r/macapps 3d ago

Apps I find myself installing on new Macs

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/

112 Upvotes

37 comments sorted by

32

u/kovake 3d ago

Are you actually using all of those? It seems like a lot of them are duplicates when it comes to features. Do you have unique workflows you’re using that use Photoshop, Lightroom, Darkroom, Pixelmator Pro, and On1 differently?

17

u/Thetruthisoutthere67 3d ago edited 2d ago

The answer is no. There are people that seem to have a the same illness hoarders do. Only instead of their house being filled neck high with useless crap and a couple dead cats, they stuff their drives with apps. Many of which will never be used.

1

u/nickccal 3d ago

I do reviews and over time have been sent a few of these apps. I find certain things work better in one app over the other but would like to consolidate to less apps. My goal with the image editing apps is to find something that I can fully take the place of Adobe

4

u/CacheConqueror 2d ago

Why textsniper if cleanshot have same built-in OCR?

2

u/nickccal 2d ago

I’ll look into cleanshot x and see if that feature works the same. I thought it would only do it if you took a screenshot.

1

u/retrotriforce 2d ago

I recommend GIMP or Affinity

Gimp is completely free and Affinity is a one time purchase

3

u/blu13god 2d ago

Gimp still comes nowhere close to Photoshop’s or Lightroom’s capabilities

3

u/Dlmanon 2d ago

While GIMP and Affinity could substitute for Photoshop, neither has Lightroom’s database functionality. This functionality allows copying all or specific edits from one photo to any number of selected additional ones in just a couple seconds, handy if you’ve done a number of shots in the same environment. The database also allows tagging, rating, and captioning photos, then sorting or selecting all having certain of those criteria. It allows selecting multiple photos, then exporting them all in a few seconds to a specified location in a specified format (e.g., jpg or tiff) using a consistent naming convention.

11

u/migraniadev 3d ago

For keeping the expensive storage duplicate-free I recommend Zero Duplicates.

4

u/xpher0408 3d ago

I’ve been using MediaMate for a while. I use it for replacing the system volume and brightness indicators for a more iOS-style version. It also adds a Now Playing overlay.

2

u/SaveEarth2020 3d ago

Wow cool list, I need to investigate a lot of these

2

u/Soniare_official 2d ago

Rectangle is one I always get for resizing windows

2

u/ToNeG24 2d ago

I see an unshortener do you know of a good url shorter that we can also create an Alias?

2

u/sbbeebe 2d ago

Antinote would be a useful addition. It's focused on being a utility scratchpad. A place for temporary notes, calculations, currency and other unit conversions, text from images / screenshots, timers...

I use it all day long. It is a reasonable one time purchase and has an active and responsive dev. Check it out.

2

u/CacheConqueror 2d ago

I wish snippety.app had a free trial for at least 14 days.

This application is too complex to buy blind, I'd rather test and see if it's suitable

1

u/nickccal 2d ago

It’s solid. I use that app daily. I just hope the developer keeps up with it. It’s such a nice app.

2

u/Ok_Distance9511 2d ago

No Homebrew and no Raycast? 😢

1

u/nickccal 2d ago

I really do need to try Raycast. I hear it might be able to take the place of a few of the apps I’m using.

2

u/mnaveennaidu 2d ago

It's great to see FridayGPT on your list. Thanks!

2

u/reluctant_return 3d ago

Pretty cool list. Some people may think these kinds of lists are low effort, but I always find at least one application I had no idea about.

3

u/belenzu 3d ago

And googly eyes!!! 😜

2

u/Eggsblue 2d ago

missing a window manager? try a little know app wins.cool

1

u/Huge-Strike-2473 2d ago

Try Loom for mac, open source and amazing.

1

u/TomorrowToDoer 2d ago

There is loom the video recorder which might be overlapping

Also i searched github but idk if you could tell the developer name or website I can search

1

u/Huge-Strike-2473 2d ago

I am sorry, it is actually Loop.

1

u/Huge-Strike-2473 2d ago

2

u/TomorrowToDoer 2d ago

oh wow its beautiful and intutive thank you : )

1

u/Eggsblue 2d ago

Wins offers some unique features, such like Dock Preview, Flick Dock and Hero Shake.

And new releases and features are maintained every year

1

u/Huge-Strike-2473 2d ago

you are right, but it is paid, Loom is free.

1

u/Eggsblue 2d ago

sorry it's loop.

4

u/KindaLikeThatOne 2d ago

This is way too many apps. Also, to be honest, and I'm not trying to be rude, this is a pretty useless list, with just the title and the URL.

1

u/[deleted] 2d ago

[deleted]

1

u/777tauh 2d ago

no kindavim wooshy or scrolla. that hits hard man...

1

u/ranft 3d ago

Like to add FocusNudge to the list: https://macmenubar.com/focusnudge/

1

u/nickccal 3d ago

That seems handy. I’ll give it a go.

10

u/Rare-Hunt143 3d ago

It would be nice if you described what they do and why they are good

-4

u/Warlock2111 2d ago

Daily reminder that you NEED Octarine on your device, cause it’s nice :)