Part of a series on
macOS
Features History Transition to Intel processors Transition to Apple silicon Architecture Built-in apps List of applications List of games
Versions Rhapsody (Developer Release) Hera (Server 1.0) Kodiak (Public Beta) Cheetah (10.0) Puma (10.1) Jaguar (10.2) Panther (10.3) Tiger (10.4) Leopard (10.5) Snow Leopard (10.6) Lion (10.7) Mountain Lion (10.8) Mavericks (10.9) Yosemite (10.10) El Capitan (10.11) Sierra (10.12) High Sierra (10.13) Mojave (10.14) Catalina (10.15) Big Sur (11) Monterey (12) Ventura (13) Sonoma (14)
Applications App Store Automator Books Calculator Calendar Chess Contacts Dashboard Dictionary DVD Player FaceTime Finder Game Center Grapher iTunes (history) Launchpad Mail Messages Music Notes Notification Center Photo Booth Podcasts Photos Preview QuickTime Reminders Safari (version history) Sherlock Stickies TextEdit Time Machine
Utilities Activity Monitor AirPort Utility Archive Utility Audio MIDI Setup Bluetooth File Exchange ColorSync Console Crash Reporter DigitalColor Meter Directory Utility DiskImageMounter Disk Utility Font Book Grab Help Viewer Image Capture Installer Keychain Access Migration Assistant Network Utility ODBC Administrator Remote Install Mac OS X System Preferences System Information Terminal Universal Access VoiceOver
Related Classic Mac OS Copland NeXTSTEP Rhapsody Darwin

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[edit]

Digital audio workstations[edit]

• Ableton Live
• Ardour
• Cubase
• Digital Performer
• GarageBand
• Logic Pro and MainStage
• REAPER
• Reason
• Renoise
• Steinberg 2019 Mac Pro

Audio editing[edit]

• Audacity – digital audio editor

DJing[edit]

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

Notation software[edit]

• Impro-Visor
• Finale
• LilyPond
• Overture

Misc audio tools[edit]

• 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[edit]

• Adobe Soundbooth – music and soundtrack editing
• Audion – media player
• BIAS Peak – mastering
• iTunes – audio/video Jukebox by Apple
• Logic Express – prosumer music production by Apple
• Logic Studio – music writing studio package by Apple
  • Apple Loops Utility – production and organisation of Apple Loops
  • Apple Qmaster and Qadministrator
  • Mainstage – program to play software synthesizers live
  • QuickTime Pro – pro version of QuickTime
  • Soundtrack Pro – post production audio editor
  • WaveBurner – CD mastering and production software
• RiffWorks – guitar recording and online song collaboration software

Chat (text, voice, image, video)[edit]

Active[edit]

• Adium – multi-protocol IM client
• aMSN
• ChitChat
• Colloquy – freeware advanced IRC and SILC client
• Discord
• Fire – open source, multiprotocol IM client
• FaceTime – videoconferencing between Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch
• iMessage – instant messaging between Mac, and iDevices
• Ircle
• Irssi – IrssiX and MacIrssi
• Kopete
• LiveChat
• Microsoft Messenger for Mac
• Microsoft Teams
• Palringo
• Psi (instant messenger)
• Skype
• Snak
• Ventrilo – audio chatroom application
• X-Chat Aqua
• Yahoo! Messenger
• Telegram

Discontinued[edit]

• AOL Instant Messenger – discontinued as of December 15, 2017^[1]

Children's software[edit]

• Kid Pix Deluxe 3X – bitmap drawing program
• Stagecast Creator – programming and internet authoring for kids

Developer tools and IDEs[edit]

• Apache Web Server
• AppCode – an Objective-C IDE by JetBrains for macOS and iOS development
• Aptana – an open source integrated development environment (IDE) for building Ajax web applications
• Clozure CL – an open source integrated development environment (IDE) for building Common Lisp applications
• Code::Blocks – open source IDE for C++
• CodeWarrior – development environment, framework
• Coldstone game engine
• Dylan
• Eclipse – open source Java-based IDE for developing rich-client applications, includes SWT library, replaces Swing by using underlying OS native windowing abilities
• Fink – Debian package manager for ported Unix software
• Free Pascal – Object Pascal compiler, XCode plugin available
• GNU Compiler Collection
• Glasgow Haskell Compiler
• Helix – relational database IDE
• Homebrew - Package manager for installing many open source, mostly terminal based, utilities. Includes Apache, PHP, Python and many more.
• HotSpot – Sun's Java Virtual Machine
• IntelliJ IDEA – a JAVA IDE by JetBrains (free limited community edition)
• Komodo – commercial multi-language IDE from ActiveState
• Lazarus – cross-platform IDE to develop software with Free Pascal, specialized in graphical software
• LiveCode – high-level cross-platform IDE
• MacApp – application development framework Pascal and C++
• Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW)
• Macports – a package management system that simplifies the installation of free/open source software on the macOS.
• Macromedia Authorware – application (CBT, eLearning) development, no Mac development environment since version 4, though can still package applications with the 'Mac Packager' for OS 8 through 10 playback
• Mono – open source implementation of Microsoft .NET Framework with a C# compiler
• NetBeans – modular, open source, multi-language platform and IDE for Java written in pure Java
• Omnis Studio – cross-platform development environment for creating enterprise and web applications for macOS, Windows, Linux, Solaris
• Panorama
• Perl
• PHP
• Python
• Qt Creator – an IDE for C++ GUI applications, by Trolltech
• Real Studio – cross-platform compiled REALbasic BASIC programming language IDE
• ResEdit – resource editor
• Script Debugger – an AppleScript and Open Scripting Architecture IDE
• SuperCard – high-level IDE
• Tcl/tk – scripting shell & GUI utility that allows cross platform development. Included with macOS.
• TextMate – multipurpose text editor that supports Ruby, PHP, and Python
• Torque (game engine) – game creation software
• WebKit – open source application framework for Safari (web browser)
• WebObjects
• wxPython – API merging Python and wxWidgets
• Xcode – IDE made by Apple, which comes as a part of macOS and is available as a downloadon, was called Project Builders of Florida tech

Email[edit]

Email clients[edit]

• Apple Mail – the bundled email client
• Claris Emailer – classic Mac OS only, no longer available
• Entourage – email client by Microsoft; analogous to Microsoft Outlook
• Eudora
• Foxmail
• Lotus Notes
• Mailbird
• Mailplane – a WebKit-based client for Gmail
• Microsoft Outlook
• Mozilla Thunderbird
• Mulberry – open-source software for e-mail, calendars and contacts
• Opera Mail
• Outlook Express
• Postbox
• Sparrow – as well as Sparrow Lite

Other email software[edit]

• Gmail Notifier

FTP clients[edit]

• Classic FTP
• Cyberduck
• Fetch
• Fugu
• FileZilla
• ForkLift
• Interarchy
• Transmit
• WebDrive – FTP and cloud client
• Yummy FTP

Games[edit]

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

Graphics, layout, desktop publishing[edit]

CAD, 3D graphics[edit]

• 3D-Coat
• Autodesk Alias
• Ashlar-Vellum – 2D/3D drafting, 3D modeling
• ArchiCAD
• AutoCAD
• Blender
• BricsCAD
• Cheetah3D
• Cinema 4D
• SketchUp – 3D modeling software
• Houdini
• Lightwave
• MacDraft - 2D CAD ^[2]
• Maya
• Modo
• PowerCADD
• ZBrush

Distributed document authoring[edit]

• Adobe Acrobat
• Preview

Icon editors, viewers[edit]

• Icon Composer – part of Apple Developer Tools
• IconBuilder
• Microsoft Office

File conversion and management[edit]

Active[edit]

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

Discontinued[edit]

• iPhoto – discontinued photo management application

Layout and desktop publishing[edit]

Active[edit]

• Adobe InDesign – page layout
• iCalamus – page layout
• iStudio Publisher – page layout
• Pages – part of iWork
• QuarkXPress – page layout
• Ready, Set, Go! – page layout
• Scribus – page layout
• TeX – publishing
  • MacTeX – TeX redistribution of TeX Live for Mac
  • Comparison of TeX Editors
• The Print Shop – page layout

Discontinued[edit]

• iBooks Author – created interactive books for Apple Books

Raster and vector graphics[edit]

This section lists bitmap graphics editors and vector graphics editors.

Active[edit]

• Adobe Fireworks – supports GIF animation
• 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
• GIMPShop – free open source cross-platform bitmap graphics editor
• GraphicConverter – displays and edits raster graphics files
• Inkscape – free vector graphics editor
• Luminar
• Macromedia FreeHand – vector graphics editor
• 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
• Seashore – open source, based around the GIMP's technology, but with native macOS (Cocoa) UI

Discontinued[edit]

• Aperture – Apple's pro photo management, editing, publishing application
• MacPaint – painting software by Apple (discontinued)

Integrated software technologies[edit]

• Finder
• QuickTime
• Terminal
• X11.app

Language and reference tools[edit]

• Cram (software)
• Dictionary (software)
• Encyclopædia Britannica
• Rosetta Stone (software) – proprietary language learning software
• Ultralingua – proprietary electronic dictionaries and language tools
• World Book Encyclopedia – multimedia

Mathematics software[edit]

• Fityk
• Grapher
• Maple (software)
• Mathematica
• MATLAB
• MathMagic
• Octave (software) – open source
• R (programming language)
• Sysquake
• SciLab – open source

Media center[edit]

• Boxee – Mac and Apple TV
• Front Row
• Mira
• MythTV
• SageTV
• Plex
• Kodi

Multimedia authoring[edit]

• Adobe Director – animation/application development
• Adobe Flash – vector animation
• Adobe LiveMotion – a discontinued competitor to Flash, until Adobe bought Macromedia
• Apple Media Tool – a discontinued multimedia authoring tool published by Apple
• Dragonframe - stop motion animation and time-lapse
• iBooks Author – created interactive books for Apple Books (discontinued)
• iLife – media suite by Apple
• Unity – 3D authoring

Networking and telecommunications[edit]

• 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[edit]

• 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[edit]

• AbiWord
• Adobe Acrobat
• Address Book – bundled with macOS
• AppleWorks – word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation applications (discontinued)
• Banktivity – personal finance, budgeting, investments
• Bean (word processor) – free TXT/RTF/DOC word processor
• Celtx
• Collabora Online enterprise-ready edition of LibreOffice
• CricketGraph – graphmaker
• Delicious Library
• FileMaker
• FlowVella
• Fortora Fresh Finance
• Helix (database)
• iBank – personal finance applicatio
• iCal – calendar management, bundled with macOS
• iWork – suite:
  • Pages – word processor application
  • Numbers – spreadsheet application
  • Keynote – presentation application
• Journler – diary and personal information manager with personal wiki features
• KOffice
• LibreOffice
• MacLinkPlus Deluxe – file format translation tool for PowerPC-era Mac OS X, converting and opening files created in other operating systems
• Mellel
• Microsoft Office – office suite:
  • Microsoft Word – word processor application
  • Microsoft Excel – spreadsheet application
  • Microsoft PowerPoint – presentation application
  • Microsoft Entourage – email application (replaced by Microsoft Outlook)
  • Microsoft Outlook – email application
  • Microsoft OneNote – note-taking application
• MoneyWiz – personal finance application
• Montage – screenwriting software
• NeoOffice - discontinued
• Nisus Writer
• OmniFocus
• OpenOffice.org - discontinued
• WriteNow
• Taste – word processor (discontinued)

Operating systems[edit]

• 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[edit]

• FreeMind
• Mindjet
• OmniOutliner
• OmniGraffle
• XMind

Peer-to-peer file sharing[edit]

• aMule
• BitTorrent client
• FrostWire
• LimeWire
• Poisoned
• rTorrent
• Transmission (BitTorrent)
• μTorrent
• Vuze – Bittorrent client, was Azureus

Science[edit]

• Celestia – 3D astronomy program
• SimThyr – Simulation system for thyroid homeostasis
• Stellarium – 3D astronomy program

Text editors[edit]

• ACE
• BBEdit
• BBEdit Lite
• Coda
• Emacs
• jEdit
• iA Writer
• Komodo Edit
• Nano
• SimpleText
• Smultron
• SubEthaEdit
• TeachText
• TextEdit
• TextMate
• TextWrangler
• vim
• XEmacs
• Ulysses

Utilities[edit]

• Activity Monitor – default system monitor for hardware and 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)
• 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
• 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[edit]

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

• BitDefender Antivirus for Mac – antivirus
• Intego VirusBarrier – antivirus
• MacScan – malware removal
• Malwarebytes — malware removal
• McAffee VirusScan – antivirus
• Norton Antivirus for Mac – antivirus
• Sophos – antivirus

Archiving, backup, restore, recovery[edit]

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

• Archive Utility – built-in archive file handler
• Archiver – paid, file archiving
• BetterZip – file archiver and compressor
• Compact Pro – data compression
• Disk Drill – data recovery
• Stellar Data Recovery – data recovery
• The Unarchiver — file archiving
• Time Machine (macOS) – built-in backup software
• WinZip – file archiver and compressor utility

Discontinued archiving apps[edit]

• Backup – discontinued Apple backup utility, part of MobileMe
• Stuffit – data compression

Disc burning apps[edit]

• Roxio Toast – DVD authoring application

Discontinued disc burning apps[edit]

• Adobe Encore
• Disco – disc burning
• DVD Studio Pro – DVD authoring application
• iDVD – a basic DVD-authoring application

Video[edit]

• Adobe After Effects
• Adobe Premiere Pro
• Adobe Presenter Video Express
• ArKaos – VJ software
• Avid
• DaVinci Resolve – Video Editing Suite
• DivX
• DivX Player
• DVD Player (Apple) – DVD player software built into macOS
• FFmpeg – audio/video converter
• Final Cut Express
• Final Cut Studio – audio-video editing suite:
  • Apple Qmaster
  • Cinema Tools
  • Compressor
  • DVD Studio Pro
  • Final Cut Pro
  • LiveType
  • Motion 2
  • Soundtrack Pro
• HandBrake – DVD to MPEG-4 and other formats converter
• iMovie – basic video editing application
• Miro Media Player
• MPlayer
• Perian
• QuickTime – including its Player and QuickTime Pro
• RealPlayer
• Shotcut - An open source rich video editor
• Shake
• Windows Media Player
• VLC media player

Virtualization, emulation, dual-booting[edit]

• Bochs
• Boot Camp – a multi-boot utility built into macOS from 10.5 on Intel Macs only
• CrossOver – commercial implementation of Wine
• DOSBox – DOS emulator
• Hercules emulator
• pcAnywhere – VNC-style remote control
• Parallels Workstation – commercial full virtualization software for desktop and server
• Q – emulates an IBM-compatible PC on a Mac, allows running PC operating systems
• VMware Fusion – virtualization software
• Wine – Windows API reimplementation
• Virtual PC – full virtualization software allows running other operating systems, such as Windows and Linux, on PowerPC Macs (discontinued in 2007)
• VirtualBox
• vMac – emulates a Macintosh Plus and can run Apple Macintosh System versions 1.1 to 7.5.5.

Web browsers[edit]

• Amaya – free
• Camino – open source
• Flock – free, Mozilla Firefox based
• Google Chrome – free, proprietary, Chromium-based
• iCab – free
• Konqueror – open source
• Lynx – free
• Mozilla – open source, combines browser, email client, WYSIWYG editor
• Mozilla Firefox – open source
• Microsoft Edge – free, proprietary, Chromium-based
• Netscape Navigator – free, proprietary
• OmniWeb – free, proprietary
• Opera – free, proprietary, Chromium-based
• Safari (web browser) – built-in from Mac OS X 10.3, available as a separate download for Mac OS X 10.2
• SeaMonkey – open source Internet application suite
• Shiira – open source
• Sleipnir – free, by Fenrir Inc
• Tor (anonymity network) – free, open source
• Torch (web browser) – free, by Torch Media Inc.
• Vivaldi – free, proprietary, Chromium-based
• Internet Explorer for Mac – free, by Microsoft
• WebKit – Safari application framework, also in the form of an application

Web design and content management[edit]

• Adobe Contribute
• Adobe Dreamweaver
• Adobe GoLive
• Claris Homepage
• Coda
• Freeway
• iWeb
• NVu
• RapidWeaver – a template-based website editor

Weblog clients[edit]

• ecto
• MarsEdit

See also[edit]

• List of Macintosh software published by Microsoft
• List of Unix commands

References[edit]