💰 “Expensive is good, not spending money is even better.”
Medium Link: 10 Free macOS Tools to Save You a Ton of Money | by Wesley Wei | Aug, 2024 | Programmer’s Career
Author：Wesley Wei – Medium
Switching from Windows to macOS is a great way to cultivate the habit of paying for software. There are always some apps that you’re willing to pay for. Of course, in order to save costs, some paid software can be replaced by free products, and there may even be unexpected benefits.
This time, I’ve compiled a list of 10 paid software alternatives that I’m currently using or have used in the past, hoping to provide some references for friends who are “arming” themselves with a MacBook.
1. Garbage cleaning: CleanMyMac X (paid) — Tencent/lemon-cleaner (FREE)
GitHub - Tencent/lemon-cleaner
I’ve been using Tencent’s lemon cleaner since the beta version, and I can see that it directly competes with CleanMyMac. With updates to the current version, Tencent’s lemon cleaner has become very mature in terms of functionality, focusing on cleaning up macOS, and its core functions are very similar to CleanMyMac X.
The commonly used features such as large file cleaning, privacy cleaning, app uninstallation, and startup item management are all very practical. Although there may be some differences in scanning for garbage files due to different algorithms, Tencent’s lemon cleaner even does better in some details, such as supporting preview mode during file cleaning, without needing to jump between folders; software uninstallation can clearly show the path details of related files, including a more concise UI style that meets current aesthetic demands.
What’s most important is that it’s free!
Additionally, the important information displayed in the menu bar is more intuitive, and it also supports camera and microphone privacy protection reminders, making it even more practical.
2. Window management magic: Magnet (paid) — Rectangle (FREE)
GitHub - rxhanson/Rectangle: Move and resize windows on macOS with keyboard shortcuts and snap areas
I’ve been using a lot of tool-like software since switching to macOS, but the one I always come back to is Magnet.
Magnet is a window management magic that allows you to achieve various screen splits and maximize operations through keyboard shortcuts, making it highly efficient on multiple displays. Although Apple optimized window splitting functionality in macOS 10.15, Magnet’s convenience still far surpasses it.
Later, I was surprised to discover a free software called Rectangle that is very similar to Magnet, supporting both keyboard shortcut operations and menu bar functions. Rectangle has even more features than Magnet.
Rectangle is probably heavily inspired by Magnet, adding more customization options on top of all the features Magnet has, including support for hiding menu bar icons. Honestly, if I had known about Rectangle from the start, I might not have bought Magnet. However, since I already own it, I’ll just console myself that the App Store is safer, haha.
3. NTFS read-write tool: Paragon NTFS / Tuxera NTFS (paid) — NTFS Tool (FREE)
GitHub - ntfstool/ntfstool: A ntfs tool for mac
I think many people who are new to macOS will encounter this trouble: NTFS-formatted hard drives cannot be read, and I learned about Paragon NTFS and Tuxera NTFS through search engines. After considering the software package size and UI style, I ultimately bought Paragon NTFS, which has been working fine for me so far.
In general, all NTFS read-write tools on macOS can only allow the system to normally read and write NTFS-formatted hard drives, with other file operations still being performed in Finder. However, these tools can also serve as a management tool for external hard drives.
Regardless of which tool you use, as long as it achieves your desired goal, that’s enough. Although NTFS Tool may not be the best, as a free and open-source tool, it is sufficient.
4. All-in-one screenshot tool: CleanShot X / Xnip (paid) — iShot (FREE)
About screenshot functionality, macOS users are clearly the happiest, as there are many excellent third-party screenshot tools available. I’ve used two paid screenshot tools - CleanShot X and Xnip - and from a functional and user experience perspective, I think CleanShot X is the most powerful, with comprehensive features (especially after adding scrolling screenshot functionality) and beautiful UI design; Xnip may be more lightweight and easy to learn, but it’s still a great tool. iShot, on the other hand, has basically combined all the features of the previous two tools, including support for scrolling screenshots.
What’s most important is that iShot is free and can be downloaded directly from the App Store.
The scrolling screenshot feature is very useful when sharing web page screenshots, as all three screenshot tools support this functionality and have similar implementation principles. However, only CleanShot X supports editing the screenshot region or adding annotations after taking a scrolling screenshot.
iShot and CleanShot X both support screen recording and can convert recorded content to GIF. Compared to my previous workflow of recording screens and then converting them to GIF using other tools, the efficiency has increased several times over.
There are many more features to explore, but I’ll leave that for you to experience on your own - go ahead and try it out!
5. Unzip: Bandizip (paid) — eZip (FREE)
MacZip - Designed for macOS!
Just like with Windows, an unzip software is also a must-have when setting up a Mac.
And I’ve been using eZip all along, which is another free unzip tool that supports mainstream compression formats and has powerful features and a very pleasing UI.
6. Translation tool: Mate (paid) — Bob (FREE)
GitHub - ripperhe/Bob: Bob is a macOS-based translation and OCR software.
When reading foreign content, I often need to use a translation tool, although Chrome browser has built-in webpage translation, but it’s still limited.
Bob not only supports word-by-word translation, but also screenshot OCR recognition and subsequent translation. Whether translating single words or long passages, it supports audio playback, copying the original text or translated text for sharing. With shortcut key operations, the translation speed is very fast.
Through OCR recognition, Bob can directly translate screenshots, breaking through the text limitations, allowing you to directly translate image or video content, even if you don’t need to translate. It’s also a great OCR recognition tool that can be used to copy recognized content, with an accuracy rate that’s quite impressive.
Since Chrome browser has built-in webpage translation, combining Bob’s word-by-word and screenshot translation will make reading foreign content in web pages even more convenient.
7. Video player: Movist (paid) — IINA (FREE)
GitHub - iina/iina: The modern video player for macOS.
Although macOS has built-in QuickTime Player, the supported formats are limited and it’s not suitable as a one-stop video player. Movist is undoubtedly an excellent and powerful video player, but you can also consider IINA.
IINA has been highly recommended countless times, and many people have already started using it. As a free and open-source video player, IINA has strong video parsing capabilities, rich expansion functions, and a high-quality UI.
It can directly parse some online video links, which is why someone modified IINA to create IINA-Plus, allowing you to watch live broadcasts from major streaming platforms.
8. Menu bar icon management: Bartender (paid) — Hidden Bar (FREE)
GitHub - dwarvesf/hidden: An ultra-light MacOS utility that helps hide menu bar icons
When you install more and more useful software, you’ll find that the macOS menu bar is getting crowded, especially on the Big Sur system where Apple intentionally increased the spacing between icons.
Bartender is a tool that can fold away less frequently clicked menu bar icons, making the menu bar look cleaner. There’s already a free alternative in the App Store - Hidden Bar.
9. RSS subscription tool: News Explorer (paid) — NetNewsWire (FREE)
GitHub - Ranchero-Software/NetNewsWire: RSS reader for macOS and iOS.
For users who pursue a minimalist reading experience, RSS subscription is definitely a good choice. The macOS platform has many excellent RSS readers, including Reeder 4, News Explorer, Cappuccino, etc., but you can try the free RSS reader NetNewsWire first.
Compared to Reeder 4, NetNewsWire is closer to a native macOS app experience, including iOS apps developed with Swift. Additionally, while NetNewsWire’s functionality may not be as rich as Reeder 4’s, it is more lightweight and smooth.
However, in terms of online subscription service support, NetNewsWire only supports Feedbin, whereas Reeder 4 supports up to 8 services, including adding custom RSS feeds.
10. Image upload tool: iPic (paid) — uPic (FREE)
GitHub - gee1k/uPic: 📤uPic is a native, powerful, beautiful and simple picture and file upload tool for macOS.
As someone who writes articles from time to time, I still have a strong demand for a good image upload tool. For a long time, I was using iPic until I discovered uPic. This article is also written with the help of uPic and markdown notes.
The uploading process is very simple. You can copy and paste the image through the right-click menu or keyboard shortcut, or directly drag and drop the image to the uPic icon in the menu bar. The target image can be a local file or an online file. After uploading, it will automatically copy the link (supporting URL, HTML, markdown, UBB formats) to the clipboard and insert it into the editor, making the entire process very smooth.
In general, my experience with iPic is also available on uPic, which supports configuring more image hosting services, including custom ones. It fully meets all my needs.
uPic has also released an iOS app, allowing you to write articles and upload images more conveniently on your iPhone or iPad.
Summary
The ten tools mentioned above are basically the ones I use frequently myself. Although free alternatives may have similar functions to paid tools, there will still be some differences in experience. These subtle differences may be the reason why you would pay for a tool.
It is clear that not all paid tools can find free alternatives with similar functionality and experience. As long as they provide sufficient value, they should be worth paying for, which is also the cycle of software development and user needs.
If you want to get more open-source and free macOS software, there are two GitHub repositories you cannot miss:
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