My All-Time Favorite FREE Mac Apps
The Ones I’ve Kept For Years
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There’s a special kind of Mac app. Not the flashy, subscription-based with a great marketing, but the ones that quietly keep my daily workflow running. They don’t crash. They don’t beg for attention. They just work.
And they don’t ask you to subscribe for $4.99 a month every other minute.
These are my all-time favorite Mac apps. The ones I’ve kept for years. They are all free, some are barely known, and a few are hiding in plain sight.
Let’s dive in.
1. Maccy
Maccy is a clipboard manager. That’s it. But like butter on toast, it’s the right kind of simple.
And a simple tool doesn’t have to come with a monthly investment.
Every time you copy something on your Mac — text, links, code, whatever — Maccy remembers it. Need something you copied 12 items ago? It’s there, one hotkey away. No fluff. No weird animations. Just a lightning-fast searchable clipboard history that makes you wonder how you ever lived without it.
It sits up in your menu bar, sips zero RAM, and feels like a Mac app should feel. Minimal, purposeful, and invisible until you need it.
That one, I use every day all day.
Update: Unfortunately I just learned that Maccy* isn’t free anymore. It used to be free. When I got it, it still was. It’s now $4.99 one-time*. Still a great deal! But not free.
2. ProNotes
Apple Notes is pretty awesome, but with ProNotes as a free Mac extension, Apple Notes goes from pretty awesome to extremely useful and powerful.
ProNotes give Apple Notes Markdown support for fast and easy formatting, template support which is extremely handy for recurring structure and notes, a cool formatting bar that pops up when you highlight text, and very useful slash commands (you might know those from Notion) to quickly use various functions.
All in all, ProNotes is how Apple should improve Notes natively. You need that plugin if you’re a Notes power user.
3. ChatGPT
Yes. I use AI tools. For writing, for research, for queries, for anything. And the Mac ChatGPT app is pretty cool. It fast, works seamlessly, has a hot key for quick launch, and works with other Mac apps.
Other AI tools are great as well. Gemini has come a long way, but it doesn’t offer a Mac app. Claude now does, but it’s still in beta and pretty clunky.
So for now, my choice for Mac is ChatGPT.
4. Espanso
Espanso is the kind of app that makes you feel like a keyboard wizard. It lets you create custom shortcuts for text — like typing :addr and getting your full address, or :sig for your email signature.
But it goes deeper.
It can run scripts, insert dynamic content, fill forms, and basically automate anything you type more than once a week. It’s cross-platform, open source, and terminal-friendly which sounds scary, but trust me, even if you’re only 10% nerd, you’ll enjoy it.
It’s not the prettiest and definitely not easiest to understand and use, bit if you set it up, it’s great, runs in the background, doesn’t annoy you, and 10y your productivity with ease.
5. Apple’s Built-In Apps
Yes, these are pre-installed. But they still make this list because I use them all the time.
Notes: Fast, reliable, and actually powerful now. Syncs like a dream with iPhone. Perfect for brain dumps. And with a framework like Forever✱notes and ProNotes, it’s a Notion rival for me.
Reminders: Surprisingly powerful. Add subtasks, tags, and smart lists. It’s become my mini project manager.
Calendar: Still the most visually balanced calendar out there. In my opinion anyway.
Mail: Unsexy, but dependable.
Safari: Lightweight, privacy-focused, and fast. I don’t need fancier stuff.
People dunk on default apps because they’re… default. But honestly, these are the jeans and T-shirt of my digital wardrobe. Comfy and cool.
6. AppCleaner
Deleting apps on macOS has always been a bit clunky. You put an app in the trash and empty the trash. But there’s still hidden files floating around in the system elsewhere.
AppCleaner solves this.
Drag any app onto it, and it shows you all the associated files — preferences, caches, hidden folders — and removes everything. Clean, complete, and satisfying.
Use this once and you’ll never drag an app to the Trash again.
7. Ice Menu Bar
Your menu bar is cluttered?
Use Ice to free up space. Simple, free, easy to use.
There’s really nothing more to say.
8. ImageOptim
If you’ve ever needed to shrink image file sizes without making your JPEGs look like they were compressed in a blender, ImageOptim is the tool.
It strips out unnecessary metadata, compresses images smartly, and gives you web-ready files that load fast but still look sharp. Drag. Drop. Done.
I use it for blog images, thumbnails, and anything headed for the internet. Bonus: it’s open source and free. A must-have for creators.
9. Shottr
Shottr is what a screenshot tool should be. Free and still full of features. Alternatives like the hyped Cleanshot X are cool too, but you pay for that.
Shottr is free and it offers most of the same.
It’s perfect for documentation, tutorials, or blog posts. Way better than macOS’s default screenshot tool.
10. Speediness
There are lots of internet speed test tools.
I like Speediness because it’s a simple Mac app from the App store that is free, looks nice, and does what it should fast and reliable.
What more do you need?
The Bottom Line
These 10 apps are part of my everyday Mac experience.
I use them a ton. They’re free. They work. I like them.
Got a favorite I missed? Tell me. I’m always down to adopt another cool tool.
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