My App list from Reddit
Apps marked with !! are newly added; please check Updates (for the most recent changes) and the Updates-old-X for only the added and removed apps, as well as those I've tried but don't use.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- !! Instapaper (Free or Subscription): A Read later app, that I use to save links and make them accessible on all my devices. Sadly GoodLinks is only available for Apple devices, and currently I use and Android tablet, a Windows pc for gaming and a steamdeck for on the go... As soon as the foldable Iphone or a good IPad mini is out, I will use Goodlinks again, but until then I will use Instapaper. (If someone has a good way to sync goodlinks to another read later app, let me know!)
- 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.
- FolderPreview (Paid): Randomly found this on the App Store. Allows your to use your preview on folders. Super handy, since I tried that all the time, but ofc it doesnt work out of the box. When I got it, it was still free, so take this with a grain of salt. I don’t know if I would pay for it, tbh.
- Rocket (Freemium): Forgot that in my og list, so not really new, but now I add it here. Basically allows you to easily add emojis. Raycast can do the same, or even the function key on a macbook, but I use Alfred and a normal keyboard, so I dont have that key. Instead, I type :: and a popup appears that lets me quickly access emojis. If you use emojis, try this. The free version should be more than enough for most, but if you wanna support the dev, buy the pro version. Alternatively you could use Emoogle (Free, open source), but it works a little different, so you will have to check if that works for your “workflow”.
- Artykul (Freemium): A beautiful RSS Reader. It is on the pricier side with ~ 60€ (if you want the lifetime upgrade), but most RSS readers with its functionality are subscription based without a lifetime option or cost the same, e.g. Feeder (Paid) for 49€. Currently I am only using the free version, but I will upgrade soon I think!
- !! FluxMarkdown (Free, open source): Markdown rendering in Preview. It can do more than that, but to edit Markdown I mostly use Panda.
- !! Blip (Free): Airdrop, just without having to be near the other person, and cross platform (except Linux, big f for now, please sign up for linux on their website <3). I mention this as free, since it is free unless you are a business.
- 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:
- 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.
- 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:
- !! WireGuard (Free): Just a replacement for Tailscale, since it works better. Private Network for all my devices, so I can reach my homenetwork from hotels etc. I was able to set up my router as my WireGuard Server, so it is super easy. Not only for Gaming, also for like Grimmory, selfhosted Gitlab etc., but Tailscale was placed here, so I am gonna put WireGuard here, too.
- 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.
- 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. 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.
- RewriteBar (Paid or Subscription): It's an AI tool, mainly designed for grammar checking and improving writing. Just mark your text, press the hotkey that you’ve assigned, and either use one of the predefined actions or create your own ones. Super customizable and also way cheaper than Kerlig, which I will talk about in the “did not stay section”. They offer either the option to let you use their subscription, so you don't have to provide your own API key, or you use your own API keys for a one-time payment. This also does not seem to have an “update time limit” of a year, which is great. So far, very impressive. I found Kerlig earlier, which is why I used it until now, but I immediately went with RewriteBar. Thanks to the user on reddit who recommended it. Also has a PopClip extension that you can install from the app itself.
- Spokenly (Free): My replacement for VoiceInk. VoiceInk is great, but Spokenly somehow works better for me. It is not open source... however, you can use local models, so I am fine with this. Also, it’s free and on the App Store, which is great. If you’re looking for something open source, give VoiceInk a try. Pay the few $$ for it and help out Pax building the app.
Cotypist (Free): If you dont know this, it uses a local LLM to help you with text prediction, like, everywhere. Tab accepts the next word or you continue typing and maybe it starts to pickup whatever you write on your way. I takes screenshots and starts to learn what you do, how you write etc. Basically like Windows Recall, just that the data is stored locally. My old text from like 3 weeks ago was this: Still on the fence about this. It should improve writing, by using a local running AI model and use whatever you opened/copied etc. to give suggestions when writing. Basically like Windows Recall, just that the data is stored locally. So far, the text suggestions were mediocre, but I continue as long as its free. Uses ~500MB of RAM, so its fine...EMERGENCY: F*ck this app and everyone involved. It starts to become usable and bam 10$ month subscription for an app using a local model. Nonono guys, better dictate what you wanna write and use Spokenly- !! OwlOCR (Free or Subscription or Paid): Just a great OCR tool. It works great. There is an optional Pro subscription, but i dont know what it does tbh. But you can also buy for a lifetime, so even better (still dunno what it does tho).
- Brave Browser (Free, open source): Everyone knows Brave. Not much to say. I am not into their weird crypto stuff, but it is great for what it is. I am currently not using this as my main Browser (anymore), but I still have it in case I wanna sync stuff to other devices (a big plus that it runs even on my Steam Deck, where it is my main browser).
- Dia (Free or Subscription): UPS AND DOWN, I KNOW. I use, then I dont, then I use it again... I was using Brave for a long time and it is great. I mainly needed something to sync the tabs, but often times in Brave I had problems with youtube becoming unresponsive, buttons not working anymore... No problems with Dia. I dont use the AI chat, so its fine. Also, tabs became better. So yeah, pretty fine browser.
- 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.
- 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.
- Antinote (Paid): Antinote is the perfect “Scratchpad” notepad for me. I have it constantly running to calc or write down stuff before I clean it up and put into my notes app. Its a temporary note holder. Also, lovely developer, very active. Highly recommend it.
- !! FluxMarkdown (Free, open source): Markdown rendering in Preview. It can do more than that, but to edit Markdown I mostly use Panda.
- !! Zed: (Free, open source, Subscription for AI): An IDE. Looks great, works great, prefer it over VSCode, except for its shitty Git integration. If the git wouldnt be this bad, I would get rid of VS Code. Yes, yes I just mentioned SourceGit before, but i have some very small repos, for like Steam deck plugins etc. and I am to lazy to open a git gui just to check in a few things. Yes, Zed would be find for that, but you cannot commmit ranges. If you have edits in line 20-40, you can only commit that whole block. Sounds nitpicky, I know, but i use that a lot.
- 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.
- Gitea (Free, open source): Not really an application, but a local service. But i packed it into an .app and it automatically shuts down the service as soon as i close the app. Mostly use it for bug tracking in a work project.
- !! SourceGit (Free, open source): A free and open source git client. Great for bigger projects.
- !! Gitea (Free, open source): Not really an application, but a local service. But i packed it into an .app and it automatically shuts down the service as soon as i close the app. Mostly use it for bug tracking in a work project. Usually I use my selfhosted gitlab but in my office my own domain is blocked (lol), so for my work project I use Gitea locally.
- Cronica (Free, open source): A Watchlist for movies and shows. Suggests based on shows. Comes in handy if you watch alot of stuff like my wife and me.
- 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.
- IINA (Free, open source): Known by everyone. While on vacation I was mostly off grid, so I had a few movies and shows downloaded. I tried IINA and VLC Media Player (Free, open source). I had IINA first, but randomly, while watching movies, my Macbook froze with the rainbow spin… like every 30 minutes. I was guessing it’s IINA because it never happened before. Well, turns out it also happens while watching with VLC. I had to be connected to the internet for it not happen, so I guess it is caused by Apple Inteligence. Not sure tho. So I went back to IINA because I prefer the interface.
- !! Poolsuite FM (Free): Apart from the fact that https://poolsuite.net/ is an awesome looking website, the app is great. It is basically a radio app and since I dont use Spotify (I buy my music), this is great for when I dont want decide what to listen to. Just some chill music and a very cool looking app. Weirdly no volumn slider. Missing that desperately.
- !! Omni Content Hub (Paid): A content hub, similar to e.g. the app that start with Strem and with io, also works with its addons. Almost no updates and on Mac it is just the IPad app, but it works wonderfully. I use it on my Apple TV and while it has problems, I prefer it over all alternatives. Also dont wanna move my catalogs, so I am kinda stuck.
- !! Thaw (Free, open source): I always used (and still use) Barbee, but this became a great alternative for me. Barbee uses more RAM, but in Thaw my icons randomly change into other categories (like from hidden to shown etc). Thaw is a Ice fork, that works better. So Menu Bar cleanup that also works on Tahoe. Lovely.
- 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 7,99€. Alternatively there is of course Ice (Free, open source), 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.
- 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.
- 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!