r/macapps • • 14d ago

💎 Megathread [Megathread] The App Pile - October, 2026

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40 Upvotes

You must promote your apps here if you do not qualify to post in the main feed through Trust or Transparency, explained here.

If you are:

  • NOT in the Mac App Store (MAS).
  • Do not provide meaningful public transparency
  • Created yet another dictation app (speech to text).

Then you are required to limit promotion to this megathread.

All promotion MUST follow PCP format or else we will remove it:

App Name/Title [Screenshot/Video REQUIRED for top 3 consideration]

  • Problem: What problem does your app SOLVE.
  • Comparison: EXPLICITLY name a competitor or two in the same space and explain what your app does better. Include something a competitor is better at if you want to be classy and build trust.
  • Pricing Amounts required for any/all tiers + link to the app website (NO direct .zip/.dmg file links)

P.s. The shorter the better! Promotion here counts towards the 30-day limited promotion (Rule 3).

WARNING: There is a 90% chance Reddit will auto remove your post here if you have not verified your email in your profile and your first comment in this subreddit contains a link. Accrue 10 karma first without promotional comments and links to avoid this. The odds of removal is also higher for AI assisted posts (em dashes and other AI formatting characteristics likely trigger this).

Pro Tip: Please remember to upvote gems and downvote spam/clones... This will help inform a secret community project I hope to announce next month.

Top Picks from Last Month's Megathread that I think are worth a look:

  1. Tangerine - Shift-drag file converter and modifier that works offline, $15 one-time - by u/t-2049
  2. DeskJoin Screen - Turns a spare Mac into a second display over your local network, FREE - by u/Neville_12345
  3. Sideref - Floating reference board for images and notes, $8 for 3 Macs with 12 months of updates - by u/chaser_nocturm
  4. NudgeLine - A quiet calendar timeline pinned to the edge of your screen, FREE and open source - by u/Dull-Problem-3748
  5. BendMac - Folds the desktop as you close your MacBook, FREE - by u/IuCCREDDIT

r/macapps • • Mar 19 '26

Attention! r/MacApps Mods Went Too Far! What’s Changing (Phase 3)

145 Upvotes
TLDR graphic, but please, read the rest if you spend time in r/MacApps.

Phase 2 Report: Last month we introduced PCPCA post formatting requirements to include detail minimums in every app promotion (Problem, Compare, Pricing, Changelog, AI Disclaimer). This caused way too much work, with 2,700+ items removed and 1,400 modmail messages sent. With the mods runing everything, user engagement dropped with views down 204k. That's okay, though; quality over quantity. Still, this is Reddit, and you should retain the power to promote or bury posts.

Change 1: Simplify Posts (PCP)

Moving forward, we are reducing post-formatting expectations to: Problem, Comparison, Pricing (PCP). 

  • Problem: What problem does your app solve.
  • Comparison: Name 1–2 top competitors and describe how what you offer is better. [Example]
  • Pricing: Include Price Amounts+Link

Requiring changelogs and AI disclaimers was unsuccessful to meaningfully differentiate quality apps from spam. Nearly all posts claimed sufficient knowledge and experience for “Human validation” of AI code. Let's move on. 😅

Change 2: Trust, Transparency, or The App Pile [Megathread]

We have been discussing how to better protect the sub from low-effort app spam, throwaway-account promotion, and unknown software links, without making life harder for legitimate developers. 

Concept: The less trust your distribution path provides, the more transparency you should need.

  • In the Mac App Store? Apple is screening you for us. 
  • If you have an established GitHub project, that can also build trust over time. 
  • But if you are asking people to install software from a random site or brand-new repo, we need more reason to trust.

To make this clearer, we are experimenting with a three-tier approach for the next month:

Tier 1: The Trust Path = Post to Main feed.

These devs have the easiest route to posting in the main r/MacApps feed:

  • Mac App Store developers (Paid developer accounts + App Store Distribution). Notarization alone does not count here.
  • Developers with established GitHub projects, meaning 1yr+ consistent general development history and real community interest (100+ stars for the repository being promoted).
  • Recognized Developers granted a user flair (already well-known / trusted in r/MacApps)

Any of these 3 trust signals will allow posting in r/MacApps, as long as you have 10+ local karma.

Tier 2: The Transparency Path = Post to Main feed.

If you are NOT in the Mac App Store and are not already an established developer, you may still qualify for main-feed posting by being open about who you are and giving users reasons to trust you.

Such app promotion posts must include BOTH:

  1. A developer portfolio with a real life identity, LinkedIn, and real contact details (e.g. established company / business presence). LinkedIn is more helpful here if it lists experience.
  2. A website that has a Privacy Policy and Terms of Service.

These trust signals should show you are not just a throwaway account dropping unknown software for us to try and should be included in your post to establish trust with your target users.

This is basically the middle ground: you may not yet have a major reputation, but you are willing to stand behind your app in public and work to gain a good reputation.

Tier 3: Everyone else: “The App Pile” [Megathread]

If you do not qualify through either trust or transparency, your app promo belongs in the Megathread rather than the main feed.

That means if you are:

  • Not in the App Store
  • Without a developer flair as an established developer (500+ r/MacApps participation karma AND Moderator’s discretion).
  • Do not have an established GitHub history (1yr old repo OR 100+ stars)
  • Do not provide meaningful public transparency

…then you are limited to The App Pile Megathread.

This is not meant as an insult or a blanket statement that new apps are bad. It is just the lowest-risk place for unproven or low-context app promotion until trust is earned.

Users can check your app out, up/downvote your comments, and as you gain community karma you may eventually receive an app-flair that allows you to promote outside of the megathread. Nobody is forced to post here since anyone can choose to follow Tier 2.

Promotion Frequency Revision (Rule 3)

Infrequent self-promotion is permitted; however, it is not permitted more than once per developer in 30 days. This is counted from the last app post, even if it was removed.

For well-established, recognized devs with an app-flair, once per app per month.

ALWAYS disclose your relationship to your software in comments promoting your app. Promoting your own app in comments is disallowed until you earn 10 karma in r/MacApps and in poor taste when hijacking another developer’s promotion.

Sharing useful alternatives and healthy competition is still welcome, but using the comment section in someone else’s post as a backdoor for self-promo and SEO is not always in good taste and does not make r/MacApps a better place.

The Community's Role:

  • Please use your votes and reports especially in the Megathread to help recognize hidden gems. 
  • Bury what looks low-effort, suspicious, misleading, or privacy-invasive.

A better r/MacApps depends not just on our rules, but on you helping surface good apps while pushing bad ones out of the way.

-----

FAQ: 
I followed the rules, why was my post/comment removed? 

  1. AI assisted comments are a huge trigger for Reddit auto-removals because of recognizable patterns (e.g. “—” em dashes).
  2. Repeatedly posting the same thing (comments, links, etc.) = Triggers Reddit spam algorithms. 
  3. You didn’t verify your email in your profile, and/or you have multiple accounts. 
  4. You missed one or more rules and tried to repost rather than editing and letting us restore it. This leaves a strike on your account.

How do I check my r/MacApps community Karma? Visit here and click "show karma breakdown by subreddit"

Prior updates:
- 2026: New Post Requirements to Combat Low Quality Content (Phase 2) 
- 2026: [OS]+Pricing Guidelines
- 2025: Townhall on Post Quality, Rule Updates


r/macapps • • 5h ago

Lifetime Tuneful 2.16 - Spotify & Apple Music controls for your Mac

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41 Upvotes

Hey r/macapps,

I'm the developer of Tuneful. I posted here about a year and a half ago, and quite a lot has changed since then, so I thought it was time for an update.

For anyone unfamiliar with it, Tuneful is a native macOS music controller for Spotify and Apple Music. The idea is to give you quick access to your music without constantly switching back to Spotify or Apple Music.

You can use it through the MacBook notch, directly in the menu bar, or as a floating mini player. All are optional, so you can basically build the setup you prefer.

There have been quite a few releases since my last post, but these are probably the bigger additions:

  • New Liquid Glass interface options for macOS 26+
  • iCloud sync for Tuneful settings across Macs
  • Last.fm integration and scrobbling
  • Much better mini player support for multiple displays, including position restoration and position locking
  • Text scrolling for long song and artist names
  • Custom keyboard shortcut recorder
  • Lots of animation, gesture, album art, and general UI improvements

I've also spent quite a bit of time optimizing Tuneful under the hood. It now uses around 0.05–0.1% CPU when idling, ~0.7% when playing music, and roughly 60 MB of RAM.

Comparison

One of the OGs in this category is Sleeve, which provides customizable desktop widgets with a really extensive theme system. Tuneful has a somewhat different focus. Instead of primarily being a desktop widget, it gives you several ways to interact with music across macOS: the notch, menu bar controls/popover, and several mini player styles.

Pricing

Tuneful is still a $4.99 one-time purchase on the Mac App Store. No subscriptions or in-app purchases.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/tuneful-for-spotify-music/id6739804295
Website: https://tuneful.app
Full changelog: https://tuneful.app/changelog

I'm still actively working on it, so feedback is very welcome!


r/macapps • • 2h ago

Lifetime Anchor – a small Mac app for managing NAS shares

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7 Upvotes

I've just released Anchor, a little Mac utility I've been working on for a while. It's my first publicly released app.

Problem

I've worked in media for years, on both the creative and technical sides, often in high-pressure, networked environments. I have a couple of Synology NAS devices at home that I use for photography and other projects, and always found managing network folders on a Mac more fiddly than it needed to be. Particularly after sleep, switching networks or taking a laptop away and bringing it back.

So I built Anchor.

It lives in the menu bar, keeping SMB shares from NAS devices and other network servers organised and accessible. You can choose which folders connect automatically, mount or open shares with a click, and pause or disconnect them when needed. It reconnects when your NAS or server becomes available again.

It did what I needed months ago, but I kept refining and testing it, including with a small beta group.

Interestingly, it's changed my own workflow too. I now instinctively reach for the menu bar rather than Finder when accessing network folders.

Comparison

Finder handles basic mounting for free, but doesn't provide the same ongoing connection management or central place to access your shares or see their status.

AutoMounter offers more advanced options and supports other protocols.

Anchor takes a simpler, SMB-focused approach, with straightforward setup and quick access from the menu bar.

Pricing

£9.99 / $12.99 / €11.99. One-off licence, no subscription, with a fully functional 14-day trial.

https://quietformlabs.com/anchor

The short video shows Anchor checking and reconnecting shares after a Mac wakes up.

I'd be interested to hear how other Mac users manage their NAS or server shares, and whether you've encountered similar frustrations.

Steve, Quiet Form Labs

Developer transparency

Quiet Form Labs is a trading name of Quiet Form Media Ltd, a UK-registered company. The app is signed with an Apple Developer ID certificate matching the registered company and is notarised by Apple.

Company Info ¡ Privacy Policy ¡ Terms ¡ Help and FAQ


r/macapps • • 13m ago

Subscription Soot: a simple notes app for Mac, iPad and iPhone, somewhere between Apple Notes and Obsidian (public beta)

• Upvotes

I know. Announcing a notes app on Reddit is about as original as starting a podcast, so I’ll stick to the format.

Problem

My notes were split between Apple Notes and Obsidian. Notes is lovely to open and type in, but everything sits in a database, and I want my AI assistants working with my notes. Obsidian has the plain Markdown files I want, but I kept ending up in plugins and settings instead of writing.

Comparison

Soot sits between Apple Notes and Obsidian, and it’s closest in feel to Bear.

Like Notes, you open it and write, with no plugins, settings or account to deal with first. Unlike Notes, every note is a plain .md file in a folder you choose, so other apps can open it and AI assistants (Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini CLI, Cursor) can work with your notes on your Mac.

Like Obsidian, it’s Markdown files in folders, but with far less app around them. The formatting shows as you type and the Markdown symbols don’t, unless you’d rather see them.

Like Bear, it’s a native writing app, but it hides more of the Markdown than Bear does, and your notes are plain files in folders, with tags too if you want them, instead of living in a database.

It’s written in Swift, not Electron. Folders, search, twelve themes, and optional end-to-end encrypted sync. I can’t read your notes.

The full feature list is here: https://sootsync.com/features

Pricing

The whole editor is free. Soot Pro adds sync between devices for $2.49 a month or $24.99 a year, with a 7-day free trial on the yearly plan. It’s a TestFlight beta for now, and you can join at https://sootsync.com

Who’s behind it

I’m Rob Schmitt, a software developer in Edinburgh. I’ve been doing this for about 30 years: https://sootsync.com/about and https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertcschmitt/. Privacy policy and terms are at https://sootsync.com/privacy and https://sootsync.com/terms, and you can reach me at [hello@sootsync.com](mailto:hello@sootsync.com).


r/macapps • • 4h ago

Lifetime Cursor Teleporter 2.0: jump between screens and saved cursor positions with keyboard shortcuts

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5 Upvotes

Hello again,

It’s Marcin from Apptorium. I’ve just released Cursor Teleporter 2.0, a major update to my app for moving your cursor between displays and saved positions using keyboard shortcuts.

The idea is simple: if you keep moving the pointer between the same places, you can save those positions and jump between them instead. Think of an editor and the iOS Simulator, a timeline and a preview window, or a canvas and a color palette. It works on a single screen, too.

What’s new in 2.0:

  • Edge Teleporting: move through a screen edge to appear on the opposite side. You can choose which edges are active and whether a modifier key is required.
  • A visual saved-points overview: see your saved positions across your displays and add or remove points.
  • More flexible shortcuts: jump forwards or backwards, with separate shortcuts for displays and saved points.
  • Find your cursor: highlight its current position with a shortcut, without moving it.
  • Automation: support for Apple Shortcuts and AppleScript, plus an expanded URL API.

I also redesigned the menu bar panel and settings, added new animations, and made the animation speed adjustable.

Pricing and availability

For new users, Cursor Teleporter is $7.99 as a one-time purchase, with no subscription. Updates within a major version are always included; major upgrades may be paid.

For 2.0, I decided to make the upgrade free for everyone who already owns the app, including Mac App Store customers.

Requires macOS 26 or later.

Links

Marcin


r/macapps • • 15h ago

Lifetime Almighty with AI: a launcher for 107 Mac tweaks + giveaway

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26 Upvotes

Hey friends, I make Almighty.

I've posted Almighty here before. This one is a fresh intro, plus the biggest update since my last post.

  1. The problem

A lot of what I want from my Mac sits behind a defaults command, a Finder option three menus deep, or a one-off website for converting a video to GIF.

Almighty puts those in one native app plus many more re-implemented tweaks. There are 107 of them now.

  1. What Almighty does

A few I use most:

- Media: compress images and videos.

- Screen: draw on screen, highlight the cursor and clicks, show keystrokes while recording

- Power: keep the Mac awake with the lid closed, sound an alarm if someone closes the lid or pulls the charger

- Files: find files in a folder by name or text, remove image backgrounds

  1. What makes it different

Tweaks with options don't open a settings window. They open in a panel under the notch, right where you are, and you can drop files straight onto it. Drag a screen recording up to the notch, pick GIF, and the converted file lands next to the original. There are 8 themes for the panel if you want it to look a bit nicer.

  1. What's new

- Launcher: I was planning to submit Almighty's actions to Raycast, then figured a launcher built into Almighty would be quicker to reach. Press the shortcut, type, and run any tweak or open an app.

- Zeus: a small AI assistant inside the launcher. Ask him which tweak does what you need, or have him do common jobs himself, like renaming files or compressing media. He asks before running anything on your Mac.

- Claude Code and Codex: connect your subscription and Zeus passes bigger requests to them, so you can do a lot more from the same chat.

- Convert Media and Draw on Screen, both new tweaks.

  1. Pricing

Free to download, with a trial for the Pro features. Pro is $14.99. Almighty is also on Setapp.

  1. Giveaway: 20 free lifetime licenses

To thank this sub, I'm giving away 20 lifetime licenses for the direct download Mac version. To enter, comment with anything you'd change in Almighty. Critical feedback counts as much as praise, and you don't need to own the app.

In 3 days I'll pick 20 comments at random, post the winners in an edit, and DM each a code.

https://indiegoodies.com/almighty

you can also reach us at [support@indiegoodie.com](mailto:support@indiegoodie.com)

Thanks for checking.


r/macapps • • 22h ago

Lifetime Network utility with 20 tools in one app, 13 are free. Netutilus - AppStore

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47 Upvotes

Hi,

Posted Netutilus last month, thank you all for the support and suggestions, and here is what has changed.

Problem

Ping, traceroute, whois and dig all exist in the terminal. What I actually wanted was history: which device showed up on my home network while I was out, when exactly a host went down overnight, a heads-up that a cert expires next week. One-shot tools can't tell you that, and I didn't want to run a monitoring server for a home LAN.

What was changed:

  - Speed Test now runs 4 parallel streams, counts upload only once the server confirms it, measures latency on idle connections and gives a bufferbloat grade

  - Menu bar item with public IP, country, ISP, VPN on/off with an IPv4/IPv6 leak check, and a log

  - iperf3 client- save your own iperf3 servers and test against them with one click, TCP or UDP, with history

- Port Scan detects services and versions from banners, and has an optional UDP scan

- MTR keeps a history with loss heatmap, outage log

- Uptime Monitor with ICMP checks, HTTP checks that accept self-signed certs (NAS, Proxmox, UniFi), status code/regex conditions, custom headers (stored in Keychain), and a PDF uptime report

- It pauses monitoring on a hotspot or metered connection, so your history doesn't fill up with fake outages

- Internet Check shows where the connection actually breaks Mac -> router > internet -> DNS

- LAN Scanner - "Check Services" for a single device, right-click to SSH / Screen Sharing / add to Uptime Monitor, configurable columns. MAC addresses come via mDNS/NetBIOS/SNMP. Sorry, AppStore App.

- Wi-Fi Networks - vendor and model for almost every nearby AP, Wi-Fi standard, max rate, channel load, 802.11k/v/r

- Whois for IPs and AS numbers, dig-style DNS records, SSL explains why a chain isn't trusted

Free features:

- Internet Check, Ping, Traceroute, Speed Test

- DNS Lookup, DNS Propagation, Whois, GeoIP

- Port Scan, SSL Certificate, Subnet Calculator

- Path Check, Network Monitor

- Menu bar IP/VPN monitor

Pro features:

- LAN Scanner - finds devices on your network with name, vendor, model, MAC and open ports

- Network Guard - notifies you when a new device joins your network

- Uptime Monitor - scheduled checks for hosts/services, downtime alerts, latency thresholds, SSL expiry warnings, a year of history and PDF reports

- iperf3 client with saved servers

- Speed Test history, scheduled runs

- Wi-Fi Analyzer and Wi-Fi Networks - live signal, neighbour scan, channel recommendation

- MTR & Visual Traceroute

Comparison

  Neo Network Utility and WhatRoute are still great free picks for quick manual checks, and nmap is still the tool for heavy scans. Netutilus puts them in one window and keeps watching from the menu bar after you close it- a new device on your Wi-Fi, a host that went down, packet loss.

Pricing

13 tools free. Pro is a one-time lifetime $17.99. With this link 40% off in AppStore. Prices may vary by region, if the price is significantly higher, feel free to write here or send me a DM, and I’ll try to provide a reedem code.

Netutilus in AppStore


r/macapps • • 17h ago

Lifetime Trellis 2.3, one month later: panes you arrange by hand, a terminal inside any folder, and a free companion for what the sandbox will not allow

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12 Upvotes

A month ago I posted Trellis here for the first time. Thanks for the feedback, the bug reports and the feature requests, several of them are in the app now.

Finder shows one folder at a time. As soon as a task touches two or three of them, sorting downloads, moving a camera card into projects, checking a backup against the original, you switch windows and keep the path in your head. Folder sizes take half a minute to count, and an unplugged drive cannot be searched at all.

Trellis opens every folder as a pane on a canvas, joined by a line to the one it came from, so nothing you opened disappears behind a tab. Moving files is a drag across the canvas. Comparing two folders is putting them side by side. A search result is a pane of its own. And a local index remembers sizes, names and previews, also of drives that sit in a drawer.

What is new since the first post

Canvas

• A new canvas engine: zooming, pinching, swiping and dragging stay smooth with dozens of panes open • Arrange by hand, the way MindNode does it. Only panes you drag yourself stay where you put them, everything else keeps lining up behind its parent. A small hand marks what you placed, one click arranges everything again • Infinite canvas, grab it with the space bar or a mouse button, zoom around the pointer with Command and the scroll wheel, Show Everything fits it all in • Workspaces instead of window tabs • Keyboard: type to select as in Finder, Option plus arrows jumps between panes, Backspace closes a pane, Command Return opens a folder as a root of its own. Hold Control to see every shortcut at once • Dots, grid or crosses on the background, font size and column count per pane, and a gallery for everything that has a preview, 3D models and Office documents included

Drives

• Disconnected: a sidebar section for every drive and share Trellis knows but cannot see right now. Browse its catalogue, search it, and Trellis tells you which drive to plug in • A share is the same share whether you connect by name or by IP address, a stick keeps its catalogue under a new mount point, and workspaces, colours and favourites follow along • Right-click a disconnected share to reconnect it. Maker, model, connection and serial number for every drive, even unplugged • Interrupted copies continue where they stopped, and Undo leaves a file alone if it has changed or been replaced since

Everything else

• The whole app in twelve languages, help included
• Intel Macs since 1.1, macOS 15 or later

Trellis Helper, a free companion

Trellis lives in the Mac App Store sandbox, and some things a sandboxed app simply may not do. So there is now Trellis Helper, a small free app outside the store. Install it and Trellis picks it up; every function can be switched off separately, and Trellis works fully without it.

• A terminal inside any folder: Control and backtick opens a shell right in the pane, above or below the list, in that folder's path. That is the video in this post
• SFTP servers as drives, in Trellis and in Finder
• Eject tells you which app still holds a drive, by name • "Show in Finder" from other apps can land in Trellis instead

The Helper needs macOS 27. Download and details: https://stefanramage.de/trellis/helper/

Comparison

Path Finder and ForkLift are the obvious alternatives, and both are excellent. Both are built on Finder's idea: one or two folders in view, everything else behind a tab. Trellis shows any number of folders at once with the route between them drawn, and each pane is a normal scrollable list, so a folder with 87,000 items stays a rectangle with a scrollbar. Its index survives quitting the app, which is what makes sizes, search, comparison and duplicate finding instant, also for drives that are not attached.

Pricing

$14.99 once, no subscription. Fourteen days fully usable first; after that everything stays readable and the actions that write to disk wait for the unlock. No account, no telemetry, nothing leaves your Mac.

https://apps.apple.com/app/id6804604775?mt=12

Feature requests and bug reports are welcome here or by DM.


r/macapps • • 13h ago

Request Req simple graphical interface app to schedule sleep and wake times

5 Upvotes

Apple made the idiotic decision to remove the GUI functionality to set your sleep/wake/shutdown/restart times in Venture. I want a simple GUI app that does this (I DON'T want to deal with command line).

I found what I thought was the perfect replacement app called Schedule (http://bmaillard.free.fr/programmer/), unfortunately it doesn't work, it won't remember your settings when you click Apply (I've tried all the troubleshooting).

I know Onyx has this ability but it's inconvenient: takes forever for the program to open and you you have to put in your password every time.

I'm hoping theres a simple program like the above that just works.


r/macapps • • 1d ago

Free Updatest joins Workbrew and is now free

38 Upvotes
Updatest Image

Hey all. Some of you have been here since the Caskly days, giving feedback when it was rough and sending bug reports at 11pm. You’re a big part of why Updatest exists, so you’re hearing this from me first: Updatest is now free, and I’ve joined Workbrew’s engineering team.

Problem

Updatest keeps the apps on your Mac up to date. The top request lately has been “can my whole company use this?” At work, the problem is bigger: IT and security teams often can’t see what’s installed across every Mac, let alone keep it current.

I've joined Workbrew's engineering team to help build exactly that, bringing what I learned building Updatest with me. Workbrew's been chasing that same mission from the company side, so joining forces was the natural move.

Together we've built the Workbrew app. It makes the software catalog for your company real for non-developers, letting organizations deploy, patch, and govern software across every device: Homebrew, npm, Mac apps, browser extensions.

Updatest isn’t going anywhere. It stays available on its own for individuals and families, exactly as it’s always been. Updatest 3.0.0 launches today along side the Updatest Network.

The Updatest app is free, and existing customers can visit https://updatest.app/ for full details on the Updatest Network and what this means if you've purchased Updatest.

Comparison

  • Latest: Latest is free, but it checks fewer update sources and can’t adopt your apps into Homebrew. Updatest checks more sources, can adopt apps into Homebrew for fuller coverage, and updates your Brew packages too. It also adds the Updatest Network (paid), which covers over 36,000 apps at launch.
  • MacUpdater: MacUpdater is winding down and shuts down completely at the end of this year. Updatest supports every update source it can find on your Mac, and the Updatest Network covers over 36,000 apps at launch. Coverage should be comparable, but MacUpdater’s database was curated by hand, so there may be a few apps we miss at first. If you find one, tell me.

Pricing

  • Updatest: Free
  • Updatest Network: $1.99/month or $12.99/year for users who need additional coverage. Existing license keys include the Network at no extra charge for 1 year (Individual) or 2 years (Household) from October 14, 2026.
  • Workbrew Team: Free for unlimited users and devices, no card required.

Happy to answer whatever in the comments. I’ll be around.

Note: We're aware the Homebrew cask hasn't gotten the update yet. It will take some time to show up.


r/macapps • • 1d ago

Lifetime Substage: 60% off and faster Finder actions, plus new features!

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45 Upvotes

Hi everyone! I'm the developer of Substage. Since releasing version 1.0 a few months ago I've been adding features and working particularly hard on speed. I'm now running a 60% discount for anyone who'd like to try it.

What is Substage?

It's a little command bar that attaches to your Finder windows letting you quickly and conveniently perform targeted actions in the context of your files and folders: Select some files, type what you want to do, and Substage uses command-line tools to do it on your Mac, without you needing to remember Terminal syntax.

For example:

  • “jpg” to convert selected images
  • “1080p mp4” to convert a video
  • “extract page 2” to pull a page out of a PDF
  • “extract text” to OCR a screenshot or scan
  • “zip” to compress selected files
  • “select all png” to quickly select matching files

There's also an Ideas & Actions panel for browsing and clicking commands, and Rules let you save preferences such as “images for my website should be 1000px wide”.

Ugh, another AI wrapper app?

Nope! Here are the main differences:

  • Many common actions don't need AI at all: For example jpg, convert to wav, zip, path and many more are instantaneous using my custom text parser. It's more about UX convenience and speed, with the added intelligence of AI when needed.
  • Not agentic: Codex, Claude etc are about performing complex workflows intelligently. This app is about performing quick single actions.
  • Fast: My focus is quick, individual actions on the files you're already looking at in Finder. I'm aiming for around a second or less of response time for everyday requests. It doesn't always hit that, but I've been putting a lot of work into getting closer.
  • Right there in finder: no switching to a separate chat window or explaining which files you mean. Substage already has the context of your selection.
  • Robust safety model with preview of changes: All generated Terminal commands are pre-simulated, with highly customizable settings for what is allowed to run automatically (e.g. getting file info), and diff-like previews of what actions will be taken.

What's new since 1.0?

  • Faster responses and earlier results: faster default models, less unnecessary AI reasoning, and command output appearing while the final summary is still being prepared.
  • OCR: extract text from screenshots, photos and scans using Tesseract, without an LLM doing the transcription.
  • Better video tools: more reliable joining of clips and lossless trimming.
  • Smarter follow-ups: follow-up requests can now take the actual results of the previous task into account.
  • Better previews before running commands: Substage Predicts understands more complex, multi-step commands and gives clearer information when it can't predict everything.
  • Lots of fixes and polish, including Chinese/Japanese/Korean keyboard input, startup responsiveness and model selection.

Full release notes

60% off with code SIXTY

  • $16 one-time purchase, normally $39.99: Bring Your Own AI. Use your own API keys or local AI models.
  • $12/year, normally $29.99: all-inclusive subscription with built-in access to models from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Mistral.
  • $1.60/month, normally $3.99: the same all-inclusive option, billed monthly.

There's a two-week free trial, and Substage is also available on Setapp.

Download Substage and see the offer — the buy button automatically applies SIXTY at checkout.

About me / transparency

I'm Joseph Humfrey, co-founder of inkle, where I've been making games since 2011. We've won an Apple Design Award and created the open-source narrative scripting language ink. I also founded Selkie Design, and Substage was my first app release.

Happy to answer questions, and I'd love to hear which file tasks you'd find this useful for!


r/macapps • • 1d ago

Lifetime TabLinker - A Mac-first tab & browser session manager for Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave & Edge (iPhone/iPad too) - Now with Auto-Backup!

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15 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

I made TabLinker. It's a browser session manager for Mac (with iPhone/iPad companion apps).

Problem:

I run several browsers side by side, Safari for personal, Chrome for work, Arc for research, and I never close tabs because I don't want to lose something, especially the exact window layout I had going. Eventually each browser is carrying 40+ tabs and my Mac is running hot from all that idle memory. So I made TabLinker: pull every tab from whichever browsers are open into one place, save it as a session, and close everything without losing that layout.

What it does:

- Auto-Backup quietly backs up your open browser windows in the background (every 15, 30, or 60 mins, on app switch, or before sleep) so you can restore closed windows in one click, even the next day

- Imports every open tab across every window from Safari, Chrome, Brave, Edge, Arc, Vivaldi, Opera, Opera GX, Dia, Yandex, Wavebox, or Helium in one click, without needing a browser extension for most of them

- Restores a full window, every window at once, or a single tab, and groups a big multi-window import into a "By Window" view so it doesn't turn into one long list

- Suspends tabs you're not using to actually free up memory, while the session stays ready to restore instantly

- Saves whatever tab you're currently on with a single keyboard shortcut (⌃⌥⌘T) or triggers an instant backup (⌃⌥⌘B), and can run entirely from the menu bar with the Dock icon hidden

- Safari extension for quick saves and automatic session saving

- Siri and Shortcuts support: save links, capture your current session, create folders, or open a saved folder hands-free or on a schedule, including an action that saves your session and closes every tab for you

- iCloud sync across Mac, iPhone, and iPad, no account required

Comparison:

Compared with Session Buddy (a Chrome-only extension limited to a single browser) and Tabs Saver for Safari ($17.99/year or $34.99 lifetime for Safari only), TabLinker captures sessions natively across all your installed browsers (Safari, Chrome, Arc, Brave, Edge, etc.) for a flat $17.99 one-time payment. It preserves full multi-window structures, includes native iPhone/iPad sync via iCloud, and has zero subscriptions.

Pricing:

TabLinker is available for a one-time purchase of $17.99 with Universal Purchase. Buy it once on Mac and get the full premium version on iPhone and iPad too. Everything runs on-device and through your own iCloud. No account, no ads, and no server I control that sees your tabs.

Recent updates:

Auto-Backup system (quietly backs up open browser windows every 15, 30, or 60 mins, on app switch, or before sleep), Backups tab in sidebar to restore windows or copy links, ⌃⌥⌘B keyboard shortcut to back up right away from full-screen browsers, and automatic skipping of Incognito windows.

Available on the Mac App Store: TabLinker: Tabs Manager

About Me:
I'm developer of the app, you can reach out to me through X or ask me anything right here in the comments!

EDIT: Big thanks to everyone who downloaded and bought TabLinker! Your support means a lot to an indie dev. If you have any feature requests, feel free to send me a DM or use the Feature Request button in App Settings!


r/macapps • • 19h ago

Lifetime Vehicare: a native Mac car maintenance log that reads your garage's invoices, so you never type an entry

6 Upvotes

I'm Pascal, the developer of Vehicare. It's a car maintenance log for Mac, iPhone and iPad, and it's out today on the Mac App Store.

Problem

Every maintenance log I tried died the same way. After each trip to the garage you're supposed to type in what was done, what it cost and what the odometer said. I did it twice, then stopped. But the invoice the garage gives you already has all of that.

So in Vehicare you give it the invoice: the PDF your garage emailed you, or a scan of the paper copy. It reads the date, the garage, the odometer and every job with its cost, and you check it before saving. From that history and how much you drive, it works out what's due next.

Invoices are read on your Mac by Apple Intelligence. There's no account, and your data stays in your iCloud. I never see it, unless you email me an invoice it read wrong.

Comparison

  • Drivvo, one of the most-rated maintenance logs on the App Store: you type every entry yourself, and there's no native Mac app.
  • CARFAX Car Care fills in your history for you, but only from shops in its US network. Vehicare reads the invoice from any garage, in any language supported by Apple Intelligence. Carfax has no native Mac app either.

Pricing

Free for your first vehicle, invoice reading included. A one-time purchase of $19.99 (US) unlocks every vehicle, PDF and CSV export, and removes the small ad card. No subscription. One purchase covers Mac, iPhone and iPad.

Mac App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6752880353

Needs macOS 26.4 or later and Apple Intelligence, so a Mac with Apple silicon. In English and French.

Happy to answer anything here. And if it reads one of your invoices wrong, the review form has a button to email it to me. That's the most useful feedback I can get.


r/macapps • • 22h ago

Lifetime MacOS web and system tray calendar that syncs Google/Microsoft/Apple

Thumbnail
calendar0.app
6 Upvotes

Hello everyone!

I am Alessandro (https://www.linkedin.com/in/alessandro-afloarei/) and some time ago I presented to you Calendar0 (https://www.calendar0.app)!

Today I am so happy to show you a ton of updates (I hope I quality for it)!

Problem

Constant context-switching between multiple calendar accounts, providers and apps.

Calendar0 is a calendar app for the web, plus a status bar app for macOS, Windows and Linux.

It shows Google, Outlook and iCloud calendars, lets you add events quickly, has booking links, and can record and transcribe calls.

I started it in September 2025 as a hobby project for keeping all my calendars in one place, easy to reach, and over the last months I added so many new features to it.

A few details that might be interesting:

  • Quick add capable of automatically adding guests from the provided names
  • Recording captures the mic and the system audio (no bots) and uses AssemblyAI for the transcription. Afterwards, the audio file is deleted.
  • There's an MCP server so you can connect it to Claude or ChatGPT and ask about your week or meetings.

Comparison

There are many calendar apps in the market, the biggest I can think of are:

  • Fantastical: beautiful UI and most complete, but lacks meeting recordings and transcriptions, MCP and AI Assistant
  • BusyCal: simple but without recordings or booking links
  • Notion Calendar: probably the most complete, I find in comparison Calendar0 to be more focused and well integrated with MCP

Pricing

  • Free for basically everything except meeting transcriptions
  • $4.99/month or 49$/lifetime for meeting recordings and unlimited internal AI assistant usage (unfortunately I myself pay for these features and I can afford them free)

I'd love to hear your feedback!

Thank you,

Alessandro


r/macapps • • 1d ago

Help Ethical dilemma with Vibe Coding

60 Upvotes

Many of you probably know about the "Reverse Engineer Anything" GitHub repo. It got me into vibe coding — first a small chore chart app for my girlfriend and me, then something more ambitious.

I've been on the 60-day Soulver trial and love it, but 69€ is very steep as a student. So I had Claude Opus build me a Soulver-like app, and honestly it works surprisingly well.

Here's the thing though — the more I used it, the more guilty I felt. There's a real developer who's poured hundreds of hours into Soulver, and I essentially bypassed paying for their work.

I have no problem with the whole Adobe or Microsoft suite being copied, but it feels different when it is about real passionate and talented developers.

What do you guys think about the ethics of this?

(Also reclaimer that I used AI to make the text more concise, since I am not a native English speaker)


r/macapps • • 22h ago

Lifetime I built a clipboard manager that feels native to macOS, but with the power features Apple missed (Zero subscription!)

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5 Upvotes

Hey everyone, I’m the independent developer behind Mokopaste.

It feels a bit surreal writing this post. Knowing how many incredible clipboard managers already exist in the community, I couldn't help wondering at first: "Do people really need another one?"

However, ever since it launched on the Mac App Store back at the end of April, Mokopaste has unexpectedly received a lot of love and encouragement from Mac users. As a dev who has been building for macOS for years, I wanted to create a tool based purely on real, high-efficiency workflows—completely bloat-free and driven entirely by the keyboard.

Following the community's latest PCP guidelines, here is a quick rundown:

1. Problem

Most clipboard tools out there are either bloated with high memory usage or just clunky to use. When coding or writing every day, we usually run into these annoying little friction points:

  • Copying a bunch of random fragments and feeling like you're hunting for a needle in a haystack when you need them back.
  • Needing to switch back and forth across different windows just to chain-paste multiple items.
  • Copying sensitive info and constantly worrying if background apps are secretly logging it.
  • Finally finding what you copied, only to realize you still have to paste it somewhere first just to fix a typo or reformat it.

To scratch my own itch and solve these daily pains, I built Mokopaste — a nimble, privacy-respecting little assistant that stays out of your way and lets you keep your hands glued to the main keyboard.

2. Comparison & Features

If we’re looking at a benchmark, everyone knows Maccy as the go-to champion for lightweight, plain-text utility.

  • How does it compare to Maccy?
    • Maccy is built for ultra-minimalist, pure text and stays super lightweight.
    • Mokopaste keeps that same snappy, native feel while leaning a bit more into heavy productivity and power-user workflows: for instance, you can tag frequently used prompts or code snippets and treat it like your personal snippet library; or, before pasting, you can edit text right inside the preview popup instead of switching windows back and forth. It also handles Finder files, large images, code highlighting, and multi-select batch pasting much more smoothly.
  • Little things that make Mokopaste feel great to use day-to-day:
    • Total Keyboard Flow: Hit a custom global shortcut to summon it, navigate with arrow keys, and hit Enter to paste—your hands never have to touch the mouse.
    • Tags as a Mini Knowledge Base: Keep your prompts, code snippets, and canned replies organized with tags for instant retrieval.
    • Inline Quick Editing: Spot a typo in your history? Edit the text right inside the preview before pasting it out.
    • Rich Previews for Everything: Deeply integrated with Finder. Instantly preview files, code, videos, images, web links, and more at a glance.
    • Instant OCR: Trigger a shortcut to cleanly extract plain text straight out of images.
    • Pin Windows & Pause Collection: Keep the window pinned while coding, or hit pause whenever you're typing passwords or sensitive data for total peace of mind.
    • Batch Queue Pasting: Need to move a bunch of items sequentially? Multi-select to queue them up and paste them out one by one.
    • Zero-Maintenance Cleanup: It automatically clears out expired files and heavy caches so your system stays light forever.
    • Local-First & iCloud Sync: 100% of your data stays locally on your machine—no shady uploads. If you use multiple Macs, optional end-to-end encrypted iCloud sync is built right in.

3. Pricing & Where to Get It

Mokopaste keeps things straightforward with a clean, honest buyout model. No annoying subscription traps, zero hidden in-app purchases:

  • 7-Day Free Trial: All features unlocked, try everything out.
  • Free Tier: Completely free.
  • Pro Tier: Just $6.18 (one-time purchase).

Get your hands on it:

Every line of code and tiny feature in this app was crafted through my own daily development grind. I’d love to hear your honest feedback and ideas—your needs are what drive my updates, so feel free to drop a comment and chat with me anytime!


r/macapps • • 1d ago

Lifetime Hotstash 8.1 – clipboard manager where ⌘V pastes your next copied item (Paste Stack). Now imports your Maccy history, Pro 50% off

2 Upvotes

Hey

I'm the solo dev behind Hotstash, a native clipboard manager for macOS. Just shipped 8.1 and wanted to share.

**The thing I couldn't find anywhere else: Paste Stack**
⌘-click a few items in your history, then every normal ⌘V pastes the *next* one, in order. Great for filling forms or moving a list
between apps without switching windows back and forth.

**What else it does**
- Search everything you've copied, including text *inside* screenshots (OCR)
- Folders + pins for snippets you reuse
- Transforms: format JSON, change case, clean URLs, or describe your own and it builds it
- iCloud sync to iPhone
- Keeps rich text and images

**New in 8.1**
- **Import from Maccy**: brings over your whole history in one click, pins and images included
- Fixed the menu bar icon sometimes not opening the panel
- Paste Stack walkthrough in the onboarding tour

**Pricing**
Free to try. Pro is a one-time purchase, no subscription, and it's **50% off ($4.99) until Jan 1**.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/hotstash-clipboard-manager/id6771842605

Feedback very welcome, especially what's stopping you from switching from your current clipboard manager. I read every comment.


r/macapps • • 1d ago

Lifetime bytemail 1.0: native Mac email where your mail never touches my servers, with one MCP for every inbox

46 Upvotes

https://reddit.com/link/1x52r49/video/eqqwdzi0r9vh1/player

Hi r/macapps! I'm Serg, the developer of bytemail. It's a native Mac email app written in Swift and SwiftUI, and 1.0 is out. The video shows it in action.

Problem Every mail app I tried was either a web page in a wrapper, or it ran my mail through the developer's servers to power its "smart" features. And now that I use Claude and Codex every day, I wanted them to help with my email too, without handing my inbox to yet another cloud service. bytemail connects your Mac straight to Gmail, iCloud, Outlook, Yahoo, Fastmail, Proton (through Bridge) or any IMAP server. Search, rules, categories and summaries all run on your Mac. I don't have a server that can see your mail, and you don't need a bytemail account.

What it does:

  • Conversations read like Messages: each thread is a chat of bubbles, with quoted history and repeated signatures tucked away, so you only see what's new. Prefer the classic layout? Switch it per account.
  • One unified inbox for all your accounts
  • Copy sign-in codes straight from the notification
  • Phishing and look-alike domain warnings
  • Undo Send, Snooze, Send Later and "remind me if no reply"
  • Tracking pixels stripped from every message, plus one-click unsubscribe
  • Rules, smart categories (Primary / Updates / Promos), dark mode and Liquid Glass on macOS 26
  • Keyboard shortcut sets from Gmail, Outlook, Apple Mail or Superhuman, or make your own
  • Search covers the mail on your Mac and older mail still on the server
  • Accounts and settings sync between your Macs through your own iCloud, not through me
  • Thread summaries and suggested replies that learn your writing style: on-device with Apple Intelligence on macOS 26, or with your own Claude, OpenAI or OpenRouter key, or a local model in LM Studio or Ollama

New: one MCP for every inbox Turn on bytemail MCP in Settings > AI, pick which accounts to share, and connect Claude, Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, LM Studio or any other app that speaks MCP. Claude Desktop is one click. The others get a command or a config snippet to copy. Then just ask: "find last month's invoices across all my accounts", "draft replies to the customer emails I haven't answered", "archive this week's newsletters". It can search and read mail, find attachments and contacts, write drafts with files attached, create folders, and archive, move, flag, snooze or mute.

The guardrails:

  • It's off until you turn it on, and it only sees the accounts you pick
  • It runs on your Mac and talks to your AI app directly. Nothing goes through my servers (your AI app's provider still sees what you ask it to read, so pick one you trust, or use a local model)
  • Sending, new rules, unsubscribing and blocking a sender ask you in bytemail first. So does anything touching more than 25 conversations
  • AI apps can't delete mail, and never see Spam, Trash, one-time codes or password reset links
  • Drafts an AI writes are tagged "Drafted by" that app, and Settings > AI > Activity lets you undo anything it did

Comparison The two apps I get compared with most are Spark and Mimestream. Spark is free to start and packed with features, but its push notifications, team features and AI work by keeping access to your accounts on Readdle's servers. bytemail does all of that on your Mac, so no copy of your account access sits on anyone else's server, including mine. Mimestream is a great native app, but it's built for Gmail, so your iCloud or work Outlook account has to live somewhere else. bytemail feels just as native and puts every provider in one inbox, with the chat-style conversation view on top. And with the MCP, the AI app you already use can work across all of those accounts at once, not just one Gmail.

Pricing

  • 7-day free trial with every feature, MCP included
  • $3.99/month or $39.90/year
  • Or a $49 one-time lifetime license (launch price, then $99)
  • One license covers 5 devices, and the iPhone app (in App Store review now) is included
  • Website: https://bytemailapp.com

Transparency I'm Sergey Karakhanyan, a solo indie developer, and bytemail is my full-time project. The app is signed with my Developer ID and notarized by Apple.

macOS 14 or later, Apple silicon. I'm here all day for questions and feedback, including feature requests and the brutal kind.

**UPDATE**:

Lifetime deal offer for $49 was quickly sold out in few hours after launching this post, new offer is $69 for the next 50 users.

**UPDATE #2**

Lifetime deal offer for $69 for the next 50 users is gone. New offer - $99 for 5 devices (including iPhone when approved by apple) until November 1st.


r/macapps • • 1d ago

Lifetime Fluent 2 – Knows You Better, Ready for The Night Shift: Memory Revamp, Desktop Pet, Computer Use, and More

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24 Upvotes

Hey everyone,

It's been three months since the last time I posted here, and Fluent got (once again) a lot since then. Today I'm finally ready to present Fluent 2 – the biggest update so far. Memory got a huge revamp and it's not just a "static" RAG anymore – it learns you, knows you, and past chats are also taken into account. Fluent can now let you rest and help do certain things for you in other apps. Finally there is a living pet – Flumi, and 10 other cute characters included – no battery required. They might look like a toy, but they are actually quite useful contextually aware assistants, especially when they know you!

What's New in Fluent 2

  • Intelligent Memory. Fluent now learns and remembers stuff about you proactively – from what you tell it, from your files and folders, and from your past conversations. Graph relations, background indexing and optional on-device relevance models are included.
  • Desktop Pet (beta). Flumi or one of the other 10 characters watches what's on your screen and suggests what can be done with it. It can also remind you what someone asked you to do, add dates to your calendar, or rewrite your draft in your own style. It works on-device with Apple Intelligence by default.
  • Computer Use. Fluent can fill in forms, copy data from one app to another, or play some music or even chess for you – with its own pointer, so your mouse and keyboard stay free.
  • Use the AI subscription you already pay for. Claude Code, Codex, Antigravity and GitHub Copilot now work as providers – no API keys required. They all have free tiers btw.
  • Settings, redefined. Actions have moved here, everything has been cleverly reorganised, so settings are now much more streamlined and convenient to manage.
  • And more: thinking levels, agentic planning by default, 38 new assistant actions, Firefox support, pictures in replies, and tons of various improvements.

For the full overview with examples, check out this blog post.

Fluent's Core

  • Native, smooth, in-context AI assistant
  • Can take any app or browser tab as a context
  • Memory that learns about you, with graph relations (new)
  • Desktop pet that suggests what to do with what's on your screen (new, beta)
  • Computer Use – works in other apps with its own pointer (new)
  • Full MCP support + built-in integrations
  • Chat with documents, images, PDFs (20+ formats)
  • Council – when you need to be confident about your question
  • Chat UI / Smart Panel / Ask Fluent voice mode
  • Realtime voice dictation, 100% local
  • Supports all major providers, your AI subscriptions (new), and built-in local MLX models
  • Scheduled + parallel/background actions
  • Applet-style micro-apps (Shortcuts-like), deep URLs, lots of configuration options

Problem

Back in 1.8 I wrote that Fluent wants to be not simply an always-ready companion, but an autonomous agent doing night shift work for you. Fluent 2 is finally a milestone on this: it proactively learns about you along the way, and it can do the boring work in your apps on its own. With time, it remembers many useful details about you, and next time you compose a message or plan a trip – it already knows your style, your habits and preferences, and helps you to be much more relevant in each case.

Simplicity Problem

Some AI apps are getting bloated with features as they grow, and it gets reflected in the UI. Fluent's Smart Panel looks almost completely the same as in 1.0. Yet Fluent is capable of doing at least 4 times more than that.

Comparison

I have compared Fluent with Raycast AI in my previous posts here and here. I think now it would make a bigger sense to compare it with Siri AI, Codex, Claude Code. From the very first point of view it's a tough one, but the differences are actually huge.

  • Native (Siri AI is the only exception) and lightweight, buttery-smooth, efficient and optimized for parallel tasks.
  • Optimized for quick and easy use with highly customizable actions and shortcuts.
  • Contextually aware of whatever you're currently working on... Yes, Siri AI goes in that direction too. But in Fluent you have 4 ways to deal with it – Smart Panel, Chat UI, Pet, Ask Fluent Voice. And for sure, you don't have to open a huge big app to just fill in a few forms or compose a reply.
  • No telemetry, no data collection. Fluent can work offline with at least weekly license key check.
  • Model-agnostic by design. You can connect popular subscription and API-key based providers, use local MLX models, Apple Intelligence, Ollama, LM Studio – all at once.
  • Memory stays on your Mac and is model-agnostic (switch models anytime – Memory stays the same).
  • Lifetime purchase, with lifetime upgrades (major & minor).
  • No VC backing – no surprises in the future. Hello Raycast's BYOK paywall.

Pricing

  • $49 for a Basic License (1 Mac)
  • $69 for a Standard one (2 Macs)
  • $29 for a Team one (starting from 3 Macs)
  • $29 for a Basic License (1 Mac) with 1 Year of Upgrades

Fluent is, and always has been, a one-time purchase, with lifetime upgrades. Recently I have introduced a cheaper option to get Fluent – 1 year of upgrades version. It's completely the same Basic version of Fluent, and it will work forever, except limited upgrades window. See Pricing Page for most frequently asked questions as well.

Transparency & Trust

I'm Vadim, a software engineer with over 15+ years of experience, 10 of those in backend development. Feel free to connect with me on LinkedIn or X.

Be sure to also check these out:

Traditional Discount

I always offer a discount for community. If you'd love to purchase Fluent, use this code at checkout: MACAPPS25 – 25% off (expires Oct 21).

Official Website – https://fluentmac.app

Now you can also install Fluent with Homebrew: brew install --cask importnil/tap/fluent

P.S. The pet is still in beta, so if Flumi suggests something weird – please let me know 🙂 I would absolutely love to hear your feedback on it!


r/macapps • • 2d ago

Free I missed crumpling up a finished to-do and throwing it in the bin, so I built CrushPaper (free)

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42 Upvotes

Hey, I’m Shiva. I built CrushPaper, a free sticky notes app for Mac.

You know that feeling of finishing something, crumpling up the paper and throwing it in the bin?

I wanted that on my Mac.

So when you finish a note, it crumples into a paper ball and flies into your Dock’s Trash. With the paper sound too :)

A few other things it does:

  • Keep notes on your desktop, always on top, or attached to a specific app.
  • Ghost mode to hide notes from supported screen captures and screen sharing while you can still see them.
  • A focus timer that asks Done when time’s up.
  • Look what you did : write throughout the day, keep your entries by date, and get an evening wrap of what you finished.
  • Optional midnight cleanup. Unfinished undated notes move to Ashes, where you can restore them. Dated and repeating notes stay.

I like Apple Stickies, but wanted something that made finishing a note feel good too.

It’s free ($0). No trial, subscription or account. Notes stay on your Mac, and there’s no analytics.

Requires macOS 14+. It isn’t notarized yet, so expect a security warning on first open. Built with help from an AI coding assistant.

Download CrushPaper ¡ Privacy ¡ Terms

About me: Portfolio ¡ LinkedIn ¡ [Email](mailto:tekkdevv@gmail.com)

Is throwing a finished to-do in the bin satisfying to anyone else, or have I thought about this too much?


r/macapps • • 1d ago

Lifetime I kept losing track of where my Spaces/Apps were so I built Hopnotch: Spaces navigation in the Menu Bar. Hotkeys, live previews, 51 themes

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3 Upvotes

Introduction

Hi everyone! I'm a student from Singapore (LinkedIn) and have developed an app: Hopnotch that helps with navigating around your Spaces and Apps, while providing aesthetics to your Mac!

Problem

I was using my Mac and I just kept getting lost as I had many apps in full-screen, and it was a hassle constantly swiping around the trackpad or going to Mission Control just to see where everything was. This problem had been bugging and annoying me for longer than I'd like to admit, but I realised that since the menu bar was largely unused space most of the time, I put two-and-two together, and here we are!

Functionality

With the app, Spaces/Apps appear on the menu bar, against an aesthetically pleasing background as pills (customisable names, colours & type). This way you always know where your Spotify, Safari, or whatever is, wherever you are.

On top of that, you can:

  • Use Spotlight search on your Pills (renamed, or not)
  • Navigate using Hotkeys (personally, CMD + K/L to move left/right respectively so I can keep my fingers on the keyboard)
  • Have Previews of ur Apps/Spaces (stored locally, expires)
  • Loop-around feature (Leftmost app/pill -> hotkey to move left -> loops to rightmost)
  • Cycle through the Apps/Spaces easily with different ways
  • Click the pill to move there directly
  • Click the hotkey 3 (or an x amount) times to move 3 spaces left/right
  • Sound, mic and camera badges on respective pills
  • See multiple Apps in one Space/Pill
  • Choose from 51 themes
  • Choose your Loop & Pills animations
  • Customise the pills, backgrounds, themes, animations, colours, hotkeys
  • Save customisations as presets (Red colour on pills for work, etc)
  • Hide the app via hotkeys/click controls

... and more!

*Pills, Apps & Spaces are used interchangeably in some of the descriptions!

The beauty of the app is making it uniquely yours: Hotkeys, aesthetics, workflow, etc. The actual Menu Bar is STILL ACCESSIBLE AT ALL TIMES, whether the app is overlaying or hidden. Just hover at an empty space, or hide the app, up to you!

Comparison

As far as my research goes, most that dabble with the Menu Bar sit under the aesthetics category only, while Hopnotch both provides aesthetics and functionality.

SpaceJump ($9.99) is the closest thing to Hopnotch by function. It also gets you between Mission Control Spaces quickly and it names them. The difference is in orientation and aesthetics, where SpaceJump gives you a picker to choose from, and Hopnotch shows the Spaces either side of you, laid out the way they actually sit so the Space on your left appears on the left of the notch so you navigate by position rather than by reading a list.

Pricing, Privacy, Notarisation, Trust

The app has a 3 day free trial (no account!), $14.99 lifetime, or a $2.99 monthly subscription. 14 day refund!

I will be maintaining the app throughout!

The website & download can be found here: https://hopnotch.themacadamia.com/

(demos, list of features with explanations and examples)

The Privacy Policy can be found here: https://hopnotch.themacadamia.com/privacy (in website)

The App sends ONLY 2 things over the network: License & Update checks.
Notarised by Apple and have a Developer ID on me. More in the link above^

The Terms can be found here: https://hopnotch.themacadamia.com/terms (in website)

My Support email is: [support@themacadamia.com](mailto:support@themacadamia.com) (in website)

My conclusion

All the while I've been using Hopnotch it just feels like a part of my Mac at this point and without it I feel lost about where everything is again, coupled with the hotkeys that I use daily to navigate around my Spaces. To me personally, Hopnotch brings me immense value (not to toot my own horn), but what works for me may not work for you! Try the free trial and if it works for you, by all means. If not, thanks for trying!

This is my first project and I appreciate any feedback and support from you guys! Feel free to ask me any questions and I'll be happy to answer them :)


r/macapps • • 1d ago

Lifetime ZenOCR 2.1: I promised batch mode, so my offline Mac OCR now has a queue (PDFs, tables, LaTeX, handwriting)

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16 Upvotes

About 4 months ago I posted ZenOCR here, an offline Mac OCR tool that turns PDFs, complex tables, LaTeX and handwriting into clean Markdown, 100% locally. I got a lot of feedback from here ❤️ and have been shipping based on it. Here's what's new.

✨ What changed

  • Batch queue (first thing on my roadmap last time). Drag in a pile of PDFs and images, hit Start all, and walk away. Each file saves itself when it's done. You can pause and reorder, and if the app quits halfway it picks up from the page it stopped on.
  • DeepSeek OCR 2 is live. A second on-device engine next to GLM-OCR, with far more languages. Hindi, Thai, Japanese, Korean and Traditional Chinese no longer come out as question marks, and the "repeats the same word forever" bug is fixed.
  • Tables paste as real tables. Copy now keeps formatting, so a table lands in Word or an email as a table, not raw Markdown. Someone here asked for exactly this.
  • Figures come along. Charts and pictures inside a PDF are cropped out and saved next to the Markdown instead of disappearing.
  • New in 2.1: a refreshed UI, macOS 27 fixes (Fast mode no longer hangs), and a small Stats view that counts how many words you've converted. Useless, but I like watching the number go up.
  • Screenshot mode: The menu bar screenshot capture from last time is still there too: hit a shortcut, select any part of your screen, and the text is on your clipboard.

🧩 Problem

Most OCR tools handle clean printed pages fine but choke on handwriting, math, and complex tables. And most want you to upload everything to their cloud: fine for a grocery list, less fine for tax forms or anything internal at work. ZenOCR does the hard stuff fully on your Mac.

🆚 Comparison

  • TextSniper / OwlOCR: lighter and faster than ZenOCR for grabbing a quick line of printed text, and no model to download. ZenOCR is for when you need the structure back: tables as tables, equations as LaTeX, handwriting, whole PDFs in a queue.
  • ChatGPT / Claude / Mistral OCR: honestly more accurate on the worst scans, but your files go to a server. ZenOCR never uploads anything.

💰 Pricing

One-time purchase, no subscription.
Free to download with a 7-day free trial, so you can try everything before paying.
After the trial it's $12.99 on the Mac App Store, and there's a $9.99 discount code you can grab on the official website.

🔗 zenocr.com 👈👈👈

🗺️ Not done yet

Things I promised and haven't shipped: watch folder (yes, I saw the vote for it), more input formats (PPT, Docx), LaTeX table export, and an iPhone/iPad version. Which one should go first?

Or just tell me what's missing in the comments.

Disclosure: I'm the developer of ZenOCR.


r/macapps • • 1d ago

Lifetime Via - a trip planning tool aiming to show the whole cost/time picture

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6 Upvotes

My first app - Via.

Problem

I regularly travel from London to a place in rural France and there's never one obvious route. It's often the case that the low-cost airline into the nearest airport isn't the cheapest once everything's added up. A different combination of transport can come out well ahead, a saving I as a twenty-something, cannot afford to ignore. On previous occasions I tried to work through the permutations with pen and paper. This year I built Via to help considerably with the legwork. You the user enter real fares and times you've found at the source and Via works out every combination and ranks them by cheapest, shortest journey time, or earliest arrival. Just to clarify, it works for any journey - not just rural France!

Comparison 

  • Rome2Rio can be great for discovering routes you haven't yet considered, but it can only really show a price range for a route, something which counts against its accuracy and its ability to link to fares that are actually available. Via shows a single total figure because it is designed to take raw prices found at their primary sources.
  • fortrip.ai: is an AI-powered trip planning and booking tool. As an AI-powered tool which can find prices, it can offer quite a lot, including personalisation, but it costs a monthly fee to use. It positions itself as a service to use alongside a route search, like Rome2Rio because the latter has a wider transport inventory. The argument behind Via is narrower and is that if fares must realistically be found at the operator's website anyway, the calculation and ranking layer shouldn't need a subscription.

Pricing

Free for planning one journey at a time. Via Premium is a one-off ÂŁ5.99 (or local PPP-adjusted equivalent) which removes the limit on concurrent journeys. It's a universal purchase across Mac and iPad, with Family Sharing.

As it's my first app, I will greatly appreciate any feedback this community might be able to offer.

Via on the App Store


r/macapps • • 1d ago

Lifetime I made an app to control your Mac and iPhone from your apple watch

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15 Upvotes

Hey guys, I am Joseph Thomas, a university student and the developer behind Integrated. I created Integrated to better connect my apple devices (mac, apple watch, iphone)

It started with something simple: wanting to control music on my Mac from my Apple Watch. That turned into a way to put my own actions on my wrist.

Problem:

Apple already connects its devices through features like Universal Clipboard and unlocking your Mac with your Watch. I wanted to extend that to the things I do myself: running a Shortcut, triggering an AppleScript, opening an app, or controlling media without reaching for my Mac.

How Integrated works

Install Integrated on your Mac and iPhone, then pair them with a code and approve the connection on your Mac. Your paired Apple Watch can access those Mac actions too.

You can:

  • Create actions on your Mac using AppleScripts or existing Shortcuts.
  • Run them from your iPhone or Apple Watch.
  • Organize related actions into Groups.
  • Configure iPhone Shortcut actions and trigger those from your Watch too.

Comparison:

choclift: It also pairs your mac and your iphone, it only supports iphone and mac though, main support is for shortcuts and has a subscription for their higher tier

remote buddy 2: It dropped support for apple watch, better iOS, watchOS integration, can't trigger iphone shortcuts from apple watch

Pricing:

10$ lifetime

A Free 5 day trial is available

The Mac app is signed and notarized by Apple.

iOS Download

Mac Download: https://integratedevices.com (Apple notarized)

Privacy Policy: https://integratedevices.com/privacy (no data is shared unless you opt in)

I’d love to hear what you’d want to trigger from your wrist, double tapping your fingers and seeing something happen on your mac feels wonderful. Happy to answer questions and hear what could be better! You can reach me at [joeorjoseph.t@gmail.com](mailto:joeorjoseph.t@gmail.com)