Yes, Apple has a few more employees than we do!
Over 90% of the people who inquire to publish their app to the App Store are trying to publish an app that is clearly prohibited by Apple’s guidelines. This wastes our time and jeopardizes Glide’s relationship with Apple. We want to ensure that you actually have a need to publish to the App Store, and are not merely trying to publish a frivolous app, or a scam.
App Store apps should be for legitimate business purposes. Apple has rejected millions of apps and permanently banned hundreds of thousands of developers who’ve submitted illegitimate, fraudulent, or sneaky apps. Publishing to App Stores is a serious process that requires attention to detail and perseverance.
When you publish a Glide app to the App Store, a real person in our company has to spend a few hours on it, emailing you and collecting information from you. To be honest, even at this price, we do not think it is a worthwhile use of our time.
Also, Apple charges $99/year for access to their developer program. This is not the price of publishing an app to the App Store–any developer can publish an unlimited number of apps. You also have to build the app, which usually costs tens of thousands of dollars. You also need to buy a Mac. So, we think $999/year is incredibly cheap.