Do I need to enroll in "Apple Developer Program Enrollment" for creating a certificate?

Question

I have a website that I am trying to convert to a iOS app using Phonegap. But it requires that I provide ‘certificate (p12) file’ and a ‘provisioning profile’. I am using a Windows machine and have been following this tutorial. So far I have managed to complete till the second step and created ios.csr file.

The nest step in the tutorial says

Click on “Certificates” in the left hand side, and then “Request”. You will be prompted to upload a .csr file, and then wait for the certificate to be issued.

But I am unable to find any such button, do I require to enroll in for "Apple Developer Program" to get the certificate?

Is there any alternative way? As the website itself is a prototype and since we are currently in the research and development phase, I cannot invest any money in this program now.

Answer 1

There is a long rambling discussion here on this topic but the crux is: yes, to get a Development Certificate without a Mac you need a full developer account.

An alternative is to get your hands on a Mac, from where you can do everything for free up until the point where you need to distribute your app to the App Store.