macOS already ships with most of what most people need, but a few free third-party tools genuinely fix common annoyances. We install these on every Mac we service. No affiliate links, no sponsorship — just what our technicians actually use.
Essential utilities
- Rectangle — keyboard shortcut window snapping (left half, right half, full screen). The single biggest productivity win on a Mac.
- AppCleaner — drag any app onto it to fully uninstall, including hidden plist and cache files. Free, simple, no nags.
- The Unarchiver — opens .rar, .7z, .tar and every other format the built-in unzipper refuses.
- iStat Menus (free trial → $9.99) — best-in-class CPU, RAM, network and battery monitors in your menu bar.
Browser and security
- Brave or Firefox — both block trackers and ads at the browser level. Faster than Chrome on the same Mac.
- 1Password (free 14-day) or Bitwarden (free forever) — password manager. Yes, you need one. No, the iCloud Keychain alone isn't quite enough.
- Little Snitch (free trial) or LuLu (free) — outbound firewall. Tells you when an app phones home so you can block sketchy ones.
Productivity
- Raycast — replaces Spotlight with a faster launcher, clipboard history, snippets and emoji picker. Free.
- Notion or Obsidian — note-taking. Notion is cloud-based, Obsidian is local-first; both have generous free tiers.
- Bartender 5 — hides menu bar icons you rarely use. Especially handy on the smaller MacBook Air screens.
Media and screen tools
- IINA — open-source media player that plays literally everything QuickTime can't.
- Kap — minimalist screen recorder that exports GIFs/MP4s directly. Free.
- Permute — file conversion (video, audio, image) without uploading anything to the cloud.
Where to download safely
Always download from the developer's official website or the Mac App Store. Even seemingly reputable download portals (Softonic, MacUpdate) have, in the past, bundled adware. If we're sending you a recommendation, we'll always include the direct developer URL.
One-time set-up service
If you'd rather not spend an evening installing and configuring twelve apps, we'll do a clean new-Mac setup remotely in about 90 minutes — including migration from your old Mac. Flat rate, with a written checklist of everything we installed and why.
New Mac arriving soon? Book our remote Mac setup service and we'll deliver it pre-configured with everything from this list, ready to use.
Related service
Mac OS Issues & Cleanup · $89 flat
Fix beachballs, kernel panics, storage warnings and update failures on macOS.
Book this service