Compare & Contrast Enterprise Developer Account & Custom B2B Apps for creating private iOS apps

Question

I was aware of the Enterprise iOS program where you effectively run a private app-store, but I only just heard about Volume Purchase Program and custom B2B apps.

For a software company seeking to create bespoke applications for customers' companies, what are the differences between using these two approaches?

Note: I'm not talking about developing apps for my own company in-house, or about offering volume purchasing options for apps I offer in the public app-store. Only about developing private apps for other companies.

Answer 1

The VPP doesn't have anything to do with developing applications, only buying them (from the App Store) and distributing those purchased apps within a company enrolled in VPP.

If you are talking about doing applications for others for use in an Enterprise setting, then you really don't need to join either of them. You just need to be a registered developer (single developer account) and then the organization that you would be developing applications for would need to be enrolled in an Enterprise account. You would get added as a team member on that team and be able to do the certificates and provisioning necessary to develop and deploy applications you write.

I am a single developer as well as a member of several other teams for companies I write applications for.

This same model also works for developing applications for App Store accounts.

EDIT: Here is some additional information:

https://developer.apple.com/programs/volume/b2b/

(check out option 3)

http://mobiledan.net/2012/03/02/5-options-for-distributing-ios-apps-to-a-limited-audience-legally/

The B2B process is similar to the App Store process except that the App Store is private (the Apple Business Store) and as a developer, you get to choose what VPP customers can purchase the app. The approval process is the same as the iTunes App Store.