Apple Charging Developers $100 a Year to Make Free Plugins for Safari Browser

apple-safari-logoWant to develop Safari browser apps or plugins? It’s going to cost you.

As Apple rolls Safari development into their overall dev program, folks working on the Apple browser will have to pay the same fees app developers pay, namely $100 a year.

Reddit user HonestBleeps, who produces the free Reddit Enhancement Suite is detailing his experiences regarding the transition:

So it used to be free to be a part of the Safari developer program. That’s being folded into Apple’s dev program now, and I’m required to pay $100 to join if I want to continue publishing Reddit Enhancement Suite – which is free.

$100 would be several months worth of donations, on many/most months, and only to support less than 1% of RES users.

We’ll have to wait for these Apple developer programs to officially merge to see if this will throw cold water on Safari development, force formally free services to start charging, or if Apple will continue to allow developers to publish Safari plugins for free.