Disclaimer: I am not receiving any affiliate marketing for this post, either because the services don’t offer it or they do and I’m too lazy to sign up. This is just stuff I use daily that I make sure all my new computers get set up with.

My current list of must-have Mac apps, which are free unless otherwise noted. There are other apps I use for various purposes, but these are the ones that absolutely get installed on every machine.

• 1Password Password manager, OTP authenticator, Passkey holder and confidential storage. My preferred pick, though there are plenty of other options. ($36/year)
• Bear
  Markdown editor. I write all my notes in Bear, and sync ‘em across all my devices. It’s a pleasant editor with tagging. I am not a zettelkasten person and never will be, but tagging gets me what I need. ($30/year)
• Contrast
  Simple color picker that also does contrast calculations to make sure you’re meeting accessibility minimums (you can pick both foreground and background). My only complaint is it doesn’t automatically copy the color to the clipboard when you pick it (or at least the option to toggle same).
• Dato
  Calendar app that lives in your menubar, using your regular system accounts. Menubar calendar is a big thing for me (RIP Fantastical after their ridiculous price increase), but the low-key star of the show is the “full-screen notification.” Basically, I have it set up so that 1 minute before every virtual meeting I get a full-screen takeover that tells me the meeting is Happening. No more “notification 5 minutes before, try to do something else real quick then look up and realize 9 minutes have passed.” ESSENTIAL. ($10)
• iTerm2
  I’ve always been fond of Quake-style terminals, so much so that unless I’m in an IDE it’s all I’ll use. iTerm lets a) remove it from the Dock and App Switcher, b) force it to load only via a global hotkey, and c) animate up from whatever side of the screen you choose to show the terminal. A+. I tried WarpAI for a while, and while I liked the autosuggestions, the convenience of an always-available terminal without cluttering the Dock or App Switcher is, apparently, a deal-breaker for me.
• Karabiner Elements
  Specifically for my laptop when I’m running without my external keyboard. I map caps lock to escape (to mimic my regular keyboards), and then esc is mapped to hyper (for all my global shortcuts for Raycast, 1Password, etc.).
• NextDNS
  Secure private DNS resolution. I use it on all my devices to manage my homelab DNS, as well as set up DNS-based ad-blocking. The DNS can have issues sometimes, especially in conjunction with VPNs (though I suspect it’s more an Apple problem, as all the options I’ve tried get flaky at points for no discernible reason), but overall it’s rock-solid. ($20/year)
• NoTunes
  Prevents iTunes or Apple Music from launching. Like, when your AirPods switch to the wrong computer and you just thought the music stopped so you tapped them to start and all of a sudden Apple Music pops up? No more! You can also set a preferred default music app instead.
• OMZ (oh-my-zsh)
  It just makes the command line a little easier and more pleasing to use. Yes, you can absolutely script all this manually, but the point is I don’t want to.
• Pearcleaner
  The Mac app uninstaller you never knew you needed. I used to swear by AppCleaner, but I’m not sure it’s been updated in years.
• Raycast
  Launcher with some automation and scripting capabilities. Much better than spotlight, but not worth the pro features unless you’re wayyyy into AI. Free version is perfectly cromulent. Alfred is a worthy competitor, but they haven’t updated the UI in years and it just feels old/slower. Plus the extensions are harder to use.
• Vivaldi
  I’ve gone back to Safari as my daily driver, but Vivaldi is my browser of choice when I’m testing in Chromium (and doing web dev in general. I love Safari, but the inspector sucks out loud). I want to like Orion (it has side tabs!). It keeps almost pulling me back in but there are so many crashes and incompatible sites I always have to give up within a week. So Safari for browsing, Vivaldi for development.