By Naraway
In this article
In the twelve months covered by GitHub's 2025 Octoverse report, India added more than 5.2 million developers, one in seven of all new developers on the platform worldwide. It also overtook the United States as the largest base of open-source contributors.
That depth is why India builds apps for the world. It also means the choice of who builds one is wide, and the differences that matter are rarely visible on a proposal.
Source: GitHub Octoverse 2025, via It's FOSS and Business Standard.
Question One: Whose Account Is the App On?
An app lives in two places nobody sees in the demo: an Apple developer account and a Google Play developer account. Whoever owns those accounts controls the app's listing, updates, reviews and revenue.
Apple enrolls organisations only as legal entities, with a D-U-N-S number to verify identity and address, and does not accept trade names or branches. The person enrolling must have legal authority to bind the company. The fee is US$99 a year. A build that starts on a developer's personal account to save time is a build the client does not fully own.
Question Two: Who Owns the Code?
Source code, designs, backend infrastructure and third-party licences each need an owner in writing. So do the cloud accounts, the domain, the analytics and the push notification keys. The handover that matters is the one with credentials, not the one with a ZIP file.
Question Three: Will It Clear the Stores?
Store rules add weeks that schedules often forget. Since November 2023, new personal Google Play accounts must run a closed test with at least 12 testers opted in for 14 continuous days before going live. Organisation accounts are exempt but need their own verification, including a D-U-N-S number. Apple reviews every release, and rejects apps that add nothing beyond a website.
Question Four: What Happens After Launch?
Every year Apple and Google raise their minimum requirements, and apps that do not keep up stop being offered to new users. Payments, login providers and analytics tools change their APIs. An app is a product that has to be maintained, and the team that built it is usually the cheapest one to keep it running.
Why India Builds for the World
India is on course, by GitHub's projection, to have more developers than the United States by 2030. It already has the market to test on at home: 1.11 billion internet subscribers and 24 billion UPI payments a month. Apps built here are often tested on Indian users first.
The rate card is the easy part to compare. Which stack fits, whether iOS and Android should share code, how the accounts and handover should be set up, and what a realistic first release looks like depend on the product. Those are the answers worth getting before the contract, not after.
Part of Naraway's research series India Market Entry in 2026.
In short
India is the largest source of new developers on GitHub, adding more than 5.2 million in the year to the 2025 Octoverse report, and GitHub projects 57.5 million Indian developers by 2030, more than the US. Before signing an iOS or Android build in India, four things matter more than the hourly rate: whose Apple and Google developer accounts the app is published under, who owns the code and IP in the contract, how the release clears store rules such as Google Play's 12-tester closed test, and who maintains the app after launch.
- India: 21.9 million GitHub developers in 2025, and 5.2 million new ones in a year, growing 31%.
- GitHub projects India at 57.5 million developers by 2030, ahead of the US.
- Apple enrolls organisations only with a D-U-N-S number and does not accept branches or trade names.
- New personal Google Play accounts need 12 testers opted in for 14 days before going live.
- The account the app is published under decides who controls it later.
Sources
- GitHub's 2025 report reveals some surprising developer trends, It's FOSS
- GitHub projects India to have over 57.5 million developers by 2030, Business Standard
- Enrollment: Apple Developer Program, Apple
- App testing requirements for new personal developer accounts, Google Play Console Help
Frequently Asked Questions
Why do companies build apps in India?
Depth of talent. India had 21.9 million developers on GitHub in 2025 and was the largest source of new developers, adding more than 5.2 million in a year.
Whose account should an app be published under?
The company that will own the app. Apple requires organisations to enroll with a D-U-N-S number as a legal entity; publishing under a developer's personal account leaves control with the developer.
What is Google Play's 12-tester rule?
New personal developer accounts must run a closed test with at least 12 testers opted in for the last 14 days continuously before applying for production access.
How much does the Apple Developer Program cost?
US$99 per membership year, shown in local currency at enrollment.
Should the contract assign code and IP to the client?
Ownership of source code, designs and other IP should be written into the agreement, together with access to repositories, accounts and credentials at handover.
