I have been using Mac for more than a year now, and all that time I have been searching for some of the most useful free Mac productivity apps that just enhance the experience a whole lot! I have gathered a list of the Top 15 Free Mac Apps that I think are the most useful for productivity on Mac.
15. Encrypto
Great for sending confidential files through emails. If your email is ever compromised or intercepted by anyone, they can’t open your file without the secure password. This app has a very clean and minimal design and is made by a trusted company, MacPaw.
Price: 100% Free
Download: Click Here (Mac App Store)
Compatibility: Requires macOS 10.9 or later.
14. Camo Studio
This is a great app to use your phone’s front or back-facing cameras as your webcam. You can get the app on your iPhone and Mac both from the App Store. And then you have to plug in your phone to your Mac, and you are done.
There are other free alternatives to this app, however, most of them use your WiFi Network to transmit the data to your computer. This has its pros and cons, but if your WiFi connection is not stable, then I highly recommend using Camo Studio, as it uses a physical connection to transmit the data. This also means that you will have less lag, as compared to the alternate wireless options.
Price: Free, Pro/Paid version has a subscription or lifetime payment option
Download: Click Here (Website)
Compatibility: Requires macOS 10.13 or later.
13. Battery Monitor
An app to monitor your Mac’s battery. This is a completely free app with over 1 Million downloads, which means it is quite popular among Mac users. It has a variety of features and is completely free as compared to other alternatives. You can configure it to be shown in the menu bar or the dock.
Features:
- Battery Charge
- Battery Cycles
- Temperature
- Battery Capacity
- Power Usage
- Power Source
- Battery Condition
Price: 100% Free
Download: Click Here (Mac App Store)
Compatibility: Requires macOS 10.10 or later.
12. Numi
A smart calculator that uses a mixture of numbers and words to do calculations rather than simply numbers. You can type out the conversion you would like to perform in a simple and intuitive way and Numi will carry out the conversion quickly and easily.
Price: Free, Paid Version has a one-time payment of $20
Download: Click Here (Website)
Compatibility: N/A
11. Drafts
A great note-taking app, available on iOS, iPadOS, and macOS.
Price: Free, Pro/Paid version has a monthly or annual subscription plan
Download: Click Here (Mac App Store)
Compatibility: Requires macOS 10.13 or later.
10. Al Dente
An application that limits the maximum charge of the battery. This is especially useful to people who use MacBooks and keep them on charging all the time.
Price: Free, Pro/Paid version has an annual subscription as well as a lifetime purchase of $24.08
Download: Click Here (Website)
Compatibility: Requires macOS 11 or later.
9. Tot
Another quick note-taking app that can live in the menu bar or the dock. It is very elegant and minimalist and is available on iOS, however, it costs $20 on iOS. It can also sync across your devices using iCloud.
Price: 100% Free
Download: Click Here (Mac App Store)
Compatibility: Requires macOS 10.14 or later.
8. RunCat
An app that lives on your menubar and displays by default a cat running (which you can customize). The cat tells you the CPU usage of your Mac by its running speed. It can also show you your…
- CPU usage
- Memory (RAM) usage
- Battery information
- Disk space
- Network connection (Download/Upload speed)
Price: Free, with in-app purchases to get more “runners,” which is optional
Download: Click Here (Mac App Store)
Compatibility: Requires macOS 10.15 or later.
7. Hand Mirror
A very useful application during a time full of online meetings, as it allows you to quickly see how you look through your webcam. It is a very simple app that also lives in your menu bar and can be accessed with just one click. Usually, to check how we look through the webcam, we might use FaceTime… but this app eliminates that extra step.
Price: 100% Free
Download: Click Here (Mac App Store)
Compatibility: Requires macOS 10.15 or later.
6. Maccy
A very powerful and lightweight app that shows you clipboard history with up to 1000 previous copied items. It also lives in the menu bar for quick access. You can pin your copied items and use a plethora of shortcuts within the app to get optimal speed. It even shows images that are copied, and most things in the app are customizable to your liking.
Price: 100% Free
Download: Click Here (Website, also available on Mac App Store however it costs $10 through there)
Compatibility: Requires macOS 10.14 or later.
A great app to hide all the menu bar apps previously mentioned that can clutter it up. It is similar to Bartender 4 but it’s free. Vanilla is another great alternative however because this is in the Mac App Store, I tend to use and like this one better over the other free alternatives.
Price: Free, Pro/Paid version
Download: Click Here (Mac App Store)
Compatibility: Requires macOS 10.12 or later.
4. Rectangle
If you have switched over to Mac from a Windows PC, you might have noticed that there is no built-in window snapping functionality on Mac, and you most likely would have been disappointed.
That’s where Rectangle, an amazing and extremely useful app that is completely free and customizable as compared to its alternatives, comes in. I use it all the time for multitasking and it is honestly a must-have.
Price: 100% Free
Download: Click Here (Website)
Compatibility: Requires macOS 10.11 or later
3. MuteMyMic
A must-have for meetings and calls on your Mac in general. To make sure that your microphone is muted system-wide you can use this application. It is a very simple app with nothing much other than the muting and unmuting of your mic, system-wide.
Price: 100% Free
Download: Click Here (Mac App Store)
Compatibility: Requires macOS 10.6 or later.
2. Amphetamine
A great and beloved app by many Mac users. It is the best free app to keep your Mac awake with a plethora of other very useful features. Features include:
- Quick keep-awake sessions directly from the menu bar
- Tons of options for how long it should keep the Mac awake
- Options for until when it should keep the Mac awake
- Advanced automation capabilities
- Highly Customizable
Price: 100% Free
Download: Click Here (Mac App Store)
Compatibility: Requires macOS 10.11 or later.
1. Alfred 4
By far the most useful application out of this list. This app is a much more powerful, smart, and fast replacement to the default Spotlight search on Mac. It has tons and tons of features and is extremely quick. Highly customizable and custom workflows, appearances, and shortcuts make this a very appealing application for people who don’t want to waste even a couple of seconds of their life.
Alfred has way more features than Spotlight and in the paid version, you get way more features that may be appealing to you.
Price: Free, Pro/Paid version has two options… one being the Alfred v4 for €29 and the Lifetime license and upgrades version for €49
Download: Click Here (Website)
Compatibility: Requires macOS 10.11 or later.
Thanks for reading this article, hope these awesome applications have as much an impact as they did on me!