Set up your App Store and App Store Connect account

Enroll for the Apple Developer Program

To create an App Store account, you need to register for the Apple Developer Program on the developer website. If you have questions about account creation after reading this page, also check Apple's Membership support page.

Please note: you are creating the Apple Developer account on behalf of your company, do not use your personal email address to enroll or personal iOS device to setup two-factor authentication. This way you make sure other people responsible for the account will always have access to it.

Creating an Apple Developer account is required if you are publishing a Single Event App on the Apple App Store.

🔴 Before you begin

Create the account on behalf of your organisation, not with a personal Apple ID.
We recommend using a shared company email address and setting up two-factor authentication using a company-owned phone number or device. This ensures your organisation retains access to the account if responsibilities change.

What you'll need:

Before starting the enrolment process, make sure you have:

✅ A company or organisation that is registered as a legal entity.
✅ An Apple ID for your organisation.
✅ A D-U-N-S Number (or enough time to request one).
✅ A payment method (credit card or PayPal).
✅ Someone with legal authority to enrol the organisation.

Step 1 – Create an Apple ID

for the Apple Developer Program, you need to sign in with an Apple ID. If you don't yet have one, you can create one on the Apple ID portal. Please note that if you enable Two-Factor Authentication for your account, either with a phone number or another iOS device, you cannot switch this off again!

The Apple ID used for enrolment must belong to someone who has the legal authority to represent the organisation, such as:

Owner or founder
Executive team member
Senior project lead
Someone authorised to sign legal agreements

Warning! Once two-factor authentication has been enabled on an Apple ID, it cannot be disabled.

Step 2: Choose a membership type

As you will be enrolling your company, society or other institution to the Apple Developer Program, choose the membership type Organization. Organizations will distribute apps using their legal entity name. This name is displayed in the App Store below the app name, as indicated in the image below.

The membership costs $99 a year. To learn more about this and other membership types, check the Compare membership page on the Apple website.

Step 3 – Complete the enrolment

During enrolment, Apple will ask for:

Legal Entity Status: Your organization must be a recognized, registered legal entity to enter into contracts. Apple does not accept trade names, DBAs ("Doing Business As") names, branch offices, or fictitious business names.
D‑U‑N‑S Number: Enter your organization's unique nine-digit D‑U‑N‑S Number assigned by Dun & Bradstreet to verify your organization. You can search for if your organization has a D‑U‑N‑S Number In the lookup tool or request a D‑U‑N‑S Number for free on the Apple website, which usually takes up to 5 business days to process. If you don't already have one, you can request it free of charge through Dun & Bradstreet in most countries. More info can be found on Apple's D-U-N-S support page.

Note! Obtaining a new D-U-N-S Number can take up to five business days.

Legal Binding Authority: As the person enrolling your organization in the Apple Developer Program, you must have the legal authority to bind your organization to legal agreements. You must be the organization’s owner/founder, executive team member, senior project lead, or have legal authority granted to you by a senior employee.

Other team members (for example Conference Compass so that we can manage your apps) can be added later through the People page in your account.

Step 4 – Pay for your membership

Once your information has been verified, Apple will ask you to pay the annual membership fee.

Accepted payment methods include:

Credit card
PayPal

After payment, your Apple Developer account will become active. You can view your information on your account page.

Invite Conference Compass

App Store Connect is the dashboard to manage all your live (or about to be live) apps on Apples's App Store. If you are not submitting your own apps, you'll need to invite Conference Compass once your account is being set up. We can then take care of app testing and making it available for everyone through the App Store.

This allows us to:

Build your app
Submit new versions
Manage distribution certificates
Configure App Store information
Update your Privacy Policy information when required

How to invite Conference Compass to your account:

Log in to App Store Connect and navigate to Users and Access.
Select the People tab.
Click the blue + button to open the new user form.
For managing the Distribution certificates, submitting apps and managing the information regarding the Privacy Policy on the store add a user with the following details:
- First name: Admin
- Last name: Conference Compass
- E-mail address: admin@conference-compass.com
- Role: Admin
Select the checkbox ✅ under Developer Resources to grant access to certificates, identifiers, and profiles.
Click Invite.

An invitation email will be sent automatically. Once accepted, Conference Compass can manage app submission, testing, and distribution details for your event app.

The following window will open.

⚙️ Troubleshooting:

D-U-N-S Number lookup fails or entity name mismatches: Ensure the business name entered in the Apple Developer portal matches the exact legal name listed in the Dun & Bradstreet database, including capitalization and punctuation like "Inc." or "LLC".
Unable to toggle off Two-Factor Authentication: Apple enforces two-factor authentication on all developer accounts. If a personal phone number or device was linked, update the security options under your corporate Apple ID account settings to assign a shared company device.
Conference Compass did not receive the App Store Connect invitation: Check that the email was entered exactly as admin@conference-compass.com. You can resend the invite by selecting the pending invitation under Users and Access and clicking Resend Invite.