My App list from Reddit

Apps marked with !! are newly added; please check Updates (for the most recent changes) and the Updates-old-X for only the added and removed apps, as well as those I've tried but don't use.

• AltTab (Free, open source): I guess almost everyone uses this? Almost perfect window switcher. If Contexts would still get updates I would use it, but the “Titles” Appearance option is great here, too. Only thing bothering me is that titles scale to the monitor width with no way to change it? Maybe I will fork it and fix it for myself.
• Applite (Free, open source): Homebrew Gui. Will maybe switch to Cork (paid, open source), I just tested it once, but went back to Applite. Works great so far for me.
• Alcove (Paid): I tried multiple Notch-Apps, and with multiple I mean almost all of them. Alcove is perfect. Looks like a native macos app, updates always add nice additions without bloating it, and my biggest problem (Alcove getting stuck behind the menu bar) was fixed in the last version. Just love it.
• Shareful (Free): Simply adds a few very nice options to the share menu. I don’t need it often, but when I do it comes in handy.
• Mos (Free, open source): Smooth Mouse Scrolling, works great, and I can create exceptions for apps, which is why I use Mos. Some apps, like Citrix Workspace or Moonlight simply bug out with it and randomly scroll up again.
• Keka (Free or Paid, open source): Best unarchiving tool there is.
• Supercharge (Paid): Contains a lot of useful tweaks. It gets better with each update it gets. My favorites are “Prevent accidental quits of apps” by requiring me to hold q for a time defined by me instead of just pressing command q and the autoinstall of .dmgs.
• Ghostty (Free, open source): Great terminal, switched to it on linux, now I use it here.
• Enhancements For YouTube (Free): Safari Extension that skips sponsor blocks on youtube. I only use Safari on the go, but we will come to that. This safes me time, at home I dont skip for my fav. creators.
• GoodLinks (Paid): When I bought this I was not sure I would use this often. I used raindrop.io, which is completely free mac app! While there is not much difference I love how easy it integrates into everything. If you dont wanna spend money on saving links for later, use raindrop. But I love GoodLinks so far! I would love if links marked as “Read” would slide out of the unread section automatically on the mac app like they do in the ios app instead of me having to reload the section, but thats just a small gripe of mine.
• Mela (Freemium): Saves your recipes. Great UI, very smooth, definitely worth the money if you like to cook and have tons of recipes somewhere. Bought it years ago, you buy per platform, so you would have to get it seperately for your phone, but the mac version is enough for me.
• FolderPreview (Paid): Randomly found this on the App Store. Allows your to use your preview on folders. Super handy, since I tried that all the time, but ofc it doesnt work out of the box. When I got it, it was still free, so take this with a grain of salt. I don’t know if I would pay for it, tbh.
• Rocket (Freemium): Forgot that in my og list, so not really new, but now I add it here. Basically allows you to easily add emojis. Raycast can do the same, or even the function key on a macbook, but I use Alfred and a normal keyboard, so I dont have that key. Instead, I type :: and a popup appears that lets me quickly access emojis. If you use emojis, try this. The free version should be more than enough for most, but if you wanna support the dev, buy the pro version. Alternatively you could use Emoogle (Free, open source), but it works a little different, so you will have to check if that works for your “workflow”.
• Artykul (Freemium): A beautiful RSS Reader. It is on the pricier side with ~ 60€ (if you want the lifetime upgrade), but most RSS readers with its functionality are subscription based without a lifetime option or cost the same, e.g. Feeder (Paid) for 49€. Currently I am only using the free version, but I will upgrade soon I think!
• !! AlDente (Paid): AlBattery had problems which I will explain further below. So I bought the lifetime AlDente thing for like 24€. Maybe it helps with the battery life, maybe it wont. I will see I guess...

• 1Password (Subscription) & 1Password for Safari: IMO the best password manager there is. I know a lot of people want an open source one, but either a. their apps suck (Protonpass, Free, open source) or b. they are unreliable (Bitwarden, Free, open source). I tried all password managers, but 1Password had probably the best password manager app there is, seems to be super secure and has been around since forever. I never trust a company but here I will (even though they shut down the self hosted vaults). Other paid options dont even come close. Except for:
• Adguard (Paid): No explaination needed I hope. Lifetime sub for 12$ on stacksocical. Works great for all browsers, no need for extensions, and f*ck google.
• LuLu (Free, open source): Blocks outgoing connections of apps.I simply block everything going out and if stuff doesnt work I turn it on.

• Moonlight (Free, open source): I have a beefy (Windows) gaming pc, so I use Moonlight so connect to my Apollo host. At home I have direct ethernet connection so I can stream it without any delay or bitrate problems. When I am on the go I use:
• Tailscale (Free): So I can be on the same network without having to expose much. Simply log in on both devices and you are ready to go. Alternatively use ZeroTier One.
• VirtualHere (Freemium): Allows you to forward one device to another pc for free, otherwise you will have to pay. So what I do with it is forward my mouse to my gaming rig, since I find more and more problems that have problems with the emulated mouse from Moonlight. E.g. in Oblivion/Skyrim windows I cannot scroll, in Dune I cannot use quick menus, side mouse buttons dont work in general, etc. VirtualHere makes it so I connect my mouse to the other PC without having to physically connect it. While that is the case I can of course only move the mouse in Moonlight, not outside of it. I set up 2 hotkeys to quickly connect/disconnect, so that is no problem for me.

• Alfred (Paid): I mean, everyone knows Alfred, I guess there is not much to explain. A Spotlight alternative. I am currently debating going back to Raycast (Free and Subscription), but I hate its look. My Alfred bascially looks like Spotlight Search. Its super fast and the Workflows are easy to create. If you need to create an extension for Raycast its a little more involved. Dunno, love both. I also tried Launchbar (Freemium), but it felt weird to use.
• AppCleaner (Free): Godsent, with the smart delete mode it will react to you deleting an app and will ask you to remove the leftover stuff. It will of course not find everything, but for me, who loves to try out new stuff, this is great!
• Calendr (Free, open source): Like Dato (Paid), just free and open source. I love Calendr, because it also creates an extra menu bar item for the next reminder/event, so you can see that e.g. something is due in 35 minutes with the name of said thing. Super handy.
• Dropover (Freemium): A handy drag and drop file helper. Similar to Yoink (paid) or Dropzone 4 (subscription or lifetime), but better (imo), cheaper and more premium looking. Super customizable and the free version is still great (you have to wait 3 seconds to access the shelf). Highly recommended for only 7,99€! Alternatively there is also ShakePin (Free, open source) which would be what I would use if Dropover ever switches to a subscription model. Or if you dont want to spend money of course.
• Latest (Free, open source): Update utility for your apps. Not as good as MacUpdater (paid), which I also use, but it is sadly going to die next year, so I better get used to Latest.
• Maccy (Free or Paid (App Store) or Paid (Gumroad), open source): Clipboard Manager, works great for me, dont need anything else. So I stuck with this.
• Monocle (Paid): Saw the dev advertising it here, tried it and its great. Alternatively there is HazeOver (Paid) or Blurred (Free) or HokusFokus (Free). All of them seem to do the same thing, but instead of blurring they dim the background. I used them, but I like the blur more than the dimming. But I keep Blurred installed if that changes.
• PopClip (Paid): Great tool to use actions on text you marked. There are a lot of extensions you can simply download. I use it so much and miss it the second I use a pc without it. Even if it is just for a quick translation or to google what I marked. Love it.
• Shottr (Freemium): Screenshot tool. I got this and never tried another one. You can pay if you want to support development, but the free version has no limits. It just does everything I want from a screenshot app. EDIT: you cannot create Captures and a Gradient background without paying.
• RewriteBar (Paid or Subscription): It's an AI tool, mainly designed for grammar checking and improving writing. Just mark your text, press the hotkey that you’ve assigned, and either use one of the predefined actions or create your own ones. Super customizable and also way cheaper than Kerlig, which I will talk about in the “did not stay section”. They offer either the option to let you use their subscription, so you don't have to provide your own API key, or you use your own API keys for a one-time payment. This also does not seem to have an “update time limit” of a year, which is great. So far, very impressive. I found Kerlig earlier, which is why I used it until now, but I immediately went with RewriteBar. Thanks to the user on reddit who recommended it. Also has a PopClip extension that you can install from the app itself.
• Spokenly (Free): My replacement for VoiceInk. VoiceInk is great, but Spokenly somehow works better for me. It is not open source... however, you can use local models, so I am fine with this. Also, it’s free and on the App Store, which is great. If you’re looking for something open source, give VoiceInk a try. Pay the few $$ for it and help out Pax building the app.
• !! MiniWhisper (Freemium): Currently in Testflight. I am testing this, but I am not sure if it will replace Spokenly for me... I really dont see any reason for it unless Spokenly is suddenly a russian spy that somehow made it into the app store. But so far it feels really good, just dont wanna pay for it as long as other free alternatives exist. That being said, the free tier seems to be very, very, very fair.

• Helium (Free, open source): STILL VERY EARLY, BUGS OCCUR. Saw this one in Theo - t3.ggs video and tested it. At first, I thought there weren’t any features that would make me use this over Ungoogled Chromium (which Helium is based on), but it has split view, the password integration works (the system-wide one), more customization options, and bangs. It’s very nice.The only thing I am really, really missing is vertical tabs. Oh, and of course the pinned tabs, which only get unloaded instead of being completely closed. Also, it doesn’t drain my Macbook like crazy. Without this, I would have gone back to Chrome or Ungoogled Chromium (Free, open source).
• Zen (Free, open source): Would be the best browser if it wouldnt be a Firefox fork. I hate Firefox with a passion. Will maybe switch to it once the features that are in also stay and dont get moved into the about:config settings or get removed completely.

• Panda (Free): It is, as far as I know, the markdown editor of Bear. I use it all the time when I want to edit some textfiles. Its of course not really supported since it was released to test the editor, so its just an old beta product.
• ProNotes (Freemium): Basically allows Markdown in the Apple Notes app, has the option to add AI features etc. If you do not need AI features its free. Great app.
• Antinote (Paid): Antinote is the perfect “Scratchpad” notepad for me. I have it constantly running to calc or write down stuff before I clean it up and put into my notes app. Its a temporary note holder. Also, lovely developer, very active. Highly recommend it.

• Xcode (Free): Editor for Swift. No alternative. On my mac I only develop Swift so I don't have other IDEs.
• GitHub Copilot for Xcode (Free or Subscription, open source): It’s fine, sometimes helpful, sometimes produces trash. I mean, its AI.
• Fork (Freemium): Git GUI, you can test it for free for as long as you want (afaik). Simply awesome, I was struggling with the Xcode GitHub for the longest time, so I picked this up and it's great so far. Xcode always had problems with rebasing/merging for me, Fork worked immediately. Before I already tried Tower (Subscrption), but it's a subscription, and I don't need that in my life. Also, I don't really see any big difference between the two, so I prefer to pay once and get everything instead of paying every month.

• Cronica (Free, open source): A Watchlist for movies and shows. Suggests based on shows. Comes in handy if you watch alot of stuff like my wife and me.
• MusicBrainz Picard (Free, open source): A music tagger. I don’t use a music streaming service and this lets me easily tag, rename etc. my Music automatically. Life saver.
• Sleeve (Paid): A little music player widget I have on my desktop. 99% of the time it is useless for me, since I…. well… have stuff open. But whatever I guess. Looks great, very customizable. If you look at your desktop more often, maybe it is for you.
• IINA (Free, open source): Known by everyone. While on vacation I was mostly off grid, so I had a few movies and shows downloaded. I tried IINA and VLC Media Player (Free, open source). I had IINA first, but randomly, while watching movies, my Macbook froze with the rainbow spin… like every 30 minutes. I was guessing it’s IINA because it never happened before. Well, turns out it also happens while watching with VLC. I had to be connected to the internet for it not happen, so I guess it is caused by Apple Inteligence. Not sure tho. So I went back to IINA because I prefer the interface.

• Barbee (Paid): My current menu bar app. Puts all menu bar items in an extra bar to not have it as crowded. I have used iBar(Paid) before, but refunded it because it had some really weird glitches and was 9,99€. Barbee is the best menu bar item manager I have found so far and costs 7,99€. Alternatively there is of course Ice (Free, open source), but right now I love Barbee and it works perfectly with basically zero resource impact on the pc at all. Ice uses more resources (still, not much). There is also Bartender (Paid) which was bought by the same trash company that bough Strongbox.
• Dropclock (Free, open source, self promotion): My own App, a Gestimer (Paid) alternative to create timers/reminders from the menubar. Simply drag and drop from the menu bar item to create a new timer/reminder.
• SaneSideButtons (Free, Open Source): Forked version of abandoned SensibleSideButtons. Used to make the side buttons of the mouse work.
• Karabiner-Elements (Free, open source): Great tool. Lets you customize how keyboards work, independently of each other. My Mac keyboard is set up diffently than my mechanical one. I also used it to replicate Hyperkey, without the need of an additional Application. A lot of useful stuff in here, all for free!
• !! Better Display (Freemium, open source): Great app that allows me to have additonal control over my monitor, including higher brightness. Awesome when working outside.

• Koofr (Subscription or Lifetime): IMO great cloud storage, but I have read that if you are not european the speed can be kinda slow? I love that I can share my storage with my wife and she can access that from the app directly.
• calibre (free, open source): Ebook management. Nothing to explain.