In an image forming system provided with a plurality of image forming apparatuses, at least one of the image forming apparatuses takes over an application owned by other the image forming apparatus, and acquires, from a transfer source, the number of times of application use indicating the number of times of using the application in the image forming apparatus being the transfer source of the application. When execution of the application is finished, the image forming apparatus determines between the image forming apparatus itself, and the transfer source of the application, in which the number of times of application use of the application is larger, based on the number of times of application use acquired from the transfer source, and transfers the application to the transfer source, when the transfer source has a larger number of times of application use than the transfer destination.