[seanalltogether]

There is no expense to have a developer account with Apple to sign releases. You have to pay to distribute on iOS or Mac App store. At this point so much of it is automated by xcode that there are no real extra steps to do simple developer signed release.

[AnthonyMouse]

The expense isn't so much money you pay to Apple, it's the typically multiple hours and hundreds of dollars necessary to get an EV certificate from a CA.

[realityking]

Code signing on macOS does not rely on CA certificates but you have to be a member of the paid Apple Developer program (99$/year)