The 12 Best Mac Apps That Will Improve Your Apple Experience In 2025

In 2024, I made my list of the 20 best Mac apps that will improve your Apple experience, and frankly, it was a struggle to keep it at just 20 items. macOS is bursting at the seams with incredible software, software that's often so polished it feels like it should have made it into the latest macOS Sequoia features update. It's one of the reasons I made the switch from Windows to Mac, and it would be painful to switch back. I still use almost every piece of software on that list, but I've added even more apps in the year since.

So in that spirit, I'm making another list of great apps. Again, I'll cover a wide array of use cases. Some are everyday productivity tools, and others are strictly for entertainment. Most on this list have a free version, but there are a couple that are paid-only. We'll keep things brief this time with 12 Mac apps you need to download in 2025.

Do you hate the macOS Apple Music app? Absolutely? You're not alone. The app has been buggy, outdated, and filled with nonsensical features (the two-micron-wide seek bar, anyone?) for years, which makes it even more frustrating when you see all the cool things the Apple Music app can do on iPhone. Cider makes you fall in love with Apple Music on macOS again. While it can't do some things (like playing lossless files or downloading music offline), those limitations are small potatoes for what you get in return.

For starters, Cider just looks really nice as a music app, and you can change its theme on a whim. Same goes for both the mini player and the immersive player. It keeps the Apple Music feel while still being its own thing. Almost everything can be customized, from the accent colors to the font and page layout. It supports many small things we've been begging for for years on Apple Music, like sorting your playlists by date added. It also adds features Apple Music likely will never have, like casting to a Chromecast device.

Under the hood, Cider tries to make your music sound better with its Cider Audio processing. My ears aren't trained enough to tell if it actually sounds better, but the point is, the customization goes deep. Cider isn't free, but it's cheap. Grab it on itch.io for a minimum $3.49 donation.

Whether you're a YouTuber adding subtitles to your videos or someone who takes the minutes for a lot of Zoom meetings, you need a good transcription app. MacWhisper is that app. It uses OpenAI's Whisper transcription models. While not perfect, it can easily achieve 99% accuracy across multiple transcriptions and multiple languages. If you have an audio file that needs transcribing, simply drag it into the app and get a transcript that's probably a lot more accurate than Apple's Voice Memos.

MacWhisper works fast and, most importantly, processes everything locally on-device. None of your transcriptions are sent to a shady server. The app supports nice little touches like transcribing YouTube videos via links, adding multiple speakers, syncing transcribed subtitles to videos, searching transcripts — and so much more.

My personal favorite feature, though, is the dictation. The built-in Apple dictation is frustratingly inaccurate for even basic sentences. MacWhisper nails them and does so unobtrusively. You only see a small blue box indicating that the dictation is active, and you can program it to run from the right option key, which, in my view, is much better than any other keystroke combination. I also love being able to choose the priority order of which microphone it uses based on what's available. The app is free, but the most accurate transcriptions and dictations require larger models, which can only be accessed with a pro license for €49 (around $50).

One thing I've always hated when organizing files is having to move one file to another location several folders deep. I could just open up another Finder window, sure, but it gets tedious changing path locations in each window and keeping track of which file is where. Dropover has become essential for this type of file organization and a whole lot more. At its most basic level, Dropover creates a "shelf" anytime you click on, hold, and shake a file — any file. You place the file on the shelf, and it stays there until you drag it out again to place it in its new destination. Simple idea, but immensely useful.

Those shelves can be customized to work in almost any way imaginable. You can create a shelf by dragging a file to the notch or menu bar, dock shelves out of sight, or have clipboard content automatically pasted to a shelf. And if you don't like the wiggle action, you can change it to a keystroke or hold the shift key while dragging a file.

Dropover can also process files within its shelves. For example, you could automatically compress pictures or remove metadata from them. You can also — my favorite feature — quickly share a file via Dropover's proprietary Dropover Cloud service. Dropover Pro costs $5.99, but for all the functionality you get, I think it's worth more than that.

One of the first things I recommend you immediately do on your new Mac laptop is download some sort of menu bar organizer. Newly installed apps can quickly crowd that limited space and eventually get hidden by the notch. Last year, I recommended Bartender for this, but I realize it's quite pricey at $20. Ice is a free, open-source alternative to Bartender that can do at least 95% of what Bartender can. Like Bartender, it allows you to sort menu bar items into visible, hidden, and always hidden sections and reveal hidden ones by clicking an arrow or drop-down bar.

Beyond this basic functionality, Ice also allows you to customize your menu bar's appearance. You can decide how much space to put between icons, and if you're struggling to find a certain app, search for it with a hotkey. Keep in mind that Ice is still in active development. Tons of features are planned for future updates. I did notice a few bugs while using it, but overall, the experience was smooth — and you can't beat $0.00. That said, we recommend donating to the developers if you use and love the app.

One app I do miss from Windows is 7-Zip, an excellent free file extractor and compressor that blows most others out of the water. Or at least, I missed it until I stumbled upon Keka. Keka can compress files, break them up into smaller pieces, and do so by simply dragging the file to the Dock icon. You can encrypt those files in formats supported on other operating systems (ironically, it supports 7-zip) to make sure only the person with the password can access them. And the list of supported compression formats is large, whether you want to send them to Linux with TAR or create a virtual drive installation with an ISO.

The default macOS extracting utility is quite good, but if you want Keka's customization, you can set it as the default extractor. You'll need to install a helper application to do so. Keka is highly customizable, letting you change its appearance, what it does to specific files, and how many system resources it takes as it works.

Really, it's hard to find anything to criticize about the app or recommend as a missing feature. It's very well-polished, works wonderfully for almost any file compression you need, and is aesthetically pleasing to boot. You can download it for free directly from the website, but we recommend supporting the developer and buying it from the Mac App Store for $5.99.

Every former macOS user on Windows misses dearly the ease with which you can install and uninstall apps on a Mac. You drag the extracted app straight to your Applications folder to install it and move it to the Trash to uninstall. Contrary to popular belief, uninstalling an app may still leave leftover files on your device. Pearcleaner gets rid of them. It's the spiritual successor to AppCleaner, providing more frequent updates than the original and adding useful features.

What I like about Pearcleaner compared to its predecessor is that it shows you a searchable list of all the apps on your Mac and provides a one-click uninstall button. Really, it could not be any easier to uninstall an app. It has clever features like a Trash monitor that cleans up an app's leftovers if you uninstall it the old-fashioned way, and a right-click context menu option to uninstall apps directly from Finder.

Personally, I use it for uninstalling any and every app to keep my system decluttered. Pearcleaner is also very helpful for thoroughly uninstalling a misbehaving app that needs to be reinstalled again. It's free to use, but do consider sponsoring the developer if you find it useful and can afford to.

One way to make your phone last longer – or any device with a lithium-ion battery — is to only charge it up to 80% and keep it from falling below 20%. The same rule applies to your MacBook. MacBooks have a built-in optimized charging feature, but many users (myself included) find it unhelpful since it "learns" from your behavior to decide when to charge. If you don't use (and charge) your MacBook at a predictable time every day, it's useless. AlDente is an app that makes sure your device stays in this 20-80% sweet spot when plugged in for long periods.

First, AlDente will stop your MacBook from charging above a certain percentage, typically 80%. The Pro version adds heat protection, power flow monitoring, detailed battery stats, and access to a more accurate hardware battery percentage. If the always-orange MagSafe LED bugs you, you can make it green once it hits your threshold. AlDente is truly an all-in-one solution for battery management.

My two favorite features are Calibration Mode and Sailing Mode. Calibration Mode automatically performs a battery calibration to avoid incorrect battery readings. Sailing Mode prevents your MacBook from charging whenever it's within a certain threshold of your predetermined charge limit. For example, if your charge limit is 80% and your battery is at 70%, it won't charge until it drops to 69%. AlDente Pro costs $11.99 a year or $24.99 for a lifetime license.

AirDrop is one of the sweet, sweet joys of the Apple ecosystem. It makes sharing files with any Apple device stupid easy, whether AirDropping from your iPhone to a Mac or to a friend's iPad. The fun stops when you have a friend with Android or Windows. Blip gives you AirDrop-like functionality between any device, including Android, Windows, and Linux. It doesn't just match AirDrop's convenience — it adds features that AirDrop lacks.

First, the app gives you a literal drag-and-drop transfer. As in, as soon as you drag a file into the window, the transfer begins. No links. Blip claims you can send any type of file, no matter how big or small. Better yet, you can send files anywhere, even to people at the opposite end of the world, and it will resume a failed transfer where it left off if there's an interruption. All files sent over Blip's relay are encrypted, keeping them safe from prying eyes.

Perhaps best of all, Blip is 100% free to use, at least at the time of writing. The devs say they may implement paid tiers in the future for additional features and functionality. Signing up is painless — simply use your email to log in with a one-time code and connect with friends. If Blip doesn't bridge the divide between Apple and other devices, then I don't know what will.

Gaming on a MacBook Pro is still a tough sell, but Whisky makes it easier to stomach. Basically, this is a fancy UI wrapper around Apple's Game Porting Toolkit, which is designed to translate Windows games to macOS. Whisky's whole pitch is that you don't need to be savvy in the terminal or anything else to get games running quickly. So if you've been dying to play a particular title that's only available on Windows, this is one of the easiest ways to do it on macOS.

Now, it's not a guarantee that you can play any game you want. Some features aren't supported, like Denuvo DRM. You're going to run into a lot of issues unless you stick to games that have been shown to work well on Whisky, and you'll probably spend a lot of time digging through forums and YouTube videos to find settings that work for the rest. This app is for people who don't mind tinkering, not for those who want to play games out of the box with minimal hassle. Trust me, I say this from personal experience. Still, it's free — a whole lot cheaper than Crossover, which costs $24.00.

The notches on the M-series MacBooks are one of Apple's more frustrating branding decisions. In an effort to make their computers look like their iPhones, they took away screen real estate without making the cameras better or adding Face ID. MacBook notches don't even have Dynamic Island functionality, for crying out loud. Alcove is an app that tries to ameliorate this state of affairs with a fancy Dynamic Island-like interface and slick animations.

Similar to the Dynamic Island, your notifications balloon out of Alcove, and you can access live activities like playing music. It's intended for those using their MacBooks with the trackpad, since it focuses on swipe gestures to control Alcove's "island." The app shows when your battery is low, when your AirPods have connected, when your focus status has changed, or when you turn up the volume — among other things.

In my testing, it works very smoothly and doesn't appear to use too many system resources. Keep in mind that Alcove is very new; the current version is only 1.2, but it's incredibly polished and bug-free at the time of writing. Unfortunately, it costs $16.99, which feels steep for just some fancy visuals.

One of my favorite iPhone apps not available on Android is Apple Notes. It has everything I need and nothing I don't ... for the most part. It's missing a few small touches that could really make a difference, like a more easily accessible formatting bar, the ability to format with Markdown, or a way to link notes together. ProNotes adds these things and more seamlessly, complementing the app's already-great visual aesthetic.

In addition to the features I've mentioned, it introduces a Spotlight-esque search bar that makes searching through notes just a tad bit faster via a keystroke. To go even faster, you can press the slash key and use so-called "slash commands" to quickly introduce text elements and templates. If you're worried about privacy infringements — letting an app access your most sensitive information — then don't. ProNotes works offline and only connects to the internet for updates, leaving your data untouched.

If that wasn't good enough, all the best features (everything mentioned above) are free. ProNotes Gold (a monthly or yearly subscription) introduces a whole bunch of AI features, plus any future features to come. It's one of few apps on this list where the free version has almost everything that the premium version does.

Last year I recommended Shottr as my go-to screenshot app. I still use it on a daily basis. It's just so much app for free. Then I found CleanShot X. Think of it like Shottr's older brother — if its older brother were Arnold Schwarzenegger. CleanShot X can do everything that Shottr can — capture windows with transparent backgrounds, annotate images to blur sensitive information, and add nice gradient backgrounds. But that's only the beginning.

CleanShot X can also do screen recording, hiding any notifications that pop up in the process, and converting the end result to any format — even a GIF, if you like. It includes a built-in cloud upload service so you can quickly transform that screenshot into a shareable link and send it in seconds. It also doubles as an excellent presenter recording tool, which records your camera and captures your keystrokes. Unlike Shottr, which only lets you work with a single screenshot at a time, CleanShot X racks up dozens for later. And that's just scratching the surface.

My only complaint about CleanShot X is the pricing structure. While it does offer a one-time payment of $29, this only includes a year of updates. You'll have to renew year after year for $19 to keep getting updates and bug fixes. Shottr is free, and premium is $12 for life. Still, I can't deny that CleanShot X is far and away the best screenshot utility there is, and then some.