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10 Mac Apps Worth Trying in 2026

There is one that can end up doing almost everything listed above in all the comments in one $35 package. It takes some time to learn how it works, and with some study you can find best practices that make it so vastly better than all the rest put together that it is worth the effort.

And the developer is an outstanidingly great guy who happiiy incorporates users requests whenever possible.

Keyboard Maestro.

I could go on and on about all the powerful tools in KM. But suffice it to say, if you can think of something on your Mac that you want to automate, you have a better chance of getting it done with Keyboard Maestro than you could with Applescript (especially since the ending of support for Script Debugger) or any other utility that's out there.

[Edit] And if you hook it up to an Elgato Stream Deck, you can't believe the amazing things you can do at the touch of a button. And you can control the text and icons on the button based on what it does, what's happening whille the automation is running, and whatever else you can dream up.
 
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Thank you MacRumors, I love it when you do these posts. I've discovered some of my favorite apps through your recommendations including Ulysses, Portal and that Festivia app which puts Christmas lights on your dock.
 
Quite sure the quick look for Zip files has a free version. I used to have all sorts of quick look extensions and never paid.
 
963852741 said:
Huh? How is that even an issue when whole UI has completely different paradigm.
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Tell that to all the new Apple users who believed the promises.

macOS much simpler, more user-friendly, there's nothing new to learn, and Apple is the good guy anyway...

Now you can explain to the new users that macOS is completely different and Apple is much bad than they were promised.
 
Some of these I have. Others look promising. I was just looking up a utility the other day that does what Dockdoor does and was going to install it but it seemed several years out of date on updates so I passed. Glad I found this replacement!

I’d also add to this list Better Touch Tool (Known as BTT, lets you tweak all kinds of things for input devices such as Magic Mouse and Trackpad gestures to keyboards, window snapping, and more), iStat (better menus for some system things like battery, can show system usage and alert you, can show battery levels for things like AirPods), BrightIntosh (boost MacBook Pro displays outdoors), TopNotch (helps hide the notch on MacBooks), Duplicate File Finder (does what it says), Carbon Copy Cloner (backup files to another volume and more), Bartender (menu bar icon organizer and drawer), 1Password (password management), Paste (slick, well-designed, seamless clipboard manager) and perhaps Nova if you’re into web development.
 
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963852741 said:
What's the point of this? What, you don't know which app is which from icons by now?
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If you have multiple of a single app open (multiple Safari windows, for example) then Alt+Tab shows each one individually and shows a thumbnail of the app (like Windows does) so you can switch between them that way. It’s a LOT nicer than cmd+tab to switch to the app “group” for lack of a better term, then cmd+’ to switch between individual windows.
 
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mysticmanix said:
Is there any app that can alter Finder so that when I look through a gallery of photos, like in Windows or Linux, pressing the right arrow key continuously will go to the next row of photos rather than just stopping? Or pressing left will go up and to the previous row of photos?
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commander-one.com

File manager for macOS with Support: FTP/SFTP, WebDAV, Amazon S3, Google Drive, Dropbox etc.

Powerful file manager for Mac: Commander One lets you connect FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, cloud drives, manage archives, and transfer files from iOS/Android.
commander-one.com commander-one.com
 
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Launchy would have been superfluous if Apple hadn’t removed Launchpad from MacOs. Spotlight for apps is pretty useless in comparison.
 
It’s always something said:
Doesn’t Alt-Tab functionality already exist as Command-Tab? Does this app just move/add that to the option/alt key?
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No. Alt Tab switches between individual windows, regardless of the app, and brings only that window to the front. Command-Tab switches between apps, bring all their windows to the front - and Command-~ alternates between windows of the current app.

Very frequently I'm switching between the front-most windows of two different apps (e.g. an editor and a browser is a common pairing). Command-Tabbing between them brings all the windows for each app to the front - often blocking the windows of the other app! So Alt-Tab is essential for me as there is literally no way to do it natively in macOS!
 
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MrCubes said:
No. Alt Tab switches between individual windows, regardless of the app, and brings only that window to the front. Command-Tab switches between apps, bring all their windows to the front - and Command-~ alternates between windows of the current app.

Very frequently I'm switching between the front-most windows of two different apps (e.g. an editor and a browser is a common pairing). Command-Tabbing between them brings all the windows for each app to the front - often blocking the windows of the other app! So Alt-Tab is essential for me as there is literally no way to do it natively in macOS!
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Ah this is a much more well written response than I had typed up. I love the app because I think having to switch between windows using multiple key combo methods totally stinks.
 
Ursadorable said:
I remember when they were simply called programs.
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They've always been applications (apps) on the Mac.

paint1.png
 
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Daimaou said:
One reason I use macOS instead of Windows is that I don't like how Windows works. That said, I can't understand why anyone would want to emulate Windows on their Mac.
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I agree with you, junking up MacOS with overlapping Windows functions is not the right answer to help Windows users on a Mac.
 
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