Certificates overview

During the course of developing your app, you’ll create different certificate types for use in different contexts. You’ll use the same set of certificates for iOS, tvOS, and watchOS apps, and a different set of certificates for macOS apps. If you’re using Xcode 11 or later, you can create unified development and distribution certificates for all platforms. You’ll use development certificates to run your app on devices and use app capabilities, and distribution certificates to distribute your app for testing and to upload it to App Store Connect.

Development certificates belong to individuals. You can create a total of two iOS development certificates and two Mac development certificates. In your developer account, the computer name is appended to the development certificate name (for example, Gita Kumar (Work Mac) where Work Mac is the computer name) so you can identify them.

Distribution certificates belong to the team and only one type of each distribution certificate (with the exception of Developer ID certificates) is allowed per team. Only the Account Holder or Admin role can create distribution certificates (if you’re enrolled as an individual, you are the Account Holder).

You can create and revoke certificates using either Xcode or your developer account.