I built GetCompress to make media optimization more convenient, with focus on performance and result file size
Hey r/MacApps 👋 I'm Petr, a solo developer and founder of GetCompress. That's my first launch post, I'd be happy to hear any feedback, re: this post/app/website/videos! GetCompress is a lightweight desktop app that quickly compresses videos, images, GIFs, PDFs in batches: get up to 90% smaller files with minimal quality loss. Save your time & keep files safe with offline compression. Drag files in and out, no extra clicks. Convert and compress 107+ formats, use thousands of conversion combinations. Detailed demo video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Y5dIMbHjUg Problem: You need to quickly compress videos, images or some docs, or even a GIF. Websites steal your data, waste your time, show tons of ads. I really wanted to keep my data safe and local, and to avoid context switching & juggling between apps. Most importantly, I wanted better compressed files, and not blurry docs that are larger than my input file :) What I focused on: Media compression performance. Everyone wraps FFmpeg, I proudly did the same. But I worked really hard on optimizing for the result. For example, I iterated on improving PDF optimization for weeks: don't break forms, compress images better... I'm happy to say I don't depend on GhostScript and sometimes outperform it. Or also, I polished ProRes and Apple native codecs flows very thoroughly (e.g. VideoToolbox), while some other popular apps base their marketing on this... and then they don't actually do this. I open-sourced the actual logic: https://github.com/getcompress/extensions Any additional integration, e.g. GhostScript, could be added separately later. Quality of life features and UX. Don't interrupt your work, use the floating dropzone to drag files around. Watch for files in directories and clipboard for auto-compression. Use Raycast extension, Siri shortcuts. Use quick presets and configure advanced settings (only if you need though) or keep careful defaults. ICC profiles, images or filesystem metadata, transparency, FPS, trim by frames or by time... App performance. More than 90% of logic is written in blazing-fast Rust (sorry, I know it's a meme!) While the UI is not native and uses a system WebView, it is very thin and stateless, without any risky logic. You know what? I tested some popular "truly native" macOS apps, and they struggle to... just scroll the list. Yes, I drop just a dozen files, and the UI becomes barely usable. I'm not even mentioning what happens if you drop a few dozens. With GetCompress, drop *hundreds* of files and still use the smooth UI. I truly believe that dedication and optimizations matter much more than a particular tech stack. Power users experience. I know everyone loves CLI scripts and knows what's best for their workflow. Feel free to bring your own logic or tools, wrap it with short JS snippets and enjoy polished UX. The sandbox is extremely limited and safe, execution takes microseconds, via in-memory isolated Rust engine. Local MCP server for media compression. You might say "my agent can do everything by itself" and you will be right. However, your LLM can hallucinate you a very dangerous command and ruin files. It rarely writes properly optimized commands even with detailed prompts. It has shell sandboxing issues, might reinstall tools randomly. I've built this integration to support your workflows and make them reliable. GetCompress is also localized to 29 languages, which seems rare. The full list would be much more detailed, and I don't stop! Comparison: Many other apps exist, I'm not gonna throw a made-up line about "how tired was I". GetCompress currently has (one of the?) biggest features & integrations set, and great performance. I believe that GetCompress is much simpler to use for configuring & fast dragging in/out batches of files. Comparing to HandBrake: Handbrake is one of the greatest apps, but it only supports video and to me it's much more complicated. GetCompress aims to provide best UX, and to support more formats (e.g. images, PDF) & use-cases and automation. Comparing to Permute: Permute provides some extra options to combine files, crop areas, add passwords to PDF, and working e.g. with movie subtitles, which GetCompress doesn't support (yet?) Permute dropzone is just a window and I couldn't find any way to use Permute quickly without switching apps Permute took minutes for just basic setup. Permute latest version requires macOS 26. Permute seems to lack PNG compression; PDF compression consistently produced larger files. Overall, it overwhelmingly underperforms in my tests across hundreds of scenarios. GetCompress works on macOS 10.15 or later and is plug'n'play. No setup hassle and much better compression, with or without additional setup (which is also much easier to configure). Comparing to Clop: Clop is still one of the best competitors, I'm not gonna pretend their app is bad, I'm glad they exist and raise the bar, and I'm keen for a healthy competition! Clop underperformed in some compression scenarios too, especially for PDF. It is a more real competitor though! Clop also allows integrating with some specific 3rd party apps which I didn't add yet Clop supports quick workflows too, but they are less convenient e.g. for batch processing Clop requires macOS 13, but GetCompress works on macOS 10.15 or later GetCompress is easier to extend with your logic (with open-source extensions), despite Clop being completely open-source GetCompress allows to try different quality bands or other settings quicker Comparing to Pimosa: TL;DR Pimosa has almost no PDF compression at all, and much less focus on media compression, but instead has more editing functionality for different media formats: https://www.reddit.com/r/macapps/comments/1tphgg0/comment/ooccela/ Ask me in comments if you want more details, I can record demos :) I definitely miss some points, but it's a subjective testing report where I focused on my personal usage scenarios. Pricing: $39 without promo codes, please check the website for any discount: https://getcompress.com Lifetime license, lifetime updates, 1 device (not sure about more devices). No subscriptions, no premium tiers. 14-days money-back guarantee, no questions asked. Still trying to figure out the best pricing! Transparency: My full name is Petr Samokhin, I'm the solo maker of GetCompress. I worked for ElevenLabs and for Revolut for a long time, engineering well-known industry best tech products. One of the main reasons I'm here: bring UX-oriented strong tech expertise, raise the bar, make media compression better :) The app is designed, architectured & well-tested manually, I guarantee it is not ai slop. I used AI for refactoring, auto-complete and different kinds of tests, but I control every line of code that I merge. LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/petersamokhin GitHub: https://github.com/petersamokhin X/Twitter: https://x.com/petersamokhin The app is signed and notarized for macOS, and also signed by Azure for Windows. Open-source code for the media compression logic: https://github.com/getcompress/extensions Terms: https://getcompress.com/eula/ Privacy policy: https://getcompress.com/privacy/
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fantastic! but very highly priced. i'd call 15 bucks the maximum...or 19 without promotion if there is a free mode.
I was actually looking for a tool like this. I’d love to try it, but the price is too high for me to justify it (especially since I’d be using it maybe once a week or less - and there are alternatives). This is probably good for people that need compress files more often than me.
Thanks a lot for your feedback! What would be your desired price? I'm not ready to go compete with more affordable tools but it'd be useful to know anyway
Sounds good, but kinda pricy. That being said, I wonder what would you say about ConvertX in contrast to your app. Don’t get me wrong, it looks nice and snappy, but convertx is free and has 1000 formats. Props on using Tauri (I assume) - I have recently released a small oss app for agents skills and used it as well, very snappy!
WAY too pricey. Excellent job though and congratulations!
Would be nice if a license covers more devices
Congratulations on your launch! Best of luck. It looks great and you've obviously spent a lot of time refining the app thoughtfully. I agree with others that $40 is too expensive, considering the marketplace - I'd say $15 feels about right. All the more so when there's an annual renewal fee: how much will it be to renew the licence? Slightly concerned by your comments about Clop. You say it "pretended [your] 1.2Mb file was 8.5Mb". Are you saying Clop lies about the size of the files users ask it to process? (I have no link to Clop, btw.) That aside, I hope GetCompress succeeds for you!
the floating dropzone is the feature that actually sells it for me. having to open a full app window just to compress a file is the friction that makes me reach for an online tool instead. if it just sits there waiting for a drop that changes the workflow completely. will try with the promo code.
It looks promising. I mostly use clop and Permute on the side for a few other things Your changelog only lists 1 release so far?
this is a very lengthy read. nice if its quality and passionate.
Looks very interesting. Do you have a full list of the 107 formats? And can it do standalone audio conversions?
The format count is the wrong thing to lead with here, free tools like the ConvertX one people keep mentioning will always beat you on raw numbers. The line that actually made me stop scrolling was the PDF part: beating GhostScript on quality without depending on it, not breaking forms, output smaller than the input. A web converter can't promise that, and right now it's buried halfway down the post. I'd move it to the top of the site and the video. Also worth killing the background music, a few people already said it.
Thank you for kind words! Yes, I can even elaborate on PDF compression: GhostScript is too powerful and often/always recreates the file from scratch, at least in all desktop compressors that depend on it which I tested It helps with smaller text-only PDFs where some kilobytes can be saved But it loses in some scenarios (not claiming it happens always) e.g. with image-rich PDFs, where GetCompress tries to optimize as much as possible for each image: better format depending on transparency, separate compression of images. I'm ready to share my test files if anyone is interested
It’s very apparent that you have put so much effort into this. Great job mate.
Thank you very much for feedback and kind words! 🫶 I'm very happy you noticed it, that's very pleasant to read! I've spent ton of time polishing the app & optimizing the compression, and my long-term goal is to actually provide better product, with a lot of attention to details.
Brutal yo suelo usar para imagenes el Imageoptim
Pretty slick! Looks solid for the general user. Any plans to support lossless compression? Sometimes apps spit out PNGs that aren't well optimized and could be slimmed down without any quality loss.
Thank you very much! 🫶 In GetCompress, if you choose “Original” quality preset, then PNG files will be compressed without losing quality. You're right about exported PNGs, sometimes they are surprisingly unoptimized and their file size can be noticeably decreased without any visual changes! For other quality presets, PNG will be compressed in a "lossy" way, which often looks very close to original too (e.g. demos on https://getcompress.com)
I recently created a mac app to resized images so I can quickly upload them to a website without them beeing 5 mb. As a little test for AI I added it to the mac app store without any marketing or what so ever. Got only a few downloads and that for an app that is completely free, so I wish you good luck to make your app an success. From the demo I can see that it looks amazing and has many nice features, so for heavy users it is for sure worth it. Guess the most difficult part is marketing as for most of the apps nowadays. Good luck!
Got it purely based on this thread and your responses. Hope you keep it updated and awesome. Thanks
Thank you very much, I will try my best!
Purchased, great app! Love that I can mass drop video files directly from Eagle.app into your app to compress and save. This is going to save me GB's of storage space.
how did you make this video? it's one of the best I've seen in a while in this subreddit.
I was excited to try it out but no free mode is a bummer
I’m sure it’s a great app, but the aggressive music feels unnecessary.