180
votes

Please Search Prior To Posting!

There are many applications already listed. In all likelihood, this includes the one you are thinking of. Please check the existing answers to avoid duplicates, and the resulting cleanup it necessitates.

To search, use the search box in the upper-right corner. To search the answers of the current question, use inquestion:this. For example:

inquestion:this Evernote

If it hasn't already been posted, please follow a few simple rules when adding it as an answer.

Rules

  1. Limit to one application per answer.

  2. Add a short description of the application.

  3. Add a link to the website in the name of the application if possible (no direct downloads).

  4. Use ## [appName](link) for citing the application name.

  5. Only Mac OS X (not iOS, OS 9, compatible, etc) applications. All versions of OS X are accepted, but if the application requires a specific version please note.

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  • 15
    Voted to close — a good question, but we really should avoid subjective ones here.
    – apostlion
    Commented Aug 17, 2010 at 20:19
  • 19
    @Apostlion: Simply because it's subjective does not mean it can't be answered. There are (community defined) "good" applications that are useful on a daily basis.
    – Josh K
    Commented Aug 17, 2010 at 20:22
  • 27
    Voted to reopen - it is subjective, but a popular and useful style of question, if kept as a wiki and not repeated too much. These questions are mostly accepted on gadgets.stackexhange.com for example.
    – Jon Hadley
    Commented Aug 17, 2010 at 21:08
  • 10
    Can we make this Community Wiki? And also 1 app per answer? Much easier to check if something has already been said and to edit to add information about said app. Thank you.
    – Loïc Wolff
    Commented Aug 19, 2010 at 20:39
  • 11
    I did a lot of cleanup. Changed all the app names to ## (because it was the most commonly used in the existing answers. Moved links so that they were within the app names. Removed some first-person descriptors.
    – Robert S Ciaccio
    Commented Aug 23, 2010 at 3:18

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24
votes

Cinch

I literally couldn't stand to use the Mac without this software. When I want to full screen an app I just drag the app's title bar to the menu bar and it "cinches" itself to full screen. A must have for Mac.

Edit: Cinch also allows making a window fill the left/right/upper/lower half of your screen (similar to Windows Snap). Very useful for copy-pasting and comparing.

Screenshot of Cinch Preferences Screenshot of Cinch About

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  • 2
    +1, it's a very useful utility. Though my iMac 27" is so big that I rarely use it :-)
    – Marc
    Commented Sep 14, 2010 at 21:35
  • 6
    As an aside, bettertouchtool now has the same functionality, so if you're using both you can save a little bit of resources.
    – Alex Larzelere
    Commented Sep 17, 2010 at 12:03
  • 2
    I actually got used to not have everything maximized, unlike when I was a maximizor freak on windows, once I started using OSX. but nice app! :P
    – cregox
    Commented Dec 23, 2010 at 13:03
  • 3
    You can always click <Shift> + maximize button (green button) and you'll get the same functionality. For free...
    – CarlosZ
    Commented Mar 13, 2011 at 0:41
  • 3
    Actually BetterTouchTool does this...for free!
    – daviesgeek
    Commented Nov 12, 2011 at 18:19
23
votes

Versions

GUI Subversion client. From their website:

Versions provides a pleasant way to work with Subversion on your Mac. Whether you're a hardcore Subversion user or new to version control systems, Versions will help streamline your workflow.

I will say up front that it doesn't inherently support all of Subversion's features, but it does make managing source code and important document for solo developers and small groups much, much easier than dealing with the command line. It's one of the three apps that gets opened with my "AM" script.

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  • I like it for browsing the repository (logs, blame, etc). I tend to use the command line for commits & updates, though. Faster & easier. Maybe some day they'll implement my request to search through the "blame" window or display more than one line in logs...
    – Michael H.
    Commented Oct 16, 2010 at 3:12
  • I like cornerstone better.
    – romeovs
    Commented Aug 15, 2011 at 20:47
23
votes

Calibre

calibre is a free and open source e-book library management application developed by users of e-books for users of e-books. It has a cornucopia of features divided into the following main categories:

  • Library Management
  • E-book conversion
  • Syncing to e-book reader devices
  • Downloading news from the web and converting it into e-book form
  • Comprehensive e-book viewer
  • Content server for online access to your book collection
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  • If you have an ebook reader, this app is pretty much essential.
    – Robert S Ciaccio
    Commented Nov 19, 2010 at 6:00
23
votes

Eclipse IDE (free)

Awesome, open source, well-featured IDE primarily for Java, but also supports C++, PHP, and Python, among others. Also has a wealth of third-party plugins.

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  • 5
    Why downvoted? If you can live without Eclipse, perhaps just abstain from upvoting this?
    – Jonik
    Commented Aug 25, 2010 at 8:27
  • 9
    Maybe they hate Eclipse as much as me.
    – Josh K
    Commented Aug 30, 2010 at 11:39
  • 1
    Yeah, definitely not a fan. Very un-Mac-like.
    – mummey
    Commented Jan 30, 2011 at 18:19
  • 4
    Eclipse is a fine example of a product designed by committee. It tries to do everything, only to fail miserably at all of them.
    – edgerunner
    Commented May 9, 2011 at 7:58
  • 1
    Well, for windows migrants like me, Eclipse feels like being at home. I agree that it's UI is not at par with mac, but still I use it for my android development.
    – noob
    Commented Nov 10, 2012 at 12:56
23
votes

Lastpass

Yet another password manager (actually, probably the first one online, I believe prior to 1pass) that integrates well with every browser (well, at least Safari, Chrome and Firefox). You have even an option to use yubikeys with it. I use it for long time and it's just amazing. It does everything I would expect and little more. It monitors when you change password, have a KB of websites and really gets almost all of them, while allow you to configure whenever field with login and password you want. And it's multiplatform.

Back in 2010 it bought Xmarks and must integrate with that as well.

It's completely free to use but it does offer a premium subscription for extra (and unnecessary) features. I personally paid for it as a donation, since I really never use the features.

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  • I like LastPass a lot, I just wish it had a more polished UI like 1Password.
    – Ryan Sharp
    Commented Jan 18, 2011 at 18:58
  • 1Password's UI is slow and clunky, but I can't argue with the app's effectiveness. Didn't Lastpass recently have a security breach? I prefer 1Password as it leaves me in control of my password file with Dropbox.
    – Bryson
    Commented Jun 3, 2011 at 17:26
  • @Bryson Nope, no security breach. Lastpass recently had a supsect of anomalous behavior on their network and they took preventive measures about it. Nobody ever complained on losing anything stored on lastpass as far as I know, and that measure was very well seem and documented on the web. Just look for it. You can't arguee with this app's effectiveness, UI or service, but I can arguee against a lack of offering backup from my point of view - which reminds me of Crashplan vs Carbonite, the later being the pop-pretty one, but the former being the rock-solid-actually-much-better solution.
    – cregox
    Commented Jun 3, 2011 at 17:59
  • I've used last pass for more than a year now, and I still like it. I never thought of trying any other password manager like 1password. I do not need to ;)
    – noob
    Commented Nov 10, 2012 at 12:58
22
votes

iChat

I know a lot of people use Adium, and I did too for a long time. But iChat just does what I want and does it slightly more elegantly, so I switched.

I personally can't live without:

  • audio and Video calls;
  • it can stay in the menu bar without launching the application, and log in at startup (if you are familiar with UNIX, it's like a daemon mode);
  • support for Jabber.

I also use it for MSN via a Jabber transport, which basically lets me connect to MSN through a jabber server, integrating the two seamlessly. Since there are a lot of transport-enabled servers – for ICQ and AIM (which, by the way, are also supported natively in iChat), IRC, Gadu-Gadu, QQ and of course MSN – you can benefit from iChat's simple interface with whatever IM service you use.

22
votes

Divvy

Application for moving and resizing windows using a "grid" approach.

21
votes

AppCleaner

It's small and powerful tool for remove/ uninstalling your applications on OS X.

I use it frequently, it even helps you to remove Cache created the the application from your Mac.

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  • What a great tool! I didn't know it...
    – John John
    Commented Jun 26, 2011 at 17:14
  • Link os broken, use freemacsoft.net instead.
    – molgar
    Commented Sep 15, 2011 at 15:35
  • def. +1 for mentioning AppCleaner. It's really a great app
    – Zrb0529
    Commented Feb 26, 2012 at 23:17
20
votes

Colloquy

Excellent IRC client that is open source.

20
votes

Activity Monitor

A task manager, a utility for performing different tasks to a computer processes, in the Mac OS X operating system. Some of its functions include:

  • Quitting or "killing" a computer process
  • Viewing the computer's CPU load
  • Checking the amount of random access memory in use or swapped out
  • Checking the amount of hard disk read-ins and write-outs
  • Checking the capacity of storage devices
  • Monitoring the computer's network usage
  • Inspecting running computer processes
  • Viewing a process identifier number
  • Viewing information about a particular process
19
votes

TextExpander

Simply the best. Save keystroke even if you just use it to write your email address.

1
  • anyone know of a Free or Open Source alternative to textexpander?
    – Robert S Ciaccio
    Commented Aug 31, 2010 at 15:06
19
votes

SizeUp

Allows you to set keyboard shortcuts for moving windows to certain halves and quarters of the desktop, as well as between desktops when using multiple monitors.

18
votes

Jumpcut

Minimalist Clipboard Buffering for OS X

Jumpcut is an application that provides "clipboard buffering" — that is, access to text that you've cut or copied, even if you've subsequently cut or copied something else. The goal of Jumpcut's interface is to provide quick, natural, intuitive access to your clipboard's history.

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  • As a programmer I cannot live without this!
    – Josh
    Commented Dec 1, 2010 at 13:55
  • Seriously, this is the first app I install on any fresh system, it's that useful. A 'must have' app.
    – boehj
    Commented Apr 10, 2011 at 9:03
  • I used to use the clipboard in QuickSilver but that was unstable. Jumpcut is very stable but it only stores the text, not the formatting.
    – w00t
    Commented Sep 29, 2011 at 10:58
18
votes

NetNewsWire

Easy-to-use RSS reader that syncs with Google Reader (but it doesn't have to). I think my favorite part is that the UI can be completely and logically navigated with the arrow keys even the action of opening a feed entry in your default browser.

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  • I prefer Helvetireader (with fluid), but I think both will be trumped by the upcoming Reeder for Mac...
    – Tom H
    Commented Sep 2, 2010 at 17:30
18
votes

Twitter

The best Twitter client there is. In perfect sync with the web app itself.

18
votes

Path Finder

Path Finder = Finder + Automatic viewer + Shell + Screen Capture + Almost everything you need

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17
votes

Thunderbird

On the whole, still the best email app I know for any platform.

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  • 1
    Thunderbird works great with imap to my gmail account. Microsoft Entourage is somewhat buggy with imap and crashes all the time. Apple Mail is incredibly slow with imap. Thankfully there is Thunderbird. Besides Thunderbird has plugins similar to Firefox.
    – neoneye
    Commented Apr 9, 2011 at 13:58
  • 1
    Thunderbird is not without its quirks, but I like it better than Mac Mail.
    – D. Simpson
    Commented Sep 7, 2011 at 1:35
  • Lion's new Mail.app now beats the pants off Thunderbird, IMO.
    – ocodo
    Commented Sep 8, 2011 at 0:14
  • -1 cannot see a reason to use Thunderbird over the Mail.app. At least in Ubuntu, Evolution beated Thunderbird 1-10. Now in OS X, Mail.app is very good, enough simple.
    – hhh
    Commented Mar 4, 2013 at 0:51
17
votes

gfxCardStatus

gfxCardStatus is an open-source menu bar application that keeps track of which graphics card your dual-GPU MacBook Pro is using at any given time, and allows you to switch between them on demand. (free, donationware)

If you have a dual-GPU MBP, you absolutely NEED this program! Did you know that some common applications such as Skype enable your high-powered Nvidia graphics card the entire time they're running? I use it to force my MBP to switch to the power-saving Intel graphics chip when I'm on battery. It adds an extra hour or so of battery life which would otherwise be wasted just because I keep Skype online for chatting.

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  • 4
    this is absolutely essential for me
    – Robert S Ciaccio
    Commented Nov 22, 2010 at 1:49
17
votes

Air Video Server (Free)

Air Video Server screenshot

Associate to an iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad, through their 2.99 App this is the best solution to see all your downloaded movies in your devices.

There is a Windows version as well.

Added

Since iOS 4.3, iTunes Home Sharing is now available for all iDevices, and there is no need of having Air Video, though, you wil need to import all your movies into iTunes in order to be accessible cross network.

For me, I will still stick with Air Video for a long time :o)

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  • I think that through Home Sharing, you may only stream iTunes compatible videos. So Air Video Server is still needed for all other video formats!
    – nuc
    Commented Mar 14, 2011 at 9:45
  • This app doesn't seem to be available in my country, Denmark.
    – neoneye
    Commented Sep 19, 2011 at 14:39
  • @neoneye Im in Denmark and I can assure you that is available as I use it every day. Just click in the link in my answer or throughout their website.
    – balexandre
    Commented Sep 19, 2011 at 15:25
17
votes

Little Snitch - Firewall

  • rule based traffic filtering
  • connection alert for undefined rules
  • network monitor

also see: Hands Off!

enter image description here

16
votes

Aquamacs

  • emacs on the Mac.
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  • 1
    Not just emacs, but emacs that feels like a Mac app -- at least, as much as you want it to. (Very configurable.)
    – Michael H.
    Commented Oct 16, 2010 at 3:13
  • May be good if you're a mac user trying to become an emacs user, but not good if you're an emacs user new to a mac. Use native Emacs built for mac instead.
    – Doug Harris
    Commented Jan 30, 2011 at 18:58
  • @Doug - I agree, Cocoa Emacs is a much better way to go. Even if you're a Emacs noob, you shouldn't really get a non-emacs Emacs, it defeats the purpose of learning a cross platform editor.
    – ocodo
    Commented Jan 31, 2011 at 0:10
  • -1 on Anti-Aquamacs sentiment. I use Emacs on 3 platforms and when I'm on my Mac it's always Aquamacs. I had to undo some of Aquamacs attempts to fit in the MacOS world ( mainly WRT system keyboard shortcuts ). After that small tweak, it works just like Emacs on my other OSes.
    – ephsmith
    Commented Jul 11, 2012 at 4:24
16
votes

DTerm

A terminal window for every application. Press a hotkey (I have mine set to Cmd-Opt-Space), and a floating command line pops up over your current window, initialized to the current directory of that window.

Another hotkey allows you to easily paste the name of your current document or Finder selection.

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  • DTerm does not require SIMBL like Visor does. It's great.
    – hasseg
    Commented Jan 27, 2011 at 22:11
  • Also note that DTerm is now in the Mac App Store.
    – styfle
    Commented May 28, 2011 at 9:48
16
votes

MenuMeters

I have a hard time using a Mac without it these days. How does anyone -- especially a programmer -- work without having the pulse of their Mac at their fingertips? How else do you tell when your browser is stuck or is really downloading something, if you can't see the network traffic? When the computer pauses, and you want to know if it's working, just look at the menu to see that the CPU gauges are pegged at 100% -- and much of that is in the kernel. At a glance, I can instantly see that memory consumption has rocketed up, and with a click I can see that I'm heavily into swap space. It's just so useful.

16
votes

Filezilla

No matter what OS, Filezilla had been everywhere I go, and when you start to use it, you can never really get rid off it.

The interface is simple and intuitive, with bookmarks, tree sync, multiple connections on tabs, etc.

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  • I use FZ too and I like it. I have experienced that Cyberduck and Transmit is having difficulties uploading lots of files via FTP. Then I found Filezilla which has uploaded everything I have thrown at it.
    – neoneye
    Commented Apr 9, 2011 at 13:47
  • Transmit wins by a long shot regarding UI, but Filezilla works every time :)
    – balexandre
    Commented Apr 9, 2011 at 18:23
  • Filezilla is a lifesaver for quick and easy FTP
    – Zrb0529
    Commented Feb 26, 2012 at 23:18
16
votes

MacFuse

MacFUSE allows you to extend Mac OS X's native file handling capabilities via 3rd-party file systems. It is used as a software building block by dozens of products.

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  • 1
    Awesome when combined with MacFusion.
    – neoneye
    Commented Aug 28, 2010 at 12:10
  • yep, MacFusion is must have.
    – neoneye
    Commented Apr 9, 2011 at 13:41
  • This project is no longer being maintained.
    – Kendall Hopkins
    Commented Oct 24, 2012 at 18:13
15
votes

MAMP

(MAMP = Mac Apache MySQL PHP)

Apache Webserver, MySQL Database and PHP in one Package. Easy installation and easy to use for local development of Websites/Webapps.

1
  • 1
    Both Apache and PHP are preinstalled with Mac OS, and installing MySQL is a double-click away.
    – zneak
    Commented Sep 16, 2010 at 22:12
14
votes

Movist

The best movie player for Mac OS X based on QuickTime & FFmpeg. Opens all types of video files and loads quicker than any other app for movies I've ever used.

Features I like:

  • file support - plays amazingly well .mkv not to mention all the rest
  • simple and minimal UI
  • excellent keyboard shortcuts support
  • switch from FFmpeg to Quicktime playback with a single click
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  • praise spaghetti monster... finally an alternative to that pile of un-userfriendly crapola that is vlc!
    – Robert S Ciaccio
    Commented Aug 31, 2010 at 15:04
  • Really nice one. Can even play rmvb files !
    – Studer
    Commented Aug 31, 2010 at 21:23
  • Been playing with this a lot and I really love it. I was beginning to think that I would be stuck with the cruel joke that is VLC forever. This app beats the crap out of VLC for ease of use. It even seems less buggy. I can play the same file in both apps and VLC skips and does all kinds of weird crap while Movist just plays the file perfectly.
    – Robert S Ciaccio
    Commented Sep 12, 2010 at 21:47
  • There's a lot of nice features... Shortcuts for seeking a custom number of seconds backward and forward. Restore playback position after closing. Open directly in full screen. Play over the desktop background. Slider for playback speed (no shortcuts though).
    – Lri
    Commented Jun 7, 2011 at 15:53
14
votes

SuperDuper!

I'm amazed it hasn't been mentioned as an answer already. It's saved my data on more than one occasion from catastrophic hard drive failure.

From its website: SuperDuper is the wildly acclaimed program that makes recovery painless, because it makes creating a fully bootable backup painless. Its incredibly clear, friendly interface is understandable, easy to use, and SuperDuper's built-in scheduler makes it trivial to back up automatically. It's the perfect complement to Time Machine under Leopard and Snow Leopard, allowing you to store a bootable backup alongside your Time Machine volume—and it runs beautifully on both Intel and Power PC Macs!

2
  • I've been using this for many years now and it has saved my stuff on several occasions, plus it's great for when you upgrade that harddrive on your Mac. It's being updated whenever needed (and no more than that, which is also great).
    – Ingmar Hupp
    Commented Oct 13, 2011 at 9:41
  • One big drawback: the machine muse already be awake for scheduled backups to occur.
    – orome
    Commented Dec 26, 2011 at 20:10
14
votes

Garageband

This program is, in some ways, the embarrassing bastard child of the audio world. It's an underpowered, feature-crippled version of Logic, one of the best-regarded multitracking applications in the recording world.

Nonetheless, Gagareband is very powerful, and does what I need it to do. While I'd appreciate more flexibility (tempo matching would be nice, and the ability to change time signatures within a project), and the program doesn't handle multiple layers of effects as well as I'd like, it performs brilliantly at what it does do, and it's insanely easy to learn.

Garageband is one of the main reasons I haven't ditched my G5 Mac for a Windows or Linux machine I took so long to replace my G5 mac. (Now I use GB and Logic on a Macbook Pro.)

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  • 1
    Go Garageband! I love using it!
    – daviesgeek
    Commented Sep 19, 2011 at 2:22
13
votes

Picasa

Picasa is free photo editing software from Google that makes your pictures look great.

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  • 1
    I wished they had Picasa Viewer inbuilt like windows version.
    – noob
    Commented Nov 10, 2012 at 13:01
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