9 ms·
Does this mean you now need to pay $99/y to develop OSX apps?
by vvanders 11y ago
Does this mean you now need to pay $99/y to develop OSX apps?
- aaronbrethorst 11y agoOnly if you want to distribute apps in the Mac App Store. Same as it was yesterday.
- mmastrac 11y agoOr sign apps for others to download without the App Store (also the same).
- gress 11y agoNo. Just for access to the Mac App Store, and pre-release tools and OS versions.
- smackfu 11y agoAlthough the second part of that is pretty important if you are a real software developer, even if you sell outside the app store.
- donarb 11y agoNo, you only need to pay if you want to distribute apps through the App Store.
- lultimouomo 11y agoIs that right? As of Mavericks, OS X by default refuses to run applications that are not signed with a 99$/year Apple certificate.
- Jtsummers 11y agoYou can still run them you just have to go through system preferences to enable them.
- ceejayoz 11y agoYou can always right-click and select "Open".
- chc 11y agoI can do that, but it's not reasonable to expect my users to do so. As it is, indie developers have to choose between paying rent to Apple and having most users unable to open their apps.
- mynameisvlad 11y agoI mean, really, you're comparing paying rent with a $100/yr fee (which now allows you to sign apps across their platforms)? Really? I highly doubt most indie developers even have to make that choice. Finding the $100 a year is not the most impossible task in the world, even for a tiny indie developer. Plus, more than a few apps have added instructions on their download pages to show users how to get around Gatekeeper. They can clearly take the Gatekeeper hit, so you probably can too.
- chc 11y agoI could afford $100 a month. Affordability is not the point. The point is that Apple will block your app from opening by default unless you pay them a recurring fee, and if not, you must incur additional support burden to teach users how to get around the problem. Yes, lots of apps do post instructions on how to get around it, but lots of apps do all sorts of user-unfriendly things. We Apple users used to make fun of Windows for the endless sea of pointless dialogs its users had to go through. Those apps could take the shitty-UI hit, mine probably could too, but it still sucks. A lot of people are intimidated just looking at instructions like that, and will just give up. I don't know about you, but I feel like that's a pretty terrible first-run experience for my app. I don't feel comfortable charging people for something they might not even be able to run. Would Apple be willing to put their own apps behind that kind of painwall?
- mynameisvlad 11y ago
- mrsteveman1 11y agoI'll admit that the right-click workaround is a minor speedbump but it does work. And Developer ID certificates are valid much longer than a year, I believe mine expires in 2019. They aren't revoked if you stop paying for program membership, and the expiration applies to the signing operation, apps you've signed in the past will continue to work after the certificate expires.
- pvieito 11y agoSo technically, changing the time settings, you could continue signing code forever?
- s73v3r 11y agoThat's complete and utter horse shit.
- gbanfalvi 11y agocertificate signing is free. always has been. it's the app store part that costs you.
- mullen 11y agoPersonally, that is a total game changer for me. I have an app idea, to build a custom house management app for my wife and I. I really don't care to put it on the app store and I don't want to pay $99 for a two person app. Now I can make an app that only my wife and I will use.
- tdicola 11y agoYou can do this today. Just download XCode and go to town. Or use any other programming language supported on OSX like Python, Go, etc. etc.
- druidsbane 11y agoThis is the first time you could install apps on your device without paying for a membership. Previously you could design and test through a simulator for free, now he can build and actually use his app without paying extra as he isn't distributing.
- dijit 11y agoYou can always distribute, but you can't submit to the mac app store. I used to run a multitude of OSX (xcode developed) applications for beta testing, and while not signed, they were indeed runable.
- gambiting 11y agoI think you two are talking about different things. You could always distribute to OSX devices. However, now is the first time ever when you can run your app on an iOS device without a membership certificate from Apple. This is very good news.
- cm2187 11y agoI don't know if it is still the case but last time I checked you had to go through the app store to deploy an iOS app even if it is for personal use.
- ascagnel_ 11y agoOnly if you want to publish in the Mac App Store or use any MAS-specific features (eg iCloud sync).