When should I register (i.e. pay to be) an apple OS X developer? I'm a "team of one" and likely to remain so. I've been writing small programs for my own use for many years.

For the first time, I have an app which I think might really be useful to others. The prototype has a nice look, and some unique features (as far as I can tell) and I'm reworking the the program to clean up the code and make sure it follows the OS X Human Interface Guidelines.

Given that working alone part time it may take me a while to create the finished app, is there an advantage to going ahead and paying and going through the paper work now? (the $99 isn't a problem.)

This question occurred to me when I was thinking about putting out early beta copies to relatives, and I thought about sandboxing to protect them from any egregious mistakes I might make! I see that I need to register in order to sandbox.

I have a bunch of other questions that may not be appropriate here, like


Do I need a website? Where can I get one inexpensively?
What about a license that protects me? I'm open to permissive license, I'm not worried about trade secrets ... as far as I'm concerned it could be open source. Don't want to hire lawyers.


Where would it be appropriate to ask such questions?

I've looked over the apple documentation on becoming a registered developer and generally understand the process.
You don't need a website, but it's nice for your users to have a place where they can contact you and perhaps see some screenshots about the game/application you develop.

I don't think you need any protection as they are all under Apple's terms and conditions. At our work we've got a developer account and nobody bat an eye.

Just sign up and leak the name here, once your app is available (:

Oh yes, if your app costs money I'd like a coupon ;)