It's your app: why clients should own their digital accounts

It's a more common situation than it should be. A business hires a developer to build their app. Everything goes well until the relationship ends — over pricing, quality, or any other reason. And then the problem appears: the domain is registered under the developer's account. The Google Play account belongs to the developer. The Apple Developer Program was paid for and set up by the developer.

The client is held hostage.

Why this happens

It's not always bad intent. Sometimes it's convenience — it's faster if the developer handles everything. Sometimes the client doesn't want to deal with "technical stuff". Sometimes the developer genuinely believes they're helping.

But the result is the same: the client loses autonomy over their own product. And when the relationship ends — because all business relationships eventually end — the client finds themselves negotiating to recover what was always theirs.

Our position

At DoTheCode we believe that every digital tool we build for a client should be under the client's control from day one. It's not just an ethical stance — it's the only way to build a healthy professional relationship.

Domain: the client registers it, pays for it, renews it. We configure it and point it where it needs to go.

Google Play: the developer account belongs to the client. It's a one-time $25. We generate the build and upload it, or teach them how to do it.

Apple Developer Program: same thing. The client pays the $99/year, the account is under their Apple ID. The app is theirs in the most literal sense.

Hosting and servers: if we manage infrastructure for the client's convenience, the client always has access and can transfer at any time without depending on us.

When does delegation make sense?

There are legitimate cases where a client prefers to delegate temporarily — they want to launch fast, don't have time, are in another country. That's fine, as long as there's clarity: the client receives credentials when the project ends, and there's never a permanent dependency designed to retain them.

The rule is simple: if the project ends tomorrow, the client should be able to operate completely independently the next day.

The guide we published

To put these words into practice, we published a free, complete guide with the exact steps for any client — or anyone — to publish their app on Google Play and the App Store on their own.

It covers: updated 2026 costs, physical and account requirements, the full signing and submission process for both Android and iOS, and — for companies in Chile, Argentina, Mexico and other LatAm countries — how to get the DUNS number that Apple requires for organizations.

You don't need to ask anyone for it. It's all there, step by step.

→ Read the full guide: How to publish your app on Google Play and the App Store