Drag an app onto the window and AppCleaner finds its caches, preferences and support files, so you can uninstall software on Mac without leaving junk behind.
Best Free Apps for Mac by Category
Top-rated free apps for a Mac, scored by real users — tap GET for the official DMG download.
Cleaning & Maintenance
Free up space, remove leftovers
A free, open-source uninstaller for macOS that hunts down orphaned files, cleans leftovers of already-deleted apps and integrates with Finder.
Run maintenance scripts, rebuild system caches, verify the startup disk and unlock hidden macOS preferences from one classic utility.
Audio & Dictation
Voice typing, transcription, audio
Transcribe audio, video and meetings locally with OpenAI Whisper models. Nothing leaves your Mac, and the Pro upgrade adds batch and dictation features.
Press a shortcut, speak, and get clean, formatted text in any app. Supports offline models and custom modes for emails, notes and code.
The classic open-source editor for recording, cutting and cleaning up audio — great for podcasts, voice-overs and quick noise removal.
Window Management
Snap, tile and arrange windows
Move and resize windows with keyboard shortcuts or by dragging to screen edges. The simplest free way to get Windows-style snapping on a Mac.
A keyboard-driven tiling window manager configured with a simple text file. Uses its own workspaces, so it works without disabling SIP.
Hold a trigger key and flick the mouse in a direction to snap windows using an elegant radial menu. Fast, pretty and open source.
Menu Bar Tools
Tidy menu bar, notch and calendar
Click the date in your menu bar to see a compact month view with your upcoming events, and add new ones in seconds.
Check your hair and lighting before a video call. One click on the menu bar shows your webcam preview — that's it.
Brings a Dynamic Island–style area to the MacBook notch with media controls, a calendar and a file shelf. Free and open source.
System Monitoring
CPU, RAM, network and disk stats
CPU, GPU, memory, disk, network, battery and sensors — all as configurable widgets in your menu bar. The best free iStat alternative.
A clean, native way to test your internet connection on Mac: download, upload and responsiveness in one tap, without ads.
Shows process details Activity Monitor hides — built for developers and power users.
Note-Taking
Notes, Markdown and knowledge bases
Markdown notes and to-dos organized in notebooks, with end-to-end encrypted sync via Dropbox, OneDrive, WebDAV or Joplin Cloud.
Store notes as plain text files with custom fields, tags and links — ideal for knowledge bases, reading logs and personal wikis.
A slide-out notes panel at the screen edge for quick thoughts, tasks and snippets.
Productivity & Launchers
Launchers, clipboard and automation
Launch apps, search files, manage the clipboard, snap windows and run thousands of community extensions from one blazing-fast command bar.
A powerful keyboard launcher. The free version searches apps and the web; the Powerpack adds workflows, clipboard history and snippets.
Keeps a searchable history of everything you copy. Press a shortcut, type a few letters and paste — keyboard-first and privacy-friendly.
Screenshots
Capture, annotate and share
Extract text from images, videos, PDFs and screen areas with built-in OCR.
Screenshots and screen recordings with annotation, blur, OCR and scrolling capture — free and open source.
Create polished App Store–style marketing screenshots in minutes.
Screen Recording
Record demos, tutorials and calls
A free, open-source screen recorder for macOS for quick demos, bug reports and tutorials without watermarks or time limits.
Records your screen and automatically adds zoom, smooth cursor movement and polished backgrounds.
Upgrades screen recordings with extra features like keystroke display and smooth effects.
Video & Media
Players, converters and compressors
A beautiful, native video player built on mpv. Plays almost any format, supports Picture-in-Picture, online subtitles and trackpad gestures.
Convert and compress video to MP4, MKV or WebM with presets for every device. Hardware-accelerated encoding on Apple Silicon.
Reduces file sizes of videos, images and GIFs dramatically while keeping quality high.
Design & Image Tools
Draw, edit, compress and upscale
Drop in PNG, JPEG, GIF or SVG files and ImageOptim shrinks them and strips metadata — perfect for web designers and bloggers.
A professional, free painting app with brush engines, layers, animation tools and pressure-sensitive tablet support.
Create logos, icons and illustrations in SVG. A capable free alternative to Adobe Illustrator for Mac.
Remote & File Sharing
AirDrop alternatives, remote desktop
Send files between Mac, Windows, Linux, Android and iPhone over your local network — no account, no internet, end-to-end encrypted.
A TeamViewer alternative you can self-host. Control other computers or give remote support with full keyboard and file transfer.
Free remote desktop and screen sharing with end-to-end encryption, file transfer and chat for personal and commercial use.
Security & Privacy
Firewalls, malware and persistence
Alerts you whenever an app tries to connect to the internet and lets you allow or block it. A free, open-source Little Snitch alternative.
Watches the places malware uses to auto-start and alerts you when something tries to install a launch agent or login item.
Lists everything persistently installed on your Mac and checks it against VirusTotal, so you can spot suspicious startup items.
AI & Writing Tools
AI assistants and writing apps
Summon an AI chat over any app with a shortcut to rewrite, summarize or translate selected text without switching windows.
A distraction-free editor for academic writing with citations, figures and export to well-formatted PDF.
Rewrite, fix grammar and change tone of selected text from the menu bar.
Terminals
Fast, modern terminal emulators
A GPU-accelerated terminal emulator with native macOS UI, tabs, splits and sensible defaults that feel right out of the box.
Split panes, search, autocomplete, profiles, hotkey windows and shell integration — the long-time favorite Terminal replacement.
Native terminal built on Ghostty with vertical tabs, split panes, a CLI and notifications for AI agents.
Developer Tools
Editors, package managers, Xcode
Install command-line tools and Mac apps with one command. The first thing most developers set up on a new Mac.
A fast, rock-solid text and code editor with powerful search, grep and text transformations. Free mode included, upgrade for pro features.
Menu bar cleaner for Xcode, npm, Docker and other developer caches, with safe items preselected.
Misc & Extras
Archivers, browsers, mouse & more
Extract RAR, 7z, ZIP, TAR and 50+ other formats with a double-click — the easiest free archive tool for Mac.
Create and extract 7z, ZIP, RAR and more, with password protection and split archives, from a tiny drag-and-drop window.
Customize scrolling direction, speed and acceleration per device so third-party mice feel natural on macOS.