Mac App List
The Mac App List is a curated list of the best macOS software. We list only the best apps and try to include both free and paid options. We do not cover iOS or watchOS apps. All columns are sortable. Last updated: April 22nd, 2024.
Other lists: Best macOS Command Line Tools
| App | Description | Category | Free | Included |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| MacGPT | Easy to use app with GUI to access ChatGPT. | AI | ✗ | ✗ |
| MacWhisper | Transcribe audio to text on your Mac. | AI | ✗ | ✗ |
| Adobe Animate | Good 2d animation app that has tools for design, puppeting, & tweening. | Animation | ✗ | ✗ |
| Adobe Character Studio | Easy to use real-time puppet & gesture based animation software. | Animation | ✗ | ✗ |
| Blender | Open source advanced 3D/2D animation & modeling suite. | Animation | ✓ | ✗ |
| Krita | Open source 2D animation software. | Animation | ✓ | ✗ |
| Moho | 2D Animation software that can be purchased without a subscription. | Animation | ✗ | ✗ |
| Rough Animator | Very inexpensive, simple, but better than expected animation software if you are willing to draw each frame. | Animation | ✗ | ✗ |
| Dash | API documentation browser & code snippet manager that works offline. | API Related | ✗ | ✗ |
| Postman | An API platform for building & using APIs. | API Related | ✗ | ✗ |
| Audacity | Open source advanced audio editing app with plugin support. | Audio Editing | ✓ | ✗ |
| ocenaudio | Another good free audio editor. | Audio Editing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Music | Apple's music playing app. | Audio Player | ✓ | ✓ |
| Swinsian | Music player for macOS with wide format support, folder watching, advanced tag editing, & supports very large collections. | Audio Player | ✗ | ✗ |
| Blackhole | A macOS virtual audio loopback driver that allows applications to pass audio to other applications with zero additional latency. | Audio Tool | ✗ | ✗ |
| Syncthing | Open source cross-platform peer-to-peer file synchronization app. | Backup & Syncing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Time Machine | Apple's included backup app. | Backup & Syncing | ✓ | ✓ |
| qBittorrent | Excellent, cross-platform bittorrent client. | Bittorrent | ✓ | ✗ |
| Transmission | Native, easy to use, & fast bittorrent client for macOS. | Bittorrent | ✓ | ✗ |
| Arc | Innovative, new web browser. | Browser | ✓ | ✗ |
| Chrome | A fast browser by Google with good developer tools. | Browser | ✓ | ✗ |
| Edge | Microsoft's web browser that has significantly improved in recent years. | Browser | ✓ | ✗ |
| Firefox | An open source browser with a focus on user rights. | Browser | ✓ | ✗ |
| Orion | Web browser built off of Safari technology with no telemetry & more ability to extend. | Browser | ✓ | ✗ |
| Safari | Web browser with best macOS integration & light on resources. | Browser | ✓ | ✓ |
| Tor Browser | Specialized privacy browser to protect against tracking, surveillance, & censorship. | Browser | ✓ | ✓ |
| Calculator | Apple's built-in simple, well designed, & reasonably powerful calculator. | Calculator | ✓ | ✓ |
| PCalc | One of the best feature rich calculators for macOS. | Calculator | ✗ | ✗ |
| Uno Calculator | One of the best free alternatives & upgrades to the stock calculator. | Calculator | ✓ | ✗ |
| Copy 'Em | Excellent paid clipboard manager. | Clipboard Manager | ✗ | ✗ |
| Maccy | Minimalist but very useful app for managing your clipboard history. | Clipboard Manager | ✓ | ✗ |
| PastePal | Pasteboard manager for Mac, iPhone & iPad. Free & paid pro options. | Clipboard Manager | ✓ | ✗ |
| Discord | Voice, video, & text chat app with a large user base. Modern equivalent of IRC. | Communication | ✓ | ✗ |
| Facebook Messenger | Facebook's macOS client. | Communication | ✓ | ✗ |
| FaceTime | Apple's excellent communication app for Apple to Apple device communication. | Communication | ✓ | ✓ |
| Mumble | Open Source, low latency, high quality voice chat client/app. | Communication | ✓ | ✗ |
| Richochet Refresh | An open-source app for private and anonymous instant messaging. | Communication | ✓ | ✗ |
| Telegram | Telegram macOS desktop client. | Communication | ✓ | ✗ |
| Textual | Affordable IRC client for macOS. | Communication | ✗ | ✗ |
| Skype | Skype macOS desktop client. | Communication | ✓ | ✗ |
| WhatsApp Messenger | WhatsApp Messenger macOS desktop client. | Communication | ✓ | ✗ |
| Zoom | Zoom macOS desktop client. | Communication | ✓ | ✗ |
| Electrum | Esteemed cross-platform Bitcoin wallet. | Cryptocurrency | ✓ | ✗ |
| Abelton Live | A popular cross-platform DAW and live performance tool. | DAW | ✗ | ✗ |
| Garage Band | Apple's free entry-level DAW with workflows resembling Logic Pro. | DAW | ✓ | ✓ |
| Logic Pro | Apple's professional digital audio workstation. | DAW | ✗ | ✗ |
| LUNA | Universal Audio's free DAW for macOS. | DAW | ✓ | ✗ |
| Presonus Studio One | Another competent cross-platform digital audio workstation option. | DAW | ✗ | ✗ |
| Reaper | Affordable & highly customizable digital audio workstation. | DAW | ✗ | ✗ |
| Pika | Open source color picker app for designers. | Design Tool | ✓ | ✗ |
| Sketch | An app for designers to prototype in, collaborate in, share from, & more. | Design Tool | ✗ | ✗ |
| Hex Fiend | Open source hex editor. | Developer Tool | ✓ | ✗ |
| Proxyman | App to capture, inspect, & manipulate HTTP/HTTPS traffic. Free with optional paid plans. | Developer Tool | ✓ | ✗ |
| SubEthaEdit | Open-source collaborate coding & writing tool. | Developer Tool | ✓ | ✗ |
| TeaCode | Text expander aimed at developers with plugins for popular IDEs. | Developer Tool | ✗ | ✗ |
| Araxis Merge | Expensive but excellent text comparison & merging app. | Diff & Merge | ✗ | ✗ |
| Beyond Compare | Effective but not the best looking data comparison tool. | Diff & Merge | ✗ | ✗ |
| CompareMerge | Most affordable paid data comparison app in this list. | Diff & Merge | ✗ | ✗ |
| DeltaWalker | Another good data comparison tool for macOS. | Diff & Merge | ✗ | ✗ |
| DiffMerge | Free, cross-platform data comparison tool. | Diff & Merge | ✓ | ✗ |
| BetterDisplay | App for better scaling, HiDPI unlock, XDR/HDR, DDC, virtual screens, PIP, & more. Free & paid pro versions. | Display | ✓ | ✗ |
| Lunar | App for controlling brightness & much more on built-in or external monitors. Free & paid pro versions. Optional terminal app install also included. | Display | ✓ | ✗ |
| ClipGrab | App for downloading videos from YouTube, Vimeo, & other sites. | Downloader | ✓ | ✗ |
| Downie | Video downloaded for MacOS that supports a large number of sites. | Downloader | ✗ | ✗ |
| Stacher | A front-end for YT-DLP. | Downloader | ✓ | ✗ |
| Airmail | One of the best paid macOS email clients. | ✗ | ✗ | |
| Apple's built-in mail client. | ✓ | ✓ | ||
| MailSpring | A good, paid cross-platform email client with free & paid (subscription) versions. | ✓ | ✗ | |
| Outlook | Mircosoft's email client. | ✗ | ✗ | |
| Spark | Popular cross-platform mail app. | ✗ | ✗ | |
| Thunderbird | One of the best open source, cross-platform, & free mail apps. | ✓ | ✗ | |
| f.lux | This app adjusts the color of your display to adapt to the time of day, warm at night & like sunlight during the day. This provides eye relief. | Eye Relief | ✓ | ✗ |
| Shifty | A menu bar app that provides more control over Night Shift functionality. | Eye Relief | ✓ | ✗ |
| BetterZip | Unlike many free options BetterZip can look inside archives without first extracting them. | File Archiver | ✗ | ✗ |
| Keka | One of the most popular free file archiver apps for macOS. | File Archiver | ✓ | ✗ |
| The Unarchiver | Another top file archiver app for macOS. | File Archiver | ✓ | ✗ |
| Forklift | Dual pane file manager & file transfer client for macOS. | File Manager | ✗ | ✗ |
| Marta | Excellent file manager but comes with a learning curve. Free until release 1.0. | File Manager | ✓ | ✗ |
| Pathfinder | File browser & management app with many features. | File Manager | ✗ | ✗ |
| QSpace Pro | This app markets itself as a better Finder with more features & integrations with third party services. Includes MacZip within it. | File Manager | ✗ | ✗ |
| balena Etcher | Flash OS images to SD cards & USB drives. | File Utility | ✓ | ✗ |
| Burn | CD & DVD burning software. | File Utility | ✓ | ✗ |
| DaisyDisk | App to help you recover drive space. | File Utility | ✓ | ✗ |
| GrandPerspective | Visually see what is taking up your disk space. | File Utility | ✓ | ✗ |
| Transnomino | Batch file rename utility. | File Utility | ✓ | ✗ |
| Little Snitch | Popular paid firewall option for macOS. | Firewall | ✗ | ✗ |
| Lulu | Open source firewall for macOS. | Firewall | ✓ | ✗ |
| Acorn | Image editing app for macOS. | Graphics | ✗ | ✗ |
| Adobe Illustrator | Industry standard vector image creation & editing app. | Graphics | ✗ | ✗ |
| Adobe Photoshop | Industry standard image manipulation app. | Graphics | ✗ | ✗ |
| Affinity Designer | Best alternative to Illustrator plus does not require subscription. | Graphics | ✗ | ✗ |
| Affinity Photo | Best alternative to Photoshop plus does not require subscription. | Graphics | ✗ | ✗ |
| Darktable | Open source photography workflow application & raw developer. | Graphics | ✓ | ✗ |
| GIMP | Open source cross-platform image creation & editing app. | Graphics | ✓ | ✗ |
| Inkscape | Open source cross-platform vector image creation & editing app. | Graphics | ✓ | ✗ |
| Krita | Open source graphics editor & digital painting app designed primarily for digital art & 2D animation. | Graphics | ✓ | ✗ |
| Photos | Apple's included photo app has basic but useful editing capabilities. | Graphics | ✓ | ✓ |
| Pixelmator Pro | One of the highest rated image editor for macOS. Competes with Affinity Photo for best alternative to Photoshop. Easier to use than Affinity Photo. | Graphics | ✗ | ✗ |
| Android Studio | The official Integrated Development Environment (IDE) for Android app development. | IDE | ✓ | ✗ |
| Jet Brains | This company offers IDEs used by many developers (e.g., IntelliJ or PyCharm). | IDE | ✗ | ✗ |
| RStudio | IDE for R and Python. | IDE | ✓ | ✗ |
| Visual Studio Code | Code editor by Microsoft than can be made IDE-like by extensions. | IDE | ✓ | ✗ |
| Xcode | Apple's IDE that is focused on building apps for Apple platforms. | IDE | ✓ | ✗ |
| ImageOptim | Open source app to optimize images & reduce image sizes for web usage. | Image Tool | ✓ | ✗ |
| Karabiner-Elements | Free & well documented keyboard customizer for macOS. | Keyboard | ✓ | ✗ |
| KeyClu | App to display all keyboard shortcuts for a particular app. | Keyboard | ✓ | ✗ |
| OBS Studio | Best free & open source app for live streaming. | Live Streaming | ✓ | ✗ |
| MacDown | Open source markdown editor. | Markdown Tool | ✓ | ✗ |
| Adobe After Effects | Adobe's digital visual effects, motion graphics, & compositing app. | Motion Graphics | ✗ | ✗ |
| Motion | Apple's motion graphic & visual effect tool. | Motion Graphics | ✗ | ✗ |
| Natron | Open source compositing app for VFX & motion graphics. | Motion Graphics | ✗ | ✗ |
| BetterTouchTool | Customize input devices, clipboard manager, window switcher, screenshot tool, & more. | Mouse & Trackpad | ✗ | ✗ |
| LinearMouse | Supports per-device settings & customization for mice & trackpads. | Mouse & Trackpad | ✓ | ✗ |
| Mos | App for smooth scrolling & setting scroll direction independently for your mouse. Fixes scroll wheel issues on external displays. | Mouse & Trackpad | ✓ | ✗ |
| WireShark | Open source packet analyzer used for network troubleshooting, analysis, development, & more. | Network Related | ✓ | ✗ |
| SteerMouse | App to customize buttons, wheels, & cursor speed for both USB & Bluetooth mice. | Mouse & Trackpad | ✗ | ✗ |
| ABBYY Finereader | Excellent OCR & more software. | Optical Character Recognition | ✗ | ✗ |
| OwlOCR | More features & use cases than TextSniper or TRex. Free & paid versions. | Optical Character Recognition | ✓ | ✗ |
| Preview | Apple's Preview app has a Live Text OCR function. | Optical Character Recognition | ✓ | ✓ |
| TextSniper | Extract text from images & other digital sources. | Optical Character Recognition | ✗ | ✗ |
| TRex | Free & open source alternative to TextSniper. | Optical Character Recognition | ✓ | ✗ |
| Homebrew | Most popular external package manager for macOS. | Package Manager | ✓ | ✗ |
| Fink | Third most popular file manager for macOS after Brew & Macports. | Package Manager | ✓ | ✗ |
| MacPorts | MacPorts is a better designed but less popular package manager than Brew. | Package Manager | ✓ | ✗ |
| 1Password | Subscription based password manager & more. | Password Manager | ✗ | ✗ |
| Bitwarden | Password manager with free & subscription based options. | Password Manager | ✓ | ✗ |
| Adobe Acrobat Pro | Adobe's PDF creation & editing solution. | PDF Apps | ✗ | ✗ |
| PDF Expert | Quality PDF editor app with subscription or lifetime purchase options. | PDF Apps | ✗ | ✗ |
| PDF Reader Pro | One of the more affordable PDF editors for macOS. | PDF Apps | ✗ | ✗ |
| Preview | Apple's built-in app that displays PDFs. If you need to view & not edit PDFs then this may be all that you need. Can be used to fill out & password protect PDFs. | PDF Apps | ✓ | ✓ |
| Skim | PDF reader and note-taker for macOS designed for reading and annotating scientific papers in PDF format. Also used for viewing PDFs. | PDF Apps | ✓ | ✗ |
| Amie | Comprehensive productivity app. | Productivity | ✗ | ✗ |
| GCal | Great macOS app for those who use Google Calendar. | Productivity | ✗ | ✗ |
| Reminders | Apple's built-in reminder and to-do app. | Productivity | ✓ | ✓ |
| Stickies | Apple's built-in app that lets users leave Post-it note-like windows on the screen. | Productivity | ✓ | ✓ |
| Things | Productivity suite to help you plan your day, manage projects, & meet goals. | Productivity | ✗ | ✗ |
| todoist | Excellent todo & organization app but requires a subscription. | Productivity | ✗ | ✗ |
| Kiwix | Cross-platform offline reader for online content such as Wikipedia, Project Gutenberg, & TED Talks. | Offline Tools | ✓ | ✗ |
| Books | Apple's ebook app. | Reading & Ebooks | ✓ | ✓ |
| Calibre | Cross-platform free & open-source suite of ebook software. | Reading & Ebooks | ✓ | ✗ |
| Kindle | Amazon's eBook client. | Reading & Ebooks | ✓ | ✗ |
| NetNewsWire | A free & open source RSS reader. | RSS | ✓ | ✗ |
| Reeder | Best paid RSS reader for macOS. | RSS | ✗ | ✗ |
| CleanShot X | Screenshot & screen recording tool with a lot of additional functionality. | Screen Capture & Recording | ✗ | ✗ |
| OBS Studio | Best free & open source software for screen recording. | Screen Capture & Recording | ✓ | ✗ |
| Shottr | Fast screenshot, OCR, & annotation tool with free & paid versions. | Screen Capture & Recording | ✓ | ✗ |
| OverSight | Monitors mic and webcam & alerts when the internal mic is activated or whenever a process accesses the webcam. | Security | ✓ | ✗ |
| Apparency | A tool for inspecting macOS apps (.app). | Security | ✓ | ✗ |
| Clyde | Physical theft prevention by setting off an alarm if your Macbook's screen gets closed. | Security | ✓ | ✗ |
| Suspicious Package | A tool for inspecting macOS installer packages (.pkg). | Security | ✓ | ✗ | Keynote | Apple's included presentation app. Also useful for building animations for video. | Slide Show & Presentation | ✓ | ✓ |
| PowerPoint | Microsoft's presentation app. | Slide Show & Presentation | ✓ | ✗ |
| Excel | Microsoft's spreadsheet app. Not as full featured as the Windows version. | Spreadsheet | ✗ | ✗ |
| Numbers | Apple's spreadsheet app. | Spreadsheet | ✓ | ✓ |
| Alfred | Powerful Spotlight replacement with advanced automation & integration capabilities. Free & paid versions. | System Productivity | ✓ | ✗ |
| Automator | Apple's app for automating repetitive tasks through an easy to use interface. | System Productivity | ✓ | ✓ |
| Hammerspoon | Open source desktop automation app built on a LUA scripting engine. | System Productivity | ✓ | ✗ |
| Raycast | This app is an extendable launcher with many automation features & leverages AI. Has free version but subscription required for pro version. | System Productivity | ✓ | ✗ |
| Amphetamine | App to keep your Mac awake/on & prevent automatic shutoffs. | System Utility | ✓ | ✗ |
| AltTab | Open source app that provides Windows alt-tab functionality on macOS. | System Utility | ✓ | ✗ |
| Bartender | App provides advanced control over the macOS menu bar. | System Utility | ✗ | ✗ |
| BetterTouchTool | Customize input devices, clipboard manager, window switcher, screenshot tool, & more. | System Utility | ✗ | ✗ |
| Hidden Bar | Menubar manager. Not as good as Bartender but free. | System Utility | ✓ | ✗ |
| Scheduler | Scheduling utility. | System Utility | ✓ | ✗ |
| Sidebar | Dock replacement with additional functionality. | System Utility | ✓ | ✗ |
| alacritty | Open source terminal app focused on performance & simplicity. | Terminal | ✓ | ✗ |
| fish | Modern alternative to Zsh. | Terminal | ✓ | ✗ |
| iTerm2 | This open source app is the most popular replacement for the built-in Terminal app. | Terminal | ✓ | ✗ |
| kitty | GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal. | Terminal | ✓ | ✗ |
| Oh My Zsh | Framework to enhance & improve your Z shell experience. There is also a fork of Oh My Zsh called Prezto. | Terminal | ✓ | ✗ |
| Terminal | The built-in macOS terminal has improved significantly in recent years. | Terminal | ✓ | ✓ |
| CotEditor | Open source, fast, & native text editor with advanced typography support. | Text Editor | ✓ | ✗ |
| Geany | Open source cross-platform lightweight text editor. | Text Editor | ✓ | ✗ |
| MacVim | A Vim implementation designed to behave as a proper macOS application. | Text Editor | ✓ | ✗ |
| Nova | Fast and elegant native Mac code editor. | Text Editor | ✗ | ✗ |
| Sublime Text | Industry standard cross-platform text & code editor. | Text Editor | ✗ | ✗ |
| TextEdit | Apple's text editor. | Text Editor | ✓ | ✓ |
| Adobe Premiere Pro | Adobe's video editing app. | Video Editing | ✗ | ✗ |
| Davinci Resolve | Blackmagic's professional video production suite. Free & paid versions. | Video Editing | ✓ | ✗ |
| Final Cut Pro | Apple's professional video editing suite. | Video Editing | ✗ | ✗ |
| iMovie | Apple's easy to use video editing app. | Video Editing | ✓ | ✓ |
| IINA | Excellent native video player for macOS. | Video Player | ✓ | ✗ |
| Movist Pro | Quality paid but inexpensive video player for macOS. | Video Player | ✗ | ✗ |
| MPV | Open source & cross-platform media player. | Video Player | ✓ | ✗ |
| VLC Media Player | Most popular cross-platform video player. | Video Player | ✓ | ✗ |
| Gifski | Simple video to gif converter. Has a GUI & terminal version. | Video Tool | ✓ | ✗ |
| Handbrake | Open source video transcoder app. Has a GUI & terminal version. | Video Tool | ✓ | ✗ |
| Parallels | The best virtual machine app for macOS. | Virtual Machine | ✗ | ✗ |
| UTM | Virtual machine designed for macOS only. | Virtual Machine | ✓ | ✗ |
| VMWare Fusion | Virtual machine app for macOS from an established virtual machine company. Has a free version for personal use. | Virtual Machine | ✓ | ✗ |
| Amethyst | Open source automatic tiling window manager for macOS that can be controlled from keyboard shortcuts. | Windows Manager | ✓ | ✗ |
| Magnet | Another popular windows management tool for macOS. | Windows Manager | ✗ | ✗ |
| Moom | Yet another decent windows management tool for macOS. | Windows Manager | ✗ | ✗ |
| Rectangle | Popular window manager to make up for deficiencies in macOS window management. Free & paid versions. | Windows Manager | ✓ | ✗ |
| Swish | Simple & gesture based windows manager that also providers gestures for the titlebar, dock & menubar. | Windows Manager | ✗ | ✗ |
| Tiles | Windows manager somewhat similar to Swish but free. | Windows Manager | ✗ | ✗ |
| yabai | Powerful open source window management utility that is designed to work as an extension to the built-in window manager. | Windows Manager | ✓ | ✗ |
| Handmirror | Instant preview of your webcam feed from the menubar. Free & plus versions available. | Webcam | ✓ | ✗ |
| Adobe InDesign | Industry standard desktop publishing & page layout designing app. | Writing & Note-taking | ✗ | ✗ |
| Affinity Publisher | Good alternative to Adobe InDesign that doesn't require a subscription. | Writing & Note-taking | ✗ | ✗ |
| BibDesk | Bibliography manager for macOS. | Writing & Note-taking | ✗ | ✗ |
| DEVONthink | App for collecting, organizing, editing, & annotating all of your documents. | Writing & Note-taking | ✗ | ✗ |
| Espanso | Text expander that lets you type abbreviations that get expanded to the full word or phrase. | Writing & Note-taking | ✓ | ✗ |
| FocusWriter | Popular free writing app with a minimalist interface. | Writing & Note-taking | ✓ | ✗ |
| Goodnotes | Good notes app. Even better on iPad. | Writing & Note-taking | ✗ | ✗ |
| iA Writer | One of the higher rated writing apps for macOS. For those who like clean & minimal interfaces. | Writing & Note-taking | ✗ | ✗ |
| Mellel | Word processor targeted at academics, technical writers, scholars & students. | Writing & Note-taking | ✗ | ✗ |
| Obsidian | Notes, journal entries, writing, & more. | Writing & Note-taking | ✗ | ✗ |
| Pages | Apple's included word processing app. | Writing & Note-taking | ✓ | ✓ |
| PapyrusAuthor | Creative writing suite with free & paid (subscription) options. | Writing & Note-taking | ✗ | ✗ |
| Scrivener | Cross-platform word processing app, outliner, & more designed for writers. Steep learning curve but many swear by this app. | Writing & Note-taking | ✗ | ✗ |
| UpNote | Quality note-taking app. | Writing & Note-taking | ✗ | ✗ |
| Wavemaker | Writing app that has built-in functions to support writing a novel. | Writing & Note-taking | ✓ | ✗ |
| Word | Microsoft's word processing app. | Writing & Note-taking | ✗ | ✗ |
| Zotero | Free, easy-to-use tool for collecting, organizing, annotating, citing, & sharing research. | Writing & Note-taking | ✓ | ✗ |