Let’s start by creating an Ionic 2 template app, and building it for iOS: ionic start testApp blank -v2 Once you’ve successfully logged in, a new ‘Personal Team’ with the role ‘Free’ will appear beneath your Apple ID.

Login with your Apple ID (+ > Add Apple ID…).Open Xode preferences (Xcode > Preferences…).To start, you’ll need to set up a provisioning profile to code sign your apps: Sorry to break it to you PC users, but Xcode is still required, which means you still need a Mac. In order to take advantage of this, you’ll need three things: This is particularly great for developers who want to try out, or are just starting to develop, using a framework like Ionic, since it saves the cost but gets you a lot of the features of having a full Apple Developer account.įor a full breakdown of the features included, take a look here. The good news is that you can develop and test your apps on your iOS device without a paid Apple Developer account. Sorry to get your hopes up, but there’s no getting around it.

Apple Developer account required? $99/year?! Outrageous!īut wait, it turns out this is no longer the whole story.įirst off, yes, you do still need an Apple Developer account if you want to distribute your app in the App Store. One of the most common complaints you’ll hear from pretty much every single person that decides to try their hand at mobile app development for iOS has to do with Apple Developer accounts.

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