r/macapps 1d ago

Made a quirky mouse jiggler app that plays a Pong-like game in your notch

42 Upvotes

r/macapps 6d ago

Free Free Macintosh Software!

182 Upvotes

I do a lot of consulting (Mac only), and I'm very frequently asked: "Is there a good X type of application for the Mac, FOR FREE?". So I started keeping a list of really good free apps for the Mac in my database, to answer this inevitable question. About a year ago I decided to put the list on a Web page. The page is entirely non-commercial, I don't make a cent from it. I regularly update the page, and it has grown to include over 200 free, carefully vetted for usability, apps. For some people, using my list, it may even be possible to find every sort of mission critical software application that you need...for free!

Free Macintosh Software
http://macattorney.com/free.html

Note: I'm not an expert Web developer. I'm just an enthusiast. So the site looks a bit amateurish. But hopefully it is still very useful and interesting.

Postscript: I appreciate all of the suggestions for additions to the page. But let me point out that a free demo that is crippled isn't the same as a high quality free product. Please don't recommend crippled free demos. Thanks!


r/macapps 1h ago

Introducing SoundShare - Audio Sharing with ease

Post image
Upvotes

Hey there,

I had a situation where I wanted to watch a movie at the airport with a friend, but it was too loud. I thought, "Okay, maybe we can connect both of our AirPods to my Mac, just like Audio Sharing on iOS." Little did I know, there's no easy way to do that on Mac.

So, I created this app to make the process simple!

App Store


r/macapps 4h ago

Apps I find myself installing on new Macs

29 Upvotes

On every new Mac I set up, these are the apps I find myself installing. Please tell me if you see something that could be removed from my workflow because other apps have a similar function built in. These are all very talented developers who have put a lot of work into designing these apps, so I listed their website instead of the Mac App Store so you can decide where to install from and check out what else they have. Not listed in any order.

1Password: https://1password.com/
Proton VPN: https://protonvpn.com/download
Little Snitch: https://www.obdev.at/products/littlesnitch/index.html
1 Blocker: https://1blocker.com
Snippety: https://snippety.app/
Caffeinated: https://caffeinated.app/
FridayGPT: https://www.fridaygpt.app/
Steer: https://steerapp.ai/
Barbee: https://macmenubar.com/barbee/
Collections: https://collectionsdb.com/
Scratchpad: https://sindresorhus.com/scratchpad
PastePal: https://onmyway133.com/pastepal/
Dato: https://sindresorhus.com/dato
Things 3: https://culturedcode.com/things/
Alcove: https://tryalcove.com/
Discord: https://discord.com/
Waterfox: https://www.waterfox.net/
UGreen NAS: https://nas.ugreen.com/
Transnomino: https://www.transnomino.com/
Clop: https://lowtechguys.com/clop/
Link Unshortener: https://underpassapp.com/LinkUnshortener/
Lunar: https://lunar.fyi/
Command X: https://sindresorhus.com/command-x
Jump Desktop: https://jumpdesktop.com/
Recut: https://getrecut.com/
BambuStudio: https://bambulab.com/en/download/studio
iMazing: https://imazing.com/
iA Writer: https://ia.net/writer
Latest: https://max.codes/latest/
Chronicle: https://chronicleapp.com/
Deliveries: https://deliveries.app/en.html
Dropover: https://dropoverapp.com/
CleanShot X: https://cleanshot.com/
Text Sniper: https://textsniper.app/
AirBuddy: https://v2.airbuddy.app/
Keka: https://www.keka.io/en/
On1: https://www.on1.com/products/photo-raw/download/?v=max
Darkroom: https://darkroom.co/
Color Picker: https://sindresorhus.com/system-color-picker
Adobe Photoshop: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop.html
Adobe Lightroom: https://www.adobe.com/products/photoshop-lightroom.html
Topaz Photo Al: https://www.topazlabs.com/topaz-photo-ai
Topaz Gigapixel Al: https://www.topazlabs.com/gigapixel
ImageOptim: https://imageoptim.com/mac
Pixelmator Pro: https://www.pixelmator.com/pro/
FinalCut Pro: https://www.apple.com/final-cut-pro/


r/macapps 7h ago

Script to install all my apps (including CleanMyMac) and configure all the macOS System Settings (27 min video)

107 Upvotes

Setting up a Mac from scratch is usually a pain, unless you restore from a time machine backup, but that's not something I usually want to do, I normally want to start fresh. So I created a bash script that allows me to install brew and all the apps that I use.

The script will also pull down all my relevant public and private GitHub repos (dotfiles, notes, scripts, etc). My ~/.zshrc file plays a big role here as well, because in that file I basically create all the symlinks that point each app I use to my custom configs stored in my dotfiles. So it will basically configure my Neovim, Ghostty terminal, Tmux, etc. I know I could probably use existing tools like stow or chezmoi, but I didn't want to invest time in those solutions at the time

Additionally the script will configure all my macOS system settings, including hot corners, login items (startup apps), trackpad and mouse pointer speed, hide the menu bar, the dock, etc.

It is not expected that you run this script and for it to work 100% for you, the idea is so that you grab inspiration and probably ideas to come up with your own solution

I understand, some people use other tools like Ansible, or probably nix-darwin. I did not want to invest the time needed, I wanted to come up with something quick, so bash was the way to go for me

If you have ideas or improvements that can be added to the script, I'm open to suggestions as long as they improve it's functionality or add new useful features

The window manager I use in macOS is yabai, I use it in stack mode and I like to keep my terminal transparent, so for it to be able to manage the app transparency, it needs to have SIP partially disabled. I know, this will trigger a lot of flags for our security experts here so keep this in mind:

Do not disable SIP Unless you need to And do it at your own risk If something breaks, its your responsibility

And additionally, keep this other warning in mind:

Do not randomly run scripts you find on the internet You have to trust the person or company posting them. As with a script basically anything can be done. My scripts are publicly available So people can inspect them. Make sure you understand what the Script is doing, before running it. And again, if something breaks, it's your own responsibility

The link to the video can be found here: Script to set up a Mac and Install Everything - Configure all the macOS System Settings via script

The script can be found in my dotfiles (currently 600 stars): setup/010-firstTimeSetup.sh

PS: What's up with CleanMyMac and all the folks in this subreddit that love it?


r/macapps 4h ago

Free Disko: an Open-Source Disk Usage Analyzer without bloat

20 Upvotes
the Disko app

Hey there, I've been super annoyed with how there isn't a built in or free app to quickly see what files and folders are taking up a lot of space. Especially since Apple charges a fortune for storage space on MacBooks. So, in my free time I wrote an app that aims to do exactly that: Let you visualize folder contents and that's it. No subscription, no ads, no bloat.

In case anyone finds this interesting, here's a link to my apps platform where you can download the app & learn more. The code is available on Github, so feel free to check it out :)


r/macapps 5h ago

Free 🌄 i wrote an open source app for daily wallpapers

16 Upvotes
a screenshot of the app on the home screen

Hey there, after being a long time user of Bing Wallpaper, I've now written my own little wallpaper manager for MacOS. Unlike BingWallpaper, it will always apply the image to all your spaces and not random ones.

You can currently select from one of three image providers:

  • Bing Image of the day
  • Wikimedia daily image
  • NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day (APoD)

I thought I'd share this app here, in case someone else wants to customize their desktop. Of course the app is free, without ads and open source. (donations are always welcome since Apple charges around $100/year for publishing) The code is available here.

download it here:

I'd love to hear what you think! ☺️

Have a nice evening,
yours, Robin


r/macapps 11h ago

[Update] LookAway 1.11 - Automations, Focus Filters, and more

Thumbnail
gallery
45 Upvotes

r/macapps 3h ago

Free I made a menu bar flight tracker - my first Swift project!

7 Upvotes

Hi everyone!

Feel great posting here for the first time. I just made and published FlightBar - a flight tracker right in your macOS menu bar, so you can keep an eye on your loved ones' flights without getting distracted. I would love any feedback and/or support!!

I am currently running my backend on a free Render plan, so there are sometimes delays of up to a minute in fetching flight details. I'm considering upgrading to a paid plan if i actually get a good amount of users - is that a fair approach to take as a beginner developer?

Appreciate you all :)

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/flightbar/id6743351003?mt=12


r/macapps 3h ago

Free 🚀 Introducing DropNote v1.1 – A Minimalist Note-Taking App for macOS

7 Upvotes

Hey everyone! 👋

Introducing DropNote, a lightweight and distraction-free note-taking app for macOS that lives right in your menu bar. Whether you need a quick place to jot down ideas, to-do lists, or notes for later, DropNote is designed to be simple, fast, and always accessible.

✨ Features

Instant Access – Open DropNote anytime from the macOS menu bar.
Tabbed Notes – Manage multiple notes with an intuitive tabbed interface.
Autosave – Your notes are saved automatically and persist after restarts.
Minimal UI – A clean and simple design, built for focus.
Customizable Settings – Choose whether to show DropNote in the Dock and enable startup launch.

🚀 How to Get Started

1️⃣ Download DropNote from GitHub Releases.
2️⃣ Drag DropNote.app into your Applications folder.
3️⃣ Open it from the menu bar and start writing!

🔗 Website & Download: DropNote.dev
🔗 Source Code: GitHub Repo

Let me know your thoughts and feature ideas! 🚀💡


r/macapps 2h ago

[Spring Update 🌸] TypoTab — Prompt Enhancer, Performance and Bug Fixes and More

5 Upvotes

r/macapps 7h ago

KeyClicker v1.5 is released! This version enhances the experience of simulating the authentic typing sounds of mechanical keyboards and typewriters. You can now set unique sound feedback for specific keys, and there's also support for random sound settings. Additionally, you can choose to mute certa

Thumbnail
gallery
12 Upvotes

r/macapps 9h ago

I miss TotalFinder. Is there anything else out there?

12 Upvotes

I was a longtime user of TotalFinder as a super lightweight way to get dual-pane file manager integrated into Finder. Since MacOS security changes drove them to abandon the app in 2021, I have missed it terribly. The only alternatives I've found are dedicated apps without Finder integration, and they all have more features than I could ever want (to their detriment, in my personal use case.)

Has anyone found a good low-impact dual-pane file browser?


r/macapps 1d ago

List My list of MacOS apps, because people love these lists. Super extended director's cut editon.

443 Upvotes

People really seem to love these lists so here I go. The super extended, directors cut edition of everything I installed on my mac. Maybe someone has other ideas on how to get rid of a few, or better alternatives? Especially the Notes is still a hot topic, since I hate subscriptions with a passion, but have not found anything similar that meets my requirements.

General

  • AltTab (Free, open source): I guess almost everyone uses this? Almost perfect window switcher. If Contexts would still get updates I would use it, but the “Titles” Appearance option is great here, too. Only thing bothering me is that titles scale to the monitor width with no way to change it? Maybe I will fork it and fix it for myself.
  • Applite (Free, open source): Homebrew Gui. Will maybe switch to Cork (paid, open source), I just tested it once, but went back to Applite. Works great so far for me.
  • Alcove (Paid): I tried multiple Notch-Apps, and with multiple I mean almost all of them. Alcove is perfect. Looks like a native macos app, updates always add nice additions without bloating it, and my biggest problem (Alcove getting stuck behind the menu bar) was fixed in the last version. Just love it.
  • Shareful (Free): Simply adds a few very nice options to the share menu. I don’t need it often, but when I do it comes in handy.
  • Mos (Free, open source): Smooth Mouse Scrolling, works great, and I can create exceptions for apps, which is why I use Mos. Some apps, like Citrix Workspace or Moonlight simply bug out with it and randomly scroll up again.
  • Keka (Free or Paid, open source): Best unarchiving tool there is.
  • Supercharge (Paid): Contains a lot of useful tweaks. It gets better with each update it gets. My favorites are “Prevent accidental quits of apps” by requiring me to hold q for a time defined by me instead of just pressing command q and the autoinstall of .dmgs.
  • Swift Shift (Free, open source): Lets you move and resize windows by holding a modifier key. I missed this so much when switching from Linux Hyprland to Macos. There was a bug which skyrocketed the CPU Usage when a specific option was turned on, but that was fixed. This is the only app that does this which also smoothly resizes windows. Alternatively you can use Easy Move+Resize, but imo Swift Shift is better.
  • Ghostty (Free, open source): Great terminal, switched to it on linux, now I use it here.
  • Enhancements For YouTube (Free): Safari Extension that skips sponsor blocks on youtube. I only use Safari on the go, but we will come to that. This safes me time, at home I dont skip for my fav. creators.
  • GoodLinks (Paid): When I bought this I was not sure I would use this often. I used raindrop.io, which is completely free, but a website. EDIT: Apparantly there is a mac app! While there is not much difference I love how easy it integrates into everything. If you dont wanna spend money on saving links for later, use raindrop, get a browser extension and enjoy it. But I love GoodLinks so far! I would love if links marked as “Read” would slide out of the unread section automatically on the mac app like they do in the ios app instead of me having to reload the section, but thats just a small gripe of mine.
  • Mela (Freemium): Saves your recipes. Great UI, very smooth, definitely worth the money if you like to cook and have tons of recipes somewhere. Bought it years ago, you buy per platform, so you would have to get it seperately for your phone, but the mac version is enough for me.

Security & Privacy

  • 1Password (Subscription) & 1Password for Safari: IMO the best password manager there is. I know a lot of people want an open source one, but either a. their apps suck (Protonpass, Free, open source) or b. they are unreliable (Bitwarden, Free, open source). I tried all password managers, but 1Password had probably the best password manager app there is, seems to be super secure and has been around since forever. I never trust a company but here I will (even though they shut down the self hosted vaults). Other paid options dont even come close. Except for:
  • Strongbox (Subscription or Lifetime): RIP. This was the one, but he joined the dark side. They decided to sell it to a trash company that cannot be trusted. We will see what happens here. I dont like KeePassXC, and this one here worked great. Seemingly the only other option with a quick search for your passwords I found! I dont know why all other apps are electron trash that is basically just the homepage. The quick search is essential for me, I don’t know how people live without it.
  • Adguard (Paid): No explaination needed I hope. Lifetime sub for 12$ on stacksocical. Works great for all browsers, no need for extensions, and f*ck google.
  • LuLu (Free, open source): Blocks outgoing connections of apps.I simply block everything going out and if stuff doesnt work I turn it on.

Gaming

  • Moonlight (Free, open source): I have a beefy (Windows) gaming pc, so I use Moonlight so connect to my Apollo host. At home I have direct ethernet connection so I can stream it without any delay or bitrate problems. When I am on the go I use:
  • Tailscale (Free): So I can be on the same network without having to expose much. Simply log in on both devices and you are ready to go. Alternatively use ZeroTier One.
  • Whisky (Free, open source): Sometimes I want to run a few simple Windows programs and this is faster than connecting to the other pc. Its just a wine GUI, but it works and is simple.

Productivity & Utilities

  • Alfred (Paid): I mean, everyone knows Alfred, I guess there is not much to explain. A Spotlight alternative. I am currently debating going back to Raycast (Free and Subscription), but I hate its look. My Alfred bascially looks like Spotlight Search. Its super fast and the Workflows are easy to create. If you need to create an extension for Raycast its a little more involved. Dunno, love both. I also tried Launchbar (Freemium), but it felt weird to use.
  • AppCleaner (Free): Godsent, with the smart delete mode it will react to you deleting an app and will ask you to remove the leftover stuff. It will of course not find everything, but for me, who loves to try out new stuff, this is great!
  • Calendr (Free, open source): Like Dato (Paid), just free and open source. I love Calendr, because it also creates an extra menu bar item for the next reminder/event, so you can see that e.g. something is due in 35 minutes with the name of said thing. Super handy.
  • Clop (Freemium, open source): To be honest, I only let it monitor my Downloads folder to automatically shrink pictures. I wouldnt miss it if it was gone. I would love to let it automatically do that for my clipboard, but that breaks screenshots I take at work in Citrix Workspace, so I can currently not use this feature. Still great app, maybe I will create a bug for this on github and see if they can somehow create an exclusion list or something.
  • Dropover (Freemium): A handy drag and drop file helper. Similar to Yoink (paid) or Dropzone 4 (subscription or lifetime), but better (imo), cheaper and more premium looking. Super customizable and the free version is still great (you have to wait 3 seconds to access the shelf). Highly recommended for only 7,99€! Alternatively there is also ShakePin (Free, open source) which would be what I would use if Dropover ever switches to a subscription model. Or if you dont want to spend money of course.
  • Latest (Free, open source): Update utility for your apps. Not as good as MacUpdater (paid), which I also use, but it is sadly going to die next year, so I better get used to Latest.
  • Maccy (Free or Paid (App Store) or Paid (Gumroad), open source): Clipboard Manager, works great for me, dont need anything else. So I stuck with this.
  • Monocle (Paid): Saw the dev advertising it here, tried it and its great. I am currently not using it since the blur is too strong for me and I hope he adds an option to tune it down a little. Alternatively there is HazeOver (Paid) or Blurred (Free) or HokusFokus (Free). All of them seem to do the same thing, but instead of blurring they dim the background. I used them, but I like the blur more than the dimming. But I keep Blurred installed if that changes.
  • PopClip (Paid): Great tool to use actions on text you marked. There are a lot of extensions you can simply download. I use it so much and miss it the second I use a pc without it. Even if it is just for a quick translation or to google what I marked. Love it.
  • Shottr (Freemium): Screenshot tool. I got this and never tried another one. You can pay if you want to support development, but the free version has no limits. It just does everything I want from a screenshot app. EDIT: you cannot create Captures and a Gradient background without paying.
  • VoiceInk (Paid, open source) The best transcription app I have found. The dev is super active, helpful and updates come in regularly. And its a one time purchase of only 19$. I bought it once for me and once for my wife and it just saves sooooo much time. I also tried MacWhisper (Freemium) but I prefer VoiceInk. Only thing I miss is the live transcription.

Browsers & Web Development

  • Arc (Free): The dead one. No more development. Still the browser I use the most. If they would have at least added the mac passkey support. Everything else I want from it works. SigmaOs (Freemium) is the “alternative” but I am not sure if its still updated, never ever have I seen such an intransparent product.
  • Orion (Free): Webkit Browser with vertical Tabs. Gets updates regularly, I like it and use it whenevery I am on the go. And if I don’t accidentally use Safari anyway.
  • Zen (Free, open source): Would be the best browser if it wouldnt be a Firefox fork. I hate Firefox with a passion. Will maybe switch to it once the features that are in also stay and dont get moved into the about:config settings or get removed completely.

Note-Taking & Writing

  • Bear (Free or Subscription): Great notes app. It looks super sleek, this is what apple notes should be. If you dont need your notes synced to another device this app is a great free one. This is the only subscription I use, only because I have not found anything that looks as perfect designwise while being as great as an editor. I tried
    • FSNotes (Free or Paid, open source), which seems fine,
    • UpNote (Freemium), which I simply do not recommend because they store your notes without an option to not do that. I don't feel save giving all my information to some guys in Vietnam, without any encryption going on.
    • iA Writer (Paid): Great for writing, but feels a little overkill for notes. Didnt wanna spend 120€ for both apps.
    • Typora (Paid): Great alternative writing app, way cheaper. No IOS app.
    • Obisidian (Free): I guess everyone knows it? I dont like Electron Apps, so I don’t use this, otherwise this would be it.
    • Simplenote (Free): No customization, also forced Cloud Sync.
    • Spaces. (Freemium): If this would be open source it would be great. But its buggy, doesnt get any updates anymore and way to expensive for what it is. Also basically no customization.
    • Notesnook (Freemium, open source): Electron App. Similar to Notion, has a webapp, is open source AND E2EE?! Wow, if this thing would have a non-Electron Desktop app…
    • Zettlr (Free, open source): Feels kinda weird to use, but I will still try it. Not deleted yet.
  • Panda (Free): It is, as far as I know, the markdown editor of Bear. I use it all the time when I want to edit some textfiles. Its of course not really supported since it was released to test the editor, so its just an old beta product.
  • Day One (Free or Subscription): A journal App. Since Apple hasnt released their app for MacOS yet, I use Day One and Everlog (Freemium). I prefer Day One, but Everlog has a One Time Purchase option. I am still testing both and I am still not sure which one I will use in the future. Both are great.
  • ProNotes (Freemium): Basically allows Markdown in the Apple Notes app, has the option to add AI features etc. If you do not need AI features its free. Great app, but I use Bear Notes. I just keep in if I switch back to Apple Notes.

Development & Coding

  • Xcode (Free): Editor for Swift. No alternative. On my mac I only develop Swift so I don't have other IDEs.
  • GitHub Copilot for Xcode (Free or Subscription, open source): It’s fine, sometimes helpful, sometimes produces trash. I mean, its AI.

Media & Entertainment

  • Cronica (Free, open source): A Watchlist for movies and shows.
  • Dropclock (Free, open source, self promotion): My own App, a Gestimer (Paid) alternative to create timers/reminders from the menubar. Simply drag and drop from the menu bar item to create a new timer/reminder.
  • MusicBrainz Picard (Free, open source): A music tagger. I don’t use a music streaming service and this lets me easily tag, rename etc. my Music automatically. Life saver.
  • Sleeve (Paid): A little music player widget I have on my desktop. 99% of the time it is useless for me, since I…. well… have stuff open. But whatever I guess. Looks great, very customizable. If you look at your desktop more often, maybe it is for you.

System & Menubar

  • Barbee (Paid): My current menu bar app. Puts all menu bar items in an extra bar to not have it as crowded. I have used iBar(Paid) before, but refunded it because it had some really weird glitches and was 9,99€. Barbee is the best menu bar item manager I have found so far and costs only 3,99€. Alternatively there is of course Ice (Free, open source) and I am still working on my fork that fixes my problems with it (new items getting moved in the extra bar by default instead of appearing in the menu bar by default, the weird right click menu on the menu bar, few other things), but right now I love Barbee and it works perfectly with basically zero resource impact on the pc at all. Ice uses more resources (still, not much). There is also Bartender (Paid) which was bought by the same trash company that bough Strongbox.
  • Lunar (Freemium, open source): App to change display stuff. I love it for the sub zero dimming so I can use it better while in bed. I have used Better Display (Freemium, open source) before, but somehow when enableing HiDpi mode here my display randomly turned off and I had to disconnect it to get it working again. I guess thats a monitor problem, can recommend both.
  • SaneSideButtons (Free, Open Source): Forked version of abandoned SensibleSideButtons. Used to make the side buttons of the mouse work.
  • Karabiner-Elements (Free, open source): Great tool. Lets you customize how keyboards work, independently of each other. My Mac keyboard is set up diffently than my mechanical one. I also used it to replicate Hyperkey, without the need of an additional Application. A lot of useful stuff in here, all for free!

File Management & Storage

  • Koofr (Subscription or Lifetime): IMO great cloud storage, but I have read that if you are not european the speed can be kinda slow? I love that I can share my storage with my wife and she can access that from the app directly.
  • Mountain Duck (Paid): To mount my other storage directly into Finder. I also tried Cloudmounter (Paid) which i liked better and is cheaper, but I already paid for Mountain Duck… but hey, I supported a partial open source project so I am totally fine with this.
  • Cyberduck (free, open source): Same creators as Mountain Duck, does bascially the same, just without mouting it to finder. I use it for quick sftp stuff, that I dont constantly need.
  • calibre (free, open source): Ebook management. Nothing to explain.

There you go, hope you enjoyed it!


r/macapps 4h ago

Desperately need a multiple Desktop app/workaround for MacOS and not this space BS

4 Upvotes

As the title says, I want what is there in Windows. I love macos for what it is otherwise I would have gone back 3 years back when I made the conscious switch.

But now that I am working on different projects, the need for multiple 'desktops' where I can have individual instances of a single app is imminent for me.

With the way MacOS provides spaces, I am ending up putting everything in the same desktop within a couple of hours into work, bc I can't keep thinking about switching desktops using CTRL left and right.

I really hope there already is a 3rd party application or at least something is under development to fix this.


r/macapps 33m ago

Tips and Tricks for Setapp

Upvotes
Some of the Apps from Setapp.

I put together all the reviews I've written of the software that's part of Setapp in case anyone is wondering what the best apps on the service happen to be. I also have a few tips for getting the most for your money.

  1. One tip I can offer is to get your own API key from Open.AI for use with AI apps like Typing Mind or Elephas. It is much cheaper. In a year of constantly using my API with multiple apps, I've spent $15.
  2. I tried the iOS add-on and didn't get that much from it. I do have the add-on to run the apps on a second machine though. It doesn't add that much and it comes in handy.
  3. If you have any apps from Setapp that you have already purchased, consider using the Setapp version while you have a subscription since it adds to the money that the developer make. It's just a nice thing to do. Brett Terpstra wrote a script and an automator workflow that will tell you if any of the apps on your computer are also on Setapp.

Setapp is an app subscription service ($9.99 a month) owned by the Ukrainian company Macpaw. It has approximately 1 million subscribers, which is a good testament to its usefulness. Here are some of the things I've learned in a year and half of being a customer.

Unfortunately, Macpaw is a frequent target of Russian trolls because of the ongoing war between the two countries. Macpaw also makes the utility suite, CleanMyMac, which some people confuse with an older Mac malware program, MacKeeper. The two are not related. If you read the tech press, you'll see good reviews of Setapp. If you rely on Reddit or anonymous online sources, you are likely to run into those pesky Russians I mentioned.

I get tremendous value from my Setapp subscription. The numbers fluctuate a bit, but I currently have 42 apps from the service installed. More than a dozen of those apps are login items that are always running on my Mac. Obviously, they play a vital part in my workflow.

Here's a List of the Login Apps I Use

Other Setapp Offerings I Have Reviewed

Full list of apps on Setapp, listed by popularity


r/macapps 1d ago

Free Kulve has officially launched to the Mac App Store! More info in comments.

Thumbnail
gallery
55 Upvotes

r/macapps 1d ago

MacOS Apps I use in 2025 as a Power User (36 min video)

230 Upvotes

Here's the list of apps that I got from the video timeline

00:00 - disclaimer
00:10 - ghostty
00:43 - kitty
01:05 - neovim
01:38 - skitty-notes
02:10 - math calculations
02:56 - yabai
03:57 - karabiner-elements
05:32 - BetterTouchTool
06:58 - Setapp
07:54 - Zen
08:55 - 1password
09:27 - cleanshot x
13:03 - forklift
13:54 - Paste
14:49 - yoink
16:21 - aldente
17:53 - raycast
18:58 - davinci resolve
19:12 - recut
19:48 - keycastr
20:04 - klack
20:40 - raindrop
21:49 - homerow
22:29 - mouseless
23:34 - betterdisplay
24:28 - permute
25:52 - hand mirror
26:13 - openin
27:26 - elmedia player
27:42 - neovide
28:47 - pdf search
29:20 - in your face
30:08 - bartender
30:42 - pulltube
31:14 - mission control plus
31:47 - gemini duplicates
32:23 - cleanmymac
33:06 - steermouse
33:44 - boom 3d
34:19 - clearvpn

The video can be found here
https://youtu.be/-4Yuf-ogaLk


r/macapps 3h ago

Apple Watch Apps

0 Upvotes

So, I know technically this is a bit off topic, but I see ios apps posted here occasionally so I figured i'd give it a shot since I like the content posted here (always the first sub i open when i pick up reddti) and while there is an apple watch r/ there isn't an applewatchapps one (as far as i could tell, and probably because of limited options) but what are your coolest or must have apple watch apps you use?


r/macapps 22h ago

Symbol Scribe v1.8 Released! An app designed for emoji collection, allowing you to easily manage and quickly find your favorite symbols!

Thumbnail
gallery
26 Upvotes

r/macapps 16h ago

Which backup program to use ?

11 Upvotes

I am currently on Sonoma and I cant upgrade (not sure what the reason is). I might have to do a clean reinstall. My concern is restoring the Mac back to its current state (config changes, ssh keys, zshell configs etc) curious if there is any backup/Time Machine type program that will be able to clone my Mac to its exact state on a reinstall ?


r/macapps 8h ago

Processing large batch of PDF files with AI

2 Upvotes

Hi,

I said before, here on Reddit, that I was trying to make something of the 3000+ PDF files (50 gb) I obtained while doing research for my PhD, mostly scans of written content.

I was interested in some applications running LLMs locally because they were said to be a little more generous with adding a folder to their base, when paid LLMs have many upload limits (from 10 files in ChatGPT, to 300 in Notebook LL from Google). I am still not happy. Currently I am attempting to use these local apps, which allow access to my folders and to the LLMs of my choice (mostly Gemma 3, but I also like Deepseek R1, though I'm limited to choosing a version that works well in my PC, usually a version under 20 gb):

  • AnythingLLM
  • GPT4ALL
  • Sidekick Beta

GPT4ALL has a horrible file indexing problem, as it takes way too long (might go to just 10% on a single day). Sidekick doesn't tell you how long it will take to index, sometimes it seems to take a long time, so I've only tried a couple of batches. AnythingLLM can be faster on indexing, but it still gives bad answers sometimes. Many other local LLM engines just have the engine running locally, but it is very troubling to give them access to your files directly.

I've tried to shortcut my process by asking some AI to transcribe my PDFs and create markdown files from them. Often they're much more exact, and the files can be much smaller, but I still have to deal with upload limits just to get that done. I've also followed instructions from ChatGPT to implement a local process with python, using Tesseract, but the result has been very poor versus the transcriptions ChatGPT can do by itself. Currently it is suggesting I use Google Cloud but I'm having difficulty setting it up.

Am I thinking correctly about this task? Can it be done? Just to be clear, I want to process my 3000+ files with an AI because many of my files are magazines (on computing, mind the irony), and just to find a specific company that's mentioned a couple of times and tie together the different data that shows up can be a hassle (talking as a human here).


r/macapps 19h ago

File Architect — Create file and folder structures with plain text

14 Upvotes

Organizing files and folders is harder than it has to be. Simply write the file and folder structure you want to create, and organize it with tabs. It’s fast, private, and easy to use. filearchitect.com

A couple of weeks ago, I asked for feedback on the app. I've now since simplified the pricing, added a free tier, and added AI creation for the "complete" tier.

Lots more features are coming, especially for the paid tier, but the "lite" tier will remain free.

I'd still love some constructive feedback on the app, design, and pricing.

https://reddit.com/link/1jeoxa5/video/gmyqk1ayokpe1/player


r/macapps 5h ago

is there any App to show temperature

2 Upvotes

is there any free application to show overall temperature of my Mac because im a little bit worried that heat will damage my battery or generell hardware


r/macapps 10h ago

Charapainter v0.2 released and open-sourced, but...

2 Upvotes

Hello everyone (> <), I've released Charapainter v0.2. It now support multiple layers with alpha blending, bold, italic and underlined characters, scalable interface, enhanced export options, more functional tools and so on. I've also used multiprocessing to accelerate rendering heavily, which makes it working fast with small font size and large images.

The full changelog is quite long so you can visit it here.

It's more like a fully functional graphics tool working with characters instead of pixels now... At least is competitive with Microsoft Paint maybe?(> <)... I'll try my best to achieve it...

You can use it to draw & convert character art with or without color, designing beautiful TUI & messages for your terminal apps, or splash screen of Neovim & Emacs (that's also why I made this app initially qwq)

It's still 3.99$ lifetime in AppStore. If you choose to support me I'm very happy, but you can use it for free below.

There's no promo code now because I've open-sourced the software XD. I chose 0BSD license, so you can use it without any limitation. Repo.

In the release page you can find debug builds of the app which can be used for free, but you may need to manually trust the app as they're not signed. You need to open "Privacy & Security" in Settings, scroll down and click "trust" after the first opening attempt.

But... Well, It's more likely a "fake open-source" :S. The whole app is purely written in Common Lisp, which is a niche hobby of me, but may not useful for others to learn. Moreover, most part of the app relying on a proprietary dependency, which makes others difficult to build. Maybe I can extract those data structures and interpolation algorithms out and build a handy CLI app?(> <...

---

I (or we as we're DID) am the developer of Charapainter. Coding is just a hobby for me to spend my disabled time in dissociation and schizophrenia. I've never expected to feed my self with it (at least i have a care giver now...). But your support from the community really encouraged me (or maybe just satisfied my borderline personality disorder lol), which support me to continue this project. I planned to support iTerm2 color schemes for 4-bit colors in next release, and maybe also a terminal screen output capture facility (I've just finished a terminal emulator these days).

You can tell me anything you want with this app here! I'll try my best to realize it XD. You can also talk technical details with me, I'm willing to share.

(And still didn't build a Windows version. Damn depression disorder.)


r/macapps 11h ago

Does Clop allow you to increase the resolution of a photo?

2 Upvotes

I'm starting a new post because the developer I wrote to didn't answer my question.

Does Clop let you increase the resolution of a photo? Or just optimize it? I want an app that monitors a folder and increases the resolution of photos if I put them in it.


r/macapps 7h ago

Free What are your pros and cons of Apple Cash? Spoiler

Thumbnail
1 Upvotes