100 Best macOS Apps for Solo Founders and Small Teams
The best macOS setup depends on how you work, but these apps can help solo founders reduce friction across everyday tasks. This first group focuses on launchers, automation, productivity, files, communication, and security.
Raycast
Raycast is a keyboard-first launcher that searches files, opens apps, and runs extensions. It reduces time lost navigating menus by placing common commands and information behind a shortcut.
Alfred
Alfred is a macOS launcher that opens applications, searches content, manages clipboard history, and runs workflows. It helps users avoid repetitive mouse navigation by automating frequently used searches and actions.
Rectangle
Rectangle is a window manager that moves and resizes macOS windows using keyboard shortcuts. It solves cluttered desktop layouts by quickly arranging several windows into consistent screen positions.
Magnet
Magnet is a window management app that snaps windows into predefined positions and sizes. It helps users compare documents or multitask without manually resizing windows across the desktop.
BetterTouchTool
BetterTouchTool lets users customize gestures, keyboard shortcuts, trackpad actions, and input-device controls. It addresses inefficient default controls by letting people tailor shortcuts to their recurring workflows.
Bartender
Bartender organizes, hides, and rearranges menu bar items on a Mac. It reduces menu bar clutter so users can find important status controls faster.
CleanShot X
CleanShot X captures screenshots and screen recordings with annotation, scrolling capture, and sharing tools. It streamlines visual communication when founders need to document bugs, instructions, or product feedback.
Shottr
Shottr is a lightweight screenshot tool with annotations, scrolling capture, OCR, and pixel measurement. It helps users capture precise visual references without switching among several separate utilities.
Keyboard Maestro
Keyboard Maestro automates Mac tasks through macros triggered by shortcuts, schedules, applications, or system events. It eliminates repetitive multi-step work by turning routine actions into reusable automated sequences.
Hazel
Hazel automatically sorts, renames, moves, and processes files based on user-defined folder rules. It helps prevent download and document folders from becoming disorganized after repeated file intake.
Fantastical
Fantastical is a calendar app that combines schedules, reminders, availability, and natural-language event creation. It makes busy schedules easier to manage by presenting appointments and tasks in flexible calendar views.
Things 3
Things 3 is a task manager for organizing to-dos into projects, areas, tags, and deadlines. It helps solo operators turn scattered responsibilities into a clear list of next actions.
OmniFocus
OmniFocus is a task management app built around projects, contexts, perspectives, and review workflows. It supports complex responsibility tracking when simple checklists no longer show what requires attention.
Notion
Notion provides documents, databases, project pages, and collaborative workspaces in one connected application. It reduces fragmented company knowledge by keeping operating documents, plans, and records together.
Obsidian
Obsidian is a note-taking app that stores local Markdown files and connects them through links. It helps users build retrievable personal knowledge without locking core notes into a proprietary format.
Bear
Bear is a writing and note-taking app with tags, Markdown support, and focused editing tools. It gives writers a calm place to capture ideas when heavier workspace tools feel distracting.
Craft
Craft is a document app for creating structured notes, pages, and shareable collaborative documents. It helps teams present plans and reference material more clearly than in long, unstructured notes.
Spark
Spark is an email client that organizes inboxes, supports shared drafts, and offers email collaboration features. It helps small teams handle crowded inboxes by separating important messages from lower-priority mail.
Mimestream
Mimestream is a native macOS email client designed to work directly with Gmail accounts. It gives Gmail users a desktop-focused interface when browser tabs make email management feel cumbersome.
1Password
1Password stores passwords, passkeys, secure notes, and other credentials in encrypted vaults. It prevents insecure credential sharing and password reuse by centralizing secure access management.
Dropbox
Dropbox syncs files across devices and enables shared folders, links, and collaborative file access. It helps distributed collaborators work from current files instead of emailing conflicting document versions.
Google Drive
Google Drive stores, syncs, and shares files while connecting with Google Workspace documents and collaboration tools. It reduces version confusion by giving collaborators shared access to centrally stored working files.
iCloud Drive
iCloud Drive synchronizes files across Apple devices and integrates directly with Finder on macOS. It helps Apple-device users access current documents without manually copying files between devices.
Setapp
Setapp is a subscription service that provides access to a curated collection of macOS applications. It helps users explore multiple productivity tools without managing separate purchases for every included app.
Arc
Arc is a web browser that organizes tabs into spaces, profiles, and saved sidebar collections. It helps users tame browser-tab overload by separating research, work, and personal browsing contexts.
Safari
Safari is Apple’s web browser, with tab groups, profiles, and integration across Apple devices. It helps separate personal and work browsing while keeping tabs, passwords, and bookmarks available across devices.
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a cross-platform browser with account syncing and an extensive library of extensions. It helps teams maintain consistent bookmarks, settings, and browser tools across different computers.
Firefox
Firefox is a privacy-focused web browser with tracking protection, extensions, and cross-device account synchronization. It helps users reduce unwanted web tracking without giving up familiar browser customization options.
Brave
Brave is a web browser that blocks many ads and trackers by default. It helps users browse cluttered websites with fewer interruptions and less third-party tracking.
Slack
Slack is a team messaging app that organizes conversations into channels, direct messages, and threads. It helps distributed teams replace scattered status emails with searchable, topic-based communication.
Zoom
Zoom provides video meetings, screen sharing, chat, and collaborative meeting tools for remote conversations. It helps teams hold face-to-face discussions when participants cannot gather in the same location.
Linear
Linear is an issue-tracking application for planning, assigning, and monitoring product and engineering work. It helps product teams see ownership and progress without relying on disconnected task spreadsheets.
Todoist
Todoist is a task manager for capturing to-dos, setting deadlines, and organizing projects. It helps busy founders turn loose obligations into prioritized, date-based action lists.
Apple Notes
Apple Notes captures text, checklists, attachments, scans, and shared notes across Apple devices. It helps users quickly store everyday information without opening a separate document-management system.
Apple Reminders
Apple Reminders manages task lists with due dates, tags, locations, and shared collaboration. It helps users remember recurring errands and time-sensitive tasks before they slip through the cracks.
Ulysses
Ulysses is a distraction-light writing app that organizes Markdown text into sheets and groups. It helps writers focus on drafting while keeping articles, chapters, and research organized.
Pages
Pages is Apple’s document editor for creating formatted reports, letters, resumes, and layouts. It helps Mac users produce polished documents without needing a complex desktop publishing workflow.
Microsoft Word
Microsoft Word is a document editor with formatting, commenting, revision tracking, and collaboration tools. It helps teams exchange editable business documents while preserving familiar review and formatting workflows.
PDF Expert
PDF Expert lets users read, annotate, fill, sign, edit, and organize PDF documents. It helps users complete PDF paperwork without printing forms or switching among multiple utilities.
Preview
Preview is macOS’s built-in viewer for PDFs and images, including markup and basic editing. It helps users inspect, annotate, and combine common files without installing additional software.
DEVONthink
DEVONthink stores, indexes, and searches documents, notes, emails, and web archives in databases. It helps researchers retrieve scattered reference material without manually browsing folders and archives.
MindNode
MindNode is a mind-mapping app for visually outlining ideas, tasks, and connected concepts. It helps founders clarify complex plans when a linear document obscures relationships between ideas.
XMind
XMind creates mind maps, outlines, and diagrams for brainstorming, planning, and presenting ideas. It helps teams structure early-stage thinking before committing concepts to detailed project plans.
Affinity Photo 2
Affinity Photo 2 is a professional image editor for retouching, compositing, painting, and layered design. It helps creators refine marketing visuals without relying on a browser-based image editor.
Pixelmator Pro
Pixelmator Pro is a Mac image editor for photo adjustments, graphic design, and layered artwork. It helps small teams create and revise visual assets within a streamlined native Mac workspace.
Figma
Figma is a collaborative interface design tool for creating prototypes, components, and design systems. It helps product teams review evolving interface designs together instead of exchanging static mockup files.
Sketch
Sketch is a macOS design application for creating interface layouts, components, and prototypes. It helps designers maintain reusable interface patterns across screens and product design files.
DaVinci Resolve
DaVinci Resolve is a video editor with tools for cutting, color correction, audio, and effects. It helps teams assemble polished video content without splitting editing and color work between applications.
VLC
VLC is a media player that opens many video and audio formats on macOS. It helps users play unfamiliar media files when their default player lacks codec support.
Transmit
Transmit is a macOS file-transfer client for moving files through FTP, SFTP, and cloud services. It helps website operators upload, download, and manage remote files without using command-line tools.
Cyberduck
Cyberduck transfers files between macOS and remote services using FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, and cloud storage connections. It helps users manage remote files without juggling separate web interfaces for each storage provider.
ForkLift
ForkLift is a dual-pane file manager that also connects to FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, and cloud services. It reduces friction when comparing folders, moving batches of files, and working across remote servers.
iTerm2
iTerm2 is an advanced terminal emulator with panes, profiles, search, and extensive keyboard customization. It helps developers avoid cluttered terminal workflows by organizing multiple shell sessions in one window.
Warp
Warp is a modern terminal application that adds command blocks, searchable history, and collaborative sharing tools. It makes long command-line sessions easier to revisit when users forget commands or lose useful output.
Visual Studio Code
Visual Studio Code is a code editor supporting extensions, debugging, source control, and many programming languages. It gives developers one adaptable workspace instead of switching among separate editors, debuggers, and Git tools.
Sublime Text
Sublime Text is a fast, lightweight text and code editor with powerful search and multiple selections. It helps users edit large files quickly when heavier development environments feel slow or distracting.
BBEdit
BBEdit is a macOS text editor for writing, coding, searching files, and processing text. It streamlines repetitive text cleanup and multi-file edits that are tedious in basic plain-text editors.
Nova
Nova is a native macOS code editor with project tools, extensions, Git support, and remote file access. It helps web developers keep coding, deployment, and project navigation together in a Mac-focused environment.
GitHub Desktop
GitHub Desktop provides a graphical interface for creating repositories, reviewing changes, committing, and synchronizing Git branches. It lowers Git complexity for users who prefer visual change reviews over command-line repository management.
Tower
Tower is a graphical Git client for managing repositories, branches, commits, pull requests, and code changes. It helps teams inspect branching histories and resolve everyday Git tasks without memorizing terminal commands.
Docker Desktop
Docker Desktop lets developers build, run, and manage containerized applications locally on macOS. It reduces environment inconsistencies by packaging application dependencies into repeatable local containers.
Postman
Postman is an API platform for sending requests, inspecting responses, documenting endpoints, and testing collections. It helps developers diagnose API behavior without repeatedly writing temporary scripts or manual command-line requests.
TablePlus
TablePlus is a database client for browsing, querying, editing, and managing many database systems. It makes database inspection less cumbersome by placing tables, queries, and connections in a unified interface.
DBeaver
DBeaver is a database management tool supporting SQL queries, data browsing, administration, and numerous database engines. It helps users work across different databases without learning a separate management application for each system.
Kaleidoscope
Kaleidoscope compares text files, folders, and images to highlight differences between versions. It helps users spot meaningful changes quickly when reviewing revisions or troubleshooting mismatched project files.
Beyond Compare
Beyond Compare compares and synchronizes files and folders while highlighting differences in text and data. It reduces errors during file reconciliation by clearly showing what differs between two versions or directories.
IINA
IINA is a modern macOS media player that plays video and audio files with customizable playback controls. It provides flexible local media playback when users encounter formats unsupported by simpler default players.
HandBrake
HandBrake converts video files between formats and offers controls for compression, dimensions, subtitles, and audio. It helps users shrink or convert large videos for sharing without relying on opaque online converters.
ScreenFlow
ScreenFlow records screens and cameras, then provides timeline editing tools for creating polished videos. It helps creators turn demonstrations into edited tutorials without moving recordings through several separate applications.
Loom
Loom records screen, camera, and audio videos designed for quick sharing and asynchronous communication. It replaces lengthy explanatory meetings by letting users send visual walkthroughs that recipients can watch later.
Canva
Canva is a visual design platform for creating presentations, social graphics, documents, and marketing materials. It helps non-designers produce consistent visual assets without starting every layout from a blank canvas.
Keynote
Keynote is Apple's presentation app for creating slides with themes, animations, media, and collaboration. It helps teams communicate proposals visually when plain documents cannot clearly convey a narrative or plan.
Numbers
Numbers is Apple's spreadsheet application for organizing data, building tables, creating charts, and collaborating. It helps users analyze everyday business information without needing a complex financial modeling environment.
Microsoft Excel
Microsoft Excel is a spreadsheet application for calculations, data analysis, charts, formulas, and shared workbooks. It helps teams handle complex tabular data when basic spreadsheet tools lack familiar advanced functions.
Freeform
Freeform is Apple's collaborative whiteboard app for arranging notes, images, links, drawings, and files. It helps distributed collaborators explore ideas spatially when linear documents make early planning feel constrained.
MacUpdater
MacUpdater scans installed applications and identifies available updates from developers and the Mac App Store. It reduces the hassle of manually checking scattered software update sources for security and features.
AppCleaner
AppCleaner uninstalls macOS applications and locates associated preference files, caches, and other leftover data. It helps prevent abandoned support files from accumulating when users remove unwanted applications.
DaisyDisk
DaisyDisk visualizes disk usage as interactive maps, helping users inspect folders and files consuming storage. It helps users locate large forgotten files through a visual storage map.
OnyX
OnyX provides macOS maintenance, cache-cleaning, and system-configuration tools in a single utility. It helps users access routine maintenance options without navigating several separate system settings.
Time Machine
Time Machine automatically creates versioned backups of Mac files to selected external or network storage. It protects against accidental deletion or hardware failure by enabling restoration of earlier file versions.
Carbon Copy Cloner
Carbon Copy Cloner creates scheduled, bootable-when-supported backups and copies selected Mac data between storage devices. It helps maintain an independent backup copy when users need faster recovery after drive problems.
SuperDuper
SuperDuper creates bootable-when-supported clones and scheduled backups of selected Mac volumes using simple copy workflows. It addresses backup uncertainty by creating a separate startup-capable copy where macOS supports it.
Little Snitch
Little Snitch monitors outgoing network connections and lets users approve, deny, or create connection rules. It helps identify unexpected software network activity before applications communicate with unfamiliar internet hosts.
LuLu
LuLu is an open-source firewall that blocks or permits outgoing connections from macOS applications. It gives users control over unrecognized outbound traffic that may otherwise occur silently.
Malwarebytes
Malwarebytes scans Macs for malware and potentially unwanted programs, then helps remove detected threats. It addresses concerns about malicious software by providing a focused scan-and-removal workflow.
Bitwarden
Bitwarden stores passwords, passkeys, and secure notes, filling credentials across browsers and applications. It reduces password reuse and forgotten logins by generating and organizing unique credentials.
Proton VPN
Proton VPN encrypts internet traffic through VPN servers and offers location choices in its macOS app. It helps protect network traffic on untrusted Wi-Fi and supports privacy-conscious browsing.
Tailscale
Tailscale connects devices through a private mesh network using WireGuard-based encrypted connections. It simplifies secure access to remote machines without exposing services directly to the public internet.
AdGuard
AdGuard blocks advertisements, trackers, and selected web content across supported macOS applications and browsers. It reduces distracting ads and tracking requests that can clutter everyday browsing sessions.
Downie
Downie downloads video from many websites and can convert supported downloads into chosen formats. It streamlines saving permitted online videos when browser-based download options are unavailable or inconvenient.
Folx
Folx manages downloads with queue controls, scheduling, and support for torrent files and direct links. It helps organize large or interrupted downloads that are cumbersome to manage through a browser.
ImageOptim
ImageOptim compresses image files by removing unnecessary data and applying supported optimization techniques. It helps shrink website image assets, reducing upload sizes and page-weight concerns.
Permute
Permute converts video, audio, and image files between formats through a straightforward macOS interface. It solves compatibility problems when media files will not play or import in another application.
Compressor
Compressor encodes video and audio files using export settings designed for Apple production workflows. It helps creators prepare deliverables in specific formats without repeatedly rebuilding export configurations.
Audio Hijack
Audio Hijack records, processes, and routes audio from applications, microphones, and system sources. It helps capture hard-to-record app audio for podcasts, interviews, or internal reference material.
Loopback
Loopback creates virtual audio devices that combine and route sound from selected Mac applications. It solves multi-source audio routing problems during recordings, livestreams, and virtual meetings.
Fission
Fission edits audio files with trimming, splitting, and format conversion tools designed for quick work. It helps make simple audio corrections without the complexity of a full multitrack editor.
Logic Pro
Logic Pro provides multitrack recording, MIDI composition, mixing, and production tools for musicians and producers. It addresses complex music-production workflows by bringing recording, arrangement, and mixing into one environment.
GarageBand
GarageBand lets users record instruments, build songs with loops, and create basic audio projects. It lowers the barrier to creating demos when users lack professional recording software experience.
Drafts
Drafts captures text quickly and sends it to other apps through configurable actions. It helps prevent fleeting ideas from being lost by offering a fast, low-friction writing inbox.
These first 25 apps address the desktop habits that shape a founder’s day, from launching work to securing files. The remaining selections expand into development, design, finance, communication, and specialized operations.