Code signing MacOS application without Apple Developer Account

Question

I just finished developing a macOS application. I compressed my application and gave the zip to my friend. Then he said that it is from unknown developer. I don’t want that to show. So I found out that you have to pay 99$ for distrubution. I don’t want to pay any money. I dont know how to do that. Can you please help me with that

Answer 1

I just finished developing a macOS application. I compressed my application and gave the zip to my friend. Then he said that it is from unknown developer.

That's Gatekeeper. The whole point of Gatekeeper is to provide a level of assurance that your app isn't malicious, and that assurance comes from Apple.

So I found out that you have to pay 99$ for distrubution.

You can distribute your app yourself, but in order to avoid the Gatekeeper warning you have to sign the app with a key that matches a certificate issued by Apple, and you have to have the app notarized by Apple. You're not paying for distribution, but you are paying for membership in Apple's developer program, which enables you to create certificates etc.

I don’t want to pay any money. I dont know how to do that.

I don't know how to do it either, and as doing it would pretty much defeat the point of Gatekeeper and undermine Apple's efforts to protect its platform from malware, it's probably not realistically possible.