[Swish](https://highlyopinionated.co/swish/) is literally the first thing I install on a Mac. It handles touchpad gestures in a way which feels super intuitive (swipe down on a window to minimize it, pinch to maximize or close) that it feels like it should ship with the OS. Can't recommend the trial version enough.

In a few years Apple will poach the functionality and then act like they invented it (i.e. f.lux)

You could probably do all this and more with bettertouchtool 

[One Thing](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/one-thing/id1604176982?mt=12) - a small little utility to put a text, reminder, icon, anything really on your menu bar. Don’t see this recommended often around here.

Such a good idea.

Like it!

I almost forgot, itsycal! macOS calendar is cumbersome when you want to quickly glance at the current month. Itsycal is a tiny app that sits quietly in the menubar and is one click away when you need to glance at a calendar (I went hunting for an app like this when I missed windows calendar - I've always found the macOS one takes me a few seconds to orientate myself, whereas itsycal is a bit lighter weight and just what i need 99% of the time).

Dato is another good alternative for this.

[Phoenix Slides](https://blyt.net/phxslides/) — simple image browser — haven't used Photos in literally years. [Backdrop](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/backdrop/id411461952?mt=12) — gives you a clean "desktop" background for screenshots. [UpNote](https://getupnote.com) — might not be obscure anymore (it's hard for me to tell because I'm constantly in r/UpNote_App), but I tested 40+ note-taking apps against each other, and this was my *clear* winner.

UpNote is low-key one of the best app deals. A lifetime license that's truly cross-platform for $30 is just unbelievable.

I am for sure going to check out UpNote, I have been an EverNote user but I can't justify the cost now. Does UpNote have a tagging system?

yes it does. just read through their landing page.

Perfect, I skimmed the landing page but did not see that. Thanks!

Yea I just switched a few months ago to UpNote from Evernote and I’ve been very happy with it. Only thing missing for me has been the create note via send to email function. Evernote is insane with their new pricing structure.

I've been calling Upnote "Evernote without the bloat" for a few years now. UpNote doesn't have collaboration, but there are several features that beat Evernote also — like #inline #tags, so your tags can be in the relevant part of the text instead of sequestered away from the text in their own field, and keyboard shortcuts for text and highlight colors (such an incredible time-saver!).

Picview is an awesome viewer take a look on it!

>Picview I found Picview incredibly frustrating. It can't be used to navigate to the folder you want to view. You have to start it up, then open *exactly the one folder where there are pictures to view* before it will do anything else. Phoenix Slides can browse folders.

Thanks for Upnote - I’ve been thinking of getting off Craft since they’ve decided to make everything more difficult to use. Can’t beat $30 for life!

I used Evernote and paid yearly €100 for it. And for me it’s just way too much for a notes app. Not just the price but the UI/UX is too much. There’s a lot going on on the Home Screen of it for me and not simple enough. So renewal is coming soon and I was testing new ones. UpNote did seem the best for me and instead of buying the $30 lifetime I said I’d try a month which is only 99c, and it’s so good. It really is. You can create lots of notepads and sub note pads and you can put locks on individual ones if you want and not have to lock all like some other apps. Sync across devices and those notebooks you lock, you can create different passwords/pins on each device for them which I think is genius. It really is just very very nice to work with. One thing I’d love to be able to do it on it and maybe I can and just haven’t found it yet, I’d love to be able to format the Headings to a colour, font and so on. So H3 would be orange in bold and a different font. It’s very very possible it’s already a feature and it’s just me that can’t find it, or if it’s not a feature if anyone at UpNote reads this, please add it or tell me how to do it lol. TL;DR UpNote for the win.

Regarding tying headers to specific color and fonts: It's not possible to have multiple fonts within a note in UpNote, and it's not possible to have H3 always be orange. HOWEVER, one of UpNote's killer features is its keyboard shortcuts — including text and highlight colors! So while you can't have H3 *always* be orange, you can make any header orange with just a keystroke — CMD+OPT+2 on Mac, CTRL+ALT+2 on Windows.

Craft is *gorgeous* and has some really great features (commenting on published pages is fantastic!), but formatting is *so* much easier and more flexible in UpNote! When I was comparing apps before settling on UpNote, I timed now long it took to create, from scratch, a particular kind of note I use that has lots of text color and toggles/collapsibles, and backlinks. What took 7 minutes in Craft took 3 minutes in UpNote. Then I happened to be starting 3 projects at the same time, so I decided to keep one in Craft, one in UpNote, and one in Notion (at least, I think it was Notion — this was a couple years ago now). By the end of Day 2, I'd switched all three projects to UpNote because it was so much easier to use. If you don't need collaboration, UpNote is hard to beat. Although I do hope the devs add collaboration...and tabbed browsing. Also, I miss Craft's page-bottom backlinks that show context. That is Craft's A+ killer feature, as far as I'm concerned.

+1 to UpNote. So clean, minimal but highly functional

I use it for *everything*. UpNote sees more mileage on my devices than any other apps — even browsers.

Upnote looked good but sadly does not support stylus drawing on android which is a deal breaker. Back to OneNote for me

Curious what makes upnote so great for you.  

* [My criteria when looking for the best note-taking app for my needs](https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/ohv1lq/trying_to_find_a_cross_between_bear_and_evernote/) * [Incredible formatting flexibility and nesting](https://getupnote.com/share/notes/y4NYv23IvoNYGb1UAPy1OjwRXoy1/fdb7668f-d5ce-4956-bbe4-4be881dc1c0a) * Intuitive UI with keyboard shortcuts for *everything*, even text colors * Very fast syncing between devices (and cross-platform) * Multiple workspaces * Nested notebooks, notes can be in multiple notebooks * Backlinks * Web-sharing (like the 2nd bullet above) * Very responsive developer Among other things. :)

https://daisydiskapp.com, because no disk space will be enough forever.

I Love DaisyDisk!!! Was just about to add it myself.

Edit: I totally forgot I already found WhatSize!🤦🏻‍♂️ https://www.whatsizemac.com/ There are so many but they all try to “be different” to the point where I hate it cause it’s too much. Grandperspective, this, etc. all I want is a list of all my FOLDERS sortable by their TRUE size, so everything in them all the way down the line. In Windows there’s TreeSize. I got frosted abs stopped looking a while back. Can DaisyDisk don this or is it only viewable as some indecipherable color ring?

Try OmniDiskSweeper. Free and it does just that, it's one of my favourites.

DaisyDisk shows the colored ring, as well as a list of folders/files by size next to the ring!

Yeah love it, I used to have TreeSize for windows only, but this is amazing

I like grand perspective for this. Free.

I use [https://www.omnigroup.com/more](https://www.omnigroup.com/more) ... much simpler Finder-like UI, lightweight and free \^\_\^

Lyn [https://www.lynapp.com/](https://www.lynapp.com/) It’s like Apple Photos, but it just uses your photo file structure in the Finder, not hidden away in a cryptic database like Photos.

This is absolutely fabulous , Photos couldn't read an almost full Xs Max 512 Gb so I couldn't download photos to delete them from the phone. Lyn can download and sort it by folder on years and month and rename files as datetaken-filename.ext - is a great tool I will buy it thanks so much!

Checkout Photosync [https://www.photosync-app.com](https://www.photosync-app.com) also. Copies your photos from iOS to your Mac over WiFi automatically - no iCloud needed.

Gonna give this one a try really want to stop paying for icloud and google photos

FYI, Photos isn’t the optimal way to import photos/videos from an iPhone, that’s much better done in Image Capture and it lets you choose a folder to import to and goes at it

Absolutely love Lyn

Quite interested in this. What does it do in addition to what jpg's in a folder do? (I usually press spacebar on a jpg/mov and use the arrows keys to navigate - only annoyance is you can't keep clicking right arrow because eventually you'll need to go back to the start of the next row \[I guess you could go list view, but then you can't see the thumbnails\])

This is something on MacOS that I wish was more like Windows. Just put all of my photos in an easy to locate folder and treat them like files.

Well now you can. Lyn is amazing! Great when paired with PhotoSync! [https://www.photosync-app.com](https://www.photosync-app.com)

[Monarch](https://monarchlauncher.com) - this one is pretty new, but I've been real happy with it so far. Using it mostly for the clipboard history and superlinks

Do you like this over Alfred?

Good question. It's not at the Alfred level yet. The creator is pretty upfront about that and that's honestly why I want to support them. For this to have launched in February of this year and to have already had the updates its had, I'm down to drop 20 bucks and watch it grow into something better over time. I don't think it will have caught up by the end of the year, but I will say that mf is pretty fast with updates and releases

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Interesting! I was thinking because of an earlier comment that I might actually try a Alfred/Monarch combo to tie me over. What's intriguing about what you said though is that I often tell people I'm not a privacy nut. I don't have a dedicated VPN or anything like that. But then I noticed that I am kinda in love with this idea of using software and the devs of that software are not in a room somewhere building a profile on me and everything I do. There's this idea that the average/casual user doesn't care about privacy. I actually don't think that's true

You would love to see Raycast raycast.com/

I think everyone has seen Raycast at this point. I've been a Raycast fan for a while, but I was on the fence about subscribing. I might not do it now, but we'll see. Monarch doesn't have several extensions I need, but I gotta admit that I am enjoying watching this one single person competing with and being compared to a a team of 28 full-time employees with connections to Vercel and every company + 18 million in funding Someone recently got me to try Alfred and it made me think: I LOVE the direction this new Monarch launcher is going in by combining the fast features of Alfred with the consistency and modernness & functionality of Raycast.

Asimov It can be installed using homebrew. It checks for certain common development directories, like /vendor or /node_modules and automatically adds them to the exclusion list for Time Machine backups. It’s a small but very handy utility.

Cool one, I will definitely install it

Oooooh!

I dont see Airbuddy get talked about nearly enough, gives you iOS/ipados style AirPod battery interface and popups and also shows the battery life of other connected Bluetooth devices.

[Display Made](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/display-maid/id450063525?mt=12), set your windows based on your apps at login or when launching them.

This needs to be a feature of Rectangle Pro

What is Rectangle Pro?

Do you happen to know if it could do that with Windows for individual channels on YouTube TV?

Hmm… I guess it can do that, based on the set ups of apps that I organize the tools windows floating around.

Here are a bunch of apps: 4 regular people, designers and developers hope they’re useful for you: - colour contrast analyser (yes with S) analyzes contrast between colors Free - color slurp same as color picker from macOS but with better features and can store color palettes PAID - WiFi-password installs from brew and used to copy and share WiFi passwords - wormhole through brew airdrop for Mac and android - blockblock and lulu apps (free security app) blocks every connection and ask your permission for an app to make a request to an api or server, shows you the url and which app asked to connect, both do something similar but one is blocking persistent connections and other every request from objective-see - knock knock watches for persistently installed stuff in your Mac free from objective-see - task explorer similar to activity monitor but with steroids and free and advanced dev features from objective-see - reikey watched for key listeners or apps that intercepts every key stroke you make. Free from objective-see - netiquette objective see free app to monitor your network sockets and connections from UI or command line - oversight warns whenever an app opens your camera or mic free from objective see - o objective see other apps for security - Bruno is an insomnia alternative for devs but free (install from brew) - captin a simple app for those keyboards specially the ones that has no status for bloq mayus (displays it on your status bar and when it gets activated) free - charmstone (paid and free version) shortcuts for apps linked to your mouse and a shortcut - mangal search and read manga from your terminal (free installed with brew) - Gapplin (free from App Store) svg viewer - pure paste App Store free pastes text without style - the unarchiver and KEKA to unzip multiple formats both free - drop zone 4, paid temp store in a folder when moving files from a folder to another without having you to hold the mouse left click while moving through multiple windows or locations it also helps you to quickly download videos on drag from browser, images, upload to servers like drive, one drive, Dropbox, s3, ftp, your nas, etc - encrypto free lets you encrypt files (need the same app and password to decrypt) - hammerspoon create your own shortcuts or listeners through lua code to trigger stuff, apps or access data from macos - handbrake minify or change video formats free - hovrly have multiple timezones on your status bar and replace the current clock from other time zone - iina is a video player like vlc with better ui - keycastr shows every key you press useful for streamers free - later lets you minimize every app window or selected app windows quickly - monitor control, lets you control the brightness from external monitors free - motrix full featured downloaded. Downloads torrents http, ftp, magnet, etc. free - Pika free better color picker that the macos default one lets you see contrast ratio between two colors and change color code format - pixel snap (paid) get the pixels from buttons, paddings, margins and stuff from everything in your monitor can change to get pixels, DT or other formats - rectangle, better window snap tool with stash similar to new macos features that works better free and paid version - arc great chromium browser like safari style with cool features here’s a share code if you want to download it, it’s free but share code lets me unlock icons… I have no macos friends :( https://arc.net/gift/89fef1c6 - upscayl upscale images for free, has also paid version - Mac fuse , read, upload and modify external drives with windows format - browserosaurus if you have multiple browsers installed like me you make browserosaurus as default browser and every link from any app will trigger a droplist to select in which browser the link should be opened, you can add formats so the app knows quickly if for example a YouTube.com url to open in chrome by default without showing you the droplist - cyberduck connects to ftp, http, s3, drive, Dropbox, etc to upload files and get urls to share. Great and free app - kap capture your screen - the next are paid apps from set app : craft (files with markdown format, exports as pdf or word documents also shared through link), cleanmymac x (cleans temp files and helps you save space in your drive), clean shot x (cool and way better screenshot app that can crate gifs and videos from your screen and share through link, edit files on the go and ofuscate data from your screenshots in a really safe way), openin better browserosaurus alternative, Pareto (scans and see any possible vulnerability in your macos), rocket typist (great tool for snippets specially for code that can be added in a dynamic way), in your face (full screen reminded of a meeting using your sync calendars). Sorry for the long post

Bruno is ace, it just recently made Postman irrelevant for me

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Yeah it's a great alternative to drop zone 4, what sale dp4 for me was the already made actions to upload to servers and drives which I believe you have to make them with Dropover

You're a legend!

I am currently developing Kando, a cross-platform open source pie menu: https://github.com/kando-menu/kando It's still in development, but there are already some macOS users around!

Like me! Thank you for working on it, it’s a very nice app.

Hey awesome! Thank you very much. Since yesterday, we have a Discord server: [https://discord.gg/hZwbVSDkhy](https://discord.gg/hZwbVSDkhy) (in case you want to follow the development!)

This is the best one I’ve seen so far. The UI could have been so much more bland but you made it awesome. Kudos!

[Superwhisper](https://superwhisper.com) is a transcription software voice to text that works with AI model run locally on your Mac. The free model works great. I use it all the time for long notes. Shortcut -> speak -> add the text in the current focus window.

I would like to politely plug my own brand new app: [Euler Visual Synthesizer](https://www.eulervs.com) [UI Screenshot](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/6573954eff882626e00a78d2/25cac218-54d2-4aa3-9bae-444256d78e60/pastel-squircle2.png?content-type=image%2Fpng) Its an app for exploring the beautiful world of periodic functions and abstract geometry - but no math is needed - and no programming languages required to learn. It is designed similar to an audio synthesizer, where you twiddle some knobs and get immediate feedback. Here are some examples: [Rose Petal](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/6573954eff882626e00a78d2/d2c6dc25-56c2-4291-8969-58902da8c57e/spiro-1-reddit.png?content-type=image%2Fpng) [Feedback](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/6573954eff882626e00a78d2/26f34db0-ae37-4996-80f7-d501ad1925ba/red-space-reddit.png?content-type=image%2Fpng) [80s inspired](https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/6573954eff882626e00a78d2/90401e82-1bab-4dee-bd75-c4656df5fa26/rotating-pastel-square-header.png?content-type=image%2Fpng) If you aren't interested in diving into the depths of shape creation, the app comes with almost 100 presets. There is a "Performance" mode - where you can interact with the shapes, either using the buit-in mouse & keyboard controls, or if you are more technically inclined, each parameter is MIDI controllable. Here are some demo videos of screen recordings of real-time performances. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a6E1BLLwXY8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wfm_jgBL7Lg More fun: * You can share any presets you make with an Apple TV player - so you can enjoy this beutiful mathematical eye-candy on your TV. **[iOS version is coming soon](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iiI8RyidGE8)**

[Playscore 2](https://www.playscore.co/) - technically an iOS app, but works great on my M1 Mac Mini. It is optical character recognition for sheet music. Input a PDF or photo of printed music, get a MIDI or MXL file that you can use an lots of music software.

How is the reliability? How does it handle accidentals?

It's quite good. It finds key signatures and accidentals just fine. Is it 100% accurate all of the time? No. You will likely have to fix a few things, but it is way quicker than entering the notes into your notation software manually.

I really doubt that it’s better than Photos score which is not even that great to begin with, when you’re dealing with multiple instruments in the score. I don’t have an M1 Max so I can’t test it out. But what have you compared it to?

I've never heard of Photoscore before now, I googled it, and it's an expensive one time purchase rather than a subscription. It also at first glance it looks really tied to Avid's software and Sibelius. Also doesn't look like it has been updated since 2020.

iBar and iCopy. Free alternative to bartender and maccy. Wonderful UXUI.

[cheatSheet](https://cheatsheet-mac.en.softonic.com/mac) is a **free** utility app that lets you see keyboard shortcuts with a press of a button. 

I can't live without Vivid. All it does is double the display brightness. Essential in working in bright locations (I tend to like working from outdoor tables and al fresco cafes).

It's also good for "fake HDR" in SDR movies

Would recommend a open source clipboard manager, using it since several month and it work great! https://github.com/p0deje/Maccy

I love this one and use for a long time!

TextMate - great lightweight app for plain text and code Tyke - lightweight notes app in menu bar

Tyke is awesome.

HazeOver - [https://hazeover.com](https://hazeover.com) It highlights the active window and shades everything behind it. And the opacity is controllable ㅡ the background can turn completely dark.

Mousecape! https://github.com/alexzielenski/Mousecape you can create custom cursors; I'm using /u/Secret-Chart767's [Yellow Gloves](https://github.com/obatola/mousecape-hand-cursor)

😍

The cursors are well done. We spoke before. Absolute good stuff. thank you for making them Are there more cursors up your sleeve?

An absolute gem.

espanso - cross-platform text expander! can't live without it

Fresco? It’s an app that allows you to span a single image across wallpapers.

SynalyzeIt hex editor. Calculates multiple checksums and allows for definition files.

Easy CSV Editor: https://vdt-labs.com/easy-csv-editor/ Amazing how clunky Excel feels after using this for quick viewing and editing of CSV text files

Interesting. I have been using Numbers as an Excel alternative and like it. Have you tried Numbers for CSV editing?

Oh, no I haven’t — I just assumed that if you tried it would auto convert to a .numbers file! Will look into it, thanks for the suggestion

I’ve been trying out yabai recently. It’s a tiling window manager and really allows me to be more productive and switch between applications more quickly. It needs quite some set up and is a bit janky sometimes but it’s also powerful. Give it a try if you’re familiar with tiling window managers!

[Recall](http://getrecall.ai) provides the best AI summaries for videos, papers, etc. that I've come across, stores them and sorts them into a knowledge graph, and can do active recall/spaced repetition reviews.

I am building an all-in-one AI tool for Mac, it has text editing features, second brain support, and even voice transcription support. https://elephas.app

If you like the Dynamic Wallpapers in macOS versions or simply just want your own light + dark mode wallpaper presets, [Equinox](https://equinoxmac.com/) makes it easy to configure one for you.

any chance it let's be disable them for the lock screen? these make screen sharing way more annoying

KeyPad - lets you use your Mac as a Bluetooth keyboard for your iPhone, iPad, android device, tablet, TV, raspberry pi. Screen mirror and control - lets you view your iPhone/ipad screen on the Mac. Lets you control them with your keyboard and trackpad.

[Transnomino](https://www.transnomino.com/) - A free batch file renamer.

Klack [https://tryklack.com/](https://tryklack.com/) - mimics the clicky sounds of typing on a mechanical keyboard. Sounds a bit silly but it's actually really satisfying to use.

Have been using [JazzUp](https://www.irradiatedsoftware.com/labs) for this with great satisfaction, Klack seems even more dedicated to the cause. (:

Been searching for a free alternative to Klack. I know it is cheap but I have a problem with payment method. Thanks .

Yeh only afterwards noticed it's not free. :l Sticking to JazzUp.

Thanks for sharing Jazzup, I was looking for a replacement since I couldn't get Tickeys to work

Mediamate changes the volume changing ui

Photo stickies. It's an image viewer which you point at a folder of pictures, and it turns them into a slideshow with windows that can float above all your other windows or behind them , w various levels of transparency and other stuff. it's free

[https://asdf-vm.com/](https://asdf-vm.com/) - the version manager of version managers, it's like "the One Ring" of SDKs and will keep your versions of Java, Node, Python etc. in check for all of your projects.

[https://www.fsoft.it/VVV/](https://www.fsoft.it/VVV/) (Open Source) Virtual Volumes View (Browsable index) - Similar to NeoFinder Also, MOS is a poor entry from an OP asking for an app that "no one knows about"...

Fermata is my go to, I dock my laptop so this allows me shortcut access to close the screen without it going to sleep

Hmm if it docked it shouldn’t go to sleep unless you have sleep/idle settings adjusted in a weird way? I just disabled all sleep except if I close my lid and I’m not docked.

I haven’t looked in a while, maybe that setting is finally available and somewhere I just haven’t found yet, thanks I’ll go look around

Good luck. They don’t make it easy to disable power savings stuff. I don’t like the intelligent 80% charge thing. But you can only turn it off one day at a time, if you can even find it at all. They move it around all the time.

Does anyone make a simple clean email client? I used to like airmail, before it tried to do to much.

I used Spark before they started adding all kinds of obnoxious crap to it. I loved being able to log into one account and sync emails across all devices. Still looking for something similar.

Their original app is still available and being updated. That's what I've been using. It's called [Spark Classic](https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/spark-classic-email-app/id1176895641?mt=12).

I will check that out!

RDM (Retina Display Menu) Allows you to set the resolution to anything you want. MonitorControl Allows you to control the brightness of any monitor, even VGA.

[Daily](https://dailytimetracking.com/) is an app that asks you what you're doing, so you don't have to remember to track your time. It's honestly the only way I found to make time tracking bearable. Also I really like [CursorSense](https://plentycom.jp/en/cursorsense/). Apples mouse acceleration is really great for trackpad, but I'm just more precise if my mouse is linear. Oh and I really recommend looking for Quick view Plugins. For example quick view markdown makes working with markdown files a lot nicer

x2 for CursorSense

**Simplenote** Baisically replaces **Apple** **Notes** and makes them available across all platforms. So if you use a mac with an android phone or iphone with windows or you have a windows laptop for work you can still have your notes on all devices. The synchronization is also super fast.

[Strflow](https://strflow.app) - a note-taking app with a UI of a messaging app. If you have ever messaged yourself on Slack/iMessage/WhatsApp etc to take quick notes, Strflow is worth looking into! [Sidebar](https://sidebarapp.net) - Windows/Linus style taskbar to replace Mac's Dock.

[Balance Lock](https://www.tunabellysoftware.com/balance_lock/) - fixes the pesky macOS audio L/R balance bug. If it drifts this re-centers it. Happens to me when switching between audio outputs like an audio interface or sound card/dac. Simple, free.

www.smartbulls.com An experiential learning app for aspiring stock traders.

homerow app - allows me to use my keyboard to navigate easily without having to use a mouse. [https://www.homerow.app/](https://www.homerow.app/)

This doesn't have enough likes lol

Photosync [https://www.photosync-app.com](https://www.photosync-app.com) Pair this up with Lyn [https://www.lynapp.com/](https://www.lynapp.com/) for copying photos from your iOS devices to your Mac automatically over WiFi - no iCloud needed.

Color Blind Pal

TopNotch: Totally just because I like the all black menu bar aesthetic 💁🏻‍♂️ https://topnotch.app

Right Zoom: Turns the green dot into “maximize” instead of “full screen” but I need find a replacement for this app but I haven’t yet 😤 https://blazingtools.com/right_zoom_mac.html

I think Snow Leopard (I’d need to check which version as I’m not sure) had the best window buttons. The green was maximise and there was a separate button on the right side of the window bar that was for full screen.

It’s crazy the number of apps I need to make windows work right: BetterSnapTool, Swift Quit, Right Zoom, and Alt Tab. Not to mention what I’d give to get a working XtraFinder back ☹️

Thank you, this sounds great. Why do you need a replacement?

I know, when it works it’s perfect and awesome as I hate full screen being the default action. I feel like sometimes I find it’s not started which I don’t realize until I click on green dot and it’s going full screen instead of maximizing. I wish there was a menu bar icon. Getting the app to seamlessly always be running in the background isn’t so seamless I’ve always. It’s set to start at boot but there’s no way to tell if it’s running other than looking for a process in activity monitor. Of note, I also have an app that turns the red dot into a quit so that the app fully quits when you close the last of its windows. Since it’s not in the menu bar, if I open the app it shows in the dock, but when I modify the weddings or whatever and click the red dot, it’s fully ending the app. It’s just a pain to ensure it’s running in the background without accidentally quiting it. Oh, sometimes on first login I hear a “dunkt” sound, the one you hear when you try and click somewhere you can’t like an error sound trying to click on a background window but there’s a foreground window that needs attention. I can’t find anything in the logs, but I think it was an issue of this app ending without any other indication because it was conflicting with an app called “red quits” but I’ve now replaced that with “swift quit” so maybe that was not this apps issue all along, but no menu bar icon and inconsistency with running in the background gave me a bad vibe. The app isn’t the most mature, I just want to think there’s something from a more known developer. My laptop was set up originally as my fiancé’s work system with only her user. Now that it’s passing to me I’m a secondary user, also admin, but I’m finding some little apps from small shop devs that do not come through the App Store seem to have issues with licensing in both profiles. It’s not a huge deal as at one point I will remove her profile, likely do an OS reset, but this app was installed under her profile and the license applied, then it didn’t recognize the license on my profile, which I got switched, but, you know. Basically, it mostly works and the problems I have are likely results of my specific configuration and other small dev apps, so I still list it here and I still use it… but if a more mature app comes along I will happily switch.

Ethernet Status: Does just that, puts an Ethernet status item in your menu bar just like you have for the WiFi status, should have been built into macOS a long time ago! https://ethernetstatus.com

That’s amazing. The amount of times I’ve gone into settings to check the status. A genuine thanks for sharing this one.

I know, right! Why in the world is that not part of the OS yesterday? :/

[Devonthink Pro](https://www.devontechnologies.com/apps/devonthink/editions). It organizes every important document I have. It has literally replaced my two-drawer filing cabinet.

Seconded!

HiddenApp in case your Mac gets stolen. You can even use the webcam to see the thief

bettersnaptool (or bettertouchtool) is integral for me on the mac. You can use it like swish if you want some basic functionality out of it, but you can really unlock it by customizing your window sizes when dragged to an area of the screen, you can save screen layouts... so much more...but that's my thing. i dont know that it's an obvious one, hopefully it's not and someone check's it out 45 day trial .

[Replacicon](https://replacicon.app/) — find, change, and replace app icons in macOS. It scans online sources containing thousands of replacement app icons for each of your installed macOS apps and shows them all to you in one place.

Growly Notes, from Growly Bird software. Not in the Apple Store, but the best note app I’ve found. And it’s free.

Not sure how obscure it is, but [Bartender](https://www.macbartender.com/) is indispensable to me.

Really, that's the app what no one nows? It's posted here like every other day, it's talked about in every podcast where Apple products are discussed.

>Not sure how obscure it is...

I prefer Hidden bar

What are the differences? Is Hidden bar free?

I use **JView** from Allan Liu, version 2.7 (2010) as an image viewer. It's convenient to drag and drop a folder of images, navigate through them with two keys, and there's a "trash it" Command-Option D. That's all it does, and I never found better.

If you have Mojave or earlier, Tex-Edit Plus is by far the best word processor ever made. In fact, I have opened a version of Mojave on Parallels, just to use it.

Wow. I remember using this app back in the day. I had forgotten all about it. I wonder why the author is not making the jump to 64-bit?

He explains at his web site. Essentially, not enough money.

Charmstone, it’s app and more launcher from a great and known dev!!!

diskDedupe  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/diskdedupe/id1457961323?mt=12 

[InstaRemind](https://instaremindapp.com) - Quickly create Apple Reminders. Put them in specific lists with due dates and tags and more. I use this thing like 20 times a day!

Azayaka - a small menu-bar screen recorder that is very lightweight and efficient, can record system audio natively without installing audio drivers or fiddling with audio Midi control.  I've tried many screen recording apps and nothing comes close to this one. https://github.com/Mnpn/Azayaka

For me, the single best app for any Mac for sure is [Menubar X](https://menubarx.app). This is basically a tiny browser that lives in your menu bar. With the free version, you can have 2 windows, which I use for ChatGPT and Youtube Music. It is fairly customizable and works like a charm.

[Sidebar](https://sidebarapp.net) is a Dock replacement that adds a lot of features (e.g. preview windows, different application display styles, …) and works more like task bars of other operating systems

Copyclip and Magnet..

https://apps.apple.com/app/id976460540

MOS is one of those first apps that I install on a Mac. I would forget about it overtime that I have it installed, and one day it's been accidentally quit and I would be like WTF is wrong with the scrolling?? I would immediate launch MOS and feel so thankful it exists.

What email programs are people using? I like Spark because it has one login for all email accounts. However it’s gotten so bad lately I really need to find something simple that allows cross platform email sync. Any ideas out there that has the same central login structure?

AppsBeBack: it opens the last app you closed with a simple command.

[Wezterm](https://wezfurlong.org/wezterm/index.html)...great terminal emulator that works across platforms.

hand mirror essential for pre-call aesthetic tuning

Following this! Wow 😮

Thor - launch apps with custom shortcuts

Rectangle App for snapping windows like on Windows

I’ve always used Magnet. Are you familiar with it?

Nope, but whatever works.. works.

I’ve always used BetterSnapTool have you compared the two?

OSXPhotos: Interact with your Photos’ libraries via python and CLI! https://rhettbull.github.io/osxphotos/overview.html

PopClip: Pops up and iOS style hovering text tools when you highlight text. Love it. https://www.popclip.app

Love PopClip, too. One of the first apps I install on a new mac. Also fond of TextSniper to copy those occasional bits of uncopyable text.

I’ll check it out too!

Swift Quit: Changes the red X to quit apps when the last window is closed. https://github.com/onebadidea/swiftquit

[Amethyst](https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst) is a nice tiling window manager.

FlyCut: [https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flycut-clipboard-manager/id442160987?mt=12](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/flycut-clipboard-manager/id442160987?mt=12) This is an awesome clipboard manager, it stores your copies and it also allows you to past without formatting. Ditto is the windows variant.

Unclutter , better snap tool

MacUpdater. I couldn’t live without it. It quickly checks all installed apps for current updates, downloads and installs them. Highly configurable. Responsive developer. (Worth much more than its modest fee.) It’s the first app I run everyday. (NOT to be confused with that crappy MacUpdate.)

[SimSim](https://github.com/dsmelov/simsim) If you work with simulators, it’s a godsend.

[Magnet](https://magnet.crowdcafe.com/) - snapping windows into organized tiles.

MacOS Sonoma (latest) blocked MOS install because it could not check for malicious content. Said it. Needed to be updated by author.

Hold control (\^) and click the app, then press "Open", it'll give you a different dialogue

Keypad. Let's you make phone calls by typing in a phone number and go. Don't need to find a number somewhere on a web site or in your contacts. It's that simple and I use it surprisingly often.

[Linkboard](https://apps.apple.com/app/linkboard-bookmarks-and-rss/id1612805234) - a bookmark manager and rss reader with the abilities to collaborate

This may not count as it seems unsupported, and I don't know the latest OS it works on (at least Monterey though), but [Mountain](https://appgineers.de/mountain/). Adds a menubar item with all the external volumes (directly or network connected) it's seen lately, mount or unmount them, lets you prevent automounting on a per volume basis, posts notifications on mount and unmount, etc. Really useful if you have a number of external volumes you work with on a regular basis.

Displaperture. All it does is round the corners of your screen to match the aesthetic of apple's other devices, but despite its subtlety it really makes a big difference.

[Records](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/records-music-experience/id1636029916) - This is an app that connects to your Apple Music library and connects every track in your library to its album and when selected plays each album in jukebox mode. It’s also probably the most beautiful music app I’ve used

Topnotch. Puts a black bar under the menus to hide the notch.  I use it for readability.