My favourite 8 Mac apps that put Apple's default choices to disgrace

Key Takeaways

Apple’s macOS working system comes with a variety of default apps and applications out of the field.
Apple continues to enhance its native apps yearly, however third-party options merely supply extra performance.
Listed below are a number of the greatest third-party apps that blow Apple’s choices out of the water.

Apple’s Mac working system, generally known as macOS, comes with some fairly nice built-in apps by default. The corporate frequently updates these apps and utilities to coincide with main OS updates, which happen as soon as each fall. This yr, for instance, we received updates to Messages, Calculator, Calendar, and extra, within the type of macOS Sequoia.

Apple’s first-party Mac apps cowl the fundamentals, however third-party builders have spent years crafting their own solutions. Oftentimes, these non-Apple apps embrace tons of options and utilities not accessible out the field on the Mac. Listed below are 6 Mac apps I all the time obtain and run as an alternative of the default macOS ones.

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1 PDFgear

A full-featured PDF viewer and editor

PDFgear

A full-featured PDF reader and editor app for Mac with an intuitive interface.

By default, PDFs launch on Mac utilizing Apple’s built-in Preview app. Preview is completely nice for viewing paperwork, and even affords some primary instruments for enhancing. Nevertheless, when you’re on the lookout for one thing with slightly further oomph, then a third-party PDF app is what you may wish to obtain.

There are various PDF apps accessible on the market, together with Adobe’s own Acrobat Reader. Nevertheless, my suggestion is the superb and utterly free PDFgear. It affords tons of choices for formatting and web page enhancing, a easy and intuitive consumer interface, an indication and form-filling software, and even primary AI integration for summarizing and translating textual content.

iPhone mirroring on Mac on colored background

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2 The Unarchiver

One of the best software for opening compressed information on Mac

The Unarchiver

A easy archive utility for Mac that helps even probably the most obscure compression codecs.

Apple’s default utility for opening and decompressing RAR information is constructed into its Finder utility, however integration is pretty bare-bones. There are quite a few archive instruments accessible for macOS, however my favourite is The Unarchiver. The app is totally free, light-weight, and affords help for a genuinely huge variety of archival codecs.

For those who ever run into an obscure format like XAR, Ar, SWF, or AlZip, then The Unarchiver is solely the best software for the job.

The Unarchiver helps non-Latin characters out of the field, and the file extracting interface is easy to make use of in comparison with another options on the market available on the market. For those who ever run into an obscure format like XAR, Ar, SWF, or AlZip, then The Unarchiver is solely the best software for the job.

Android in hand with a park in the background.

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BetterSnapTool

A light-weight utility that brings Home windows-style app snapping to the Mac desktop.

Apple introduced a built-in window snapping tool with the current launch of macOS Sequoia, after years of buyer hankering for the function. Apple’s implementation is stable, however removed from full-featured. Fortunately, the third-party BetterSnapTool remains to be round with some superior functionalities on supply.

BetterSnapTool sits in your Mac’s menu bar, with a drop-down number of selections to kind by. You’ll be able to create customized snap areas, toggle ‘float window on prime,’ disable options for a particular window, and shortly transfer home windows from one monitor to the following. BetterSnapTool prices $3 on the Mac App Retailer, and is nicely definitely worth the buy.

An alternate window snapping app,
Magnet
, can also be widespread amongst Mac customers, however prices barely extra at $5.

An Android phone with Aptoide pulled up in dark mode.

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4 Bitwarden

An especially safe third-party password supervisor

Bitwarden

A extremely safe password supervisor app that works throughout platforms and working methods.

With the discharge of Apple’s macOS Sequoia, the corporate debuted a new Passwords application. This app is a password supervisor like another, saving your varied passcodes, passkeys, and extra, for simple and safe entry. The app is easy sufficient, however hardly groundbreaking — it is merely a brand new house for an present Apple function beforehand discovered inside Settings.

The app is cross-platform, which implies that, not like Apple’s answer, it will work on Android units.

That is the place Bitwarden, a preferred third-party password supervisor, is available in. The app is cross-platform, which implies that, not like Apple’s answer, it will work on Android devices. Auto-generation and autofill of passwords, safe end-to-end encryption, and an open source code that’s frequently assessed, make BitWarden a wonderful selection. Bitwarden is free to make use of, however affords a Premium subscription plan with entry to safety experiences, an built-in authenticator, and extra. For most individuals, the free plan is greater than serviceable.

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5 ProNotes

An extension that supercharges Apple’s built-in Notes app

ProNotes

An extension for Apple’s Notes app on Mac, that introduces a variety of enhancing options.

ProNotes is not an Apple Notes substitute, however quite it is a supplementary add-on that sprinkles in a variety of useful utilities throughout the board. The default notes app has grow to be a reasonably highly effective software through the years, and ProNotes makes it all of the extra highly effective for on a regular basis use.

The app provides a Microsoft Phrase-like formatting bar for fast entry to instruments like daring, underline, and strikethrough, keyboard shortcuts for textual content formatting, slash command shortcuts, and way more. A ProNotes Gold subscription will web you some AI-based options like summarization and grammar correction, however with Apple Intelligence set to arrive soon, I would maintain off on the premium buy in the intervening time.

Someone holding an iPhone with the Notes app open

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Your one-stop-shop for opening and enjoying media information

VLC Media Participant for Mac

A free and open-source media participant app with broad help for nearly each file format on the market.

Apple’s macOS ships with Preview, which is an utility used for launching and enjoying again multimedia information immediately in your pc. VLC Media Participant is a free and open-source different that is been round for a few years. It is all the time been a preferred third-party answer, and for good cause — it is suitable with nearly any multimedia file you may throw at it, together with a number of the most obscure ones.

VLC is suitable with nearly any multimedia file you may throw at it.

VLC may also play again CDs and DVDs, in addition to faucet into a variety of streaming protocols. Its interface design is not probably the most fashionable on the market, however the app is a dependable and time-tested answer that’ll have your again everytime you run right into a file that refuses to open with Preview.

7 Darkish Noise: Ambient Sounds

Apple’s built-in Background Sounds software is sweet, however Darkish Noise is the superior possibility in each regard

Darkish Noise

Darkish Noise takes Apple’s built-in Background Sounds function and takes it to the following stage, with tons of ambient sounds to select from.

One of many lesser-known options inside macOS is its built-in Background Sounds possibility. When enabled, the software performs again certainly one of a small number of ambient sounds — many individuals discover these sounds useful as background noise whereas finding out, working, or making an attempt to go to sleep. Apple added in two further sound results — night time and hearth — alongside the discharge of macOS Sequoia. The issue is that the function is buried deep within the system by default, nestled inside System Settings > Accessibility > Audio.

Many individuals discover these sounds useful as background noise whereas finding out, working, or making an attempt to go to sleep.

Darkish Noise is a third-party app that brings an analogous expertise to the desk, however does so in a method that is arguably simpler to entry. The sound results may be picked out from a devoted interface, and there are numerous extra sound choices accessible than Apple offers. These embrace white noise, rain, desk fan, seaside, campfire, airplane inside, espresso store, and lullaby.

The app is free to obtain from the Mac App Retailer, however to be able to entry the broader array of soundscapes accessible, you may should spring for Darkish Noise Professional, which is subscription primarily based and likewise unlocks customized sound mixes, further themes, alterative app icons, and extra. There’s additionally a lifetime possibility when you’d desire to not pay month-to-month or on a yearly foundation.

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8 Yomu EBook Reader

One of the best purpose-built e-reader app accessible for Mac

Yomu EBook Reader

A wonderful and natively-built reader app for the Mac, with broad help for varied e book file codecs.

Through the years, e-readers and ebooks have grown immensely in reputation. It isn’t arduous to see why — e-book information take up comparatively little space for storing, and successfully take up zero real-world area. The Mac comes with a devoted e book app by default: Books. The app is completely enough, however I discover myself preferring the third-party Yomu app as an alternative.

Yomu maintains a native-feeling app interface that feels proper at house on the Mac, whereas offering broad help throughout the quite fragmented e book file format ecosystem. EPub, Mobi, Kindle, .pdf, and extra will all operate right here with out a hitch.

Yomu may be downloaded at no cost from the Mac App Retailer, but it surely comes with a 10-book restrict. There’s an elective Yomu Professional improve accessible through a one-time buy, which removes this doc restrict, in addition to removes all advertisements, and introduces a cloud library function into the combination.