Best VPNs 2021 Best VPNs For Mac Best VPNs For Chrome Best Android VPN. The best free budgeting app for you is the one that will best serve your personal financial goals. To find the right app. Today, Apple reveals the Best of 2018, a global collection of top charts and selects from our editors across every category highlighting all of the amazing things to watch, read, listen to and play across apps, music, podcasts, books, TV and movies.
- Best Free Mac Applications
- Best Mac Apps
- Best Free Mac App Games
- Free Apps For Imac Desktop
- Best Free Mac Apps 2020
Comment: My essential Mac apps for 2020 include Fantastical, AirBuddy, and more. 2020 is the tenth anniversary of the iPad, so there has been a lot of discussion around the best app along with.
We’ve put together a list of some of the best Mac apps anywhere: if you’re looking for a new utility, web browser, or photo app, you’ll probably find what you need on this list.
Whether you’ve been using a Mac for a very long time, or you’re unboxing your very first MacBook, it’s always nice to see the sort of software and tools that other people use.
While we don’t include them in our official best Mac apps list, since they’re free and from Apple, new users should always check out Apple’s apps that come with every Mac purchase.
Best Mac Apps: Utilities
1Password
Price: $49.99 | Link
1Password is the gold standard of password managers. With people cracking online accounts left and right these days, it’s more important than ever to use secure, complicated passwords – and never the same one twice. 1Password can keep track of all your passwords for you, and automatically enter them into your browser. The latest versions also keep track of sensitive data like insurance numbers, bank accounts, and credit card numbers, making it an important resource if your wallet or purse gets stolen. Apps are available for iPhone, iPad, and Android, making your data available wherever you are.
Caffeine
Price: free | Link
Have you ever started uploading a video to YouTube, walked away, and returned only to find your computer had gone to sleep (and thus corrupted the upload)?
While OS X is supposed to be smart enough to not do that, it doesn’t always work – and now, Caffeine will guarantee it.
Duet Display
Price: Free (on OS X, but requires a $16 iOS app) | Link
Built by a cadre of ex-Apple engineers, Duet Display lets you increase your screen space by taking advantage of your iPhone or iPad. With support for touch tracking and the full Retina display of your mobile device, Duet Display can be a godsend if you’re stuck editing on a cramped coffeeshop table.
There are a number of wireless iPad display options, but Duet Display is our top pick.
Dropbox
Price: Free (various premium service levels) | Link
By now, you’re probably familiar with Dropbox, but if you aren’t, this is the company that made cloud storage famous. These guys make sharing and storing files easier than ever, and helps make all your data accessible on each of your devices.
Viscosity
Price: Free 30-day trial, then $9 | Link
Viscosity is a great replacement for the built-in VPN tool in OS X. Designed to let you log on with just a couple of clicks, Viscosity will work with a number of VPN clients, whether you need to log into work, protect yourself at coffeeshops, or simply evade regional lockouts on media.
Chrome Remote Desktop
Price: Free | Link
There have been a number of tools over the years that let you log into your computer when you’re not at home, and one-by-one, they’ve all turned to a non-free model. Not so with the Chrome Remote Desktop. As long as both your home and away PCs are on, you’ll be able to log in and control the remote PC without paying a dime.
Note: both PCs will also need to have the Chrome web browser installed and allowed to run in the background.
Crashplan
Price: Free to external drives, 30-day cloud storage; $60 per year for backing up one computer; $150 per year for backing up between 2 – 10 computers | Link
Crashplan is backup made simple. If you don’t want to pay, the company will offer you free use of their backup software (if Time Machine is not to your liking) as well as 30 days worth of online backups.
Their paid plans are really compelling, however: $60 a year gets you unlimited online backups of your entire computer and network attached storage. You can retrieve individual files or, should emergency strike, pay to have a new hard drive with your backup overnighted to your house.
TextExpander
Price: Free trial, then $45 | Link
TextExpander is kind of like autocorrect, but for your Mac. You can program snippets of text into the TE interface, and when you type them into nearly any program, TextExpander replaces them with your pre-chosen macro.
For example, you could type ‘soon5’ in a meeting email, and TextExpander would replace it with “I’m running late, but I should be there in five minutes.” The new version is easier than ever, and TE includes a fun chart that will show you how many hours you save, based on a specific typing speed.
Airfoil
Price: Free trial, then $29 | Link
Airfoil lets you send any audio from your Mac to any Airplay source – speakers, Airports, AppleTVs, you name it. It offers granular, per-app control that the system option sorely lacks, and lets you send audio out to multiple sets of speakers.
Rogue Amoeba, developers of Airfoil, include a free copy of Airfoil Speakers with each purchase, which lets you receiveAirplay audio on your Mac (or iPhone / Android device).
One fun way to use both of these is to set up Airfoil and Airfoil Speakers on your Mac, then Airplay your iPhone audio to your Mac – this way you can send one phone’s audio out over multiple sets of Airplay speakers, something that is otherwise impossible to do.
F.Lux
Price: Free | Link
F.lux is based on the idea that seeing blue light late at night is bad for your eyes, and impairs your quality of sleep. The app works by changing the color temperature of your display (computer displays are typically pretty “blue”) as the sun sets; by the time you’re ready to call it a night, things can be looking pretty orange.
It definitely reduces stress on your eyes; if you don’t believe us, try quitting F.lux after you’ve used it for an hour – you’ll be scrambling to re-enable it.
GrandPerspective
Price: Free | Link
One of the most frustrating things about the Mac to this day (not that the PC is all that much better, frankly) is the inability to see your disk space. How much free space do you have, what folders and files are using it all, etc.
GrandPerspective is a free utility that gets rid of all that storage uncertainty by displaying information in an easy-to-read, blocky interface.
Little Snitch
Price: $35 | Link
This is the best firewall you didn’t know you needed. Little Snitch not only monitors for inbound connections, but also outbound connections. It’s a great program for finding out what apps on your computer are calling home and transmitting information; you can block any of them at any time, just by tapping a button.
The devs recently released a companion product known as Micro Snitch; Micro Snitch has a similar philosophy to Little Snitch, except it explicitly monitors your webcam and microphone, so you can be sure nobody is using them to record you.
Malwarebytes
Price: Free | Link
Worried about whether your Mac can catch a virus or worm? With the platform’s growing popularity, you probably should be.
Marlwarebytes is a trusted name in PC security, and with a recent acquisition, they’re bringing expertise over to the Mac.
The software itself is free, but you can sign up for premium service and support at a rate of just $25/year.
Capture Gif
Price: Free, or $6 | Link
It may seem like a strange addition, but the ability to quickly record your screen and make GIFs can come in handy. You can keep it simple with basic text GIFs, or record yourself doing full-screen actions (take a look at our El Capitan Split View overview for an idea).
Capture Gif offers a free version with limited settings, but the $6 full copy is cheap and offers you the ability to change the framerate of the GIF as well as innovative mouse tracking features.
Best Mac Apps: Internet
GoogleChrome
Price: Free | Link
Google’s internet browser has become the world’s most browser, and for good reason. Unfortunately, those reasons don’t really exist on the Mac – not only is Chrome slower than Safari, but it’s also a power hog and can drop your battery life by up to an hour!
Still, it has its uses. Chrome comes bundled with an always-updated version of Adobe Flash, so you’ll never need to worry about updating a version for the Mac. Need to check out a Flash-enabled site? Just spin up Chrome, check it out, and shut it down. Given how many vulnerabilities Flash tends to introduce, it’s worth keeping exposure as limited as possible.
Skype
Price: Free | Link
You’re probably aware of Microsoft’s VoIP product by this point, but it’s worth pointing out. Despite competing alternatives, Skype’s sheer cross-platform connectivity and pervasiveness means that it’s always handy to have around if someone wants to call you.
Transmission
Price: Free | Link
When it comes to BitTorrent, the cat is out of the bag, and it isn’t going back in. We like Transmission for an OS X torrent client, because it’s cross platform and open source, and also because it isn’t constantly trying to get you to download things you don’t want (ahem, μTorrent).
Best Mac Apps: Music and Video
Spotify
Price: Free, or $10/month Premium tier | Link
Spotify is one of the world’s largest music streaming services, with over 75 million users accessing either its free or pay tiers. The software itself is completely free, supporting your listening with advertising inserted into the streams.
If you don’t mind ponying up, however, you can snag unlimited ad-free music streaming for just $10/ month, with the ability to skip around to whatever music you like, and cache songs to your device for offline listening.
iOS and Android apps round out the experience.
VLC
Price: Free | Link
If you keep any quantity of your own media, VLC will be well known. For everyone else, this app is the gold standard for watching videos from the internet. No nonsense codec downloads, nothing else to install, just download it, open, and play.
Best Mac Apps: Productivity
AirMail
Price: $10 | Link
Running just $10 in the Mac App Store, AirMail builds upon the basic functionality in the Mail app and adds some pretty nice integration and power user features (superior keyboard shortcuts, snoozing an email like Gmail’s Inbox does). You can import files directly from services like Dropbox or Google Drive, or send attachments that are too large to email by using Droplr. One of the best features over Mail, however, is how AirMail has worked to integrate itself into the best known third-party productivity apps – so if you use software like Wunderlist, Fantastical, and Evernote, you should take a look at AirMail.
Clear
Price: $10 | Link
Clear, like Mailbox, made waves for introducing powerful features paired with an extremely simple and intuitive user interface. Mailbox was for, well, email, but Clear is for keeping you focused at the tasks on hand. It works best when you pair it with the iPhone and iPad apps (which together cost a $5 one-time fee); there’s also an app for the Apple Watch
Fantastical
Price: $40 | Link
OS X’s Calendar isn’t bad, but it’s also not very useful if you need to track more than the very occasional event. Fantastical (now actually Fantastical 2) is extremely powerful, with a natural language engine that lets you remember events just by typing them out. It comes with a free trial if you don’t feel the need to shell out $40 quite just yet.
Microsoft Office
Price: $70 / year for 1 PC or Mac, $100/yr for 5 PCs or Macs, $150 one-time purchase for 1 computer | Link
There may be the free Google Docs and Apple iWork suites, but nothing can beat the powerhouse that is Microsoft Office. Aside from the fact that its omnipresence nearly requires you to use it (so that your files can all be shared between jobs), new versions for iOS and Android make it very easy to work on your projects on the go. While Microsoft’s attempts to send Office into the cloud with a monthly or yearly subscription, they do still offer standalone installations.
Best Mac Apps: Graphics and Photo Editing
Pixelmator
Price: Free 30-day trial, then $30 | Link
Adobe’s Photoshop CC might reign supreme at the top of the image editing heap, but if you’re not a professional, or very serious amateur designer or photographer, it probably doesn’t make much sense to shell out for it. For the price of less than one month of Adobe’s Creative Cloud subscription, you can get a permanent standalone copy of Pixelmator. There are definitely Mac photo editing apps out there that can do more than Pixelmator, but few can match it on a features-per-dollar basis.
Best Mac Apps: Programming
Textmate 2.0 (beta)
Price: Free | Link
If you’re a programmer, you know that your choice of environment not only says a lot about you but can impact your workflow in drastic and unforeseen ways. Should Vim be getting you down, take a look at Textmate’s most recent version, a product of Macromates.
Textmate offers an easy way to work on a project’s many files at once without getting lost, and features powerful plug-in architecture should you need a tool that it lacks.
Best Mac Apps: Emulators
Andy Android Emulator
Price: Free | Link
If you’re on a Mac, chances are you probably prefer to use iOS over Android. Thinking about seeing how things work on the other side? The Andy Android emulator works extremely well to give you a virtual Android tablet. For the most part, this virtual model works exactly like you’d expect.
The only downside is that the most recent release – which came out in November – only goes up to Android 4.2.2, so some apps and features might not work. Hopefully, we’ll see an update to Android M or N before too long. If you just want to try things out, however, it’s more than good enough.
Disagree with the titles we’ve put on the best Mac apps list? Sound out in the comments with some of your favorite apps or tools that you think are the must-haves for any Mac user.
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Get a new Mac and wonder which apps should you install? See this list of 2021 best Mac apps and you will find the top app for video, shopping, security, and more.
So you've got a new Mac and you're looking to install the best Mac apps 2021 for your daily computing life? Well, we've got you covered. There are a wealth content of apps arriving and updating on Mac App Store every single day, which makes it nearly impossible to keep track on the latest and greatest. We've compiled the best of the best Mac apps 2021 that remember your passwords, organize your notes or to-dos, make data backup, edit the media files, and connect your friends etc.
Entertainment
At the mention of what your Macbook is used to do, entertainment accounts for a large proportion, no matter on watching videos/movies, listening to music, editing photograph etc. If there is an absence of the best Mac apps 2021 in entertainment, you will suffer from a obscure and upsetting journey even on your brand new Macbook.
MacX DVD Ripper
If you are ready to turn your DVD collection s into a digital library in iTunes, MacX DVD Ripper is no doubt the best Mac app in 2021 (macOS Big Sur also supported), as Handbrake has issues now that libdvdcss doesn't work with Sierra. It has dozens of great features, like 1:1 copying with original video quality, excellent protection bypass tools (including for region codes and Disney DRM), output DVD to iOS/Android, and batch conversion.
iMovie
With a streamlined design and intuitive editing features, iMovie lets you enjoy your videos and tell stories like never before. Browse your video library, share favorite moments, and create beautiful movies for iMovie 4K editing. Still, it can be treated as the best free app for iPhone iPad, allowing you to start editing movies on an iPhone or iPad, and finish them on a Mac. And when your movie is ready for its big premiere, you can enjoy it on all your devices in iMovie Theater.
MacX Video Converter
Video formats compatibility is always the top issue for video watching on Macbook Pro/Air, iMac etc. MacX Video Converter definitely keeps you away from this by converting 4K HD/SD videos to MP4, AVI, MPEG, FLV, MOV, WMV, MKV, MP3, etc for playback on QuickTime, iPhone, iPad, Android flawlessly and editing with iMovie and Final Cut Pro. Plus, as an essential Mac app (macOS Big Sur supported), it also stands out on downloading video from 1000+ online video sites, recording screen, editing video, etc.
Handbrake
If you're a video connoisseur, or if you're always finding that you have to convert your videos to make them playable (or streamable) to all of your devices, then you're going to want Handbrake on your macOS Sierra, pronto. This is one of the best OS X apps for video conversion and DVD ripping. It's detailed enough to give power users plenty of options to play with, but it's also simple enough in its core functionality that even newbies will be able to figure out how to convert a video with Handbrake. Best of all, it's free.
5KPlayer
5KPlayer is the rising media player app for Macbook in 2021, which plays videos/DVDs in high definition, downloads videos online, and even sends them to your TV or big screen through AirPlay. It's much easier than other media players yet still quick and reliable in everything it does. In short, the best free app for macOS is perfect for those who just want to play videos without complications.
VLC
VLC media player is better than Quicktime in nearly every facet that matters, most notably speed and file compatibility. It is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. Here stating as the best free application on macOS, it's also widely regarded as the first DVD player on Macbook Pro/Air, supporting playback of encrypted DVDs (region code, CSS) by using the libdvdcss DVD decryption library.
Spotify
Apple Music isn't for everyone. With Spotify, it's easy to find the right music for every moment on your phone, your computer, your tablet and more. There are millions of tracks on Spotify. So whether you're working out, partying or relaxing, the right music is always at your fingertips. Choose what you want to listen to, or let the free music download app surprise you. You can also browse through the music collections of friends, artists and celebrities, or create a radio station and just sit back.
Photoshop
Photoshop is one of the most comprehensive photo editing apps on Mac now brings you even more creative possibilities. It has professional-quality tools, like advanced color manipulation and 32-bit/64-bit channel editing. It also has dozens of useful features, like multiple editable layers, vector graphics tools, advanced image processing, and retouching and correction masking tools for MacBook Pro, Air, iMac users to explore and use.
Data Backup
Have you ever lost your photos, videos, data, apps, memories by accident? There must be! But if you have make a copy of your significant data, you will free from the troublesome matter. To solve how to backup data on Mac OS X, some must-have Mac apps are to be downloaded.
MacX MediaTrans
Mac data backup becomes simple and fast with the help of MacX MediaTrans. It's a feature-rich file backup software for Mac with data transfer, backup and management function combined. It can turn iPhone iPad etc. mobile devices to an external hard disk drive to save all your Mac data, including music, video, photo, ebook, ringtone, apps, documents files folders etc. Meanwhile, this data backup application on macOS (macOS Big Sur incl.) also empowers you to sync and transfer all your music, video, photo, ebook, voice between Mac and iDevices as well.
Dropbox
We'd be surprised if you hadn't heard of this super-popular cloud storage service. Here's the gist: Install Dropbox, and you'll get 2GB of cloud storage free. The best free app for OS X dumps a simple Dropbox folder onto your Mac, and anything you drag into there will be synchronized with the cloud. If you have multiple computers, anything in your Dropbox folder will be synchronized across all the other systems the app runs on.
Productivity
Whenever I set up a new Mac, these are the first apps I install. While I can use a Mac without them, I am not nearly as productive. A good productivity app should reduce friction and amplify good habits, and all of these meet those criteria.
Alfred
Alfred is an award-winning app for macOS which boosts your efficiency with hotkeys, keywords, text expansion and more. With the essential app for Mac, you can quickly perform calculations, execute web searches, and quickly find word definitions, among many other functions. It fills the gap between Siri and your Spotlight search, by allowing you to automate tasks and perform advanced functions that, frankly, Siri should be able to handle without voice input.
Evernote
Best Free Mac Applications
Evernote is the undisputed king of Mac apps on note taking, and for good reason. It's simple, organized in a highly intuitive way, and syncs with just about any Web service you can imagine. It's a free app for Mac with a paid upgrade for additional features and more storage space, and allows you to quickly store information using the web clipper and access your information when you need it on any device.
Wunderlist
Wunderlist is a simple todo list and task manager app that helps you get stuff done. Whether you're sharing a grocery list with a loved one, working on a project, or planning a vacation, Wunderlist makes it easy to capture, share, and complete your todos. The essential Mac app for to-do list also instantly syncs between your phone, tablet and computer, so you can access all your tasks from anywhere.
1Password for Mac
Yes, we lived in a life filled with all kinds of passwords and there comes a time we forgot our password. Whereas with 1Password for Mac you only ever need to remember...one password. All your other passwords and important information are protected behind your Master Password, which only you know. Still, you can also sync between devices with the best app for Macbook Pro/Air, iMac etc.
flu.x
f.lux is a tiny little utility that makes the color of your display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day or more accurately mimic outside light. It's even possible that you're staying up too late because of your computer. You could use the best free app for Mac because it makes you sleep better, or you could just use it just because it makes your computer look better.
Caffeine
Caffeine is a tiny program that's always a favorite for Mac users. It keeps your Mac computer from going into sleep mode, dimming the screen or starting screen savers. It's ideal for reading long documents, or any other activity in which you don't touch the keyboard or mouse for extended periods of time. Just give it a click.
Safe & Security
You do need an antivirus program on your Mac. That statement may cause some Apple users to stop listening and walk away, but with the amount of Mac malware on the internet today, this issue is no longer up for debate. So once you get your new Mac, make it to be defended in all round with the best antivirus App for macOS. Here are some suggestions.
Malware Bytes
Is your Mac running slow? Annoying adware, like pop-ups, or malware could be the problem. Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac scans for and removes code that degrades system performance or attacks your system. Making your Mac, once again, your Mac. By the way, it removes all kinds of malware from your Mac, including Trojans.
Cloak
Most people don't think twice about using public wi-fi (but you should). Cloak is the easiest way to automatically secure your connection on public networks and keep your sensitive data safe from prying eyes. It turns on automatically the moment you connect to an untrusted network.
Internet & Communications
Of course, internet surfing and connecting with friends also take much of your time on Mac computers daily. Internet users are able to communicate with each other from all around the world instantaneously. With the essential Mac apps, you can share photos, send virtual birthday and Christmas cards and develop better relationships with family and friends.
Chrome
Google Chrome is arguably the fastest browser available for desktop platforms, one that also features the ability to automatically sync all your information, bookmarks, open tabs, recent searches, etc. - across multiple computers and mobile devices. That, combined with its robust customization and instant search capabilities, make it worthwhile.
Airmail
Airmail treats your email like a to-do list. You can triage your inbox by scheduling when you are going to take care of an email. If you can't get to it right now, snooze it for later. If it's an email that requires an action, send it to your to-do folder. If it's something important that you'll want quick access to, mark it as a memo. And, when you've finished dealing with your email, send it to the 'Done' folder to get that sweet satisfaction of having completed something on your task list.
Skype
Skype, the instant chatting app for free on Mac has a fresh new look and feel. Here are just a few of the great things you can do: Chat every day with free instant messages; share files and photos for free in an instant; see your family come together over a free group video call; switch between calling and messages with one click, or do both together; low-cost calls and text messages to mobiles and landlines.
Tweetbot for Twitter
Best Mac Apps
The power user's Twitter client started out on iOS, and its desktop counterpart is one of the best ways to use the social network on a Mac. Tweetbot provides all of the mute filter options you'll need to tune out hashtags, users and even keywords, and it syncs with its mobile sibling, so your streams are up to date on all platforms. It also provides a multiple-tab view, so you can keep track of all of your lists at the same time.
Hot Search: Free Download Videos from Twitter on Mac
Best Free Mac App Games
Shopping
It's an era that people go shopping at home from Amazon, Apple, eBey and various shopping webpages. But online shopping is not as simple as you think, there are also something to worry about, for example, payment method, courier tracking etc. So if you download and install the best free Mac apps related to shopping, you can buy your beloved things easier.
Free Apps For Imac Desktop
Deliveries
Best Free Mac Apps 2020
If you are a big online shopper, ordering a lot of things online, you'll definitely want an easy way to keep track of your packages. Deliveries does this, and will even detect a tracking number on your clipboard and add it to the application for you. You can even get notifications when your packages are delivered from a number of different services (Amazon, Apple, UPS, the USPS incl.) if you're so inclined.