What are your favorite Mac apps?
- Thread starter Cierra
- Start date
Most of these are paid apps unless stated otherwise. They're worth the investment — and possibly best in what they do — if you're in the market for any of these apps. I've been using all of these for many years.
For graphic designers, check out Pixelmator and Sketch. The latter is especially great; it can already replace Adobe Illustrator unless you still work in teams involving mostly the transfer of vector files. Incompatibility sucks. For web enthusiasts, there's Coda if you want a powerful text editor and then Transmit for FTP.
Bartender 2 - This is used to rearrange the menubar from changing the placement to hiding items within the Bartender menubar icon. Many other useful features included if you have a lot of apps with menubar icons (especially ones that start upon login) and it's starting to clog up your entire menubar. This is primarily useful for MacBooks, while iMacs with the larger screen can do without it.
1Password - I only have to remember one password to access hundreds of my other passwords for various sites. It's never a good idea to use the same password for all the sites you visit. With this app you don't ever have to worry about remembering passwords. For iOS and Mac.
Cloak - My favourite VPN app (and service) for iOS and Mac. It sports the best design and at the same time gets the job done if all you want is to stay safe while using public Wi-Fi at places like Starbucks or any open Wi-Fi that isn't yours. Anyone can try and get your sensitive information otherwise.
Tweetbot - My preferred app for Twitter on iOS and Mac. No sponsored posts, works fluidly with a ton of features that the official app (Twitter for Mac) cannot seem to ever provide; it's like they abandoned it completely.
Fantastical - Best alternative for the default Calendar app. For iOS and Mac.
f.lux [free] - Your eyes will thank you for this at night. Blue light before heading to bed makes it difficult to sleep. Normally you need to stop looking at any screen an hour before going to sleep but this app hopes to fix that.
iStat Menus - Monitor your system from memory to processes and a lot more.
Little Snitch - Best firewall solution.
There are many more gems on OS X that I'd love to include, but I'm not sure if any of the Mac users here would actually find any use for them and they're all paid apps for the most part. Well, I already stretched it by including apps like Little Snitch anyway.
To jump away from the purpose of the topic for a little bit...
If there's ever a thread for worst Mac apps it'd be hard to steal the throne from iTunes. That thing is so bloated I wish they'd give us a dedicated music player app without the audiobooks, videos, apps, podcasts, and all the other garbage it has. I just want to play my music with ease; not by going through an entire chess board. Their implementation of Apple Music is so awful and yet I can't help but use their service anyway because it integrates well with my existing library. iTunes got so big, convoluted, and just overall painful to use.
For graphic designers, check out Pixelmator and Sketch. The latter is especially great; it can already replace Adobe Illustrator unless you still work in teams involving mostly the transfer of vector files. Incompatibility sucks. For web enthusiasts, there's Coda if you want a powerful text editor and then Transmit for FTP.
Bartender 2 - This is used to rearrange the menubar from changing the placement to hiding items within the Bartender menubar icon. Many other useful features included if you have a lot of apps with menubar icons (especially ones that start upon login) and it's starting to clog up your entire menubar. This is primarily useful for MacBooks, while iMacs with the larger screen can do without it.
1Password - I only have to remember one password to access hundreds of my other passwords for various sites. It's never a good idea to use the same password for all the sites you visit. With this app you don't ever have to worry about remembering passwords. For iOS and Mac.
Cloak - My favourite VPN app (and service) for iOS and Mac. It sports the best design and at the same time gets the job done if all you want is to stay safe while using public Wi-Fi at places like Starbucks or any open Wi-Fi that isn't yours. Anyone can try and get your sensitive information otherwise.
Tweetbot - My preferred app for Twitter on iOS and Mac. No sponsored posts, works fluidly with a ton of features that the official app (Twitter for Mac) cannot seem to ever provide; it's like they abandoned it completely.
Fantastical - Best alternative for the default Calendar app. For iOS and Mac.
f.lux [free] - Your eyes will thank you for this at night. Blue light before heading to bed makes it difficult to sleep. Normally you need to stop looking at any screen an hour before going to sleep but this app hopes to fix that.
iStat Menus - Monitor your system from memory to processes and a lot more.
Little Snitch - Best firewall solution.
There are many more gems on OS X that I'd love to include, but I'm not sure if any of the Mac users here would actually find any use for them and they're all paid apps for the most part. Well, I already stretched it by including apps like Little Snitch anyway.
To jump away from the purpose of the topic for a little bit...
If there's ever a thread for worst Mac apps it'd be hard to steal the throne from iTunes. That thing is so bloated I wish they'd give us a dedicated music player app without the audiobooks, videos, apps, podcasts, and all the other garbage it has. I just want to play my music with ease; not by going through an entire chess board. Their implementation of Apple Music is so awful and yet I can't help but use their service anyway because it integrates well with my existing library. iTunes got so big, convoluted, and just overall painful to use.
@inspirASIAN: Awesome post! 😀 Those are some pretty good apps. Downloads Cloak and 1Password and love them!
Most of the apps I like the most aren't Mac specific, like Illustrator, Photoshop, and IntelliJ. I think my favorite mac-specific app is Ulysses, which I use for writing.
Most of the apps I like the most aren't Mac specific, like Illustrator, Photoshop, and IntelliJ. I think my favorite mac-specific app is Ulysses, which I use for writing.
Glad you like them! I hope you get in the habit of using 1Password for many sites you visit. You can easily make a bunch of strong 18-character passwords whilst having to remember only one password to access them all. It's also available on Android and Windows for syncing; it's an app that everybody can take advantage of.Matt said:
1Password also has this neat feature called "Watchtower" that monitors the latest security vulnerabilities from around the web and alerts you when a site has been breached and helps you change your password to a newer one. Watchtower told me recently to change my password on Patreon due to a recent breach — it's pretty nifty.
As for Cloak, one of my favourite features that makes it worth keeping is whitelisting. I whitelist my home Wi-Fi so when my phone connects to a public Wi-Fi or any other connection — this includes cellular data if you want to — that isn't whitelisted Cloak turns on automatically!
Thank you for this list!!! I will definitely have to check them out. Some of them really jumped out at me like 1Password and Fantastical.
Edit:
Wow 1Password is $50 and Fantastical is $40. Those are quite pricey!
Edit:
Wow 1Password is $50 and Fantastical is $40. Those are quite pricey!
You're welcome! And yes, they are apps that should be seen as investments. I held the same reaction after seeing the prices for most of these apps many years ago. If you see yourself benefitting from using these apps for a long time it's worth the price they ask for in my opinion. Otherwise, there are free alternatives that may not be as feature-packed but if all you need is the basic functionality you should be good to go! Try looking at LastPass, I heard it's also good!
Also try 1Keyboard or Typeeto if you want to type on your phone using your Mac keyboard. I find it very handy a lot of times. I have both installed at the moment; trying to get myself to decide which one of the two to keep and so far I find myself using 1Keyboard more. I guess it's because I had it longer than Typeeto.
Clear if you want a cool alternative to Reminders. I use it primarily for keeping grocery lists, remind me to do this and that later this evening, etc. If you're strictly on iOS, another alternative is QUEST if you're into games.
Considering these are mostly paid apps and if you're interested in buying them, you're in great luck because aside from an App Store blessed with quality apps; many developers often take part in offering discounts during Black Friday week and holidays. You can bookmark AppShopper and visit it for the next four weeks to see if anything you like gets a huge sale. To maximise efficiency, I suggest creating an account and search the paid apps you want and mark it as 'want' so you'll get an email when the particular app is discounted. Sometimes an app worth $49.99 can go down to as low as $1 or free.
Now... here are some free apps that are also pretty good.
Alfred - I used to go crazy over this app until Apple finally updated spotlight in Yosemite. It's still good if you're willing to pay to enable workflows. Nonetheless, it's still a free app for the most part.
Vox - Music player alternative to the bloated iTunes. Also supports Apple Music AFAIK.
Transmission - It's better than uTorrent or any other torrent apps on OS X. Give it a shot; it's lightweight.
cDock - If you want to customise how your dock looks like.
LiteIcon - If you want to change your app icons. If you want to change icons for default apps like iTunes you first need to disable SIP, change the icons, and enable it back. It's a little bit of a hassle but it's worth it if you're not a fan of the default icons. For third-party apps that you installed there's no need to disable SIP.
AppCleaner - When you delete apps either via the Applications folder or Launchpad, there are usually small files left behind. They are in no way dangerous, but if you want a 'cleaner' uninstallation of apps you no longer want to use, you should use an app like this. I personally prefer AppDelete ($7) but this one is free and is just as good from what I heard.
coconutBattery - Shows you useful information about your battery. Highly recommended.
The Unarchiver - A replacement for the default Archive Utility app. It's a good app, but it falls short when it comes to RARs and other formats. The Unarchiver supports a lot more — Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2, RAR, 7-zip, LhA, StuffIt, and many other old and obscure formats. This app feels like it's what Archive Utility should have been.
BetterTouchTool - Do you love your mouse or trackpad gestures? It's without doubt one of the best highlights of OS X. You'll love it more by utilising this. BTT allows you to configure many gestures for your Magic Mouse (1 & 2), Macbook Trackpad and Magic Trackpad (1 & 2) and also Mouse Gestures for normal mice.
Amphetamine - Override energy savings setting and keep your display awake for as long as you want. This is a newer (and good) alternative to Caffeine (an older app that does the same thing) — kick your coffee habit, take drugs instead! :rofl:
Phew... there's actually many more. I'll leave it for another day.
Also try 1Keyboard or Typeeto if you want to type on your phone using your Mac keyboard. I find it very handy a lot of times. I have both installed at the moment; trying to get myself to decide which one of the two to keep and so far I find myself using 1Keyboard more. I guess it's because I had it longer than Typeeto.
Clear if you want a cool alternative to Reminders. I use it primarily for keeping grocery lists, remind me to do this and that later this evening, etc. If you're strictly on iOS, another alternative is QUEST if you're into games.
Considering these are mostly paid apps and if you're interested in buying them, you're in great luck because aside from an App Store blessed with quality apps; many developers often take part in offering discounts during Black Friday week and holidays. You can bookmark AppShopper and visit it for the next four weeks to see if anything you like gets a huge sale. To maximise efficiency, I suggest creating an account and search the paid apps you want and mark it as 'want' so you'll get an email when the particular app is discounted. Sometimes an app worth $49.99 can go down to as low as $1 or free.
Now... here are some free apps that are also pretty good.
Alfred - I used to go crazy over this app until Apple finally updated spotlight in Yosemite. It's still good if you're willing to pay to enable workflows. Nonetheless, it's still a free app for the most part.
Vox - Music player alternative to the bloated iTunes. Also supports Apple Music AFAIK.
Transmission - It's better than uTorrent or any other torrent apps on OS X. Give it a shot; it's lightweight.
cDock - If you want to customise how your dock looks like.
LiteIcon - If you want to change your app icons. If you want to change icons for default apps like iTunes you first need to disable SIP, change the icons, and enable it back. It's a little bit of a hassle but it's worth it if you're not a fan of the default icons. For third-party apps that you installed there's no need to disable SIP.
AppCleaner - When you delete apps either via the Applications folder or Launchpad, there are usually small files left behind. They are in no way dangerous, but if you want a 'cleaner' uninstallation of apps you no longer want to use, you should use an app like this. I personally prefer AppDelete ($7) but this one is free and is just as good from what I heard.
coconutBattery - Shows you useful information about your battery. Highly recommended.
The Unarchiver - A replacement for the default Archive Utility app. It's a good app, but it falls short when it comes to RARs and other formats. The Unarchiver supports a lot more — Zip, Tar-GZip, Tar-BZip2, RAR, 7-zip, LhA, StuffIt, and many other old and obscure formats. This app feels like it's what Archive Utility should have been.
BetterTouchTool - Do you love your mouse or trackpad gestures? It's without doubt one of the best highlights of OS X. You'll love it more by utilising this. BTT allows you to configure many gestures for your Magic Mouse (1 & 2), Macbook Trackpad and Magic Trackpad (1 & 2) and also Mouse Gestures for normal mice.
Amphetamine - Override energy savings setting and keep your display awake for as long as you want. This is a newer (and good) alternative to Caffeine (an older app that does the same thing) — kick your coffee habit, take drugs instead! :rofl:
Phew... there's actually many more. I'll leave it for another day.
Great list!! 🙂 I'll definitely be looking at downloading some of those. I currently only have: Microsoft Office Suite, Dr. Cleaner, App Shredder, Awesome Screenshot, and Comodo. I like all besides Comodo- wouldn't really recommend it. Do you have any other recommendations for dock customization? That's something I'd like customize. Also; how easy would you say Little Snitch is to use? I've looked at other firewall programs but they all seemed a little too advanced to configure and stuff.
Edit: Downloaded f.Lux and it's great. Really neat app.
Edit: Downloaded f.Lux and it's great. Really neat app.
Yup, your eyes will certainly thank you at night because of f.lux!
I usually advise against installing any kind of anti-virus applications on OS X; especially those that scans your hard drive automatically without you asking it to. The only app I have that comes close to one is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. I've been pretty safe for the past decade and having an adblocker installed on your favourite browser also helps a ton to keep your browser from showing you dodgy popup advertisements that tells you how your computer is infected when it's actually not, along with many other false rubbish—this is usually how problems start on Macs like adware and malware (not an actual virus like on Windows) by installing or interacting with the popup scam. If your computer ever gets infected, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware often does a good job of finding the culprit.
I think cDock is the only one I'm aware of right now that works even on El Capitan. I'll have to search a bit more and see if there's an alternative.
As for Little Snitch, I use it primarily to block outgoing connections from apps to their respective servers for privacy purposes. Not many will find a particular need for it, and the default firewall provided (somewhere in your system settings) should be okay for your usage. It can be a complex app to deal with, too, so unless you've been trying to find a firewall software all this time then chances are you probably don't need it.
For general customisation, you can check out GeekTool, Übersicht, Bowtie, and OnyX. GeekTool and Übersicht are kind of like Rainmeter, but a lot less fancy—in fact, it's actually really basic and you have to be creative sometimes to get something good out of it. That, or search for some good widgets online. Also, be careful with OnyX — depending on what you click you might render your computer motionless. Just be sure to read what each option does and revert back if you don't like it.
Here are some nice screensavers for your Mac:
- Apple TV 4 Aerial Shots: https://github.com/JohnCoates/Aerial
- Apple Watch watchface: http://www.rasmusnielsen.dk/applewatch/
- Padbury Clock: http://padbury.me/clock/ (this is what I always use)
- Fliqlo: http://fliqlo.com (this makes you screen look like a flip clock)
If any of you are looking for a certain app, just give me a description and I'll try suggesting one or two.
I usually advise against installing any kind of anti-virus applications on OS X; especially those that scans your hard drive automatically without you asking it to. The only app I have that comes close to one is Malwarebytes Anti-Malware. I've been pretty safe for the past decade and having an adblocker installed on your favourite browser also helps a ton to keep your browser from showing you dodgy popup advertisements that tells you how your computer is infected when it's actually not, along with many other false rubbish—this is usually how problems start on Macs like adware and malware (not an actual virus like on Windows) by installing or interacting with the popup scam. If your computer ever gets infected, Malwarebytes Anti-Malware often does a good job of finding the culprit.
I think cDock is the only one I'm aware of right now that works even on El Capitan. I'll have to search a bit more and see if there's an alternative.
As for Little Snitch, I use it primarily to block outgoing connections from apps to their respective servers for privacy purposes. Not many will find a particular need for it, and the default firewall provided (somewhere in your system settings) should be okay for your usage. It can be a complex app to deal with, too, so unless you've been trying to find a firewall software all this time then chances are you probably don't need it.
For general customisation, you can check out GeekTool, Übersicht, Bowtie, and OnyX. GeekTool and Übersicht are kind of like Rainmeter, but a lot less fancy—in fact, it's actually really basic and you have to be creative sometimes to get something good out of it. That, or search for some good widgets online. Also, be careful with OnyX — depending on what you click you might render your computer motionless. Just be sure to read what each option does and revert back if you don't like it.
Here are some nice screensavers for your Mac:
- Apple TV 4 Aerial Shots: https://github.com/JohnCoates/Aerial
- Apple Watch watchface: http://www.rasmusnielsen.dk/applewatch/
- Padbury Clock: http://padbury.me/clock/ (this is what I always use)
- Fliqlo: http://fliqlo.com (this makes you screen look like a flip clock)
If any of you are looking for a certain app, just give me a description and I'll try suggesting one or two.
Thank you for all the information inspirASIAN! I've registered on AppShopper like you suggested. Hopefully some of the apps I'm interested in will go on sale. 🙂 I thought it was interesting that some apps I found on AppShopper don't appear when I search for it in the App Store. I thought that was weird. Why is that? I wish I could an example but I forgot what I was searching for last night when I encountered that.
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