List of Mac software

The following is a list of Mac software – notable computer applications for current macOS operating systems.

For software designed for the Classic Mac OS, see List of old Macintosh software.

Audio software

Digital audio workstations

Audio editing

DJing

  • djay – digital music mixing software
  • Mixxx – DJ mix software

Notation software

Misc audio tools

  • Audio Hijack – audio recorder
  • baudline – signal analyzer
  • BeaTunes - BPM analyzer and iTunes companion tool
  • Cog – open source audio player, supports multiple formats
  • fre:ac – open source audio converter and CD ripper
  • ixi software – free improvisation and sketching tools
  • Jaikoz – music file mass tagger
  • Max – Cycling 74's visual programming language for MIDI, audio, video; with MSP, Jitter
  • Music MiniPlayer - miniplayer for Apple Music
  • ReBirth – virtual synth program simulates Roland TR-808, TB-303
  • Recycle – music loop editor

Discontinued audio apps

  • Adobe Soundbooth – music and soundtrack editing
  • Audion – media player
  • BIAS Peak – mastering
  • Finale – proprietary music notation software
  • iTunes – audio/video Jukebox by Apple
  • Logic Express – prosumer music production by Apple
  • Logic Studio – music writing studio package by Apple
  • RiffWorks – guitar recording and online song collaboration software

Chat (text, voice, image, and video)

Active

Adium on Mac OS X
  • Adium – multi-protocol IM client
  • Colloquy – freeware advanced IRC and SILC client
  • Discord – IM and VoIP social platform
  • FaceTime – videoconferencing between Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
  • iMessage – instant messaging between Mac, and iDevices
  • Irssi – IrssiX and MacIrssi
  • Kopete – free multi-protocol IM client
  • LiveChat – online customer service software
  • Microsoft Teams – team collaboration application
  • Palringo
  • Psi (instant messenger) – free IM client for the XMPP protocol
  • Signal – open-source, encrypted messaging service for IM, voice calls and video calls
  • Snak – IRC client (shareware)
  • Ventrilo – audio chatroom application
  • Telegram – cross-platform, encrypted IM client

Discontinued

  • aMSN – free Windows Live Messenger clone
  • AOL Instant Messenger – discontinued as of December 15, 2017[1]
  • ChitChat – open-source IM client supporting the Yahoo! Messenger protocol
  • HexChat – IRC client, discontinued as of February 9, 2024[2]
  • Skype – telecommunications application supporting IM and VoIP-based videotelephony retired as of May 5, 2025[3]
  • Ircle – IRC client (shareware)
  • Microsoft Messenger for Mac – cross-platform IM client
  • Yahoo! Messenger – IM client, also supporting VoIP, file transfers and webcam hosting

Children's software

Developer tools and IDEs

Email

Email clients

Other email software

FTP clients

Games

  • Steam – digital distribution software for video games and related media

Graphics, layout, and desktop publishing

CAD, 3D graphics

Distributed document authoring

Icon editors, viewers

  • Icon Composer – part of Apple Developer Tools
  • IconBuilder – plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Fireworks for the editing and creation of icons
  • Microsoft Office

File conversion and management

Active

  • Adobe Bridge – digital asset management app
  • BibDesk – free bibliographic database app that organizes linked files
  • Font Book – font management tool
  • GraphicConverter – graphics editor, opens/converts a wide range of file formats
  • Photos – photo management application

Discontinued

  • iPhoto – discontinued photo management application

Layout and desktop publishing

Active

Discontinued

Raster and vector graphics

This section lists bitmap graphics editors and vector graphics editors.

Active

  • Adobe Illustrator – vector graphics editor
  • Adobe Photoshop – also offers some vector graphics features
  • Affinity Designer – vector graphics editor for Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows
  • Anime Studio – 2D based vector animation
  • Collabora Online – enterprise-ready edition of LibreOffice
  • Corel Painter
  • EazyDraw – vector graphics editor; versions available that can convert old formats such as MacDraw files
  • Fontographer
  • GIMP – free bitmap graphics editor
  • GraphicConverter – displays and edits raster graphics files
  • Inkscape – free vector graphics editor
  • Luminar
  • Paintbrush – free simple bitmap graphics program
  • Photos – official photo management and editing application developed by Apple
  • Photo Booth – photo camera, video recorder
  • Pixelmator – hardware-accelerated integrated photo editor
  • Polarr – photo editing app
  • Retouch4me Arams – AI-based photo editor[5]
  • Seashore – open source, based around the GIMP's technology, but with native macOS (Cocoa) UI

Discontinued

  • Aperture – Apple's pro photo management, editing, publishing application
  • GIMPShop – free open source cross-platform bitmap graphics editor
  • MacPaint – painting software by Apple (discontinued)

Integrated software technologies

Language and reference tools

Mathematics software

Media center

Multimedia authoring

Networking and telecommunications

  • Apple Remote Desktop
  • Google Earth
  • iStumbler – find wireless networks and devices
  • Karelia Watson (defunct)
  • KisMAC
  • Little Snitch – network monitor and outgoing connection firewall
  • NetSpot – software tool for wireless network assessment, scanning, and surveys, analyzing Wi-Fi coverage and performance
  • Timbuktu – remote control
  • WiFi Explorer – a wireless network scanner tool

News aggregators

  • Feedly – news aggregator, and news aggregator reading application
  • NetNewsWire – news aggregator reading application
  • NewsFire – news aggregator reading application
  • RSSOwl – news aggregator reading application
  • Safari (web browser) - news aggregation via built-in RSS support
  • Apple Mail – news aggregation via (discontinued) built-in RSS support

Office and productivity

Operating systems

  • Darwin – the BSD-licensed core of macOS
  • macOS – originally named "Mac OS X" until 2012 and then "OS X" until 2016
  • macOS Server – the server computing variant of macOS

Outliners and mind-mapping

Peer-to-peer file sharing

Sciences

Text editors

Utilities

  • 4 Paws of Crab
  • Activity Monitor – default system monitor for hardware and software
  • After Darkcomputer screensaver software
  • AppZapper – uninstaller (shareware)
  • Automator – built-in, utility to automate repetitive tasks
  • Butler – free, launcher and utility to automate repetitive tasks
  • CandyBar – system customization software (commercial)
  • CDFinder – disk cataloging software (commercial)
  • CleanMyMac – maintenance and optimisation utility
  • DaisyDisk – disk visualization tool
  • Dashboard – built-in macOS widgets
  • Grab – built-in macOS screenshot utility
  • Growl – global notifications system, free
  • iSync – syncing software, bundled with Mac OS X up to 10.6
  • LaunchBar – provides instant access to local data, search engines and more by entering abbreviations of search item names, commercial
  • MacKeeper – cleanup utility
  • Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing – proprietary, typing tutor
  • OnyX – a freeware system maintenance and optimization tool for macOS
  • Path Finder – replacement for Apple's Finder
  • Quicksilver – a framework for accessing and manipulating many forms of data
  • SheepShaver – PowerPC emulator, allows, among other things, running Mac OS 9 on Intel Macs
  • Sherlock – file searching (version 2), web services (version 3)
  • Stickies – put Post-It Note-like notes on the desktop
  • System Settings – default Mac system option application
  • UUTool – uuencoded/uudecode and other transcoding
  • Xsan – storage network utility
  • Yahoo! Widget Engine – JavaScript-based widget system

Anti-malware software

macOS includes the built-in XProtect antimalware as part of GateKeeper. The software listed in this section is antivirus software and malware removal software.

Archiving, backup, restore, recovery

This section lists software for file archiving, backup and restore, data compression and data recovery.

Discontinued archiving apps

Disc burning apps

Discontinued disc burning apps

Video

Virtualization, emulation, and dual-booting

Web browsers

Web design and content management

Weblog clients

See also

References

  1. ^ "AIM has been discontinued as of December 15, 2017". help.aol.com/. Archived from the original on October 6, 2017. Retrieved 2018-01-17.
  2. ^ "2.16.2, The Final Release – HexChat". hexchat.github.io. Archived from the original on 2024-03-10. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
  3. ^ Hernandez, Joe; Neuman, Scott (2025-05-05). "It's last call for Skype as the once-popular video calling app shuts down". NPR. Retrieved 2025-05-08.
  4. ^ "MacDraft Professional | Powerful 2D CAD, drafting, technical illustration and more for Mac | Microspot Ltd".
  5. ^ "Retouch4me — Advantages of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in Retouching". retouch4me.oxem.dev. Retrieved 2024-10-28.