Mac apps

The Mac apps we actually use and recommend — notch apps, menu bar tools, launchers, developer tools and more. Curated, no pay-to-play.

Notch apps

NotchBay Dynamic Island for the MacBook notch — live activities, call controls, clipboard tray, on-device dictation. Ours. boring.notch The open-source pioneer of the notch category — media controls and a file shelf. NotchNook Polished commercial notch hub with media controls and a file tray. Alcove Minimal, tasteful notch activities for music and battery.

Clipboard

Maccy Lightweight open-source clipboard history — search, paste, done. Paste Polished clipboard manager with visual history synced across Apple devices.

Design

Sketch The Mac-native design tool that started the modern UI design era. Pixelmator Pro Image editing with real Mac polish — now part of Apple.

Developer

Ghostty Fast, GPU-accelerated terminal with native macOS polish. iTerm2 The long-standing terminal of choice — split panes, profiles, tmux integration. OrbStack Docker containers and Linux machines, light and fast enough to forget they're running. TablePlus Native database GUI for Postgres, MySQL, SQLite and more. Proxyman Modern HTTP debugging proxy — inspect and mock traffic with a native UI.

Launchers

Raycast The modern launcher — commands, extensions, window management and AI in one bar. Alfred The classic power-user launcher with workflows that automate anything.

Media

IINA The modern open-source media player built for macOS.

Menu bar

Ice Open-source menu bar manager — hide, show and rearrange status items. Stats Free, open-source system monitor in the menu bar: CPU, GPU, RAM, network. iStat Menus The veteran system monitor — deeply configurable menu bar stats. MeetingBar Your next meeting and its join link, always one click away in the menu bar.

Screenshots

CleanShot X The gold standard for Mac screenshots — annotate, scroll-capture, record. Shottr Fast, free screenshot tool with OCR, rulers and pixel-perfect annotations.

Utilities

AppCleaner Free uninstaller that sweeps up the files apps leave behind. Keka The file archiver macOS forgot to ship — 7z, rar, zip and more. AlDente Battery charge limiter that keeps a plugged-in MacBook healthy. Numi Calculator that reads like notes — units, currencies, plain language.

Windows

Rectangle Free, open-source window snapping with keyboard shortcuts. AeroSpace i3-style tiling window manager for macOS, driven entirely by keyboard.

Curated by hand, no paid placements. Building something for the Mac we should know about? Tell us.