I have a 4-finger tap assigned to my trackpad to open Tricksters, so it is instantly available. I have my 2nd-tier apps assigned to favorites so they are easily accessible. And I find the recent folders section occasionally useful. My dock is full of everyday stuff, and it is a little more trouble to go to the menu bar, which is also quite lengthy. So basically, I find it a useful adjunct to these other methods.
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- Photos
- Fantastical
- Evernote
- Todoist
- Day One
- Brave/Safari
- Mail (Apple)
- Music
- 1Password
- Dropbox
- Backblaze
- Microsoft Excel
- Time Machine
That’s about it. Trimmed a lot of bloat these past few months.
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Reviews seem to indicate that it is a good product. I read about concerns with Exporting data that you have accumlated. The developer seems to suggest that it might be coming.
What is the current status? Can you export your data? Could you move it out in the event that the application becomes abandonware.
You can export as CSV or JSON files
I do the same for PocketCasts (free version to boot!)
As long as they’re in M4B format, yes. I use “Audiobook Builder” app on Mac to put together the MP3 files.
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I am as crazy as Lou for testing out apps
Here’s my list:
- Alfred
- Keyboard Maestro
- Mac Updater
- Qspace Pro
- BudgetFlow
- BusyCal
- SnagIt 2025 (best for annotations) or CleanShotX (best for speed, simple screenshots)
- Find Any File
- HomeCam
- IINA
- Swinsian
- Keka
- Maccy
- Mimestream (though I use Mail for my iCloud emails)
- OrbStack
- PDF Expert
- qBittorrent
- Reeder
- Things 3
- UpNote
Apps that people rave about but I haven’t really gotten used to yet:
- Hazel
- Default Folder X
- Dropover
Here’s a gem on iOS (but works on Mac) that NOBODY and I mean nobody knows about: Ai Search. It actually has nothing to do with AI and came out over 5-7 years ago. It’s a meta-searcher for websites. I can’t believe these are not more popular.
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Actually very cool, I didn’t really get the point until seeing this example (where each keyword targets your search at particular sites):
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My top 20
Acorn - image editor
BBEdit - the BEST text editor for macOS
Clip Tools - clippings|clipboard manager from Macmost; this app is really worth a look
Find any file - file search and uninstalled apps cleanup
Freespace - storage manager
Get Backup Pro - full and synched backup - allows backup of iCloud storage!
Grabbit - screen capture
Hide My Email - Apple’s own alternate email account manager (why would you use anything else?)
Magnet - window manager ideal for two pane file management
Markup Table - Markdown table generator
myTuner Radio - redio station streaming (made in Australia)
One Markdown - Markdown editor
Onyx - macOS check and clean up
Passwords - Apple’s own password manager (why would you use anything else?)
Pocket Casts - podcast player extraordinaire (originally made in Australia)
Pretty Good Solitaire - very good card games I 've used it for 20+ years
Safari - most used app on my Mac (BBEdit is second most used)
Shortcuts - priceless
Time Machine - Apple’s own backup app
Transnomino - File rename
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Long indeed! Hello, Wednesday night, guess what we’re doing tonight?
Software Engineer here, I probably don’t use 20 apps daily, but these are my must-haves. I have cross-platform requirements for many things which does limit my options quite a bit.
- Homebrew - How I install almost everything. Can’t stand the Mac app store. It’s a command line tool, not a graphical app, but I consider it my #1 essential tool on MacOS so I’m listing it anyway.
- Raycast
- Rectangle - Window management. Could probably replace with Raycast but I’m used to it so it stays.
- Ghostty - A new, powerful, blazing fast terminal emulator.
- Zed - Text/code editor.
- Obsidian - daily notes and personal knowledge base.
- Apple Notes - dumping ground for quick notes that I don’t need to sort/keep long term.
- Firefox - Long long long time Chrome user here trying to de-google myself somewhat these days. Using Firefox over Safari because I need something with cross-platform sync.
- 1Password - It really is delightful.
- Shortcat - Navigate your mac with just the keyboard.
- TickTick - It’s fine. I use this over Reminders simply because I need something cross-platform.
- NetNewsWire - RSS. It’s free, open source, and works pretty great.
- Cleanshot X - Easily worth the money if you regularly take and share screenshots as part of your workflow.
- Ollama - Run and interact with powerful LLMs locally. Modern macs with a lot of RAM can run some surprisingly powerful models at decent speeds.
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Miniponki on Reddit decided to make the rest of us look like slackers by listing 51 apps. I found a few promising ones for myself (as usual with these kinds of lists).