Best Mac Apps for 2023

In this post, I want to share with you my favorite must have apps for macOS. All of these are either free or require a one-time payment without subscription.

I am a minimalist, and I don’t like to install a lot of apps on my devices. That means that if I do install some app, it is usually a very good one. In this post, I want to share with you a list of the best apps I always install on my new Macs.

Apart from Final Cut Pro, all of these apps are from 3rd party developers, and all these do not require a monthly or annual subscription fee.

Things App - $49.99

Things 3 runs my life, because I use it to plan almost everything. Big long-term projects, quick reminders, grocery shopping lists, scenarios and plans for my YouTube videos - all of these and more are managed via Things app.

Pixelmator Pro - $39.99

The best image editor and the best alternative to Adobe Photoshop for Mac. Affinity Photo is also a good option, but Pixelmator Pro is the app I choose to edit all of my photos for personal and business purposes.

Affinity Designer - $54.99

I don’t often use Affinity Designer, because most of my graphic design needs are handled by Pixelmator Pro, but when I need to create a logo or SVG icon for my websites, Affinity Designer is the app I am going to use.

ImageOptim - FREE

When it comes to proper image optimization for web, I use Pixelmator Pro (check this tutorial to learn how I do that), but when I just need to quickly shred a few KB of an image, ImageOptim is the app I use.

Blocs App - $99.99

I have talked about Blocs app a lot in my full review here, but in short, Blocs app is my favorite website builder for Mac, which allows me to make beautiful websites without writing code.

Transmit - $45

Transmit is my favorite file transfer app for Mac. I use it to manage the FTP servers for all of my websites, and it has never failed me. There are a lot of free alternatives on the market, but I truly believe that Transmit is worth its price.

Final Cut Pro - $299.99

I started editing videos with iMovie, but it quickly became too limited for my needs. That’s why a few years ago, I have invested into the most expensive app on my list - Final Cut Pro. Since then, I have used it to edit hundreds of video tutorials for Blocs Master and my YouTube channel.

Audacity - FREE

Audacity is a free app I use to edit and optimize the audio files on my Mac. I can’t say that I use it every day, but it comes very handy when I need to remove the background noise in audio for my videos.

Handbrake - FREE

I believe that Handbrake is the most popular video converting app for Mac. It comes with many presets, and you can also manually set the exact file format and codec you want to use for your converted videos.

Monosnap - FREE

Monosnap is the app I use to capture the screen of my Mac. I record a lot of video tutorials, and being able to specify the exact size of the recording window in pixels comes very useful in my workflow. I also use it to create GIFs.