I just vibe-coded a great app, how do I launch it on the app store?

Short answer: to launch a vibe-coded app, you register as a developer, package a native build, and submit it for review. None of that is hard to start. The catch is that AI compressed your build time from months to an afternoon, and the app stores compressed nothing. You need accounts, listings, privacy paperwork, and an app that holds up when a reviewer pokes at it. That last requirement is where most AI-built apps stop. (Fees and policies below are accurate as of publication. Treat the specifics as a snapshot.)

What does Apple actually require before you can submit?

Three things: a paid developer account, a native iOS build, and a complete listing. The Apple Developer Program costs $99 USD per year¹, with no per-submission fees. The native build matters more than people expect. The App Store does not accept a URL; it accepts a compiled app (a packaged binary, the actual installable file), which means Xcode on a Mac or a service that produces the build for you.

The listing is its own checklist: screenshots per device size, a description, a support link, a privacy policy, and privacy labels declaring every type of data your app collects. If your app has a login, reviewers need a working demo account.

The queue itself is not the problem. Apple reports that 90% of submissions are reviewed in under 24 hours². What you submit is the problem.

Why do vibe-coded apps fail App Review?

Two guidelines do most of the rejecting: 4.2 and 2.1.

Guideline 4.2, minimum functionality, exists because most AI builders generate web apps. Wrap a web app in a native shell and Apple calls it a web wrapper: websites served inside an app, and web content not formatted for iOS, do not count as a quality app in Apple's view. Your app has to justify being an app.

Guideline 2.1, app completeness, catches the rest. Apple reports that over 40% of unresolved review issues fall under this one guideline³: crashes, placeholder content, broken links, half-finished flows. Vibe-coded apps have a recognizable profile here. They demo beautifully on the path you prompted for and break on the edge cases you never mentioned. A reviewer's job is to find those edges.

There is a third filter if your app touches a regulated category. Apps handling money, health, or other sensitive services must be submitted by the legal entity providing the service, not an individual account. Payments make this concrete, and we wrote it up separately in why vibe-coded payment apps get rejected from the App Store.

What about launching on Google Play?

Cheaper to enter, slower to reach production. Registration is a $25 USD one-time fee⁴. But if your personal developer account was created after November 13, 2023, you cannot publish directly. Google requires a closed test (a private pre-release with an invited group) with at least 12 testers opted in for 14 consecutive days before you can apply for production access⁵, and the application review itself usually takes up to 7 more days.

Do the math on that. A brand-new solo account is roughly three weeks from finished app to public listing, and that assumes you can recruit a dozen people who stay opted in the whole time.

Do you need an app store at all?

Only if your app needs what a phone alone provides: hardware access, push notifications, offline use, or store discovery. For a game or a consumer app, that trade is usually worth the weeks of process. For a business tool, a storefront, or a checkout, the browser ships today. No review, no tester quota, and updates go live in seconds instead of resubmissions.

One warning before you ship a commerce app anywhere, store or web. The interface is the layer AI handles well. The layer underneath, inventory that stays correct, reconciliation (making the money records match), taxes, and card-present payments, is infrastructure, and prompts do not produce it. We mapped that gap in what's missing after the UI and in the difference between a POS with AI and a POS an AI can build. This is the route Final builds for: describe the point of sale you want in a prompt, and it deploys on live commerce infrastructure instead of waiting in a review queue.

So, how do you launch your vibe-coded app?

Apple: $99 a year, a real native build, and enough substance to clear guidelines 4.2 and 2.1. Google: $25, plus a 12-tester, 14-day closed test if your account is new. The web: the moment you deploy. If your app needs the phone's hardware, budget weeks for the stores. If it needs to take orders, put it on the web today.

If what you vibe-coded is a checkout, the fastest working version of that path is connecting the AI you already use to a commerce platform over MCP. Our guide to connecting your own AI to Build shows how that works.