How to install your own app on your iPhone without App Store review

By Sigsten Gustavii· 26 October 2026· 8 min read

Not every app needs to be on the App Store. Plenty of the most useful apps are made for one person: a tracker shaped exactly the way you think, a tool for your own small business, a family shopping list. For those, App Review, a store listing and a developer membership are overhead with no benefit.

iPhones do allow apps from outside the App Store, within rules Apple sets. This guide compares every route, what each needs and its limits, so you can pick the one that fits. For the hands-on walkthrough from a PC, see how to install your own iOS app from Windows; for the quick overview of the personal route, see installing an app on iPhone without the App Store.

The routes at a glance

Route 1: your own free Apple ID

This is the route for apps that are just for you. Apple lets anyone with an Apple ID sign an app for their own devices, with no paid membership. The app installs like any other and runs fully offline, with three limits Apple sets on free signing:

• 7 days. An app signed with a free Apple ID stops opening after seven days unless it is signed again.
• Three apps at a time. A free Apple ID can have three apps installed this way at once.
• Some services stay with paid accounts. Push notifications, iCloud, Sign in with Apple and in-app purchases need the Developer Program.

Traditionally this route needed Xcode on a Mac. Now it does not.

How Borel Companion does it

Borel Companion is a small app for Windows and Mac that signs and installs the apps you build in Borel on your iPhone, with your own Apple ID. The download is free, and installing with it comes with Borel Pro. Your Apple ID stays on your computer and is never sent to Borel.

1. Build your app in Borel and try it in the iPhone simulator in your browser.
2. Download Companion for Windows or Mac and sign in with your Apple ID; a free one works.
3. Connect your iPhone with a cable, unlock it and tap Trust.
4. Press Run on your device in Borel. Companion signs the app and installs it over the cable.
5. On the iPhone, turn on Developer Mode once: Settings, then Privacy & Security, then Developer Mode. The phone restarts and asks you to confirm.
6. After that, Companion reaches the phone over Wi-Fi, and the Borel iPhone app lists your apps with Download and Update buttons.

Companion renews each app every seven days while it runs, so the seven-day limit stays out of your way, and Reinstall gives an app a fresh seven days at any time. One thing to plan for: Borel's own iPhone app counts as one of the three apps a free Apple ID holds, which leaves two for apps you make.

What a personal app can and cannot do

Most personal apps never touch the limits of a free Apple ID. Here is where the line falls, as Apple draws it and as Borel apps use it:

If an app you made for yourself grows into something other people want, nothing is lost: the same app can go to TestFlight and the App Store once you join the Developer Program.

Keeping a personal app up to date

A personal app changes often: you notice something while using it, ask for the change in Borel, and want the new version on your phone. After the setup, that does not need the cable. The Borel iPhone app lists your apps with Download and Update buttons, and asks Companion over the Wi-Fi to put the newest version on the phone. Your data in the app stays where it is.

Route 2: development and ad hoc builds

With Apple's Developer Program, $99 a year, you can register specific devices by their identifier and install builds on them. Apple allows up to 100 devices of each type, such as iPhone or iPad, per membership year. Development builds are signed for your own testing; ad hoc builds are signed for a fixed list of registered devices you want to share with.

This suits a small, fixed group, like a family or a team of five, where everyone's device can be registered. Each new device means a new signed build, which makes it clumsy for anyone outside that group.

Route 3: TestFlight

TestFlight is Apple's beta service, part of the same $99 a year membership. You upload the build to App Store Connect and invite people by email or a public link: up to 100 internal testers from your team and up to 10,000 external ones. External testing needs Beta App Review, a lighter check than the full review, and each build lasts 90 days.

It is the right route when other people should try the app, or when you want the app on many devices without registering each one. Our post on TestFlight explained covers it in detail.

Routes that are not for this

The Enterprise program

Apple's Developer Enterprise Program is for organizations distributing in-house apps to their own employees. Apple approves organizations for it specifically, and using it to hand apps to the public breaks its terms. It is not a way to install a personal app.

EU alternative distribution

In the European Union, apps can also be distributed through alternative marketplaces or from a developer's website, under Apple's terms for the EU. Those apps still go through Apple's notarization, and the route is designed for developers distributing widely. For one personal app, it adds steps rather than removing them.

Unofficial sideloading tricks

Websites that promise to install apps "without a computer" or "forever" often rely on certificates Apple did not issue for that purpose, which Apple can revoke without warning. Avoid putting your data in an app installed that way.

Which route should you choose?

• Just for you: your own Apple ID, with Borel Companion doing the signing and renewal on Pro. No Apple fee.
• You and a few people whose devices you know: an ad hoc build with the Developer Program.
• A wider group of testers: TestFlight.
• Everyone: the App Store. See how to publish an app to the App Store without a Mac.

What to ask for when an app is only for you

An app for one person can be simpler than an app for the public: no sign-up, no onboarding, data kept on the phone. Say so when you describe it, and the app will be smaller and quicker to change.

Make an iPhone app just for me. No accounts and no sign-up: keep everything on the phone.
What it does: [one sentence].
Screens:
1. [Main screen]: [what is on it]
2. [Add or edit screen]: [the fields]
3. [A summary or history screen]: [what it shows]
Remind me [when], using reminders on the phone.
Look: [colours, mood].

Avoid services a free Apple ID cannot use in a personal app: push notifications from a server, iCloud sync and in-app purchases. Reminders the phone schedules itself work fine. For more ideas, see making your own iPhone app, just for you.

Common mistakes

• Paying for the Developer Program for a personal app. A free Apple ID covers your own phone.
• Forgetting Developer Mode. An app installed for development will not open until it is on.
• Filling all three free slots. Remember Borel's own iPhone app takes one; remove an app you no longer use to free a slot.
• Letting the seven days run out. Keep Companion running on your computer, or press Reinstall.
• Using an unofficial installer. A revoked certificate can stop the app without warning.

Ready to make one? Start with how to make an iPhone app with AI.

I think the most useful apps are often the ones only you will ever use. That is exactly what this route is for.

– Sigsten

Make your iPhone app in Borel

Describe the app you want and see its first screens before you pay anything.