Getting a new Mac, looking to clean up my apps a bit. Can you help me?
Hey Y'all. I just bought a new MBPro M5 Pro 16" and it'll be here Friday to replace my MBPro M2 Pro 14". I have a Setapp subscription that is soon coming to an end. I'm not really a fan of setapp anymore since they've added a bunch of junk apps and AI slop…
Hey Y'all. I just bought a new MBPro M5 Pro 16" and it'll be here Friday to replace my MBPro M2 Pro 14". I have a Setapp subscription that is soon coming to an end. I'm not really a fan of setapp anymore since they've added a bunch of junk apps and AI slop thats not a lot of quality like they used to. Instead of keeping my setapp subscription, I plan to just buy some apps outright, but before I do, I want to know if there are any better options or open source options. Here are the apps on setapp that I currently use: DisplayBuddy CleanshotX (I use this a lot but I've considered shottr) Downie AlDente Pro (Do I even really need it?) Permute Presentify Jumpdesktop (Discontinued on setapp) Other Apps I'm using and like that I don't know if there are better/other options Rustcast (I just replaced raycast with this.. I'm not 100% sold yet, but it does do what I need it to) Wins (I like the way this works, I looked at dockdoor but it seems to do a lot of the same things) Thaw (seems to work well, its one of the best I have found for stability.) Pearcleaner (Uninstaller and updater, not really a fan of appcleaner) Dropover Pro itsycal Keka (works fine, just don't know what else is out there.) Upscayl Homebew (I just started using this, what a wonderful way to install apps!) Thanks for any suggestions you can help me with! Must appreciated!
Collected discussion
For CleanshotX alternative try Shottr Unless you're really set on the way you use screenshots, try it. Basically does everything CleanshotX does but is free
And think Bettertouchtool
Awesome thank you I will check it out!
Awesome thanks!
I have no problem paying for good apps!
I have had issued with notch apps not being very stable. It's been a while since I've tried one though, maybe they've gotten better.
I use UpNote for notes because it's cross platform and I use it at work (on windows.)
Why was this downvoted? I'm not familiar with BatFi
I wasn't necessarily looking for a homebrew replacement but if the app recommendations had a homebrew install that would be a benefit.
Thank you!
Shottr is a must-have for me. I use it so much that I paid for a license even though I didn’t need to.
For Permute — you can buy it direct outside Setapp so you're not stuck on the subscription. Handbrake is free for most video work, Convertio's web is fine for one-offs. If you want a single iOS+Mac app that covers most format-conversion needs in one place (images, RAW, PDF, video, audio, ebooks, subtitles, OCR), Formattery is $4.99 one-time on the App Store, 3 free conversions per day to try before paying. Runs on-device so nothing uploads, universal binary so it'll work fine on the M5. The Setapp quality drop is real — curating your own one-times is the move. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/formattery-file-converter/id6759955312
Couple of unsolicited 2¢ from the same boat (M2 → leaving Setapp soon): AlDente: there's a fair case in this thread that macOS handles batt well enough on Apple Silicon now. Imo that's mostly true if you actually unplug regularly. If your Mac lives docked at a desk 24/7, the 80% charge cap still meaningfully extends health vs. relying on macOS's adaptive charging alone. Worth it for the plugged-in-all-day crowd, skip-able if you're truly mobile. CleanShot X is the one I'd rebuy direct. Shottr is genuinely close and free, but the scrolling capture + cloud history are the bits I'd miss within a week. Keka: don't bother shopping for alternatives. "Good enough" and you stop thinking about it. Pearcleaner over AppCleaner — AppCleaner misses login items / launchd helpers often enough that I stopped trusting it. Bonus: if you don't already have it, Hand Mirror is a $5 lifetime menubar app that just shows your camera preview. Sounds dumb until you ship a video call with food in your teeth once.
DisplayBuddy -> MonitorControl CleanshotX -> shottr Downie -> yt-dlpyt-dlp AlDente Pro -> Bonne question -> Limiteur de charge de batterie Permute -> HandBrake Presentify -> OpenBoard Tableau blanc Jumpdesktop -> RustDesk Thaw -> ok Pearcleaner -> ok Dropover Pro -> Droopy or Yoink itsycal -> MeetingBar ? Keka (fonctionne bien, je ne sais juste pas ce qu'il y a d'autre.) Upscayl -> HiPixel mais Upscayl est ok Homebew -> ok
If you haven’t looked into it already, look into Dato as an alternative to itsycal. https://apps.apple.com/us/app/dato/id1470584107?mt=12
You should take a look at Alcove, love the app. You have to try it.
Let me add a few for ya: For your transition to the new Mac: “brew install mackup” - this will let you save and restore all your app settings. For your terminal, try ghostty with starship, it’s an amazing combo. https://github.com/tw93/mole - an amazing free disk scanner / uninstaller (I replaced Hazel & daisydisk with it) Get some of Sorhus’s apps: https://github.com/sindresorhus - supercharge is amaaaaaazing for just installing apps from a dmg (which you’ll do again without setapp ;) - and my favorite feature is being able to assign a shortcut to “clear all osx notifications” in one go. I don’t see Bear and fantastical in your list, do you take notes or use a calendar? They’re good for that. Enjoy your new mac!
Woo ur using rustcast instead of raycast? Thank you!!!
What are you even asking? It sounds like you want replacements for the apps that you list. But why would you want a replacement fitted Homebrew. So do to just want recs for good apps?
For Downie, the free and open source alternatives are yt-dlp and get_iplayer. There's a GUI for yt-dlp called Macabolic. In spite of its name, yt-dlp will often work with web sites other than YouTube. For Cleanshot X, you're probably looking for Macshot. For Permute, it depends what you use it for. I basically want to turn video of any format into standard MPEG-4 H.263 or H.264. To do that I use SmartConverter, which is drop-dead simple to use and has a free option. It avoids reencoding anything unless absolutely necessary. The free scriptable option is ffmpeg on the command line or with Videomass. I paid for SmartConverter Pro because I want something as simple as possible that meets my actual needs, rather than theoretical future needs. JumpDesktop never worked for me, but Microsoft's free "Windows App" did. In spite of the name, "Windows App" is actually an RDP client. I use Yoink rather than DropOver Pro. I tried another utility like DropOver whose name I forget, but I found I only ever used the temporary file shelf part of it, so I bought Yoink. Simplicity wins, again. I use Upscayl and Keka and haven't found anything better. I know Keka is very simple compared to some compression applications, but again, it meets my needs and I like simple. ⁂ While I'm posting on this topic, anyone know a good free or one-time-payment alternative to BusyContacts? I just need a separate contact DB that isn't in Apple Contacts. No fancy features, and $50 for BusyContacts is a bit much for that. I looked at CardHop but they require setting up an account with them to even try it out. There was a great deal on BusyContacts last Black Friday and there might be again, but I kinda need a solution now if I'm going to ditch SetApp.
I have been using this for at least 5 years now https://freemacsoft.net/appcleaner/ It is free and does the work beautifully. No gimmick, no extra features. Either drop an app to delete or search for the app to delete.
I paid for BatFi for essentially what Aldente does. Not sure if it is still necessary since there is a built in charge limit now in the latest macOS. But i still use BatFi for what its worth, still find it handy to have in the menubar
Try my findertools among many other things it is also a low level uninstaller, it is a 100% native app no third party api 🙂 https://www.reddit.com/r/SideProject/comments/1t2udzr/i_got_tired_of_having_5_heavy_electron_apps/
You can check out my list of apps i really use, not some weird af promo sh*t list you see all the time. This is literally every app i use and why I use it. It is a little outdated right now, but i am updating currently. Maybe it helps https://github.com/WrkX/MacAppsDirectorsCut
If part of your cleanup is figuring out what to keep around for random markdown, JSON, and .env edits, I built markjason.sh for that exact gap. It is a tiny native Mac editor that opens fast and stays around 100MB RAM, so it feels a lot lighter than keeping VS Code around for tiny file-first tasks. It only does .md, .json, and .env, so it is deliberately not a big all-in-one notes app, but on a fresh Mac that limitation is kind of the point.