What happened to MacUpdate Desktop?

[Rydawg96]

One app I used to rely on to keep apps updated on my Mac was MacUpdate desktop, as it basically updated any app not from the App Store automatically without having to actually open the app. However, I see its discontinued. Was there any reason why they did this? Are there any alternatives?

 

[chabig]

I suppose MacUpdate decided there is no longer much of a market. Most apps these days automatically check for updates when you launch them.

 

[gilby101]

MacUpdater does everything that MacUpdate did and more. Generally I discourage apps from calling home to check for updates (and tell my usage), so MacUpdater is just right for me. MacUpdater includes alerts for Mac App Store apps which is a nice bonus. All my updates are covered by:

Apple App Store and MacUpdater for GUI apps;
Homebrew for command line apps.

 

[bogdanw]

"Latest is a free and open-source app for macOS that checks if all your apps are up to date. Get a quick overview of which apps changed and what changed and update them right away. Latest currently supports apps downloaded from the Mac App Store and apps that use Sparkle for updates, which covers most of the apps on the market."
https://github.com/mangerlahn/Latest

 

[gilby101]

"Latest is a free and open-source app for macOS that checks if all your apps are up to date. Get a quick overview of which apps changed and what changed and update them right away. Latest currently supports apps downloaded from the Mac App Store and apps that use Sparkle for updates, which covers most of the apps on the market."

As a user, I welcome some (free) competition for MacUpdater. But my testing about 3 months ago shows Latest to be way behind MacUpdater in terms of app coverage. On the other hand, Latest is easier to use - MacUpdater has lots of tricky settings.