Get your app into the Apple App Store, past the review that rejects most of them
Apple rejects wrapped web apps under guideline 4.2, and that is the single most common outcome for an app built in Base44, Replit or Lovable and dropped into a WebView.
- Typical timeline
- 3–6 weeks to first submission
- Pricing
- Fixed quote after a free readiness review
What this is actually about
The parts that decide whether the project takes three weeks or three months, and which nobody mentions until they bite.
- 01
Guideline 4.2 is where wrapped web apps die
Apple's minimum-functionality rule says an app must include features, content and interface that elevate it beyond a repackaged website.
- 02
The store is a distribution channel your competitors already have
For a consumer product, not being installable is a conversion problem before it is a technical one.
- 03
The requirements are cheap to meet and expensive to discover late
In-app account deletion, an App Privacy questionnaire that matches what your app actually collects, a working demo account, encryption export compliance, and Sign in with Apple where you offer other social logins.
- 04
Payments have real money attached to the answer
Digital goods and subscriptions consumed in the app go through in-app purchase, with Apple's commission attached.
The sentences we hear most, and what we do about each one
Paraphrases of things founders have actually said on scoping calls. Left column is the experience; right column is the work.
"I wrapped it in a WebView and got rejected. Now what?"
This is the most common way founders arrive at us for mobile work.
How we helpWe turn the rejection into a specification. The app gets genuine native capability - push notifications with real segmentation, offline reading of the data the user already has, camera or biometric access where the product actually uses it, native navigation and share sheets.
"I do not have a Mac and I do not want to buy one"
iOS builds have historically needed macOS and Xcode, which is a genuine hardware purchase for a founder who has never shipped mobile, on top of a $99/year developer account they also have not bought yet.
How we helpBuilds run in the cloud - EAS Build, Codemagic or a hosted runner - signed with certificates held in your account, not ours.
"Every rejection costs me another week"
Review turnaround is usually a day or two, but each round trip also costs the time to work out what the message meant, make a change, and rebuild.
How we helpWe run the whole guideline checklist against the build before the first submission - privacy labels reconciled against the code that actually collects data, account deletion reachable in-app, demo credentials that work, screenshots at the required sizes, export compliance answered.
"Apple wants a company, and I am one person"
Publishing as an organisation requires a D-U-N-S number and a legal entity, which many solo founders do not have.
How we helpWe tell you which route to take before you enrol, what each one shows publicly, and how long the D-U-N-S lookup takes so it is not on the critical path.
Everything that has to be true before you submit
We work through every one of these before the first submission, because finding them one rejection at a time is where the weeks go.
Beyond a repackaged website (4.2)
Real native capability the web version does not have. Push, offline, device APIs, native navigation.
Account deletion inside the app (5.1.1)
If a user can create an account in the app, they must be able to delete it in the app - not by emailing support.
App Privacy labels that match the code
The questionnaire is a declaration. It has to match what your SDKs actually collect, including analytics and crash reporting you added and forgot.
A demo account that works
Anything behind a login needs working credentials in the review notes.
Sign in with Apple where required
Offering Google or Facebook login generally means offering Sign in with Apple alongside it.
Payments on the right side of the line
Digital goods and subscriptions go through in-app purchase. Physical goods and real-world services do not.
Export compliance and age rating
Two short questionnaires that block a submission if unanswered. HTTPS counts as encryption; the exemption still has to be declared.
Screenshots and metadata
Current required device sizes, a privacy policy URL that resolves, and a support URL that is not a mailto link.
Deliverables
Everything lands in accounts you own, with the certificates and keys in your name.
- A native app that clears guideline 4.2 on its own merits
- Cloud build and signing pipeline - no Mac required on your side
- App Store Connect set up in your account, with your certificates
- Privacy labels reconciled against the code that actually collects data
- In-app account deletion, demo account, and reviewer notes
- Screenshots and store listing copy at the required sizes
- TestFlight distribution for your own testers
- Handover: release runbook, and the next version ships from a git push
Phases
Scope is fixed after phase one. Every phase ends in something you keep.
- 013–5 days
Readiness review
Free. We take your existing app and score it against the review guidelines that actually cause rejections, then tell you what native capability the product needs to be worth installing - which is a product question before it is an engineering one.
- 022–4 weeks
Build the native surface
The app is built or rebuilt with genuine device capability rather than a frame around a URL.
- 031 week
Submission
Listing, screenshots, privacy questionnaire, export compliance, demo account and reviewer notes.
- 04Ongoing, 30 days included
Launch and hand over
Phased release, crash reporting wired to a real alert, and a documented path for shipping the next version yourself.
What can go wrong, and what stops it
Rejected again under 4.2 after adding features
The native capability is decided in phase 1 against what the reviewer can see in thirty seconds, not against a feature list.
Privacy labels contradicted by an SDK nobody remembered
The labels are filled in from a dependency and network audit rather than from memory.
Enrolment blocking the launch date
Account type and D-U-N-S lead time are settled in phase 1, before any build work is scheduled around a date.
A payments model that breaks on submission
Which side of the in-app-purchase line your product sits on is decided before the paywall is built, and the rules differ by region - we write down the reasoning so a later change is a decision rather than a surprise.
Before you book the call
You can build it, and Apple will very likely reject it under guideline 4.2.
Usually a day or two once submitted. The timeline that matters is not review, it is how many rounds you go through.
No, but publishing as an individual puts your personal name on the listing.
Yes, and most clients do both at once because the app is the same.
We will tell you during the free review. Plenty of B2B tools are better as a fast, installable web app than as a store listing nobody searches for, and that advice costs you nothing.
Related tracks
Google Play
Play is easier to publish to than the App Store and harder to plan around, because a new personal developer account has to run a closed test with a dozen real testers for fourteen continuous days before it can even apply for production.
Read the planReact Native rebuild
Lovable, Bolt, v0 and most Base44 front ends are React. That is the whole argument for React Native: the component model, the state handling, the validation rules and every line of your API layer come across largely intact.
Read the planFlutter rebuild
Flutter draws every pixel itself, which is why an animation-heavy or heavily branded interface behaves identically on both platforms instead of nearly identically.
Read the plan
Want a straight answer on the route?
The review is free and it ends in writing, including the case for the cheaper option.