Best Free App For Mac
On this website, I have covered a ton of paid apps, and that’s because in general, paid apps tend to offer more when compared to free apps. However, that does not mean that there are no good free apps out there. In fact, there are a ton of them. That’s why it is going to be a long article as I am bringing a list of 20 best free apps you can get for your Mac right now. Some of the apps on this list are evergreen and you most probably already have them installed on your device. But some of them are entirely new.
Well, at least they are new to me and that’s the beauty of it. No matter, how old an app is, it is new for somebody out there. That said, no matter how avid a Mac user you are, I can bet that you will find at least 5 new Mac apps out of the article which you have never heard about before. So, open your Macs and get ready to download these awesome free Mac apps. 20 Best Free MacBook Apps You Should Install 1.
Unsplash Wallpapers I want to start this article with an app which I have discovered just a couple of months back and have fallen in love. As its name suggests, Unsplash Wallpapers is a wallpaper app for Mac which gives you access to unlimited ultra-high resolution wallpapers for your Macs.
One of the things that I love most about MacBooks is its display. Apple packs phenomenal displays on the Macs.
Stop me if it’s just me, but I enjoy changing the wallpapers on a regular basis just because they look so damn beautiful on my Mac’s display. Before I discovered Unsplash Wallpapers, it used to be a chore to change wallpapers. First, I had to find good wallpapers, then I had to download them, and only then I could use them. With Unsplash Wallpapers app, you can change the wallpaper just with one click. If you like a wallpaper, you can even download it. If you love wallpapers, you are going to love this app.
The Unarchiver This is one of the first apps that I download whenever I move on to a new Mac. The app is basically the best unarchiving app you can get for your Mac, free or otherwise.
The Unarchiver cannot only unarchive common formats such as Zip, RAR (including v5), 7-zip, Tar, Gzip, and Bzip2, but it can also open formats such as StuffIt, DiskDoubler, LZH, ARJ, ARC, ISO and BIN disc images, Windows.EXE installers and more. Basically, it’s a one-stop solution for all your unarchiving needs.
Amphetamine We all know that Macs bring a long battery life and while some of it has to do with Apple’s excellent hardware, most of it is because of how macOS efficiently manages battery. One of the things that macOS does to preserve the battery life on your computer is to put it to sleep whenever you don’t interact with your Mac for a set period of time. Mac small business accounting software. While this is really good, sometimes you need to keep your Mac running even if you are not interacting with it. One of the examples that come to mind is when you are downloading a large file. If your Mac falls asleep during the download, it will stop it, and depending on the software that you are using to download the file, you might have to restart the download from the beginning. Amphetamine solves this problem by allowing users to keep their Macs awake even when they are not doing anything.
The app is powerful and allows users to keep their Macs awake for how much ever long they want. Not only that, users can also set triggers to keep their Macs awake. For example, you can tell Amphetamine to not put your Mac to sleep whenever a certain app is running.
Lastly, it allows you to easily access all these features as it lives right there in your Mac’s menu bar. It’s one of the most useful apps for Macs and I love it. Muzzy You know how when you accidentally yank headphones out of your iPhone, the music suddenly stops, well, Muzzy brings that functionality to your Mac.
The app also does a lot of other things like allowing users to play, pause, and change the music from its menu bar app, integrates with Last.fm, shows songs lyrics, and more. However, I don’t care for any other features and I just use this app to stop music whenever I accidentally yank my headphones out.
Sadly, the app only works if you are playing music through iTunes. Alfred 3 Alfred is an all-purpose tool for your Mac which can boost your productivity ten folds if you learn how to use it.
Of course, there’s a learning curve to this app, but if you invest in it, it will pay you back. Alfred allows you to quickly launch apps, use text expansion snippets, search on the Mac and web, use hotkeys and keywords, and much more. Alfred used to be a paid app, but the developers were kind enough to release the app for free. There are add-on power packs that you can buy, but you really won’t be using them until you became really pro at it. For most of the normal users, the free app itself is enough to boost their productivity. Pocket Pocket is a popular read it later service which allows you to save articles offline so that you can read them later. I mostly browse for articles on my Mac and whenever I find something that I would want to read, I just save it in Pocket.
Since Pocket syncs across devices, all my saved articles are automatically synced to my iPhone where I can read them at my will. Recently, I have also started using Pocket as a research tool. Since Pocket allows me to organize saved articles using tags, I just tag the items I am using for research so that I can find them easily later.
Spark Spark is my most favorite free app on Mac. For those who don’t know, Spark is an email client for Mac. I love spark because it intelligently categorizes all the emails that I receive into different categories, giving me access to the most important emails first.
It also has a very robust set of features. I can easily snooze, archive, delete, and tag emails.
I also love the fact that it allows me easily search for emails using natural language search. I can also search for emails based on attachments, and more. Lastly, Spark also has apps for both iOS and watchOS so no matter which device I am on, I can user Sparks to get through all my emails. GIMP GIMP or GNU Image Manipulation Program is an open source photo editor which packs so many features that you won’t be able to discover all of them in your lifetime. It is basically Photoshop but free. You can use GIMP to perform any kind of image manipulation that you can think of.
That said, since it packs so many features, GIMP also has a pretty steep learning curve. Also, being a free an open-source project, its user interface is not very intuitive and feels archaic. That’s why I recommend GIMP only to those users who need a robust photo editing software but cannot afford to buy one.
Simplenote Simplenote is one of the best designed free apps you can find. As its name suggests, Simplenote is an easy note taking app which allows you to easily jot down notes. What I love about this app is that even though it is completely free, your notes are synced across devices.
Apart from its online sync features, I am also a fan of its clean user interface. Simplenote is also a really good app for someone who is looking for a clean app to write long-form content. You can use tags to organize notes easily and search for them using either their title, content, or tags. I have been using this app for quite a few years and I still don’t understand how it’s free.
If you love writing, you will love Simplenote. Itsycal Itsycal is an open source small menu bar calendar application for Mac. If you like for Mac, but hate that it’s priced so high, Itsycal is for you. Although Itsycal is nowhere as powerful as Fantastical 2, it brings all the basic features that you would want from a menu bar based calendar app. It shows you month view of your calendar, your upcoming events, and also allows you to create or delete events. I also love the fact that I can configure Itsycal to show not only the date but also the month and the day in the menu bar icon itself. It’s a good menu bar application and a must have for anyone who schedules everything on their calendar.
Audacity Audacity is one of those free apps which is even better than most of the paid apps out there. For those who don’t know, Audacity is an audio editor app for your Mac or even Windows PC. If you are someone who deals with a ton of audio, you must have already heard about this software. If you have not, you probably don’t need it. Still, it’s such a good app that I couldn’t keep it away from the list.
Just remember that if you ever need to edit an audio file to make it better, Audacity is the tool to do it. Lightworks Since we have already talked about an audio editing software, why don’t we also include a video editing software to complete the loop.
Lightworks is a full-fledged video editing app which gives you access to all the tools that you will need to get your video editing on. To be fair, Lightworks also sell a Pro version of the app, however, the free version is powerful enough to handle most of the tasks. Whether you are a budding YouTuber or someone who just want to give an edge to their homemade videos, Lightworks is the right tool for you. What I love most about this app is that the website gives you ample tutorial videos to get you started.
If by any chance you were looking for a free video editing software, look no further and download Lightworks. HiddenMe HiddenMe is a small menu bar app which comes in very handy at times when you want to show a clean desktop without having to organize your stuff. The app lives in your menu bar and allows you to do one thing and one thing only, and that’s hiding everything on your desktop. With a click of the button, everything that’s on your desktop is hidden, giving you access to a clean desktop. I constantly use this app whenever I am giving a presentation or taking screenshots of my desktop for an article. This small application has saved me from embarrassing myself a number of times and it can do that for you too. AppCleaner Do you know that whenever you delete an app on your Mac, it leaves behind a ton of residual files which does nothing but eating up storage on your Mac?
Well, it’s true and if you install and uninstall a ton of apps, you might have lost gigabytes of storage already. While there’s another app on this list which (Onyx) which can help you recover that storage, AppCleaner is an app which makes sure that the apps you delete don’t leave any residual files. Just launch the app and drag and drop the apps that you want to uninstall and it will take care of the rest. It is a must-have utility tool for any Mac user out there.
Manuscript Manuscript is a writing app for students which makes writing school assignments including dissertation easier. Manuscript is a powerful writing app which allows students to complete their assignments right from the planning stage to completing it.
It lets students easily insert citations, figures, tables, mathematical equations, and more. The app also allows for importation of citations from various tools including Mendeley, Zotero, Papers 3, Bookends, and EndNote. If you are a student who is looking for a good writing app, you don’t have to look any farther than Manuscript. IINA IINA is an open-source video player for your Mac which offers one of the best amalgamations of features and user interface. The app looks extremely beautiful and supports all the modern features including force touch, picture-in-picture, and even offers Touch-bar controls for the latest MacBook Pros.
IINA also supports almost all the video formats that you can think of, including the ability to play even GIFs. The app also comes with theming capabilities allowing you to use either light or dark themes. I have discovered this app just a few weeks back and I am already in love with it.
If you consume a ton of media on your MacBook Pro, this is the right app for you. OnyX OnyX is your one-stop solution for all your Mac’s maintenance needs. In fact, I cannot describe the app better and more succinctly than what’s written on its website. OnyX is a multifunction utility that you can use to verify the structure of the system files, to run miscellaneous maintenance and cleaning tasks, to configure parameters in the Finder, Dock, Safari, and some of Apple's applications, to delete caches, to remove certain problematic folders and files, to rebuild various databases and indexes, and more. However, do remember that it is an advanced tool and hence before you do anything, make sure that you get familiar with the app as you don’t want to delete files which can corrupt your entire system.
SpotMenu The last app on our list the SpotMenu app which is a nifty little menu bar application. The app basically allows you to control your iTunes and Spotify music player from the menu bar giving you access to controls such as play, pause, forward, and rewind. It’s a pretty basic application, however, it does come in handy. One thing that I like about the app is that it shows the name of the song that is currently playing right on your Mac’s menu bar.
When you click on the icon, the drop-down window which harbors all the features also showcase the album art of the song that you are playing. Install: Read More: Best Free macOS Apps: Final Thoughts I hope that you found some apps which are useful to you. I personally am a fan of Spark mail, Amphetamine, INA, Simlenote, Alfred 3, Unsplash Wallpapers, and Pocket. Comment below your favorite favorite apps from the list. Also, if you know free apps that deserve to be on the list but aren’t, drop their names in the comments section. If you liked this article, do share this on your social media profiles because we need your help to get the word out. If you loved it, consider supporting us either by clicking on the button below, or just.
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Best Free App For Mac For Photo Editing
Fortunately, there are many fantastic anti-malware platforms designed to give your Mac a booster shot against the latest viruses, adware, and ransomware,. Many of them are made by the same companies that produce the solutions. The best free antivirus for Mac Avast Security for Mac Avast Security for Mac is one of the most popular security suites available, and it’s easy to see why. It’s effective and free for non-commercial use, providing on-demand tools for quickly performing full-system malware scans, as well as sifting through specific email threads, attachments, and various web activities like web pages, downloads, and JavaScripts. Furthermore, it offers drag-and-drop scanning for individual files and phishing protection, along with the ability to scan external drives and attached volumes for potential infections. The application’s interface is straightforward and self-explanatory, and features a navigational pane on the left that consists of five primary buttons and a real-time graph that aggregates shield activity and allows users to quickly check the overall stats of their computer. The free version also offers to install two other programs during installation: Avast Internet Security ($30 per year) and Avast SecureLine VPN ($60 per year). Neither are necessary for detecting and removing malware, however, so pay attention during installation if you don’t want them.
Download it: The rest Malwarebytes Anti-Malware for Mac Windows users have long turned to Malwarebytes’ free version, affectionately known as MBAM, as a backup for always-on malware software. The Mac Malwarebytes version started as an adware removal tool, but as of today, it’s also a full-fledged tool for protecting your machine against other forms of malware. Plus, it’s just as effective in MacOS as it is in Windows, a fact that’s aided by the Malwarebytes team’s constant research on current threats — the company identified the in 2017.
Using the program couldn’t be easier. Just launch it, hit scan, and the software will quickly let you know if you’re infected with any Mac-specific malware — oftentimes. Like the Windows iteration of the free version, though, this is not an always-on solution and is thus more suited for performing deep scans and ridding yourself of particularly pernicious MacOS. To get live protection you’d need to pay for the premium version, which starts at $40 for the year. Download it: Sophos Antivirus Mac Home Edition Straddling the line somewhere between necessity and excess, Sophos offers all the basic utilities you’ve come to expect from quality antivirus software, and a whole lot more.
It has custom, on-demand, and scheduled scans for specified files, folders, and drives, along with additional tools for deleting and quarantining any software Sophos deems a potential threat. The software even incorporates real-time protection features that will quarantine unknown files that are exhibiting suspicious behavior. Although the program has a tendency to scan slower than most, it’s fairly lightweight and non-obtrusively performs vital background tasks while barely leeching or exhausting your system’s resources. Despite its robust feature set, Sophos manages to cram all this functionality into a compact interface. Initiating a full-system scan can be done directly from the top of the main menu, and you can configure exemptions quickly from easily navigable menus.
The malware definitions also are constantly being updated, ensuring the program is never without the latest knowledge of potential threats. It’s one of the most hands-off antivirus programs on the market, and as such, sits among the best. Download it: Bitdefender Virus Scanner Built upon Bitdefender’s award-winning antivirus engine, Bitdefender Virus Scanner features a host of scan options, allowing you to quickly perform deep scans of your entire system, or those targeting specific locations. If you grant it access, the streamlined program even provides an option for scanning critical locations — such as your Mac’s launch agents and the entirety of your system library — thus allowing you to bypass lengthier scans when pressed for time. Moreover, it automatically updates with Bitdefender’s hourly malware definitions prior to scanning, while providing a quick means for blacklisting specific locations from system scans. Bitdefender Virus Scanner automatically tries to disinfect and quarantine suspicious files it comes across, and though the feature is not unique to Bitdefender’s offering, the software can also quickly search for malware within various archives and file types (PDF, PKG, ZIP, RAR, etc.).
From the homescreen, you can choose four different scanning options, in addition to an update button and a “view quarantine” button. It’s all very easy to understand and use. Download it: Avira Free Antivirus for Mac Avira strikes a nice balance between ease of use and quick access to advanced utilities, ultimately rendering basic system scans just as simple to execute as those that are scheduled and file-specific. The software is equipped with standard spyware and adware protection, along with the ability to intercept harmful websites and block tracking.
Plus, it comes bundled with 5GB of online storage, in addition to one-click deletion of malicious files. Unlike most of the software in our roundup, Avira is coupled with a moderately lengthy installation and an update process that goes hand in hand with the software’s heavy use of system resources. It’s certainly not a dealbreaker when you consider the nonexistent price tag and its thorough antivirus engine, but it’s an unfortunate downside. Avira’s interface is also rather bulky, though it’s easy to navigate. The app is lined with red-and-gray highlights and a left-hand navigational bar for viewing the status of your system, scheduling tasks, and viewing past quarantine history, among other options.
Best Free Apps For Macos
Virus definitions are updated in a timely fashion, too, regardless of how long the initial updates might take to finish. It’s resource heavy, but capable enough if you’re looking for automation, scan history, and other advanced features.