What are the fees to develop on iOS, Android and WP?

Question

I know this is not the perfect place to ask this question, but it is so hard to find a good answer and I prefer to ask experienced professionals.

What are the fees we must pay to publish an application on:

• Windows Store (for WP and W8)
• Google Play
• iTunes

And what is the percentage these companies keep?

Solution 1

Apple charges $99/year to join the iOS Developer Program which lets you publish apps for the iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad. If you price your app for free there are no further charges. If you charge for your app, Apple takes 30%. You'll need to buy a Mac to develop your app on (you can't develop iOS apps on Windows). All the software you need to develop your app is included in the price of iOS Developer Program membership (most of it also comes for free with every Mac).

Microsoft Charges $99/year to join App Hub, which lets you develop for both the Xbox 360 and Windows Phone 7. For developing Windows Phone 8 apps you'll need Windows 8 64 bit and Visual Studio 2012. Like Apple, Microsoft doesn't charge for distributing free apps (you can submit 100 for free, and after that it costs $19.99 per submission), and they take 30% of the revenue for paid apps. You'll need a machine running Windows 7 or Windows Vista to develop your app on, and you don't need to buy any software (though you can buy a Visual Studio license if you need the features provided by the more advanced editions, but that would be unusual).

Update: The App Hub link above is broken, and I don't know about Xbox apps, but in general Microsoft's App Dev fees have changed, it it now $19 (one time fee) for individuals, and $99 (one time fee) for companies. Microsoft Developer Registration Page/Details.

Google charges a one-time $25 fee to get a developer account on Google Play, which lets you publish Android apps. Free apps are distributed at no cost, and Google takes 30% of the revenues of paid apps for "carriers and billing settlement fees". You can develop Android apps using Windows, Linux, or a Mac. Apps are written with the Android SDK which is available for free.

Solution 2

Apple iTunes it is $99 per year, check here,

Android it is a one time fee of $25, check here

Windows Phone it is a one time fee of $19 for individuals, $99 for companines. check here

Comments

[Spaso Lazarevic]

For developing Windows Phone 8 app you'll need Windows 8 64b and Visual Studio 2012.

[Raghav Sood]

@SpasoLazarevic thank you. Added that information to the answer :-)

[scunliffe]

Microsoft extended their "indie" developer promo price option (Aug 2013) for Windows Phone app development to $19USD "indefinitely" windowscentral.com/…

[Yann]

Does a yearly fee mean that if i pay once and publish my app, then if i dont pay the second year i just can't publish a new app or the first one is removed also?

[apollosoftware.org]

Windows used to have discounts for those part of DreamSpark (have an edu account). Essentially it was free, but I am not sure they have that anymore.

[apollosoftware.org]

@scunliffe Apple will remove your apps if you don't renew. They send you about 1000 reminders the month leading up on both Apple Developer and iTunes Connect. Only your agent can renew, admin, and members can't.

[vonUbisch]

Apps can also be built with Javascript and HTML using something like Phonegap for all major platforms, using a single codebase and you do not require a Mac.

[Skelly1983]

@vonUbisch Although this is correct you would need a Mac to submit to the App Store.

[Stefan]

For companies it is an $299 fee in Apple iTunes.

[Nick N]

Apple does have an Enterprise program for $300/yr and it's exclusively for internal apps distributed to employees or internal Apple devices. It's mainly for businesses with 100 employees or more. You can distribute the application a bit easier to devices because it's internally signed and no public app store is needed. Typically an internal app store is used to distribute the app. It's also used in some cases with Mobile Device Management (MDM) solutions like Air Watch or Cisco to deploy your application to 1000's of devices in the field.

[yodellingbutters]

Just an Update to this Answer now we can Develop iOS apps using Xamarin on Windows. dotnet.microsoft.com/learn/xamarin/hello-world-tutorial/inst‌​all