Mac software downloads free

There’s something of a misconception when it comes to the Mac. While powerful tools like Photoshop or Final Cut Pro certainly have price tags commensurate with their robust feature sets, many of the greatest Mac apps won’t cost you anything more than the time they take to download them.

A quick note before we begin. Apple has changed its security settings in macOS, so you’ll need to allow your system to open a couple of these apps. A dialogue box may pop up telling you a certain app "is an application downloaded from the Internet. Are you sure you want to open it?" Click Open to proceed with the installation.

Video formats are constantly changing, and you no doubt have all sorts of movie files littering your Mac’s drive. But if they haven’t been encoded in bit or MPEG, the newest version of QuickTime might not be able to play them. That’s where VLC comes in. Open-source and omnipotent, the media player will play, stream, or convert just about any video format you can throw at it, while sporting a clean, minimal interface that strips away unnecessary controls and puts the focus on the content. It’s so good, you might forget it didn’t cost you anything.

Zips and Rars might not be as prevalent as they were when the Mac operating system was named after big cats, but if you still have expanding and extracting needs, The Unarchiver'simmediate and inconspicuous processing will help you quickly get at the files hidden inside. With dozens of supported formats and drop-dead simple one-click operation, the app will dutifully extract and expand all sorts of extensions, in numerous languages and virtually any compression method.

Independent publishing has never been so accessible. What used to require months of training and an expensive suite of software can now be accomplished with a single free app. With an array of templates and tools and a breathtakingly easy interface, iBooks Author can get you from outline to upload in no time. Its iWork-style workflow will help you build rich, interactive ebooks that bring your ideas to life with diagrams, video and 3D objects, letting your words literally leap off the page.

Mac veterans have been singing Alfred's praises for years, but some of Apple’s newer users might not have heard about the mighty app launcher. Free to all but the most serious professionals, Alfred will supercharge your productivity with its unique system of shortcuts and keystrokes, letting you launch apps, find files, solve calculations, and control your Mac with swift precision. As customizable as it is powerful, you might say it puts a spotlight on macOS’s shortcomings.

Read-it-later pioneer Instapaper may have transformed the way we absorb information, but Pocket’s Mac app is like your own personal DVR for the web. It’s not just for things you read; its advanced, versatile web clipper will save any photos, videos, and articles that you find and store them inside its infinite queue until you have time for them. And of course, everything will be presented in a beautiful stripped-down view, all without the ethical quandary of an ad blocker.