Is a paid Apple Developer account required for notarizing macOS apps?

In macOS Catalina Apple has started requiring macOS apps to be notarized, otherwise users will be told "macOS cannot verify this app is free from malware" and prompted to move the app to the trash. The current workaround for this is that users have to right-click on the app and press "Open," which is then followed by another warning about "exposing your computer to malware".

To avoid users having to worry about this, is it possible to notarize my app without a paid developer account, so users aren't prompted with the scary "malware" warning?

Yes. Only paid-up developers can notarize their apps, or have certified apps.

I asked a similar question on Stack Overflow. https://stackoverflow.com/questions/60736568/xcode-create-app-that-passes-macos-quarantine-without-payment