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
- Backup
- Chat Clients
- Data Recovery
- Developers
- E-Book Utilities
- Editors
- Email Utilities
- Finder
- Games
- Graphics
- News Readers
- Productivity
- Sharing Files
- Terminal
- Utilities
- Video
- Window Management
- Others
Command Line Utilities
macOS Utilities
Setup
Security
Miscellaneous
Discussion Forums
Contribute

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.
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.
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).
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.
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.
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.
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.
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://github.com/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.
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

Contributions are most welcome, please adhere to the Contribution Guidelines and our Code of Conduct.

Please consider checking out the pull requests that need more votes to be included.

⬆ back to top

License

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

Table of Contents