If you’re a Mac user, you know that having a dependable set of applications is essential for getting things done quickly. While MacOS comes with a suite of default apps that are adequate for many users, there are numerous third-party apps that can improve your productivity, creativity, and entertainment.
In this article, we’ll look at some of the best MacOS apps in a variety of categories, such as productivity, creativity, communication, and more. These apps should be useful whether you’re a student, a professional, or a casual user. You may find that using these third-party apps makes your day-to-day tasks easier and more streamlined.
Vanilla
Vanilla is a similar app to Bartender (I wrote about it in this article). It is a program that allows you to hide the icons on your menu bar. This is useful if you have a lot of menu-bar apps, especially on a small screen.
Vanilla allows you to choose which icons to show and which to hide, and to toggle between them with a single click or keyboard shortcut. The software can hide icons after five seconds and works with both light and dark menu bars.
The app is lightweight, quick, and simple to use.
Price: free, or $10 for Pro
Encrypto
Encrypto is a free app that will encrypt your files with AES-256 encryption before sending them to friends or coworkers. With this app, you can add a password to secure any file, create a unique password hint for the recipient, and send the encrypted files via email, messages, Dropbox, or other ways.
Key features:
- Encrypto uses AES-256 encryption to protect files.
- Password hints can be sent instead of passwords.
- Files can be shared via OS X Sharing or saved to disk.
- Encrypto works on both Mac and Windows.
Price: free
Lasso
Lasso - Window Manager for macOSReady to switch to Lasso? Making the switch to a new window manager can be a challenge, especially if you're used to…
thelasso.app
There is no shortage of Windows manager apps for Macs. I wrote about Moom in this article.
Lasso is a macOS window manager that enables users to easily move and resize windows with a click and drag method, making it highly customizable with grid systems and custom layouts. This is in contrast to other window managers, such as Moom and Magnet, which frequently offer premade or customized layouts.
It supports multiple monitors and lets users assign different keyboard shortcuts to different layouts.
Price: €9.99 or about $10.68
Raycast
I’ve long used Keyboard Maestro and Alfred, but I’ve only recently begun to use Raycast.
Raycast, Keyboard Maestro, and Alfred are all macOS productivity apps with some features in common, but also some significant differences.
While all three applications are designed to help you be more productive on your Mac, they have slightly different focuses and strengths. Raycast is great for quickly accessing a wide range of tools and workflows through a single interface, Keyboard Maestro is ideal for automation and customization, and Alfred is great for both launching applications and performing complex tasks with custom workflows.
Raycast, at its core, is a launcher, which allows users to quickly search for and launch other applications, as well as perform various actions without having to switch between multiple windows or applications.
Raycast also includes some natural language processing capabilities that can help users find the right commands or actions more easily.
In addition to launching other applications, Raycast includes a variety of built-in productivity features and integrations with popular tools like Jira, Trello, GitHub, and Google Drive. For example, you can use Raycast to:
- Quickly create new tasks in your favorite task manager
- Get an overview of your daily schedule and upcoming meetings
- Search and browse files in your Google Drive or Dropbox
- Start a new Zoom or Google Meet call with a colleague
- Perform complex calculations or conversions
- Control your music player or other media applications
- and so on
Price: free for personal use and for team sizes up to 30 members, $10 per month for larger teams.
Shottr
I previously reviewed CleanShot X in this article. It’s a great app, but it costs money.
Shottr, like CleanShot X, has an impressive feature set.
Shottr is a free screenshot app for Mac that allows you to capture high-quality screenshots of your screen, websites, and chats. It allows you to pin screenshots as floating windows, pixelate or remove sensitive information, and add text annotations and overlay images to your screenshots.
It also functions as a screen ruler and color picker, and it supports text recognition and QR code reading. Shottr is M1 optimized and takes only 17ms to capture a screenshot.
It also includes handy shortcuts for zooming in on a selection or cropping an image, as well as an experimental upload feature.
Price: free
Maccy
Maccy is a lightweight and quick clipboard manager for macOS that allows users to quickly access their copy history.
It is keyboard-first, allowing users to search the history using only their keyboard, and it is secure and private, respecting users’ privacy by storing everything on their computer.
Because the app is built with native macOS UI, it looks and feels like a native macOS app.
It is open source under the MIT license and is available for inspection and modification on GitHub.
Unlike other clipboard managers, Maccy only has one function: to keep your copy history accessible.
It omits unnecessary features, so users are not overburdened.
Price: free
Keka
Keka is a macOS file archiver and compression utility that lets users compress and extract files in a variety of formats such as 7z, Zip, Tar, Gzip, Bzip2, DMG, ISO, and RAR. On other operating systems, it is similar to other file archiving programs such as WinZip or 7zip.
Keka allows for file splitting, merging, compression, extraction, and format conversion. It also includes an encryption feature for additional security.
Price: free or donation, $4.99 on Mac Appstore
Latest
For Mac computers, Latest is a free app that determines whether your apps are up to date. It can inform you which applications need updates and outline the changes made in those updates.
All of your apps can be updated at once, and you can view the release notes for any updates you’ve already applied.
The majority of apps that use Sparkle for updates, including those from the Mac App Store, are compatible with Latest. It supports the Touch Bar feature on Macs with a touchbar.
Price: free
In conclusion, these macOS utilities offer helpful functions to boost productivity and improve workflow. Each utility has different advantages, such as the ability to take screenshots or hide menu bar icons. These utilities are worthwhile to take into account whether you’re a power user or looking to increase your productivity.
If these apps aren’t enough for you or you’re looking for something else, check out my other macOS app reviews.
Great Utilities for macOS Everyone NeedsThere are some great utilities for macOS that everyone should check out!
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