As Apple has tweaked and ameliorate its Mac operating system , the need for third - party public utility company just careen — it never went away . A bunch of the fiddly missing hooey we used to involve an app for is built in , but Apple aims for the dewy-eyed experience for the most people , which leave more advanced users or those that desire a choice of how they carry out a job looking for alternatives .
I ’ve used many C of Mac utilities over decade , and still rely on them to make my computing living well . Here ’s the top 10 I recommend , a mix of costless software , donationware , and inexpensive pay product . ( I ’ve cheated a little ; I name more than 10 as I offer a duet of option . )
Some of the pay products might seem pricey on their own , and the price tag altogether may be too much for many people ’s budget to purchase all at once : it ’s over $ 300 if you purchase all my independent passport . choose for alternative recommendations of usefulness below and take out a couple you do n’t need , like file - transfer software system , and the price ticket comes down closer to $ 100 . ( Always calculate for discounts on the more expensive ware : some appear regularly in brotherly love and seasonal bundles , and some Apple - oriented sites offer up significant membership discounts on democratic package . )
However , I like to think of these service program as having a return on investment funds , as I consider my time ( as well as yours ) has time value . Some apps calculate how much time you saved , and others reduce clutter and foiling , which can make you work more expeditiously . In some case , you have to buy a tool , because there ’s no option . I ’m positive I ’ve deliver hundreds of hours over a tenner across in sub - 2nd and multi - second increments .
Default Folder
I ca n’t commend how long I ’ve been usingDefault Folder($35 ) , because it ’s been a constant companion since I first discovered it years ago . Default Folder enhance every open and economise dialog in macOS , as well as offering a system menubar item and options to bring navigation in Finder windows .
Default Folder add ace - intelligence to navigation window .
You practice Default Folder to navigate to received macOS fix , frequently used directories , and late folder without having to utilize an endless chronological succession of Command plus Up and Down pointer , Spotlight , or folder card navigation . The app lets you more effectively organize token in booklet , because you’re able to so efficiently access those folders after .
The utility roll itself around open and save duologue , and offers buttons with drop - down menu . you may get across and get at the top level of any mount drive and common abode brochure areas , favorites that you ’ve set , any windowpane open in the Finder , and folder that you ’ve recently spread items from or saved items to . desire to open up the current position in a dialogue as a Finder window ? exhort one keystroke . Another keystroke let you rotate among recently used folders .
Default Folder seemed like it might be a fatal accident ofSystem Integrity Protection(SIP ) introduced in El Capitan , but the developer wrote a complete overhaul of the app to oeuvre within Apple ’s point of accumulation , and the new version now surmount the previous one . ( interpret our limited review . )
Whenever I have to utilize a Mac that does n’t have Default Folder establish , I ’m reminded of how oft I use it and how much I trust on it . It has a very shallow encyclopaedism curve .
TextExpander
estimator are mean to reduce dull repeating , and yet we often find ourselves actinglikea computer in our work . TextExpanderis a textbook - expanding upon utility , have you type a few key stroke and have them “ flesh out ” to be something else . It turn the computer back into a repetition - obviate machine . I can type two or three characters , and TextExpander drops in my email address , phone routine , or posting address .
With wildcards and placeholders , you’re able to also have TextExpander type out the current date and time , or practice the clipboard ’s capacity alongside other manipulations , including a few keystrokes ( like Tab and Escape ) and cursor movement . It also allows you to make forms with pop - up option for received reply .
With TextExpander , you allow a computer handle the repetitive typing undertaking .
TextExpander supports AppleScript and other organization scripting integration , and includes a few scripts for thing like change state the current contents of the clipboard into a bit.ly shortened URL . One of the app ’s gimmick is tracking estimated time keep . It ’s evidently bought me 10 hr of my life back between July and December of this year .
While I ’m a tenacious - time TextExpander user , some people preferKeyboard Maestro($36 ) , which has text - expansion characteristic like TextExpander , but also can directly keep in line the shiner and menus in macro sequences and has clipboard - account management .
1Password
In these day of incessant password rift at major and minor web site , having unique strong passwords is a must.1Passwordnot only stores passwords , but creates them , and through web browser plug - ins can create and drop them into a form and salt away them in just a few fluent clicks .
Because 1Password has extensions or sparking plug - ins for all the major browsers , you never have to trade to it to drop word into a form to login . And it can also salt away in a structured soma all sorts of other things , like credit identity card , bank account statement , and licenses . 1Password can satisfy in reference - placard information into forms . you may also save all the entree in a anatomy from a webpage , which is priceless in inventing fake answers to security questionsandstoring them so you may remember them later . ( We reviewed version 6.0 ; it ’s now up to 6.5 . )
( Tip : you’re able to expend 1Password to create unique random gibberish for inquiry like “ What is your first deary ’s name ? ” , and as long as you lay in it , a highjack of that land site ’s tilt of such questions does n’t compromise your accounts elsewhere that would otherwise apportion security answers . )
1Password let you generate unique parole within a browser app , fill in credit entry card , and manage it all with cool .
I like that its Jehovah , AgileBits , added a few months ago the power to generate multi - word passwords . These are sluttish to remember and to typecast , and as long as they are sufficiently random and long enough , just as resistent to brutish military force as the most laughable expect password with an unnecessary mix of letter , figure , punctuation mark , and Egyptian hieroglyph .
1Passwordadded subscription - based optionsthis twelvemonth that let in continuous update and a family version that allows good sharing of passwords . It ’s $ 36 a year for a single user or $ 60 a year for up to five users in a menage . This cost admit free use of clients in macOS , Windows , Android , and iOS .
Thestandalone 1Password for macOSis $ 65 ; the complementary iOS version is barren for everyone , but some not - critical Pro features be $ 10 to unlock unless you ’re ratifier , in which eccentric they ’re part of the subscription .
LastPassis a widely used alternative to 1Password , although LastPass stash away passwords centrally . It ’s been hack once , but the care with which they secured their database render that theft essentially useless to the aggressor . That resiliency is a plus . I prefer , however , using 1Password either on entrepot I control or with AgileBits ’ partitioned cryptographic approach , which lay in your data centrally in a way that the companionship never directly handles your password .
LastPass ’ primal vantage ? The standard version is barren across program ; it ’s $ 1 a month for a premium look that includes family sharing and priority technical school sustenance .
Bartender
My system menubar is a hole ! I ’ve tried scratch , I ’ve taste washing , and nothing works!Bartender($15 ) , take me aside !
Declutter an unuseable system menubar with Bartender .
If you ’re anything like me , you have a slenderly silly number of drop - down and condition bill of fare in your organization menubar from Apple and third - party apps and organization components . Some of Apple ’s item you ca n’t hide , even if you want to . Even on my wider of two display , an app ’s menu items often crowd out the leftmost menubar icons . ( Read our critique . )
mixologist 2 brings a delicious and simple direction approach . With this app , you’re able to take to leave a menubar item alone , obscure it entirely , or drop it into a secondary dropdown Bartender bill of fare . Even if you ’re enshroud the item , you could prepare Bartender to show it whenever the icon displays action .
The app was another one that people worried El Capitan ’s SIP would render impossible to update , but the developer thoroughly revised it to work in the newfangled model , and released a Sierra update in a well timed manner , too .
LaunchBar
I have many , many apps install on my Mac , and my preferred path to launch them is n’t by invoking Spotlight and type part of the name and selecting a result , or using Mission Control or the Applications brochure . LaunchBar($29 ) makes speedy work : tap a keyboard control to bring it up and then typewrite a few characters or use arrow keys to select from a set of options .
LaunchBar can be set to index all sorts of locations and all sort of thing , so it goes far beyond running apps . It can find organization taste panes , link , AppleScripts , emoji , URL bookmarks , music cut , and other item . you’re able to use it as a figurer , to expose single file metadata , keep a scrapbook of items glue to the clipboard , and interact with reminders and events . It run queries on search engine , too . ( say our full review of version 6.0 ; it ’s up to 6.7 now . )
LaunchBar can open apps , find data file , perform calculations , play euphony , and much more .
Add your document folders and enable some indexing rules that are turned off at installation , and you may pull up Indian file in those locations by name , too , or see a list that equal however much of a name you require to type .
For all that it ’s a Swiss Army knife , you may turn off or leave disabled many features . Some mass plunk deeply into LaunchBar and use it constantly ; others , like me , rely on it for a handful of very common uses .
It has a statistic windowpane like TextExpander , and reports I ’ve saved just over two minute in the last two and a one-half years . That ’s too small of the developer , though , because I can found an app in LaunchBar in well under a second ; it make second to find and launch an app through any other built - in way .
Several catapult alternatives have their adherents;we publish a roundup of severalin early 2015 , including one that ’s free . The recollective - runningDragThingapp also has its staunch drug user and defenders , but it has n’t had an overhaul in some sentence , and its developer has n’t announce plans beyond the current compatibility updates and bug mending that keep it work .
Pastebot
Pastebot($10 ) is the raw entrant on my must - have inclination , and its kernel feature of speech are certainly not unparalleled . In fact , you’re able to discover some of them in LaunchBar . But I ’ve never adopted a clipboard manager before , as I did n’t find be implementations fit the agency I want to retain , tag end , search , and practice them . Pastebot just transport in December 2016 ( as version 2 , because of a long genus Beta ) , and its the practiced all - around utility for clipboard management and school text transformation .
With Pastebot , every fourth dimension you imitate or abbreviate an point using the organisation editing pecker , Pastebot retains a copy . By nonremittal , it holds the last 100 token , but you’re able to diminish it to 50 or increase to 500 . Everything held in Pastebot retains its native format — whether rich text edition , image , plain text , a URL , and so forth — and you may perform a full - text search against the lay in items . ( translate our inspection . )
Pastebot captures the clipboard and provides loose access to stacks to one C of most recent entries .
Pastebot also offer text filters , which can process and transform text edition , like initialize it as HTML , cleaning up a URL , and changing deep schoolbook to quetch text . you could build filters , which can have multiple steps in succession . Filters can utilize to a salt away detail in Pastebot or , via a keystroke you may attribute , to the current clipboard ’s contents .
There ’s one oddball characteristic in Pastebot I quite care and am still getting used to : successive library paste . With this option , you may imitate thing in order from one place that you desire to glue in the same order elsewhere . It ’s howling for course and contacts , where you ’re trying to re-create a number of disparate point and put them in the same or dissimilar airfield .
There are many alternatives for managing clipboard history ; we published a roundup in early 2015 that includes one that ’s free .
BusyContacts
Apple ’s Contacts app is n’t as bad as it used to be , but it ’s extremely circumscribed in a digital world in which we might have accounts ( and thus striking ) all over . I switched a few years ago toBusyContacts($30 ) , which play with the Contacts database to synchronize with iCloud , but can also contain conduits to Fastmail , Fruux , Google , Office 360 , and Yahoo , and pull in impinging entropy from Facebook , LinkedIn , and Twitter . It work on with generic CardDAV host and Exchange servers , too .
Combine all your contact services plus yoke the same citizenry across multiple avail in BusyContacts .
When you make a tangency , you could assign it to one of the various sources with which you ’re sync , but you could also move a contact subsequently from one place to another . More potently , BusyContacts lets you link plug-in , so that datum from multiple sources seem in one consolidated unveiling , or link and merge bill of fare , copying information to each of the source and providing a exclusive listing . For create contact , you could add together a bill and fill it out or apply a quick - creation tool that allow you type nigh freeform and have values dropped into the right home .
I particularly like the inclusion of Twitter , as it makes it well-off to find oneself Twitter contacts you ’re connect with in a way that native and third - party Twitter apps do n’t . ( We lastreviewed BusyContacts for version 1.0 . )
BusyContacts ’ bodily process superman is an extra fillip , and one of its merchandising points : it can show previews of activity related to all accounts in a middleman placard . That includes effect , matching emails , and tweet .
Airfoil ecosystem
AirPlay was a terrific theme , but Apple never took it far enough , such as certify it generally ( after an early moving ridge of such cause ) to make it become a necessary included option on stereoscopic picture recipient and other gear wheel . I ’m lucky enough to own a Yamaha pass receiver made at just the right time that it includes AirPlay funding , and some receivers still feature it , but not many .
Airfoil lease you plough any computer or mobile equipment into a recipient .
Airfoil ecosystemlets you extend the utility program of AirPlay by creating both AirPlay germ and destination . With a retire iPhone or iPod speck plus Airfoil apps , you could bestow on AirPlay without any pother .
Themain Airfoil app($29 ) ( also uncommitted for Windows ) lets you foot a source app or gadget on your computer and then guide it to one or more destinations . This includes native AirPlay devices , like an Apple TV , AirPort Express , receivers , and other audio paraphernalia . But Airfoil also streams over the Google Cast communications protocol to Chromecast and TVs and speakers with Google support . And you could stream to Bluetooth machine-accessible devices .
Beyond that whole panoply , the developer , Rogue Amoeba , also form a series of free “ receiver ” apps available for Mac , Windows , Linux , iOS , and Android . The Mac and Windows versions turn computer into generic AirPlay terminus , while the Linux and mobile versions do as Airfoil - only speakers . The iOS
This can let you set up a really inexpensive multi - room system , teem from a Mac or Windows organization everywhere , by couple powered speakers with standard audio jack inputs with some of the old iOS geartrain you know you have lie around . Even if the electric battery is shot on an iOS gimmick , you’re able to keep it punch in as a permanent part of your audio setup .
Soulver
As old - shoal as it may seem , a figurer is a requisite . And you may figure all over the danged place : limelight allow you typecast in simple calculation and conversion , although it ca n’t handle much deflection . inflict Google , and typewrite a calculation in its hunt streak and get an result and often an explication of the mathematics and units demand . Even LaunchBar does mathematics in its remark theatre of operations !
But I require something more for the quotidian number crunching I have to do that does n’t rise to the needs of a spreadsheet . For that , I change state toSoulver($12 ) , a freeform calculating dick that allow you to narrow and convert units as well as make basic chemical formula and perform currency conversion with updated value . Soulver create computation written document that can be saved , and can sync with an iOS version or send to other Soulver users .
Soulver allows quasi - natural terminology entrance of calculations including converting building block and currency .
you could tap out computation just fine , like(15 + 12 + 18 ) / 3 , or access trig and other function . But I encounter Soulver better for unit maths and conversion . It handles fourth dimension , mass , volume , datum memory terms , baron , and others , and lets you specify both the stimulus out and yield units . So you may typecast in1.5 cups + 3 tablespoons in decilitersto get a metrical result from dissimilar Imperial one .
As a science and technology author , it ’s specially commodious , because I can type in1.9megabyte / 2.5 in kilobytesand get760 kilobytesas the answer , or125AU as km(AU are astronomical units , or the distance from the Earth to the Sun ) and know it’s1.8699733838×10 ^ 10 km .
My darling , though , is calculating throughput , which is an annoying affair to screen out out in most case . Want to get laid how much a terabyte would take at 12 Mbps ? Enter1 TB / 12 Mbps in daysand 7.7 Clarence Day pops out as the answer .
The port for Soulver is n’t a traditional calculator approach , and if that ’s what you prefer , or you call for to perform calculation on a regular basis that require entering a deal of numbers , PCalc($10 ) stay the gold standard in that data format . It also handles social unit conversion , scientific functions , and RPN entree flair , and can hand off in - progression calculations among iOS , macOS , and , yes , watchOS !
Transmit
I know I ’m sometime school when I have to extract up an FTP ( File Transfer Protocol ) server , but they ’re still abundant . And am I new - school when I need to access Amazon ’s Simple Storage Service ( S3 ) cloud - repositing service ? Fortunately , both very old , more or less old , and spanking new remote file cabinet access code can be handled via Panic’sTransmit($34 ) .
Transmit work with a mixed bag of single file server protocols , include FTP ( which is insecure and you should really avoid ! ) , SFTP ( Secure FTP ) , WebDAV ( a way of file sharing via a World Wide Web waiter in both dependable and non - unafraid flavors ) , and Amazon S3 . A straightforward user interface makes it easy to set up connection , memory favorites , and expend decent to where you need to be . With a side - by - side Indian file scene approach , you could drag items from one side to the other for easy copying .
What pushes Transmit to the top , however , is that any remote service you could view in a windowpane you could also turn into a Finder - mountable drive that Transmit manages behind the scene like any other networked volume .
Using more advanced options , you’re able to create dominion about how uploaded files are tagged when reassign to servers , something that ’s often required when using Amazon S3 for hosted media .
For transfer file to and from remote servers , convey offers friendly comfort .
Transmit is my favorite file - carry-over app , but it ’s a picayune behind in supporting cloud service and forward-looking options , and does n’t back swarm services ’ encoding feature . I turn toCyberduck(free to use , contribution quest ; $ 24 via Mac App Store ) for Google Cloud Storage access . Cyberduck also supports Amazon S3 , Backblaze B2 ( its cloud storage offer ) , Microsoft Azure , and others . It ’s a harder program to master and has more rough edge .
One tier up , with incidental hard in using , isChronoSync($50 ) , which is a advanced file - synchronization app that allow you set data - at - eternal sleep encoding options for Amazon S3 and Google Cloud Storage , and also work with SFTP . It ’s operose to use for simple file transfers , but if you ’re seem for manual and automatize sync with remote servers with robust encoding control , it ’s the only in effect selection at nowadays for macOS .
