Useful Mac apps
Table of Contents
Introduction words
This article contains applications and utilities (mostly utilities) for MacOS which I find useful after over 2 years of using my MacBook Pro on a daily basis for work, personal projects, education and entertainment. No paid promotions. This is not a "tier list" and I am not saying that the apps I mention here are certainly, for sure, 100% the best you can ever find, these are just my favourties (so don't blame me!).
All applications mentioned here are free to download (might be paid via AppStore, but who uses AppStore ...) and free use. I recommend using homebrew. If you don't want to use homebrew, each application can still be downloaded from the developer's website.
Corrections, additions and suggestions are heavily appreciated: me@bin7.net.
Utilities
| Name & Link | Opensource | Telemetry | Description | Homebrew | AppStore |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| PurePaste | no | no | Clears formatting from content, copied to clipboard. Removes tracking parameters from URLs | - | free |
| MacFanControl | no | no | Control fans on Apple computers | yes | - |
| OnyX | no | no | Best maintenance tool | yes | - |
| KeyboardCleanTool | no | no | Block all Keyboard and TouchBar input | yes | - |
| Scroll reverser | yes | no | Reverses the direction of scrolling (independent for trackpads and mice) | yes | - |
| Keka | yes | no | MacOS file archiver (RAR support) | yes | paid |
| AppCleaner | no | no | Uninstall (and cleanup!) unwanted apps | yes | - |
| Raycast | no | opt-out | Best spotlight replacement | yes | - |
| MonitorControl | yes | no | External monitor brightness control | yes | free |
Applications
| Name & Link | Opensource | Telemetry | Description | Homebrew | AppStore |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Skim | yes | no | PDF viewer with auto live reload support | yes | - |
| qBittorrent | yes | no | BitTorrent client | yes | - |
| draw.io | yes | no | Diagramming application | yes | - |
| KeePassXC | yes | no | Password manager | yes | - |
| VMware Fusion Pro | no | opt-out | Best MacOS hypervisor | yes | - |
| VLC | yes | no | Multimedia player | yes | free |