The Mac app is more or less that new website in a wrapper, or as Automattic puts it, 'a desktop app that gives WordPress a permanent home in your dock'. By bundling the entire site as a local copy, you basically get a faster, more streamlined experience, although some features do pull you back to the browser, for example to view your admin panel. Best Mac Apps to install on a new Mac First Time Users Sai Krishna. Nov 7, 2017; Shares 0. Here’s a list of apps that you should install on your new MacBook and get started. Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos. One Switch ($4.99) - One Switch is a Mac menu bar app that adds various switches to the Mac's menu bar. You can add toggles. The power of Mac. Dedicated apps for music, TV, and podcasts. Smart new features like Sidecar, powerful technologies for developers, and your favorite iPad apps, now on Mac.
Application
Hey
I love my Mac and I have hundreds of applications installed on it. As a result I wanted to do a post on what I believe are the top 100 Mac applications that are essential to any user. I’ve picked a variety of applications that I could think of. I have tried to go for the cheaper free option, but quite a few you have to pay for. If you think I am missing an application leave a comment with a link to the app and why you should think it should be included, it doesn’t have to be long, I just want your opinions. If you disagree with any leave a comment with your reasons.
Each application will be split into a couple of major sections. There are some applications that could be in more than one section, but that is not the point of this post. I will also include a link and a bit of descriptive text on what the application is about. There may be duplicate items of the same nature i.e word processing, i’ve included this due to the differences each application has. The list is in no particular order, mostly alphabetical.
If you want to take your knowledge of Mac apps a bit further I recommend these two books on Amazon, Cool Mac Apps and The Little Mac Book they have got some raving reviews and are probably a good read. I’m sure if you look through Amazon there is plenty of stuff that you can find.
Computer Files
This section is all about programs that can be used to work with files and applications
1) AppFresh
Software updater is great for Apple applications, but appfresh has the ability to check third party apps for updates. A great little tool for keeping up to date.
2) AppZapper
Although applications are easy to uninstall on a mac there are usually small preference files hanging about. Appzapper cleans up an uninstall all of those files.
3) Disk Inventory X
A simple program that scans your disk and visually shows what files takes up how much space, good to visualize if you are running out of space and you have some size hogs.
4) Grand Perspective
Very similar to Disk Inventory X, shows you what files take up how much space on your website.
5) OpenPlist
A very cool little tool if you need to end up editing Plist files.
6) Quicksilver
One of the best applications ever made for the mac. Its a quick launch tool that enables you to open and do practically anything. Very fun and really increases your productivity.
7) Stuffit
An application design to unstuff or unpack nearly any file. Great if you use archives a lot.
8) TextWrangler
A very cool text editor that lets you edit text files quickly. Sometimes more powerful than text edit.
9) TidyUp
An application that enables you to search through a list of files finds duplicates. Great if you have many files and you need to organise them.
10) Todos
Leaves no application behind. A very visual way to view all of the applications on your computer. Kind of surpassed by the stacks in the dock.
11) UnRarX
UnrarX gives you the abilty to easily uncompress .rar files. Very good, although stuffit can now handle .rar files.
12) Xslimmer
Give your mac a diet. It goes through and removes the powerpc or intel parts of your program. It can really reduce the size of applications. Can also break them if you are not careful. Internet
This section is all about applications that use the internet or this type of connectivity in some way.
13) Adium
A simple all in one AIM, chat client. Supports, Gmail, Hotmail, Yahoo and many other through the use of plugins and basic support. It does lack some functionality in some chat protocols.
14) ApGrapher
A great little program that offers the ability to find information about the wireless networks whizzing around your head.
15) Azureus
One of the best bittorrent clients out there. Has lots of user extensions through the use of plugins. Best Free Apps For Mac
16) Colloquy
A really powerful application that can be used for the IRC networks. Special care has been taken in this application to make it blend in with the rest of the Mac OS theme.
17) CSSedit
A must for any web developer. CSSedit offers the best tools around to help you edit and modify CSS code for you webpages.
18) Cyberduck
A small lightweight application for ftp. Has some small niggles, but it is free. Transmit is better if you use ftp a lot.
19) Firefox
One of the best web browsers around in my opinion. Has a massive add-on library which you can customize to your needs. A viable alternative to safari.
20) iStumber
I found this a great small application that enabled you to view wireless and bluetooth networks quick and hassle free.
21) LittleSnitch
The application that snitches on any application that is trying to access the net to phone home. Great for protecting you privacy.
22) Netnewswire
A very popular RSS client for the mac, nuff said.
23) Skype
Offering superior calls over the internet, it is the application if you do a lot of talking and want a good quality transmission.
24) Transmission
A light weight bittorrent application that is gaining popularity. Its personal choice at this point of transmission verse Azureus.
25) Transmit
A great application from Panic that will feature a couple of time in this list. It is a powerful application for ftp uploads and downloads. Cool New Mac Apps Download
26) Undercover
A piece of software that dials to the undercover servers if you computer has been stolen. Great if you use a laptop, less useful on a desktop.
27) Unison
Another piece of panic software that enables you to use the usenet newsreader networks. A really good piece of software if you use usenet a lot. If you are looking for a good news provide I recommend Giganews.
28) Vidalia
A GUI controller for the Tor anonymity network. One click on, one click off, simple and easy to use. Best of all its free. Multimedia
This section is all about video, images and sound. Anything of this nature is included here.
29) VLC
The all in one application for watching videos. Supports nearly every codec imaginable.
30) Aperture
One of Apples Pro programs for organizing and altering photos. A very powerful application although comes with a bit of a price tag.
31) Audacity
A free audio editor which has a few advance features that make it create for editing audio for your videos or other applications.
32) Blender
A free 3D modeler which has the same power of many of the most advance applications on the market. Comes with quite a steep learning curve.
33) Delicious Library
A very cool application used to organise your books, movies, games and CD’s. You can use your built in iSight to save time by scanning your books. Very cool and fun to use.
34) DeskLickr
A simple application that uses the vast photo resource of flickr to change your wallpaper every so often. Makes a cool change.
35) Desktastic
Another Panic app. This time it can be used to write directly on your desktop. Very cool if you use a tablet for your daily work.
36) Gimp
The free image editing program. Used by many open source and linux users. A create start since Leopard doesn’t include any image editing software.
37) Google Earth
One of the best applications from Google. Use it to zoom in on planet earth and explore the world around you. A great time waster, as well as a very useful tool if you are going anywhere and want to check out the surroundings.
38) HandBreak
An open source application that can quickly convert DVD’s to Mpeg-4.
39) iLife
The all in one package made by Apple. I don’t think this needs any explaining.
40) iShowU
This application takes a direct recording of your screen. Great if you want to make recordings of specific applications. You need a good CPU, a bit of a power hog.
41) Joost
A very hot application that lets you watch free TV. Beautiful application even though the amount of TV stations are a bit small.
42) Photoshop
The high priced application for real pros who want to edit and manipulate images and photos. Not for people with tight wallets.
43) Pixelmator
The medium priced application that has a lot of great image editing potential. Not as expensive as Photoshop.
44) Shapeshifter
Bored of your interface? Let shape shifter change it for you. Encrypt folder mac app. Not Leopard compatible although this is likely to change.
45) Theme Park
Extend macbook with ipad. A great little app which lets you delve into the resource files for applications and lets you change them. Not as powerful as Shapeshifter but lets you tweak little bits of your operating systems interface.
46) TVShows
A little app that downloads all of the torrent files for your favourite TV shows. You need a bittorrent client to finish the process off.
47) Wallsaver
Puts your screensaver as your wallpaper. Add a bit of life to your desktop. Little Apps
Little Applications are small applications in size that add a bit of functionality or are just plain cool.
48) Autorate
A simple piece of software that rates your musis in your iTunes library based on the number of plays and track skips.
49) Fish
A simple little program that shows you little fishes swimming around.
50) iAlertU
A little program that can arm your computer. Moving your laptop will set of the alarm and alert you to intruders.
51) Liquidmac
Once again using the motion sensor in a laptop. This program fills the screen with water which you can play around with by moving your computer.
52) MacSaber
Let your Mac become a jedi. Once again using the motion sensor makes cool lightsaber noises. Don’t let the mac fly out of your hands as it has with a couple of people.
53) Quinn
Tetris on the extreme side of life. A cool little app with amazing graphics on the old arcade favourite Tetris.
54) Resize ‘Em All
A little program which can be used to resize images.
55) Rulers
Put a ruler on your screen. This application lets you measure nearly anything on your screen, great if you are in the design world.
56) smcFanControl
A small application that runs in your menu bar to control your fan speeds. A must if you think your computer runs a bit hot.
57) TimeOut
One for the work-a-holic. A little application that tells you to take a break and stop what you are doing.
58) Wallsaver
Sets your screen saver as your wallpaper. A great little program to add a bit of movement to your desktop. Tools
This section of essential applications is all about tools. These are tools to do specific task or just to give you information.
59) Apple Remote Desktop
One of Apples many programs that lets you work effectively on your network. This app lets you look in on a remote desktop and work with it remotely.
60) Battery Health
One of many tools used to help you find out how much juice is left in your Mac battery. A tool for any laptop.
61) BootCamp
Installing Windows on a Mac is never easier with BootCamp. A simple program that create a partition on you disk for installing windows.
62) BwanaDik
A menu bar monitoring tool for you network. Lets you find tons of info about you LAN and WAN in one easy to reach place.
63) Carbon Copy Cloner
For serious back ups you need something like Carbon Copy Cloner that can clone your entire drive quickly and easily.
64) Chmox
Chmox is a program that enables you to open .chm help files on your Mac. Chm files are not supported in preview.
65) Coconut Battery
A personal favourite of mine, this is another battery tool to monitor the health of your battery. I wish my laptop was run off coconuts.
66) DasBoot
DasBoot is a tool to create a diagnostic and repair kit for your computer to put on an iPod or flash drive.
67) Flip4Mac
The tool endorsed by Microsoft to help with those pesky .wmv files.
68) FreeDMG
This software creates drag and drop .dmg archives on the fly. Easy to use if you make a lot of disk images. Cool New Mac Apps Free
69) GeekTool
GeekTool is a preference pane module to show system logs, unix commands output, or images (i.e. from the internet) on your desktop.
70) Growl
A very useful tool that is used by many applications to show a clean way of displaying messages to you. Like the bubbles in Windows except a hell of a lot better.
71) Hardware Monitor
Hardware Monitor is designed to check the various pieces of hardware on you computer for faults and problems as well as give messages back to you.
72) Hex Fiend
Editing hex files cannot be easier with Hex Fiend.
73) HoudahGeo
HoudahGeo allows you to add Geo data to any image within the EXIF data. Helps you find your way around the world in your images.
74) iStat Menus
iStat Menus off a wide range of statistical analysis of your computer including various hardware bits. Their widget is one of my favorites.
75) Mac Pilot
This piece of software allows you to modify various parts of your computer that you would normally have to do through Terminal.
76) MacJanitor
This little app cleans up various system files and other bits and bobs to keep your computer running smoothly.
77) MainMenu
MainMenu is another piece of software to help you keep your computer running smoothly. This one has more advance options such as rebuilding the spotlight database.
78) MenuMeters
Another monitor piece of software but this one is designed to run within the menu bar.
79) Monolingual
Who needs to know French. Monolingual removes the languages from the computer that you do not need.
80) Operation
A project management tool that lets you organise your projects quickly and easily.
81) Parallels
Highly recommended virtualization software for virtualizing other OS’s.
82) Service Scrubber
Helps you organise and remove services from your menus (Name of App > Services).
83) SquidDan
Once a very popular proxy tool for sorting out your own proxy for handling your internet connection. Has become disused over time.
84) Stomp
Stomp those big files down to size. Helps reduce video files into more compressed formats.
85) SuperDuper
Another great backing up utility although its not fully Leopard compatible at the time of writing.
86) Synergy2
A very cool little application that lets you share a mouse and keyboard between one or more computers.
87) TinkerTool
A tool that lets you access more preferences the Apple has built into the OS.
88) VMWare
Another very good piece virtualization software to enable to to virtualize other OS’s. Work
This final section ,and to round up, is going to be all about top programs for use at work.
89) Cha-Ching
A simple money program that helps you organise your accounts, budgets and finances.
90) Concept Draw
More of a group of programs that offer a wide range of applications such as flow charts to mind maps.
91) Filemaker
A cross platform database application, that has amazing power and potential.
92) iWork
Apples work application package to complement iLife, a good package if you want the Apple integration although lacks on some features.
93) Microsoft Office
Office is one of the most prominent packages on the Windows machines for work programs. Very good on Mac, although some small annoying bugs.
94) Money2
Another application for managing your accounts. The interface on this program is amazing.
95) Neooffice
An Open Office port to Mac, like Microsoft Office, except its free.
96) Nvu
A very powerful webpage editor for designing and creating websites. Just as good as Dreamweaver.
97) Omnigraffle
A brill program that offers a really cool way of creating presentation diagrams. Check out the Omni Groups offerings for all of the cool programs they have to offer.
98) Process
Another program by Jumsoft on this list that lets you plan and organise your projects.
99) Quicken
Another personal finance program, but this one feels more corporate and official.
100) Yojimbo
A cool little program that helps you organise all your bits of information, great if you end up filling up dashboard with millions of stickies.
Well folks, there you have it, my personal Top 100 Essential Mac Applications. I hope you agree that there are some awesome applications out there. It has taken me over a week to put this togther and if you think I have missed any please leave a comment with the program you would like to include and a reason why.
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Related posts:Where To Next?
Purchasing a new MacBook is much similar to buying a ticket to a land of fabulous software & apps. In addition to all the free programs offered by Apple to all the fresh Mac owners, there are some extras essential Mac apps too that help to make the most out of your Machine.
We’ve organized a list of the most useful Mac software and programs that are categorized into ten major categories, ranging from Best Mac Cleaning utility to Best Media Player & so on. Take a look at our best of bunch & let us know which of these suits the most for your needs!
Top 10 Best Mac Apps & Utilities for 2020
We’ve trawled the software market to find the most ideal Mac utilities & apps in every major category for better productivity and efficiency. Try them now!
1. Smart Mac Care (Best Mac Cleaner & Optimizer)
A power-packed Mac cleaning and optimization suite to keep your Mac secure from malware infections and remove privacy traces.
Smart Mac Careis the best Mac app to provide you with an option to keep it free from unwanted junk and malware. The must have Mac utility comes equipped with tools to clean the junk by scanning the disk storage thoroughly. It can show you how much disk space is being taken up by the junk files which can be removed easily using Smart Mac Care.
Online browsing history can be cleared using it to keep you safe from the trackers which can misuse the information. Along with it, the malware scan deep scans the Mac to look for any malicious infections and removes it. This Mac app is capable of keeping your Mac secure from spyware, malware and privacy threats.
Additionally, Smart Mac Care can easily clean up the duplicates, failed downloads, login items to boost the performance of Mac. Once the Mac is free from the unnecessary temporary, cache, log files, it can be seen performing with a good speed. It can be considered as an overall Mac maintenance software to keep it in a healthy state.
2. EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard (Best Data Recovery Tool for Mac)
An advanced data recovery tool to retrieve accidentally deleted files, documents, music, videos and much more.
Losing data & important files is the kind of nightmare no one would ever want to experience. But unfortunately, it has been known to happen for a variety of reasons such as, drive failure, human error & viruses. However, the “good thing” is the availability of a Data Recovery Software that makes restoring lost files effortless.
EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard is one such data recovery service that lives up to its name, by offering easy yet effective recovery solutions that makes users task super simple. The tool not only helps in locating recently deleted files from corrupted & critical file systems, but also helps in restoring data from external storage devices such as memory sticks, USB drives etc.
There are three different versions available with EaseUS Data Recovery Wizard: Free, Pro & Unlimited. Free edition allows you to recover data up to 200 MB. Get this Best Mac App for your system now!
3. CyberGhost VPN Mac (Best VPN App for Mac)
A feature-rich, powerful VPN for PC with an easy-to-use interface, suitable for both novices & professionals.
CyberGhost is one of the most reliable VPN services for Mac. It boasts a really easy set-up process. In fact, all you have to do is download the VPN for your OS from the below button and launch it with one-click on your system. The VPN software boasts more than 3,700 servers across 60+ countries, including optimized servers for torrenting & other streaming services.
The VPN solution comes with a bundle of extra tools to block unnecessary ads, track malicious websites that attempts to make unauthorized access on your system and an automated HTTPS redirection that ensure most secure connection.
It’s one-month plan costs $12.99 which is a bit higher than other standard VPN services in the market. But that’s totally worthy as it supports connecting up to seven devices simultaneously.
4. Duplicate Files Fixer (Best Duplicate Files Cleaner for Mac)
An efficient, fast and easy-to-use duplicate file cleaner to get rid of identical documents, photos, videos, music and other digital media files.
Duplicate Files Fixer by Systweak Software is an awesome duplicate cleaner that helps you reclaim chunks of occupied hard drive space, clogged with unnecessary duplicates such as Documents, Videos, Music, Photos and other files. It’s one of the Best Mac Software for both professional and novice users for finding exact and similar-looking files.
This duplicate file finder comes with a robust set of functionalities for scanning different file types in just a few moments. The Mac utility has a sleek & intuitive interface for great navigation experience. It lets you create a backup of all your duplicate files before you delete them. The application is capable of scanning external devices as well for finding duplicates.
To use this Mac software all you have to do is download it > Add files or folders containing duplicates > click the Scan button to begin sorting > Remove to clean all the duplicate files at once! Install apps without itunes mac. Enjoy deduplicate library in three-clicks. Duplicate Files Fixer is a must have mac application to fill your bucket of Best Mac Utilities 2020.
5. Stellar Drive Clone (Best Disk Cloning App for Mac)
A robust Mac utility to help you clone & restore all the files on your hard drive, so you can always have your peace of mind.
Stellar Drive Clone is a complete suite to create a Clone or Image of your Mac hard drive. The Cloned copy can be used as a ‘read-to-use’ copy of the original hard drive. And, the Image file can be used for ‘restoring purpose’ in case any data mishap happens.
The advanced Mac cloning tool supports various types of cloning including, HFS-to-HFS, FAT-to-FAT & NTFS-to-EXFAT. Stellar Drive Clone is a must-have Mac app if you wish to clone an encrypted Mac drive and volumes as well. You can also choose to ‘Schedule’ Periodic Backup’ to create timely backups.
This amazing disk cloning service stands out for two reasons, it’s ease-of-use and high compatibility. It supports all the commonly used OS X versions including the latest MacOS Mojave. Download this app for MacBook Pro now!
6. Disk Clean Pro
An all-in-one solution to keep your Mac machine clean & optimized for smooth performance.
Disk Clean Pro is an affordable tune-up utility to help users maintain their system for a longer time. It features dedicated modules to remove junk files along with hidden redundant files to improve response time & speed up Mac. It’s ‘One-Click Care’ works like magic to keep your machine run clutter-free.
Disk Clean Pro is an excellent Mac optimizer, packed with all the advanced features that several Mac Cleaning utilities miss. Packed with various tools like Junk Cleaner, Logs Cleaner, Crash Reports, Partial Downloads remover, Duplicate Finder, Large & Old Files Cleaner & more. Moreover, it offers a module, Internet Privacy Protector, that works efficiently to remove traces of your browsing history for best-in-class Mac security.
The best part? Disk Clean Pro is available at just $10.99, & it’s a limited time offer, so what are you waiting for? Optimize the storage space in a single scan & make the most of Mac’s disk space.
7. Cisdem Video Player for Mac (Best Media Player on Mac)
A universal video player with an impressive set of features to play up to 5K resolution videos without any jerks or tearing.
You saw that coming, right? Talking about the Best media player and not mentioning Cisdem’s Video Player is certainly not possible. It’s one of the most popular and utilized OS X apps that comes with interactive interface to play both audio and video. The video player is known for its smooth playback assistance offering crystal clear views.
With Cisdem Video Player, you don’t require to download any Codec pack, it lets you directly play WMV, FLV, MKV, AVCHD, AVI etc. videos on your Mac Machine. Best part? Unlike other media player for Mac, Cisdem allows you to automatically load subtitle files for the movie.
Looking to convert your video files for other Apple devices? Cisdem does that too for you with an optional in-app purchase. The video player is designed to support more than 50 audio and video formats. As soon as install the app, it’s ready to go!
8. Tweak Photos (Best Batch Photos Editor for Mac)
Most popular photo editing app that lets you brighten single or thousands of photos in a few clicks.
Tweak Photos is a brilliant package featuring an attractive interface, powerful filters, plethora of customization, adjustment tools and a lot more. This OS X app is available for just $4.99 on Mac app store.
From performing basic editing like renaming, resizing, cropping, simple color fixes, format conversions to advanced editing like applying complex photo filters, watermarking, multi-layer management, Tweak Photos does all for you.
You can download this amazing photo editor for Mac to de-noise bulk images, change texture/stylize, auto-correct orientations, blur multiple images, add frames and other artistic elements to batch photos at once. And just everything to create vivid and dazzling photo collection.
9. iSkysoft PDF Editor (Best PDF File Editor for Mac)
A super-smooth Mac software for editing PDF files easily & quickly.
iSkysoft’s PDF Editor is an ultimate solution to edit PDF documents without compromising file formatting. You can download this OS X app to get a complete suit of PDF editing tools to manipulate texts, images, links and other elements present in a PDF file.
Considered as one of the best alternatives to Adobe Acrobat, you can download this Mac software for easy editing, cropping, rotating, extracting, splitting, adding watermarks, altering background colours and a lot more.
Download this free PDF File Editor to quickly edit, convert, create, merge & convert scanned PDF files with ease. Not only this, iSkysoft enables you to protect your PDF files with passwords, you can set permissions for other users to perform specific functions like editing, commenting or printing. It’s one of the best Mac app available to share your PDFs to Email, Google Drive, Evernote and Dropbox in one-click.
10. Systweak Anti-Malware (Best Anti-Malware for Mac)
The 24/7 malware protection against your Mac.
Systweak Anti-Malware is a robust Mac security software that does a fantastic job of detecting any type of malicious content hiding in your system. Its smart algorithms understand which types of threats can put your Mac Machine at risk, and hence keep a close check that no suspicious program, malware, adware or spyware could bypass Mac’s defenses.
The antivirus software claims to have a 100% success rate for detecting dangerous malware and viruses. The lightweight application offers multiple scanning methods to make sure you have an ultimate protection against malware and other infections.
To keep your Mac safe, the antivirus software regularly updates its malware database, so that no latest suspicious threat can bypass you Mac’s security. It not only shields your Machine from online threats but also optimizes it for smooth-functioning, which probably makes it one of the best anti-virus programs in the market.
![]() Best Mac Apps You Need To Install On Your New Machine!
The MacOS app ecosystem is certainly packed with a lot of hidden gems. All the aforementioned Mac software & utilities are great to get you started. For the least frustration and better efficiency, download these handy extras now!
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