Best Software for macOS

Well, I really enjoy researching new things, trying new approaches, and experimenting with different tools, it's my hobby. Over many years, I've collected a ton of useful tools that significantly improve my daily routine. Sometimes when I work, people often ask me about the tools I use because it looks almost magical—like quick app switching or seamless context injection from one program to another. (It works even better on Linux, but I'll make a post about that in the future).

• WezTerm - the best terminal, incredibly fast, written in Rust (FOSS)
  ALTERNATIVE: if you need "out of the box" without configuration - Ghostty (FOSS)
• OpenCode - one of the best environments for agentic development (FOSS)
• Helix - the best terminal editor (FOSS)
  may Vim fans forgive me
• Emacs - the best code and text editor (FOSS) ⭐
  emacs is extremely difficult to master, but has infinite possibilities for customization and extension; if you are ready to spend time learning it - this is the best choice
• Hoppscotch - API client, supports collection import (FOSS)
  ALTERNATIVE: Bruno - offline API client, a worthy replacement for Postman, supports collection import (FOSS)
• Orbstack - the best software for working with docker on macOS, incredibly fast and lightweight (FREEMIUM)

• Shottr - the best screenshot tool for macOS, includes text recognition (OCR) and other features, free version available but with purchase notifications (FREEMIUM)
  ALTERNATIVE: Flameshot - open source with similar functionality (FOSS)
• Spotube - music player for streaming services, supports spotify, youtube music, and others (FOSS)
• NewsExplorer - RSS reader, unfortunately I couldn't find a good RSS reader without a subscription, this is the best I managed to find (PAID)
• Zen - the best Firefox-based browser today, inspired by Arc, has profiles, "zen" mode, and other features (FOSS)
  It is worth noting that if DRM is important to you for watching videos from netflix/hulu/amazon, it is not here; also, it is still in beta
• VLC - simply a legend, the best video player (FOSS)
• LiceCap - the best software for recording scope gifs from the screen, no time limits like in other programs, records gifs with sufficiently small file size without quality loss (FOSS)
• Loom - screen recording and quick sharing, up to 25 videos in the free version (FREEMIUM)

• LuLu - firewall for macOS (FOSS)
• Bitwarden - cross-platform password manager (FOSS) ⭐

• Pearcleaner - open source application for deleting apps and cleaning leftovers (FOSS)
• AlDente - the best software for managing macbook charging, allows extending battery life (FOSS)
• InputSourcePro - excellent solution for managing keyboard layouts, each application can have its own layout (FOSS)
• KarabinerElements - the best software for remapping keys on macOS (FOSS)

• ICE - macOS bar with customization capabilities (FOSS) ⭐
• Yabai - the best window manager for macOS, quite difficult to configure, requires disabling System Integrity Protection (SIP), issues may arise between os updates (FOSS) ⭐
  ALTERNATIVE: Aerospace - a simpler to configure window manager, does not require disabling SIP, but has fewer capabilities and worse performance (FOSS) I would also like to mention a very young but very promising project: https://github.com/LGUG2Z/komorebi-for-mac. It works similarly to AeroSpace, without disabling SIP. Despite its many current limitations, I hope it will solve some of AeroSpace's problems.
• Raycast - the best launcher for macOS, allows controlling the system and applications from the keyboard (FREEMIUM) ⭐
• Spatial Dock - currently my replacement for AltTab, it's paid, but works very well for quick switching between most used apps. You can just pin most often used apps to special letters which also allow you to better memorize these shortcuts (For me this approach is very similar to emacs transient packge)

• VoiceInk - speech to text application with AI support (PAID)
  ALTERNATIVE: handy, open source, but with fewer features and worse recognition quality (FOSS)
• Obsidian - the best application for note-taking (FREEMIUM)
• Wakatime - time tracking application, supports many editors and IDEs, has an open source protocol (FREEMIUM)
• Raindrop - bookmark manager, modern replacement for pocket (FREEMIUM) This tool is so good that 90% of this list is stored by me right there
• TickTick - TODO management, habits, schedule, and GTD (FREEMIUM)
  If anyone finds something opensource similar - let me know, I couldn't find anything like it

• GUI file manager with vim keybinding support (closest is marta), also tried TotalFinder, but it failed periodically.
• Good RSS reader without subscription with the ability to exclude categories/titles/tags/regexp and find/form preferences with AI.
• OpenSource/self-hosted task planner with habits and TODO lists.
• Actually in emacs org-mode there is agenda, but there are problems with notifications for the phone and data synchronization, + for such a simple task it seems like too cumbersome a solution.

If you have advice regarding these applications, I will gladly consider them.

I also intentionally did not include some software that I consider quite decent, because its functionality repeats or duplicates the already listed software, for example:

• AltTab (easier to use raycast switch windows)
• neohtop/stats - same thing, there are plugins for raycast and terminal htop
• fluid voice - quite good, but there are still bugs, and it is inferior to voiceink in functionality, although I have high hopes for it since it is an opensource project, potentially having more possibilities than handy
• stretchly - quite good, but I switched to raycast deep focus and custom macOS shortcut for automatic dnd.
• Hyperduck - utility allowing to quickly open something in the browser between ios/macOS devices, for myself I found that I confirm using raindrop more often

All these are still quite decent programs individually, and they are definitely worthy of mention, however, they are no longer my daily drivers.

You can find my current system configuration and dotfiles here: https://github.com/Artawower/.config