Newbie: Do I need to pay for signing?

Welcome Newbie ;-)

the following post deals with almost the same question:

https://forums.developer.apple.com/forums/thread/761325?answerId=798740022#798740022

Unfortunately not the answer :-)

As said before, my App is for a Mac, not a phone. Of course it can run on the development machine .. but giving it to others, need signing and notarization.

Apples documentation is unfortunately not precise. They say, you need a paid account to distribute. No info on the question, if "distributing" means the app store for Mac only, or also the distribution of a pkg or imaga or even only a zip with the app folders inside.

Mac users can run unnotarized apps, but in macOS Sequoia there have been some changes that make it slightly more complex. Instead of control-clicking, you'd need to go to System Settings and allow the app to run.

From what I know, you need to enroll in the developer program to notarize and distribute your apps (not necessarily via the App Store), but correct me if I'm wrong.

you need to enroll in the developer program to notarize and distribute your apps

Right. macOS supports two distribution channels:

• App Store

• Direct distribution using Developer ID signing

Both require a paid membership.

Without that, your users will have to jump through hoops:

• If you distribute a binary, they’ll have to bypass Gatekeeper.

• Alternatively, you can distribute source code that the user can build for themselves.

Share and Enjoy
—
Quinn “The Eskimo!” @ Developer Technical Support @ Apple
let myEmail = "eskimo" + "1" + "@" + "apple.com"

Thank you. That's the information, that I was looking for.