May 27, 2020.
Apr 13, 2018. Apr 24, 2020. 30 free macOS apps every Mac user should have From useful utilities to handy archivers and transcoders, here are 30 free yet powerful macOS apps you can download today. Popular in mac Utilities & Operating Systems View All. AppCleaner Free VIEW → Uninstall apps from your Mac and clean all their left-over files safely. The Unarchiver.
Your Mac is already pretty powerful out of the box, but you can do even more with it using third-party apps and utilities.
We pulled together the best Mac apps and utilities to let you organize windows with a gesture, automate file management, eliminate ads from your web browser, and more.
Take a look below!
Contents
- 12 Wipr: Eliminate ads, trackers, and cookies from the web
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Paste: Keep countless items in your clipboard
You might not have noticed, but your Mac is incredibly limited in its copy-paste ability. You can only hold one item in your clipboard at a time, which often isn’t enough.
Enter Paste. This utility lets you save countless items to the copy-paste clipboard. Keep them organized in pinboards, sync over iCloud, and access all of it using simple keyboard commands.
Download:Paste ($14.99 with a 14-day free trial)
Pro-Tip:BundleHunt is currently offering the Holiday Mac app bundle at $2 a month. This Holiday offering has a list of legitimate 42 macOS apps that you can use. These Apps have been tested for macOS Catalina. When you use our link at BundleHunt, we get a small commission.
Keyboard Maestro: Automate anything with key commands
You can already automate tasks on your Mac using Automator. But Keyboard Maestro earns its price tag with a lot of extra features and easy usability.
Here are some of our favorite things you can do with Keyboard Maestro:
- Launch all the apps you need to start working at once.
- Quit background apps you haven’t used in a while.
- Arrange app windows exactly how you like them.
- Manipulate text and images to generate stock documents.
Magnet: Organize your windows however you want
Magnet has been a longtime favorite for many Mac users. Use keyboard commands to snap your windows into different configurations on your display.
It’s far more flexible than the rudimentary split-screen function in macOS. With Magnet, you can place an app in each of the four corners, create multiple columns across the screen, or organize windows above and below each other.
Download:Magnet ($1.99)
Swish: Use touch gestures to organize your windows
Swish is a new take on Magnet’s window management. Now you can reorganize your apps with a swish of the fingers.
Use intuitive touch gestures on your trackpad or Magic Mouse to snap app windows into different positions on your display. You can even use Swish to minimize apps when you’re finished using them.
BetterTouchTool: More gestures for your mouse or trackpad
Mac gestures are already pretty great, but with BetterTouchTool they’re out of this world. This is the best Mac utility to unlock advanced gestures on your trackpad, Magic Mouse, Touch Bar, Siri Remote, and more.
You can add custom gestures for a range of different Mac functions: adjust volume and brightness, cycle through browser tabs, capture screenshots, and more.
Hazel: Keep your files in order with automated actions
Hazel automates file management on your Mac, with a huge range of options. By default, Hazel applies color-coding to your Downloads folder and sends Movies, Music, or Pictures to the relevant folders on your Mac.
But you can create your own rules to do much more:
- Automatically compress and archive old files.
- Rename and relocate important downloads.
- Or clean up your desktop into filetype subfolders.
Alfred 4: Enter a new world of productivity
At first glance, Alfred looks like another version of Spotlight. Use the search bar to find files, search the web, or open apps on your Mac. But there’s far more to it than that, especially if with the PowerPack upgrade.
With the full version of Alfred, you get a clipboard manager, easy automation, remote control for your Mac, text expansion, and more. It makes a lot of the other apps on this list redundant!
Download:Alfred 4 (Free, with Pro version available)
iStat Menus 6: Get more information about your Mac
Whether gaming, video editing, or even browsing the web, it can be helpful to know how your Mac is performing. iStat Menus gives you all the information you could possibly need, right in the menu bar.
At a glance, you can see your CPU, memory, and SSD usage as well as your current download speed. You can even get local weather updates.
Mac Utility Software
Amphetamine: Keep your Mac awake when you need it
Stop your Mac from going to sleep with Amphetamine. Start a new “session” and select the duration to keep your mac awake for. It’s great for servers, long processing tasks, and plenty of other situations.
Amphetamine is also highly customizable. Edit the menu bar icon, create custom settings for different apps, or set up triggers to automatically start a new session.
Download:Amphetamine (Free)
HiddenMe: Hide everything from your desktop
A cluttered desktop can be a real eyesore. Fortunately, HiddenMe makes it easy to sweep all that under the rug.
This simple Mac utility hides everything from your desktop. Turn it on and off using the menu bar icon or by recording your own shortcut.
It’s great for taking cleaner screenshots, clearing your head of clutter, or presenting a professional side to others.
Download:HiddenMe (Free, with Pro version available)
Bartender 3: Keep your menu bar neat and tidy
With all these awesome new Mac utilities, you might find your menu bar is getting a bit cluttered. That’s where Bartender comes in.
With Bartender, you can choose which items to show or hide from the menu bar. For each app, choose to show, hide, always show, or always hide. Then expand or minimize your menu bar with a click.
Wipr: Eliminate ads, trackers, and cookies from the web
Wipr is a streamlined ad blocker to make browsing the web more pleasant than ever. All you need to do is turn it on and let it do its thing.
Wipr blocks ads, trackers, cryptocurrency miners, EU cookies, and GDPR notices. It doesn’t sell data or ad space to other companies and updates the “blocklist” twice a week.
Download:Wipr ($1.99)
If you are looking for a service that allows you to use multiple macOS apps without paying individually for them, you can explore some of the options made available by companies such as BundleHunt. They are currently offering a Holiday app deal starting at $2/month for 42 different macOS apps that have been tested with macOS Catalina.
Dan is a freelance writer based in South West England.
Best Mac Utility Software
He spent two years supervising repairs as a Genius Admin for Apple Retail and uses that knowledge to keep our troubleshooting guides up to date.
Long before that, Dan turned to Apple products from a musical background. Having owned iPods for years, he bought a MacBook to learn sound recording and production. It was using those skills that he gained a first-class Bachelor of Science in Sound Technology.
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Migration Assistant copies all of your files to your new Mac so that you don't have to copy your files manually.
- If your files are currently on a Windows PC, follow the PC migration steps instead.
- If your new Mac is using OS X Mountain Lion v10.8 or earlier, follow the Mountain Lion migration steps instead.
Check software, settings, and power
- Install all available Apple software updates on both Mac computers. Install any updates for your third-party apps as well.
- Make sure that your old Mac is using OS X Lion or later.
- Make sure that your old Mac has a computer name: Choose Apple menu > System Preferences, then click Sharing and check the Computer Name field.
- Connect both computers to AC power.
Connect the computers to each other
- If both computers are using macOS Sierra or later, just make sure that they're near each other and have Wi-Fi turned on. If either is using OS X El Capitan or earlier, connect them to the same network using Wi-Fi or Ethernet.
- Or connect them using target disk mode and the appropriate cable or adapter. Then start up your old computer in target disk mode.
- Or connect your new Mac to a Time Machine backup of your old Mac.
Use Migration Assistant
On your new Mac:
- Open Migration Assistant, which is in the Utilities folder of your Applications folder.
- Click Continue.
- When asked how you want to transfer your information, select the option to transfer from a Mac, Time Machine backup, or startup disk.
- Click Continue.
On your old Mac:
If you started your old Mac in target disk mode or are migrating from a Time Machine backup, skip these four steps.
If you started your old Mac in target disk mode or are migrating from a Time Machine backup, skip these four steps.
- Open Migration Assistant.
- Click Continue.
- When asked how you want to transfer your information, select the option to transfer to another Mac.
- Click Continue.
Imac Utilities
On your new Mac:
- When asked to select a Mac, Time Machine backup, or other startup disk, click the appropriate icon.
- Click Continue. You might see a security code.
On your old Mac:
If you started your old Mac in target disk mode or are migrating from a Time Machine backup, skip these two steps.
If you started your old Mac in target disk mode or are migrating from a Time Machine backup, skip these two steps.
- If you see a security code, make sure that it's the same code as on your new Mac.
- Click Continue.
On your new Mac:
Free Mac Utilities
- Choose the backup to transfer information from.
- Click Continue.
Continuing on your new Mac:
Mac Utilities Apps
- Select the information to transfer from the backup.
- Click Continue to start the transfer. If you have a lot of content, the transfer might take several hours to finish.
Mac Utility Apps
In the example above, John Appleseed is a macOS user account. If you transfer an account that has the same name as an account on your new Mac, you're asked to rename the old account or replace the one on your new Mac. If you rename, the old account appears as a separate user on your new Mac, with a separate home folder and login. If you replace, the old account overwrites the account on your new Mac, including everything in its home folder.
After Migration Assistant is done, log in to the migrated account on your new Mac to see its files. If you're not keeping your old Mac, learn what to do before you sell, give away, or trade in your old Mac.