewer than 100 users.
The Enterprise program is designed for what you're doing, but costs more and has different details.
With the individual and company plans you have a limitation of 100 devices that you authorize with ad hoc distribution. Besides you have App Store access. If the number of devices is > 100 then applying to this program is not useful and then you must revert to the enterprise program.
The enterprise program gives you unlimited number of devices that can be authorized but no access to the App Store. In such case the consulter company must be enrolled to this program and can distribute the apps only to its employers or members. Finally this program provides other than ad-hoc distribution even in-house distribution, that is a form of automatic app distribution (like a simplified app store but for the company only). Finally note that in order to apply to this program the company must own a DUNS number.
Clearly if you want to have both options, that is in-house distribution and App Store access the company can enroll to the two programs.