A computer system is used to create and distribute applications. An audience qualifier and a set of categories corresponding to the audience qualifier are selected. A master application template is selected. The master application template may be pre-certified. For each of the selected categories, an application instance is created from the master application template, where the modifications to the master application template for each category are determined at least in part by the characteristics of the category. Metadata describing the audience qualifier and category are associated with each application instance. The application instances may be certified. The application instances are distributed in accordance with the metadata.