Here is a list of the best Mac apps for your new M3 MacBook Pro device to install this year:
Best Mac utilities
Setapp – 240+ Mac apps in one subscription
Keyboardcleanertool – temporarily disable your keyboard to clean it
MonitorControl – control external monitor brightness with your MacBook’s keyboard
iStat Menus – see disk, CPU, GPU, memory and network usage in menu bar (alternative – Stats)
Mission Control Plus – close app windows from within mission control
Yoink – drag-and-drop utility (alternative – Dropzone)
Rectangle – for snapping windows to the edges of the screen
Swish – add app window management gestures to the Magic Trackpad
Mosaic – snap windows with pre-defined layouts
Bartender – hide menu bar icons
OneSwitch – adds quick toggles for frequent MacOS settings to your menu bar
MiddleClick – adds the middle click gesture (tap with three fingers) to your trackpad
Linear Mouse – utility for setting up an external mouse with your MacBook
Amethyst – tiling window manager (alternative – Yabai)
Menu Bar Dock – access your recent apps from the menu bar
Tinker Tool – tweak a bunch of MacOS settings that aren’t easily accessible
Latest – checks if all your apps are up to date and lets you update them
Better Display – scales external monitor resolution to make it HiDpi
AltTab – replaces Command-Tab menu on Mac with one similar to Windows Alt-Tab
Al Dente – helps increase MacBook battery longevity (alternative – BatFi)
ScreenBrush – paint on your screen while doing presentations
Homebrew – package manager (basically an installer that lets you install more Mac apps through the terminal)
Background Music – control volume per application
Contexts – replaces Command-Tab app switcher
TextPal – emoji picker
Puse Paste – will always paste text as plain text (without formatting)
Chai – prevent your Mac from going to sleep
KeyClu – shows all available keyboard shortcuts for a specific Mac app
Hand Mirror – see what you look like from the menu bar before hopping on a Zoom call
App Cleaner – helps clean junk files that are left behind when uninstalling Mac apps
Handbrake – optimize video files to save size
Karabiner-Elements – remap your keyboard keys
Cooldown – quickly turn on low power mode from your MacBook Pro menu bar
Velja – open URLs in different browsers from the menu bar
Command X – adds Command-X keyboard shortcut to MacOS
Exporter – export Apple Notes in markdown format
Reminders menubar – manage reminders from the menu bar
Espanso – text expander
Clop – optimize images or videos as you copy them
MuteKey – globally mute your microphone
Keka – archiver utility
GrandPerspecive – visualize disk usage
KeyCastr – show keystrokes in screen recordings
CleanMyMac X – for cleaning out Mac
Best Mac apps for productivity
Parallels – run Windows on Mac
Screen Studio – for professional-looking screen recordings
Paletro – adds a command palette (search bar) for all functions within a specific Mac app
Numi – a calculator that uses natural language
Notion – for notetaking
Alfred – replaces spotlight search with a better search bar (alternative – Raycast)
Maccy – clipboard manager (alternative – Paste)
Tyke – adds a small notepad scratch paper to your menu bar
Arc – modern browser (Chromium based)
Orion – browser that is built like Safari but supports Chrome extensions
Obsidian – for taking notes in Markdown
SelfControl – block access to websites for up to 24 hours
OBS – for screen recordings and streaming
VScode – code editor
Audacity – free audio editing and recording software
LookAway – blurs screen every 20 minutes to help with eye strain
2do – to-do app
CotEditor – better textEdit
Toggl – time tracker
Grammarly – for automatically correcting grammar mistakes
Best Mac apps for privacy and security
AdGuard For Safari – blocks ads on Safari
1Password – password manager
ProtonVPN – virtual private network to stay safe online (has a free version with 3 locations – US, Netherlands and Japan)
NextDNS – protects you from all kinds of security threats, blocks trackers on websites and in apps and can provide a safe and supervised Internet for your kids
Best Mac apps for photo and video editing
CleanShot X – for screen recordings
Shottr – for screenshots
Adobe Premiere Pro – for video editing (alternative – DaVinci Resolve)
Pika – color picker
Luminar – photo editing software with AI
Adobe Creative Cloud – access to Adobe software like Adobe Photoshop or Adobe Premiere Pro
GIMP – free Adobe Photoshop alternative
KRITA – for digital painting
Best Mac apps for entertainment
MediaMate – shows what’s now playing in the Notch as well as replaces volume and brightness controls with the ones similar on the iPhone
VLC – media player (alternative – IINA)
Downie – for downloading videos from basically any website
Unsplash Wallpapers – free stock photo wallpapers
Crossover – run Windows and Linux on Mac (good for gaming)
Sleeve 2 – see what’s now playing on your Mac desktop (alternative – MusicBar)
Gifski – convert videos to gifs
Discord – chat with friends
Steam – play games
Spotify – listen to music
Mousecape – for changing the Mac mouse cursor
I hope that this list of the best Mac apps for MacBook Pro M3, or really any other device with MacOS was useful.
Also, here’s how to install Mac apps from a third party:
How to install Mac apps not from the App Store (third-party)
I’ll show you an example of downloading and installing an app from GitHub since that’s where I got the most confused in the past when trying to do it.
I’ll use the app MiddleClick as an example.
1. First, click on releases at the right side of the page. This is where the latest releases of the app are:
2. Scroll down and look for a .dmg or a .zip file and click on it to download. You’ll find this file in your default download location on your Mac.
This is the installer that we’ll use to install the app.
3. Extract the .zip file by double-clicking on it. It should create a folder or the app itself in the location where you double clicked on the .zip file.
4. Find the app and drag it to your Applications folder.
If you don’t know where the Applications folder is, click on Finder in your Dock, then at the top of your screen (in the menu bar) click “Go” and select “Applications”. This is where you’ll want to drag the new file.
Once that’s done, it’s installed!
Once you’re done you can eject the installer from your desktop and delete the .zip file that you downloaded.
Also, if you get the message that “The app can’t be opened because it’s from an unidentified developer” you can hold Control on your keyboard, right-click on the app’s icon inside of the Applications folder and while still holding Control click open. It will now give you the option to open that app.
Thanks for reading 👋!