"..the cheap path is Microsoft Azure Artifact Signing, formerly Trusted Signing. The Basic plan is $9.99 a month, about $120 a year, and it includes 5,000 signatures a month.
Individual developers in the US and Canada can use it. It does not make the first download skip SmartScreen. Reputation builds as people run that signed identity, and later builds inherit it.
A traditional certificate from a CA is more expensive and no better for SmartScreen:
-Organization-validated (OV) is roughly $70–$400 a year. SSL[dot]com is near the bottom of that, around $65–$75. Sectigo resellers are often about $220. DigiCert is about $400 or more.
-Extended validation (EV) is roughly $230–$700 a year. It used to skip SmartScreen immediately. Microsoft stopped giving EV that shortcut in 2024, so it is not worth it unless you are signing a kernel driver."
😳Holy HELL.. developing official programs on Windows is costly af❕