Distribute IOS App without developer account

Question

An association of which i am a member, asked me to develop a simple app for android and ios. I decided to use cordova to make the app.

Now that the app is ready, i should start releasing the .APK file for Android (simple) and .IPA for IOS (not simple).

How can I do this to release the IPA file?

My situation: i'm not a registered developer program of Apple, and i'm not going to pay the $99 fee to become it.

I'm not interested in releasing the app on the Apple Store and i'm not interested if users will notice that that application is developed by third parties. App shoud be used by a little association only by members, not sell, not outside association.

Are there any solutions? Or does the tax necessarily be paid?

Answer 1

You will need to become a developer in order to distribute iOS apps (without jailbreaking devices). If you only need it on one device, you could deploy it as a testing app, but I assume the scope is beyond this. If you are trying to avoid using the App Store for whatever reason, you can use TestFlight (https://developer.apple.com/testflight/) which lets people test the app.

However, if this is an app being used publicly (even internally), you should go through the review process to have the app available on the App Store, which also requires ensuring that it complies with the App Store Review Guide (https://developer.apple.com/app-store/review/guidelines/).