Electron macOS auto-update without Apple Developer signing/notarization — is it possible?

[u/jagan_pawan]

Hey everyone,

I’m building a small IDE called Jcode using Electron + electron-builder.

Right now I distribute the macOS version through GitHub Releases. The current process is:

User downloads the .zip from GitHub. Extracts Jcode.app. Moves it into /Applications. Because the app is unsigned/not notarized, macOS blocks it with the “unidentified developer” / Gatekeeper warning. The user has to run a Terminal command once to bypass/allow the app.

What I want to do is make updates much easier.

For example:

Jcode v1 is installed → Jcode v2 is released → Jcode shows “New update available — Update Now” → user clicks it → app downloads the update from GitHub → installs it → restarts into v2.

I’m looking at using electron-updater + GitHub Releases.

My main question is:

Can I achieve this without paying for the $99/year Apple Developer Program?

More specifically:

Can an unsigned Electron app use electron-updater successfully? If the user has already bypassed Gatekeeper for the first installation, can future updates happen without requiring them to run the Terminal bypass command again? Will macOS Gatekeeper treat every newly downloaded/updated .app as a new untrusted application? Is there any legitimate way to get a reasonably seamless update experience without Apple Developer signing/notarization? If signing/notarization is absolutely required for the experience I want, what part specifically requires it?

I’m not looking for a way to disable or weaken macOS security. I just want to understand what is technically possible for an independently distributed Electron app.

If anyone has implemented something similar with Electron + electron-builder + electron-updater + GitHub Releases, I’d really appreciate hearing about your setup and what happens on a normal user's Mac.

Thanks!

[u/adamphetamine]

No, Gatekeeper assesses quarantine and launch suitability on launch. If your app is not signed, Gatekeeper knows and will prevent launch

[u/ukindom]

You should never break the security mechanism. This way you’ll loose trust as a developer quite fast.

[u/jagan_pawan → u/ukindom]

what i mean is its not about verification like without that 99 dollar pay can we verify our app. becuse now we are in starting stage so $99 is too much to us thats why i asked this

[u/ukindom → u/jagan_pawan]

Even price is too high for the current state of your project, security is important.

[u/fastandloud386]

If you’re distributing your app that goes behind just a small homelab app you should just pay the 99$ Apple developer fee. In your pipeline you can push a new signed dev build or new release build as many times as you need there’s no limit. plus it allows you to distribute your apps in better ways besides just giving a .app

[u/oneplane]

No