My Top Mac Apps 2023 Edition
I’m in an ‘appy place!
Since my last story about the apps I use on my Mac, some things have changed.
I now use a MacBook Air with an M2 chip, and I’ve changed some of the apps I use, so it felt like a good time to review the changes.
I should say the MacBook Air, with the M2 chip, is sublime to use. It’s fanless so there’s no noise at all, and there’s plenty of power (maybe too much?)
As before, I will add the caveat that this is the state of play right now, with regards to the apps I use.
Apps come and go, and whilst I am against changing apps just for the sake of it, if there is a benefit to me then I will take a look.
Let’s crack on…
NB: This article contains links but they are NOT affiliate links. Enjoy 😀
This remains Spark Email. It’s a solid app.
There’s a story here, since I did part ways once they announced changes to a subscription model, but I wasn’t enjoying any other app (including the stock Apple Mail) so I bit the bullet, at least for the first year.
I may change my mind when it comes time to renew.
They have added some functionality over the last couple of months, including AI (which I hardly use) and templates have been introduced to Spark 3. It’s still missing integrated services, but they’re on the way (apparently).
Browser
If you’ve seen my #GoodbyeGoogle stories you’ll know that I’ve kicked Chrome to the curb.
I was playing around with DuckDuckGo, Brave and Arc. I love Arc, it’s a great browser, (although the mobile version needs work) but at the moment I’ve settled on Safari.
Not a huge fan in the past, I’m enjoying the new updates in macOS Sonoma, specifically the profiles, and since I have the same on my phone, then it made sense to be consistent.
I reserve the right to change at any time.
I do use DuckDuckGo as my search engine.
Task Manager
Since I wrote my previous story, I strayed from Todoist to Things3.
I agree, it’s a beautiful app, but after about 3 months I was still struggling to settle down with it.
I returned to Todoist.
But; with the arrival of iOS17 I have more than dipped my toe into Apple Reminders. It really has come-of-age, and has actually made some things easier to manage. I’ve moved over to that.
I wrote a story about the new updates here
Online Security
No change here. 1Password is where it’s at for me.
I’ve been quite happy with using it, and there’s no need for me to look anywhere else.
Note-taking
I started to use Obsidian a few months ago, but over time it didn’t really feel like a natural home for me.
I am a big fan of Drafts, an app that just let’s you type and then decide what to do with the text later.
There’s a plethora of Actions that can be used to push text left, right and centre, and do other things too, and I love the flexibilty it gives me.
Along with Drafts, I also use Apple Notes. This has also see a bump in functionality and has become even more usable as a note-taking app.
Used in conjunction with Drafts, it’s quite the combination.
Raycast
I stepped away from Alfred at some point last year, and took a look at Raycast.
I don’t use the Pro version, which is quite expensive, but the standard offering is just too good.
Raycast replaces the ‘Spotlight’ action and does a host of things out-of-the-box. Calculations, clipboard history, snippets and the best part is their ‘store’ where there are a number of integrations with other apps.
For example, just type REM to create a Reminder.
There’s windows management and the ability to create shortcuts to launch apps, search for things on specific websites; e.g. type AMA and what you’re looking for to launch a search on Amazon; without the need to load the website first.
Calendar
Once a big fan of Fantastical, I couldn’t justify the price hike to almost £60 per year.
So, I started to use Apple Calendars.
It doesn’t integrate with Apple Reminders, which is a shame, but I can share calendars with family members, and subscribe to others.
It does exactly what I need it to do so, for now, that’s where I am with scheduling.
Other Apps
There are a bunch of other apps that sit and work in the background, that help me to be as productive as possible.
Bartender This one keeps the menu bar of my MacBook clean and fresh. Only showing icons when they’re needed. It’s a beautifully clean app to use and I recommend checking it out.
After a 4-week trial, Bartender is $16 to buy.
Shottr My screenshot app. It only cost $8 for a one-off purchase, and does what I need to take screenshots, annotate them and mark them up.
I should add that you can download and use Shottr for free, forever. The $8 does a little to support the developer. And why not?
Surfshark One for internet security. I subscribed for two years at the end of last year, and it cost just £25, so was a bargain at the time.
It does prevent some sites working as expected, but on the whole it just sits there and hides me from the rest of the world.
PopClip This is a juicy little app that works whenever you select text.
It has the usual copy, cut and paste options, but then it also does things like:
- Create a reminder from selected text
- Open in a browser
- Create a URL shortcode with bit.ly
- Give the word count for the selected text
And so much more. One to definitely check out. It’s free for 150 uses, then costs £17.
Apps are a personal choice, and one that needs to work for you, in your workflow.
Do you use any of these apps?
Are there others I might consider?
Let me know in the comments?
Thank you for reading
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