Most “best mac apps” lists are kinda… repetitive. They’re usually 10 or 20 apps either Googled or worse – from an AI generated response, used for affiliate links for the writer to make some extra cash.
I promise – this list is different. It is written by a human (hi there 👋), and it focuses on helping YOU.
Five apps. All released in 2025. That’s it. Each one solves a real problem and they’re all specifically for macOS.
Each app I actually use daily. No filler apps on this list. Just tools that genuinely make your Mac experience better.
If you run multiple monitors, create content, juggle file formats, or just want your Mac to feel less “all over the place” or inefficient – at least one of these apps will change how you work. Maybe all five. Depends on your workflow.
Let’s get into it.
Photo by Aleksey Zemlyanoy
What Makes a Mac App “Best” in 2025
Before diving into the list, here’s what actually matters when choosing Mac apps:
Native performance: If an app feels buggy or drains your battery, it’s not making the cut on this list. The best mac apps are built specifically for macOS – they’re fast, light, and feel like they belong on your system. The developers of these apps took their time to perfect their product, and the end result shows.
Solves a real problem macOS doesn’t: Your Mac already does a lot. The apps on this list fill genuine gaps. If macOS can already do something well enough, you don’t need an app for it. But where apple fell short – like giving you only one Dock for three monitors, or making screen recordings look amateur – that’s where great apps shine.
Clean UI that feels Mac-native: Good Mac apps respect Apple’s design guidelines. The apps feel like they shipped with your Mac. It is very easy for developers, especially those who don’t do fullstack development, to favor either the UI or the backend, both are equally important.
Regular updates and active development: Apps that haven’t been updated in 12 months are dead apps walking. Technology moves. macOS updates break things (I’m looking at you Tahoe). The best apps have developers who actually maintain them and fix bugs.
Worth the price: Whether free or paid, the value needs to be there. A $50 app that saves you two hours a week is a steal. A free app that wastes 20 minutes of setup for a feature you’ll use twice is not worth it.
These five apps hit all these marks. They’re fast, useful, well-designed, actively maintained, and worth every penny.
Screen Studio 3.0 – Screen Recording That Looks Professional Instantly
What it does: Records your screen and automatically makes it look like you spent hours editing.
Pricing: Monthly subscription ($29/month) or Yearly subscription ($108/yearly) At the time of writing this article.
Screen Studio takes screen recordings and makes them beautiful with very minimal editing. Behind the scenes Screen Studio records two layers of your screen, allowing the app to create beautiful mouse movements, automatic zoom on your clicks, as well as add clean backgrounds for a very professional-looking output videos.
If you ever edited a recorded video, you know the pain of unnatural and weird mouse movements. This magical app solves it, and I am not afraid to say, that it does so unlike any other app currently on the market.
This app shines for making tutorials, demo videos and course content. And the fact it is SO EASY to use for such complex things, makes it that much more enjoyable.
Why it’s on the list: If you create any video content that involves screen recording – courses, YouTube tutorials, product demos, documentation videos – Screen Studio transforms your experience unlike nothing else. The time saved on editing pays for itself instantly.
Best for: Content creators making tutorials. Course builders. SaaS founders creating demo videos. Developers showing off projects. Designers walking through designs. Anyone who needs to record their screen and have it look good without spending hours editing.
What makes it special: The automatic zoom is magic. Screen Studio tracks where you’re clicking and smoothly zooms to that area. Viewers can actually see what you’re doing instead of squinting at tiny texts on a full-screen recording. Another thing is the mouse movement, the cursor moves beautifully and naturally. The export quality is also excellent supporting 4K and 60FPS.
ExtraDock – Workspace Organization for Multi-Monitor Setups
What it does: Creates multiple docks, positioned exactly where you need them across your monitors.
Pricing: Yearly subscription (€9.99) or lifetime license with different discounts depending on device amount (€31.99 all the way to €99.99) At the time of writing this article.
ExtraDock solves one of the most frustrating limitations on macOS: the single Dock. If you run multiple monitors setup, you already know the problem. The Dock jumps between screens unwillingly, and even when you do want it to move to the screen you’re using, the mouse movement is just unnatural.
Another problem is the Dock clutter of all your apps in the same place, especially if you’re a multitasker with dev apps, design apps, communication apps, game apps – you get it.
ExtraDock fixes this by letting you create as many docks as you need. Not virtual desktops. Not Dock alternatives (although you could choose to use it as an alternative). Actual ADDITIONAL docks that hold apps, folders, and files. Each one positioned wherever makes sense for your workflow.
Why it’s on the list: Multi-monitor workflow management has been broken on Mac forever. ExtraDock helps with exactly that. Instead of one Dock trying to serve three contexts, you get beautiful, customized and focused floating docks, per screen. Your brain builds muscle memory. Apps and folders stay where you expect them.
Best for: Anyone with two or more monitors. Developers who code on one screen and communicate on another. Designers who need creative tools separate from communication apps. Freelancers juggling multiple clients (that’s me).
What makes it special: It’s not just about having multiple docks – it’s about organization and focus. Staying productive in 2025 is hard, the amount of distractions out there is unbelievable. ExtraDock helps with that by making context switching instant.
How to Convert – Dead Simple File Conversion
What it does: Drag any file onto it, pick the output format, done. And the best part? It’s local.
Pricing: One-time purchase ($19.99) At the time of writing this article.
How to Convert is the file converter that finally makes sense. No uploading to sketchy websites. No email signup walls. No format limitations. Just drag a file in, select the format you want, and get your converted file.
There’s not much to say about How to Convert, you basically convert files into the format you need, while keeping your privacy and your files safe.
How to Convert runs locally on your Mac. Your files never leave your machine.
Why it’s on the list: File format juggling is constant if you work with any kind of media. Images, videos, audio, documents – formats matter. Having a local converter that supports hundreds of formats and works with a simple drag-and-drop is the kind of unsexy utility that saves hours over time.
Best for: People who convert stuff a lot. There’s no real “target audience” for How to Convert, you either convert a lot or you don’t. Users with this problem will immediately see the value of this app.
What makes it special: The interface is dead simple. You’re not going through complex menus or learning format specifications. Drag file. Pick format. Done. Conversion happens locally so it’s fast and private. No internet required.
Bartender 6 – Tame The Menu Bar Beast
What it does: Hides menu bar icons and organizes them so you actually see what matters.
Pricing: Well, pricing is a bit different for Bartender, you can buy a license for a specific version, or lifetime, or upgrade from a previous version. I’ll let you explore it on your own but range is €10.38 all the way to €51.89 at the time of writing this article.
Bartender solves a problem every Mac user eventually faces: menu bar icon overload, causing icons to hide behind your Macbook Notch. You install a few useful utilities. Each one adds a menu bar icon. And bam – your menu bar is full and you can’t find anything.
Here’s a little secret: macOS lets you rearrange menu bar icons by Cmd-dragging them, but that’s pretty much all you get.
You can’t hide them. You can’t organize them into categories. You can’t show them only when you need them. Everything is always visible, always demanding attention… Enters our guest of honor – Bartender.
Now wait a second, you can’t really talk about Bartender in 2025 without throwing a big disclaimer about it. In fact the drama around it is so big, that I actually considered if I want to include it in this article. Finally I decided to include it because it’s simply (in my opinion) the best menu bar app out there.
Story Time (Skip ahead if you don’t care about the drama)
Bartender like most menu bar apps require Screen Recording Permissions. After the app was acquired by a company named Applause, with no communication to the app’s users, it raised a huge red flag causing a big dent in the trust that was built for over the decade since Bartender was released in 2012. According to users, the following updates felt “vibe coded” and had a lot of issues, which didn’t help the situation at all.
Why it’s on the list: Once you install more than about ten menu bar apps, Bartender becomes essential. The menu bar is one of the most important features in your Macbook, and having it crowded with icons you rarely click wastes that space and creates chaos. Bartender remains the most stable up in the market for menu bars, especially in macOS 26.
Best for: People with MacBooks where the notch eats menu bar space and causes apps to be inaccessible. Users who wants a cleaner, more organized workspace. Basically anyone with more than 10 apps installed.
What makes it special: You can organize menu bar items into a hidden bar that appears with a click or hotkey. You can set specific apps to show only when they’re active or have notifications. You can customize the appearance and position of everything. And the cherry on top, you can configure triggers that make icons appear and disappear on certain conditions.
Antinote – Note Taking Without the Complexity
What it does: Extremely simple note taking. Write something down, fast, that’s it.
Pricing: One-time purchase ($5) At the time of writing this article.
Antinote is note taking stripped down to the absolute essentials. You take notes. No organization system whatsoever. You scroll left for a new note, you write something, you scroll left again for a new note, repeat.
Note apps could be a bit overpowered and for some users a huge overkill. Notion wants to be your second brain and your project manager and your wiki. Obsidian is incredible for building knowledge networks at the cost of learning curve. Apple Notes is well Apple Notes (it’s fine). But sometimes you just need to write something down right now, and that’s where Antinote shines.
Why it’s on the list: The best productivity tool is often the simplest one. Antinote is a dead simple note taking app, with some capabilities like math which is nice. No deciding which notebook. No choosing tags or categories and no formatting. Just write and move on.
Best for: Quick notes. Random ideas you need to save. Temporary information that doesn’t need permanent organization. People who want note taking to be instant.
What makes it special: The interface is minimal, bordering on invisible. You see your notes and a search bar. That’s it. No sidebars. No toolbars, and zero buttons you’ll never click. It does one job, and it does it well.
Frequently Asked Questions
Are paid Mac apps worth it?
Absolutely, yes. Paid apps are worth it when they save you time or solve a real problem. Moreover, paid apps are more likely to be maintained, which means you’ll get updates, feature requests, support and more. Free apps are OK if they are really simple, but unless they are open source and maintained by an active community, chances are – the developer will drop it the second something that pays comes along.
What are the best Mac apps for productivity?
The best Mac apps for productivity solve a specific problem in YOUR workflow. For multi-monitor organization, ExtraDock. For file conversion, How to Convert. For quick notes, Antinote. For menu bar management, Bartender. The key is matching apps to your actual needs, not downloading apps just because they’re labeled “productive.”
How many apps should I have installed?
As few as possible while still solving your actual problems. Could be 1 or 2 or 10.
What Mac apps are essential in 2025?
Essential depends on your work. After reading this guide and each app’s “Best for” section, you probably have a better idea matching problems to “essential” solutions.
Do I need all of these apps?
No. You need the ones that solve problems you actually have. If you don’t create screen recordings, you probably don’t need Screen Studio. If you rarely convert files, How to Convert isn’t necessary. Read each section, decide if that problem applies to you, and download accordingly.
Can I use these apps on older Macs?
All of the apps above work on macOS 26 (Tahoe). Minimum system requirements change a lot as more features are developed. Always check the minimum system requirement on the app’s website.
Wrap-Up: Five Apps, Five Solutions
The best Mac apps 2025 aren’t the flashiest or the most featured. They’re the ones that solve real problems. They’re fast, well-designed, actively maintained, and worth installing.
Five apps. Five specific problems. Download what you need. Skip what you don’t.
The best app isn’t the one with the most features or the biggest user base. It’s the one you’ll actually use. The one that disappears into your workflow. The one that makes you wonder how you ever worked without it.
These five apps do that. At least one of them will make your Mac better. Maybe all five.
Ready to upgrade your Mac setup? Start with whichever app solves your biggest problem right now.
