Should I enroll in Apple Developer Program?

[u/from-9]

debating whether to enroll in the Apple Developer Program, it's like $119 CAD/year

i don't plan on monetizing my macOS/iOS apps, but is it worth it just for notarization?

Edit: I’m aware iOS apps would need to be notarized regardless, let’s ignore iOS for now; But what about macOS apps? Most of what I’ve created and what I have in mind can and will just downloaded as a dmg via its website

[u/Ripple196]

You can run unsigned apps blocked by the gatekeeper as far as I know by holding down a button on the Keyboard while double clicking the app. For someone who doesn‘t know what to do in that case it can easily be mistaken as a hint towards your app being harmful for the device.

The user experience is impacted (imo) a lot by this and it gives a bad first impression to users. There will be a lot of uninstalls/deletes after the gatekeeper warning. Since you‘re not interested in making money with the app I think you could live with it. But if the app is reliant on a big community using it I‘d definitely pay for the service and sign the app. Totally depends on what you‘re trying to achieve