Recently, I completed development on an app that I hope to upload to Kickstarter.
I am unsure whether Apple Developer Program Membership incorporates signage and notarization fees.
In short, to package my app, will I need to find $99, or $300?
Thanks in advance for any advice.
Regards,
Lar
Once you're a member of the Apple Developer Program, you can notarize Mac apps for no additional fee. I'm not sure what you mean by "signage", but there is no additional fee to create or use code signing certificates.
JWWalker addressed the macOS side of this, but I’d like to clarify something: What platform, or platforms, are you targeting? macOS? iOS? Or something else?
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Thanks very much for the speedy replies, guys.
As you can probably tell, I'm really a Windows person, but my app is cross-platform.
JWWalker, I mentioned signage because this video -
Packages for macOS: Packaging and Re-packing apps
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyXG2JHq9ds
To address eskimo's query: at present, I'm targetting Windows and macOS. I hope to get support on Kickstarter to extend the app to iOS.
Thanks again.
Regards,
Lar
seemed to suggest that signing and notarizing are two separate processes
They are. You can sign without notarizing, but you can't notarize without signing.
To distribute an iOS app, you pretty much have to put it on the iOS app store, which also involves signing, but with a different kind of certificate. Mac apps, in contrast, can either be notarized and distributed however you want, or can be posted on Apple's Mac app store.
What JWWalker said plus…
Welcome to the world of Apple!
Because you started off talking about fees, let me clarify that. The official documentation for this is Developer > Apple Developer Program; if that contradicts what I say, it’s right by definition (-:
In summary:
There’s a membership fee for the Apple Developer Program. This is typically USD99 (but there are exceptions).
Once you join the program, you can set up your code-signing identities.
To directly distribute macOS software you need a Developer ID code-signing identity. These have different constraints than the code-signing identities you use for App Store work, so I recommend that you read The Care and Feeding of Developer ID.
Use that code-signing identity to sign your code.
You can sign an arbitrary amount of code — different versions of the same program, different programs, or any combination of those — without an additional fee.
If you plan to distribute your software widely, you must notarise it in order to pass Gatekeeper.
There’s no additional fee for notarisation. There are limits to the rate at which you can notarise (see here) but you’re unlikely to hit them.
Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"
Thanks for the clarifications.
Regards,
Lar