Developing for iOS is Way too Expensive – What’s Wrong with Apple?

I program for Android as a hobby and for fun. Maybe sometime later when I feel confident I’ll put my skills to work as a freelancer. Writing has been good to me so far, but there’s no guarantee that it will continue to provide a reliable income stream. I started programming for Android because I liked its open nature and I already had an Android phone. The biggest hurdle for me, was paying the one time fee of $25 for getting my Android app listed on the marketplace.

It’s no secret to anyone who knows me that I’m a huge cheapskate. Maybe it’s genetic, but I simply don’t like to spend money. I think a hundred times before any of it leaves my wallet. But I saw the $25 as a one-time investment, bit the bullet and paid up. Now that I’m quite familiar with Android and have published three applications, I thought I should also target the iOS platform as well. To start with, I could replicate the three applications that I have already built on Apple’s App Store.

I released all three of my apps for free. I want people to download and use them with no barriers. I also want to provide them with the best user experience and so I don’t include any ads either. I’ve done a lot of this kind of programming before. I develop apps for free and let anyone use them.

iOS places impossible burdens on its developers
iOS places impossible burdens on its developers

So imagine my shock when I did a bit of research to find out how to get started with iOS development. The first thing I learned was that I need to buy a Mac. Now I’ve just bought a Sony VAIO and there’s no way I can afford to buy another computer – let alone an expensive piece of hardware like a Mac. But that’s not all. Apparently, I need to pay Apple $99 per year for the privilege of developing for them! Let me repeat that – $99 per year.

As someone who doesn’t plan to monetize their applications anytime soon, this is an impossible burden to bear. $99 translates into Rs. 5000-Rs.6000 every single year. There’s no getting around it. It seems that Apple simply isn’t interested in having hobbyists or those coding and programming for fun on its platform.

If you think that iOS belongs to Apple and they can do with it as they please, remember that there is no option for users to install applications on their iOS phones from anywhere else other than the official App Store. That means that if I want to install an application on my own phone using code that I myself wrote, I have to pay Apple for the privilege of doing so – every single year. Nevermind the fact that I have to also buy a Mac to do it.

Compare this to programming for Android what I can do so using any operating system and for a single one-time fee of $25. All the tools are free, the documentation is free – and the inbuilt emulator released you from the necessity of having an actual Android device as well! Combine this with the fact that you don’t need anyone’s approval to put your app up on the Android marketplace along with the fact that Android allows anyone to install applications from outside sources and you have a no-brainer when it comes to choosing whether you want to develop for Android or iOS.

The barriers to entry for developing for Android are not more than $25. The barriers to entry for doing the same for iOS are sickeningly high for anyone who wants to code for fun and as a hobby with no immediate returns on investment planned. I guess this particular cheapskate is staying far away from iOS and refuses to touch it with a 10 foot pole.

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12 thoughts on “Developing for iOS is Way too Expensive – What’s Wrong with Apple?”

  1. The apple ecosystem is very different from the windows or linux ecosystem. If one looks closely at apple, one realizes why the microsoft model is so popular amongst pro developers and why linux is so popular amongst hobby/pro developers.

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  2. “I released all three of my apps are free.”
    I suspect you want to correct the typo above. (I noted this only because the rest of the article was so clearly and well written.)

    None of this is surprising; a big part of Apple’s business model is based on locking people in. Microsoft definitely does it too, but arguably to a lesser extent.

    It’s not the only big part of their philosophy (the up front investment of buying the hardware itself is outrageously high) but it is an important part.

    It’s not only about developers, but end users as well. As noted by a recent BBC documentary on Apple, they have made big money simply by keeping people paying long after they bought their product. (They seem to rely on this this more extensively than MS, arguably because of their smaller market share in the PC area.) An extensive lock-in is what makes such business possible.

    About the $99 fee – is that for publishing on Apple’s “App Store” or is it a licence for using developer tools / libraries? If so, is Cydia a way around that fee?

    I am not a skilled programmer, but curious. :)

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  3. Good article but small correction needed. You don’t actually need to pay anything at all to develop Android apps. You can develop your app and distribute the apk file yourself. For example hosting it on a website. As long as your users are happy with this it will work.

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  4. can not agree more.
    the price is too high for developers like us who just wanna publish some free app to help not that many people.

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  5. Bhagwad Jal Park;

    I too do not have the money to pay 99 dollars a year to make free apps as an hobbyist. So I had the idea to create a cooperative business where each member of the c. b. would split the bill. When the idea came to my mind I immediately began searching google to see if anyone had already done something similar when I stumbled on your blog.

    The cooperative that I had in mind would allow members to create free and/or paid software for the iOS as members of the cooperative. The cooperative would then release the apps on their behalf and the individual could redeem any money his app generated from the cooperative on a yearly basis.

    I was looking for founder-members. If anyone reading this is interested please do not hesitate to send an e. mail to my e. mail address. As one cannot found a cooperative alone, your collaboration is welcome.

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    • In reply to John-Joesph

      This doesn’t work. The $99/year is for ONE DEVELOPER. I guess you could all share one account, but every app will have to be published with the same credentials and all paid apps will be sent to one bank account. I guess if you’re all friends it would work – or if you all work together.

      Another reason to hate Apple. The only problem is that nearly half of everyone in the US and maybe 35% of the world uses iOS. And iOS users account for 70% of worldwide app usage and downloads. So…. I guess we’ll have to bite the bullet if we want the Apple sheeple to get at our apps. What we really need is either a large, important corporation to not offer apps for iOS (a.k.a. boycott them) until Apple makes reasonable prices ($99 one-time would be OK). Clydia is a great alternative, but only to Apple users who jailbreak their devices (which is probably a really low number).

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  6. look I’m 15 and i love coding but stupid apple fucks me and my family over i just managed to get a mac to develop for the clowns at apple but really 100 bucks a year?? now i have a practically worthless pice of crap siting in my room, like windows its practically free to develop for, even android, hell even xbox. but then i check iOS to see if i can develop on there. that is when i had my father start the enrollment on my apple id. (because I’m 15 i can’t accept the license agreement)
    then my father had the decency to tell me no because he don’t have an extra 100 a year to throw around. so now I’m here telling you all about how i got here.

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  7. I, too, am extremely upset about this outrageous price. I do believe that if I ever make a successful app, I will never release for iOS until they agree to lower their prices.

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  8. The true cost is closer to $200 a year due to Mac upgrade requirements, and in some cases could be much more.

    In 2009, a new Mac Mini cost $799. In 2016, the latest OS (10.12 Sierra) dropped official support for those 2009 machines. In 2017, Xcode 9 dropped support for OS versions before Sierra. Finally in 2018 the App Store dropped support for versions of Xcode below 9.

    So, as far as app-store publishing is concerned, the maximum useful life of a $799 Mac Mini sold in 2009 would have been 9 years. The $799 plus 9 years of $99 comes to $1690, which averages $187.78 per year. And that’s if you’re happy to test on the emulator only, since I haven’t included the cost of keeping up-to-date with physical iOS devices as well.

    True, for this you do also get to use some hardware for your other computing needs, but I expect your GNU/Linux setup needs a much lower average upgrade budget.

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