A curated list of awesome applications, software, tools and shiny things for macOS.

Items marked with are open-source software and link to the source code. Items marked with are free (as in free beer).

Applications

Audio

Audio Hijack - Record audio from any application like iTunes, Skype or Safari, or from hardware devices like microphones and mixers.
Audio Profile Manager - Allows you to pin input/output devices for each particular combination of connected devices. May suppress HDMI displays from being chosen.
BackgroundMusic - Record system audio, control audio levels for individual apps, and automatically pauses your music player when other audio starts playing and unpauses it afterwards.
krisp - AI-powered app that removes background noise and echo from meetings leaving only human voice.
Plug - Discover and listen to music from Hype Machine.
Recordia - Record audio directly from the menu bar or with a global keyboard shortcut.
VOX Player - Play numerous lossy and lossless audio formats.
XLD - Rip/Decode/convert/play various "lossless" audio files.

Backup

Arq - Encrypted backups to Amazon, Dropbox, Google, OneDrive, etc.
Carbon Copy Cloner - Create incremental and fully bootable backups of your Mac to external storage.

Chat Clients

ChitChat - A native Mac app wrapper for WhatsApp Web.
Telegram - A messaging app with a focus on speed and security, it’s super fast, simple and free.
Textual - An Internet Relay Chat (IRC) client.

Data Recovery

Data Rescue - Comprehensive and professional data recovery for a multitude of scenarios.
DiskWarrior - Recover from filesystem corruptions when Disk Utility is out of options.

Developers

Anvil - Serve up static sites and Rack apps with simple URLs and zero configuration.
Base 2 - A GUI for managing SQLite databases.
Cakebrew - The Homebrew GUI App.
CocoaRestClient - An app for testing REST endpoints.
Dash - An API Documentation Browser and Code Snippet Manager.
Decode - Converts Xcode Interface Builder files (Xib and Storyboard files) to Swift source code.
Gas Mask - A simple hosts file manager which allows editing of host files and switching between them.
gitbar - Open source github contribution stats on your Menu Bar.
GitUp - A simple but powerful Git macOS app.
GitX-dev - A fork (variant) of GitX, maintained and enhanced with productivity oriented changes.
Hopper Dissassembler - A Dissassembler for MacOS and Linux. Has a Demo option for 30 minutes of productivity.
Hosts - Edit hosts file.
Iconology - Edit Icons and then Export to Xcode, Icns, Ico, Favicon, Mac Iconset, or a Custom List of Sizes.
ImageAlpha - Apply lossy compression on PNG files with or without transparency for more efficient files.
ImageOptim - Makes images take up less disk space and load faster.
Integrity - Easily find your website's broken links.
Kaleidoscope - Powerful diff and merge application supporting text, images, and folders.
Knuff - The debug application for Apple Push Notification Service (APNs).
Pasteboard Viewer - Inspect the system pasteboards.
Paw - The ultimate REST client.
Pods Updater - A macOS app which helps you manage dependency releases in your Podfile.
Postico - A modern PostgreSQL client.
Postgres.app - The easiest way to get started with PostgreSQL.
Proxyman - High-performance man-in-the-middle proxy to observe and manipulate HTTP/HTTPS requests.
Pusher - A free tool to do sandbox push notifications.
PSequel - A PostgreSQL GUI tool.
QorumLogs - Swift Logging Utility for Xcode & Google Docs.
Quiver - A delightful notebook for programmers that allows mixing rich text, code, markdown, LaTeX, and graphs.
Sequel Ace - A MySQL & MariaDB database manager.
Sequel Pro - A MySQL database manager.
SnippetsLab - Manage and organise snippets of code.
SourceTree - A free Git & Mercurial client.
Swiftify - Objective-C to Swift code converter and Xcode & Finder extensions.
TablePlus - A modern, native GUI for multiple databases.
Touch Bar Simulator - The macOS Touch Bar Simulator as a standalone app.
Tower - The most powerful Git client.
Trailer - Configurable menubar Git notifications with accompanying native iOS app.
Unused - An app for checking Xcode projects for unused resources.
Vagrant Manager - Manage your vagrant machines in one place with Vagrant Manager for macOS.
Versions - SVN GUI client for Mac.
WWDC - The WWDC app.
Xcodes - Install and switch between multiple versions of Xcode.

E-Book Utilities

Kindle App - Amazon Kindle App for macOS.

Editors

CotEditor - Lightweight plain-text editor for macOS.
Emacs - Port of Emacs to work as an macOS app.
MacVim - Vim, the text editor.
Nova - The beautiful, fast, flexible, native Mac code editor from Panic.
Sublime Text 3 - The sophisticated text editor.
TextMate - A graphical text editor.
VimR - Vim, refined.

Email Utilities

Airmail - Lightning fast email client designed for El Capitan.
MailMate - Advanced IMAP email client, featuring extensive keyboard control and Markdown support.
Mailplane - A tightly integreted client for Google Mail, Inbox, Calender, and Contacts.

Finder

ForkLift - File Manager and FTP/SFTP/WebDAV/Amazon S3 client.
Path Finder - A powerful dual-pane browser alternative to Finder.
Quicklook-Plugins - List of extra quicklook plugins to enable previewing more filetypes in the Finder.
TotalFinder - A powerful alternative to Finder.
XtraFinder - Adds useful features to Finder.

Games

Battle for Wesnoth - Turn-based tactical strategy game, featuring both single-player and online multiplayer combat.
Boxer - The DOS game emulator that’s fit for your Mac.
Dolphin - A powerful, Open Source emulator for Nintendo GameCube and Wii games.
OpenEmu - Multiple Video Game System.
Screentendo - Turn your screen into a playable level of Mario.
Stockfish - Beautiful, powerful chess application.

Graphics

Acorn - A very Mac-like image editor with a comprehensive feature set.
Affinity Designer - Vector image design tool, possible Adobe Illustrator alternative.
Affinity Photo - Raster image design tool, possible Adobe Photoshop alternative.
GifCapture - Record GIF screencasts.
GIPHY Capture - Capture and share GIFs on the desktop.
Image2icon - Create and personalize icons from your pictures.
macSVG - Design and edit SVG content for web, mobile, and animation.
OmniGraffle - An app for creating precise, beautiful graphics.
Pixea - An image viewer for macOS with a nice minimal modern user interface.
Pixelmator - Powerful image editor, possible Photoshop alternative.
Sketch - Hybrid vector/bitmap layout application, especially useful for UI, web and mobile design.
Sketch Toolbox - A super simple plugin manager for Sketch.
xScope - Tools for measuring, inspecting and testing on-screen graphics and layouts.

News Readers

hacker-menu - Hacker News Delivered to Desktop.
NetNewsWire - A classic RSS reader reacquired by its original author and rewritten for modern macOS.
ReadKit - Have all your Instapaper, Pocket, etc. feeds in one place even when you're offline.
Reeder - News reader that integrates with with Feedbin, Feedly, and other popular services.
Vienna - RSS/Atom newsreader.

Productivity

Alfred - Boosts your efficiency and productivity.
BetterTouchTool - Configure gestures for mouse and actions for keyboard shortcuts.
ClipMenu - ClipBoard History Manager.
CloudClip - Sync your clipboard between your Mac and your iOS devices.
Dropzone - Create a popup grid of customizable actions that enhance productivity on your Mac.
f.lux - Automatically adjust your computer screen to match lighting.
Fantastical 2 - Complete Calendar app replacement which uses natural language for creating events.
Hazel - Create rules to automatically keep your files organized.
HazeOver - Turn distractions down and focus on your current task.
HyperDock - Select individual application window.
iCMD - Fuzzy menubar search and vim emulation.
Instant Translate - Translate speech and text between 100+ languages from the menu bar.
ItsyCal - A tiny menubar calendar to display your Mac Calendar app events.
Karabiner - A powerful keyboard customizer.
Keyboard Maestro - Automate routine actions based on triggers from keyboard, menu, location, added devices, and more.
Keytty - Enables you to control your mouse with a few key strokes. Mouse Keys Alternative.
LaunchBar - Start applications, navigate folders, manipulate files, control your Mac and much more just by using the keyboard.
MeetingBar - Your meetings in MacOS status bar
OmniFocus - An incredible task management platform for Mac, iPad, and iPhone.
OmniOutliner - Perfect for collecting information, outlining ideas, adding structure to any sort of writing, and much more.
Pandan - Time awareness in your menu bar.
Paste - The new way to copy & paste for Mac.
PDF Archiver - A nice tool for tagging and archiving tasks.
PopClip - Instantly copy & paste, access actions like search, spelling, dictionary and more.
Presentify - Annotate anything on screen, be it, images, pdfs, videos, code, etc.
Qbserve - Automatic time and project tracking, timesheets, invoicing, and real-time productivity feedback.
Quicksilver - Control your Mac quickly and elegantly.
Rocket - Makes typing emoji faster and easier using Slack-style shortcuts.
SelfControl - Block access to distracting websites.
Simplenote - Simple cross-platform note taking app with cloud-based syncing.
Taskade - Real-time organization and task management tool.
TaskPaper - Plain text to-do lists.
Telephone - A SIP softphone. Make phone calls over the Internet or your company’s network.
TextExpander - Create custom keyboard shortcuts for frequently-used text and pictures.
Timing - Automatic time and productivity tracking for Mac. Helps you stay on track with your work and ensures no billable hours get lost if you are billing hourly.

Sharing Files

CloudApp - Capture and share files and screenshots instantly.
Jumpshare - Real-time file sharing app with support for instantly sharing code / Markdown, annotating screenshots, screen recording, and voice recording.
mac2imgur - Upload images and screenshots to Imgur.
Monosnap - Annotate and upload images and screenshots, supports many backends like S3, SFTP, WebDAV, Dropbox, etc.
Transmission - Simple, lightweight, multi-platform torrent client.

Terminal

iTerm 2 - A terminal emulator.

Utilities

1Password - Password Manager and Secure Wallet.
AnyBar - A menubar status indicator.
APNGb - .apng image assembler/disassembler app.
AppCleaner - Uninstall your apps easily.
Artify - A macOS X application for bringing dedicatedly 18th century Arts to everyone.
Bartender - Organize your menu bar apps.
Batch Image Resizer - Resize a large number of images quickly on your computer.
BeardedSpice - Control web based media players with the media keys found on Mac keyboards.
BetterZip - A very capable and full-featured archive manager.
BitBar - Display output of any script to the menu bar.
Burn - No-nonsense burning of Data/Audio/Video CDs and DVDs, including copying.
CheatSheet - Know your short cuts.
ClipboardCleaner - Automatically removes text formatting from the clipboard.
CommandQ - Never accidentally quit an app again.
ControlPlane - Automate running tasks based on where you are or what you do.
DaisyDisk - Analyze disk usage and free up disk space.
Deliveries - Beautiful and simple package tracking.
DisableMonitor - Easily disable or enable a monitor on your Mac.
Dozer - Hide MacOS menubar items.
EtreCheck - Output system information and configuration to get more informed help from Apple support professionals.
Equinox - Create macOS dynamic wallpapers.
Fanny - Notification Center widget and menu bar application to monitor your Mac's fans and CPU temperature.
Finicky - App that allows you to set rules that decide which browser is opened for every link.
Flotato - Use any web site as a beautiful Mac app.
Fluid - Turn web applications into Mac applications.
gfxCardStatus - Menu bar app to monitor and switch between integrated and discrete GPUs on MacBook Pro.
Gray - Pick between the light appearance and the dark appearance on a per-app basis with the click of a button.
Helium - A floating browser window that allows you to watch media while you work.
Irvue - Thousands of stunning photos and wallpapers from Unsplash on your Mac.
iStat Menus - An advanced system monitor for your menubar.
Jiffy - Discover and share the best GIFs on GIPHY.
Kawa - A better input source switcher with shortcuts.
KeepingYouAwake - Menu bar utility that prevents Mac from going to sleep.
Keka - Compress to and extract from many archive file formats.
Knock - Unlock your Mac quickly and securely.
LaunchControl - Create, manage and debug launchd services.
Loading - See when apps are using your network in your Mac menubar.
Little Snitch - Protect your privacy.
MacDown - Markdown editor.
Mackup - Keep your application settings in sync.
MacPass - Password Manager.
Media Converter - Simple (drag and drop) but advanced media conversion.
Menubar Colors - Convenient access to the system color panel.
MenuMeters - A set of CPU, memory, disk, and network monitoring tools for macOS.
Monodraw - A powerful ASCII art editor.
Mounty - A tiny tool to re-mount write-protected NTFS volumes under macOS 10.9+ in read-write mode.
Noizio - Ambient sound equalizer for relaxation or productivity.
Notational Velocity - Store, retrieve and sync notes within a minimal GUI.
Noti - Receive Android notifications on your mac (with PushBullet).
Numi - Beautiful calculator app.
OnyX - Multifunction utility to verify disks and files, run cleaning and system maintenance tasks, configure hidden options and more.
Paparazzi - A small utility that makes screenshots of webpages.
Paragon NTFS - World fastest NTFS driver.
Radio Silence - Simple to use firewall and network monitor.
Microsoft Remote Desktop Connection Client - Remote Desktop Connection Client lets you connect from your Macintosh computer to a Windows-based computer.
RDM - Easily set Mac Retina display to higher unsupported resolutions.
Site Sucker - Automatically download websites from the Internet.
ShiftIt - Managing windows size and position.
SlowQuitApps - Prevent accidental Cmd-Q.
SmartCapsLock - Makes the Caps Lock key smarter, so that when the key accidentally gets activated and you START YELLING even though you don't want to, you can just select the yelling-text and press the key again to instantly fix its case instead of typing everything all over again.
Soulver - Beautiful expressive calculator.
SSH Tunnel - Manage your SSH tunnels, tightly integrated with macOS Keychain, secure and intuitive.
Strongbox - Secure Password Management for iOS and MacOS. Open Source. Compatible with KeePass and Password Safe.
TeamViewer - Remotely control another computer.
TextBar - TextBar is a tiny but powerful app that lets you add any text to your MenuBar.
Typeeto - Lets you use your Mac's keyboard as a bluetooth keyboard to type on another devices.
Typora - Another minimal Markdown editor.
Ukelele - Unicode Keyboard Layout Editor.
Übersicht - Run system commands and display their output on your desktop as widgets.
The Unarchiver - Unarchive many different kinds of archive files.
Wineskin - Run Windows applications and games on your Mac.

Video

HandBrake - High performance video encoding and conversion tools with a nice GUI.
IINA - Media player with a minimalist design.
mpv - Media player.
ScreenFlow - Screencasting and video editing software.
Subler - Mux and tag MP4 files.
Subtitlr - Drag and drop subititle download utility.

Window Management

Amethyst - Window manager (automatically keep windows sized in grids).
Divvy Window Manager - Window management for tiling your windows.
Hammerspoon - Extremely powerful scripting engine for macOS.
Hummingbird - Easily move and resize windows without mouse clicks, from anywhere within a window.
Moom - Move and zoom windows, super light weight and customizable.
Phoenix - A lightweight window and app manager scriptable with JavaScript.
Rectangle - Easily organize windows without using a mouse.
Stay - Resize/position windows when displays change.
Swish - Control windows and applications with trackpad gestures.
yabai - Tiling window manager with focus follows mouse.

Others

Aerial - Apple TV Aerial Screensaver for Mac.
Catch - The easiest way to use ShowRSS.
Clocker - Check time in multiple timezones from your Mac menubar.
Juice - Make your battery information a bit more interesting.
Sonora - A minimal, beautifully designed music player.
SoundCleod - A browser for SoundCloud.
Spillo - Powerful, beautiful and fast Pinboard client.
Transmit - A FTP client.

Command Line Utilities

Awesome macOS Command Line - Use your macOS terminal shell to do awesome things.
m-cli -  Swiss Army Knife for macOS.
Mac-CLI -  macOS command line tools for developers.
mas - A CLI for the Mac App Store.

macOS Utilities

Bluetooth Debug Menu - Factory reset devices and more.
Command Line Utilities Part 1
Command Line Utilities Part 2
EnvPane - An preference pane for environment variables.
Glances - System monitoring tool that runs in terminal.
Thread on StackExchange

Setup

macbook-playbook

Ansible playbook to configure a development and desktop environment from a clean macOS install.

https://awesomeopensource.com/project/mpereira/macbook-playbook

macOS 10.9 Mavericks Setup

macOS 10.10 Yosemite Setup

https://gist.github.com/kevinelliott/0726211d17020a6abc1f

macOS 10.11 El Capitan Setup

https://gist.github.com/saetia/1623487

macOS 10.12 Sierra Setup

https://gist.github.com/kevinelliott/7a152c556a83b322e0a8cd2df128235c/

macOS 10.13 High Sierra Setup

https://gist.github.com/jimmynotjim/7617722

macOS 10.14 Mojave Setup

https://gist.github.com/kevinelliott/ab14cfb080cc85e0f8a415b147a0d895

macOS 10.15 Catalina Setup

https://gist.github.com/kevinelliott/7152e00d6567e223902a4775b5a0a0be

Security

GPG Suite - Full GPG toolkit with easy to understand GUI applications and Mail.app plugin.
LinkLiar - Menu application written in Swift to help you spoof the MAC addresses of your Wi-Fi and Ethernet interfaces.
macchanger by acrogenesis - Easily change your MAC Address
macchanger by shilch - Change / spoof MAC address (random, custom and restore).
MIDAS - Intrusion Detection Analysis System.
OS-X-Security-and-Privacy-Guide
OSXCollector - Forensic evidence collection & analysis toolkit.
Pareto Security - A MenuBar app to automatically audit your Mac for basic security hygiene.
santa - A binary whitelisting/blacklisting system.
Shimo - Fully-featured VPN client for Mac.
SimpleumSafe - Encrypt, organize and sync files with macOS or iOS.
tinc - Secure mesh VPN software.
Tunnelblick - Easy to use OpenVPN client and GUI.
VeraCrypt - Free and open source disk encryption software.
Viscosity - Fully-featured OpenVPN client, ready for enterprise deployment.

Miscellaneous

Discussion Forums

IRC channels

MacRumors

Contribute

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License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

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