Free Mac apps
thriftmac


Search 339 free Mac apps

Archive of all 339 apps
from A to Z

1Piece

Multi-functional app includes many options for display and management of windows, some of which are quite innovative.

AbiWord

This alternative word processor has many of the features, but less of the bloat, found in Microsoft Word. It can read and write industry standard document types, and is able to put together quite a spiffy layout.

ActivityWatch

Keep track of how much time you spend doing different kinds of things on your computer — apps, windows titles, browser domains, categories, and more.

Adapter

Adapter promises to convert anything to anything — at least among image, audio and video formats. And they’ve got a long of file types to prove it. You can convert in batches, and do trims on audio or video.

Adium

A free instant messaging app that can connect to AIM, MSN, Jabber, Yahoo, and more.

Aiko

Drop in an audio or video file to get a text transcription, which can be exported for editing. It’s powered by Open AI’s Whisper, but everything runs locally on your Mac. Requires at least 16 GB of RAM.

Akaunting

Accounting software for small businesses to manage finances and cash flow. Takes care of invoicing, accepting online payments and keeping track of expenses. Can be installed on your host/server.

Alfred

Quick-launch app saves you time when searching your computer or the web. Launch apps with shortcuts, get quick access to web searches and bookmarks.

Alice

Create 3D models and learn programming with an easy drag-and-drop method designed for students.

Allusion

Organize your images into a single library. Use folders, tag hierarchy and search to keep track of your collection.

AltTab

Switch focus to any open window — like command-tab for programs, but for windows. Once you’re in focus, you can minimize, close or full-screen the window. Customize the app’s appearance and trigger shortcuts.

Amethyst

Automatically tiles windows for you as they are opened. Lots of options for how this is done, plus you can have different setups for different Spaces.

Amphetamine

An alternative to the dearly departed Caffeine, this menu bar app overrides energy saver settings to keep your Mac awake. This one has a boat load of features and is being actively developed.

Any Text

Put whatever text you want in a widget — lists, notes, or the thing you decide needs your attention.

AppCleaner

Delete not only the app, but also all those pesky files that are associated with it.

AppFlowy

A free and open source to Notion with a focus on getting things done. Create documents, grids, boards and calendars. Plus import documents. Type “/” to access content blocks.

AppFlowy

An open source alternative to Notion that distinguishes itself with data security and cross-platform native experience. Features include detailed to-do lists, kanban boards, content calendars and built-in AI.

Ardour

Plug in a microphone or a keyboard to record, edit, mix and master audio and MIDI projects.

Audacity

Audacity records and edits sounds with aplomb, with tons of new features constantly being added.

Backdrop

Like the name says, provides a backdrop for your Mac, with your choice of which windows go in front. It’s been a long time since there was a update, but it still works.

BackgroundMusic

Automatically pause your music when another audio source starts, set each app’s volumes individually, and record system audio.

Balance Lock

It’s weird, but I’ve seen it happen — your Mac’s sound balance drifts from the centre. This app stops that from happening.

Bean

An open source word processor that does more than TextEdit and is much speedier than Office-style software. (No longer being actively developed.)

Beaver Notes

Markdown editor stores files on your device. It features note-linking, a command prompt and a tagging system. Notes can be searched or organized by tag or date.

BitBar

Put pretty much anything you want in your Mac’s menu bar, using extensible plug-ins — plenty of which have already been created.

Bitwarden

Open source password manager has a nice interface, easy search, and plenty of ways to organize your items.

Blender

Open-source software for 3D modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, interactive creation and playback.

Boop

Paste in some text, hit Command-B, and choose what you want done with it. Made for developers, but you can import you own scripts to extend its capabilities.

Brackets

Open source code editor for the web from Adobe still in the early stages, but with the promise of lots of development. Built with HTML, CSS and javascript. Easily extensible.

Braindump

Jot down notes without having to think about how to organize them, then find them later with a fast, fuzzy search. Supports markdown and keyboard navigation.

Brave

Three times faster than Chrome, plus protection from Google, plus a secure crypto-wallet — that’s what they promise, but you know what they say about things that sound too good to be true.

BreakTimer

Set up customizable breaks with reminders. Decide how often and how long your breaks are, configure your work hours, opt for skip or snooze.

Burn

Burn data disks, audio disks (MP3, audio CD), video disks (VCD, SVCD, DVD-Video, DivX), images and disk copy — just about anything you can think of. And all with great ease.

Caesium

An image compressor with all the options up front. It keeps the original and has the option to resize.

Calibre

Manage e-book libraries, convert e-books in a huge number of formats, sync to readers (including iPad), view e-books with support for many features, and use a content server for online access to your book collection using a browser from any computer.

Camera Preview

See how look before going live on your web cam — from the the menu bar, the dock or a keyboard shortcut. You can also take a picture, or zoom in or out.

CandyBar

Change the system icons in Mac OS X, including the trash can, volumes, default folder, and more. Due to its uncertain future, CandyBar is now free but unsupported.

Catapult

Set up folders with related files as projects that can be opened in the app of your choice from the menu bar.

Chicken

Display and interact with a remote computer screen as if it were right next to you.

Chrome

If you use and trust Google apps such as Gmail, Google Pay, and Google Assistant, then this is the browser for you. Just keep in mind that you pay with your data.

Clementine

A multiplatform music player inspired by Amarok 1.4 that focuses on a fast and easy-to-use interface for searching and playing music.

ClipGrab

Download from YouTube, Vimeo, Facebook and other video sites. Convert downloaded videos to MPEG4, MP3 or other formats in one step.

Clipy

One of the most full-featured of the free clipboard managers you’ll find. It stands out with lots of options in the preferences. Plus you can store and easily access snippets.

Clocker

Keep track of time zones in the menu bar with custom labels — say, the names of family, colleagues or friends. Also features a time scroller and upcoming events.

Clyde

Would-be thieves get blasted with a loud alarm if they close the lid on an unattended Mac.

Coconut Battery

Keep track of all the details of what’s happening with the battery in your portable mac as it happens.

Command X

Cut and paste files the Windows way. Highlight, hit Command-X, go to destination and use Command-V. The Mac way? Command-C, then Command-Option-V.

CotEditor

Text editor features syntax colouring for 26 languages, powerful find and replace including regular expressions, outline menu, split views, macros and keybindings.

Cursorcerer

Hide your cursor at any time with a global hot key. Handy for those times it gets in the way when you’re watching a video.

CustomShortcuts

Create keyboard shortcuts for most Mac programs. Helps you navigate menu hierarchies and get the titles right. Works with KeyClu, which lists all active shortcuts of the current application.

Cyberduck

This Mac stalwart has a nice interface and can take on most jobs without any trouble. A free version of the app can be downloaded from the Cyberduck website using the link below. Donations are requested.

darktable

This open source alternative to Adobe’s Lightroom manages your digital negatives in a database, lets you view them through a zoomable light table and enables you to develop raw images and enhance them.

DaVinci Resolve

The free version of this video editor has so much going for it that it might be all you ever need. Capabilities cover cutting, keyframing, color grading and audio tools.

Day Progress

How’s your day going? Keep track of how much time as passed with a customizable graphic in the menu bar. You decide what the day range should be, and which days of the week you want to keep track of.

Day-O

A simple menu bar clock replacement with a simple calendar for your Mac. Installed on all Macs at thriftmac headquarters.

Decker

Just like the good old days of Hypercard, you can once again use a linked deck of cards to create e-zines, presentations, and adventure games like Myst.

Deeper

If you can’t get enough of tweaking your Mac, then go deeper and customize the Dock, Finder, Spotlight and login screen, plus make changes to Safari, Mail, QuickTime and iTunes. A personalized login screen might just be what you’re looking for.

DeskCover Pro

Dim your desktop or hide it completely so you can focus better on the front window where you’re working.

digiKam

Photo management app rivals Lightroom with ability to organize and optimize. Can handle libraries of more then 100,000 images. Processes raw files, edits JPEGs and publishes to social media

Disk Inventory X

Scan for a graphical representation of everything on your hard drive — and see what’s taking up the most space. Click for details and paths.

Dozer

Get your menu bar items under control by hiding the ones you don’t use often. Display them with a click of the Dozer icon.

draw.io

This online drawing tool can be downloaded and used as an app on your desktop. Plenty of sample charts and diagrams get you started. Easy and intuitive to use.

Dropbox

Sync and share your files online. Can also be used for automatic backups with a history going back 30 days. The free version allows two gigabytes of data.

Duet

Turn an iPad into an extra display for your Mac using the Lightning or 30-pin cable.

dupeGuru

Scan for duplicate files in the folders of your choosing. Options allow you to focus on music or pictures. Tweak it to find exactly the kind of duplicates you want. Copy or delete the dupes.

Duplicati

Backup files and folders online with strong AES-256 encryption. Save space with incremental backups and data deduplication. Run backups on any machine through the web-based interface or via command line interface. Duplicati has a built-in scheduler and auto-updater.

EasyFind

Finds files and folders by name or content using advanced Boolean operators, wildcards, and phrases. It does not require indexing, is fast, and uses very little memory. Also shows previews.

Economix

Simple program helps you keep track of expenses and your bank balance. Good idea if you’re wondering where all the money went. Site is in French, but an English version of the app is available.

Encrypto

Drop your file into Encrypto, give it a password, then send it securely on its way. Adds AES-256 encryption, allows optional password hints.

eqMac

Adjust the sound coming from your Mac’s headphones or speaker.

Equinox

Create dynamic macOS wallpapers (a.k.a. desktop pictures) based on solar calculations, the time of day or system appearance — one for light and one for dark.

espanso

Type a keyword with a colon in front (or whatever you like!), and it expands. Includes special triggers for dates, emojis and shell commands, plus several expansion packages. Can also create templates.

Esse

Choose from dozens of pre-set text transformations, or combine and save your own.

EtreCheck

Display details of your system configuration that can be copied to the clipboard. The information can be used at Apple support communities so people can help you with troubleshooting your Mac. Personal identification is automatically removed.

eul

Stats for CPU, memory, network, battery, Bluetooth, disk and GPU in a nice dark-mode compatible interface.

F.lux

Adjusts the colour of your computer’s display to the time of day — warm at night and like sunlight during the day — automatically taking into account where you live and the type of lighting you have.

Ferdi

Get all your messaging apps in one place with unlimited accounts. Features include no login required, private notification, password lock, quick switch between services, and scheduled do-not-disturb.

FileZilla

Open source FTP program good for those who prefer access to local files in the same window as remote files.

Firefly III

Double-entry bookkeeping system supports budgets, categories, tags, and multiple currencies. Reports show expenses by week, month or year.

Firefox

The non-profit open source effort from Mozilla, often updated, with a huge collection of add-ons. Fast, private and secure.

Flashbang

Flash cards with several modes, including true/false and multiple choice. Supports importing from other apps, text to speech and 10 different themes.

Flashlight

Make Spotlight do more than you ever dreamed possible with a set of plug-ins that covers web searches, creating notes and reminders, sending messages, plus hundreds of other things.

Fluid

Create site-specific mini-web browsers for your web apps, so that they launch like desktop programs in your dock. Great for checking Gmail, for example.

Flycut

Open source fork of Jumpcut pops up a bezel containing recent items that you’ve copied. You can go through them with arrow keys to find the one you want and paste it. Default hotkey is Shift-Command-V.

Folder Peek

Your folders live as names in the menu bar. Click to access anything in them, including documents and apps. Customize it with things like icon, size, title and sorting.

Fotor

Collection of image editing tools includes white balance, exposure, brightness, color contrast, saturation, and sharpness. Also, straighten, crop, rotate, and manipulate the image.

FrameByFrame

Create stop-motion animation videos using any webcam/video camera connected to your Mac, including iSight. Just take some pictures and soon you have a stop-motion QuickTime movie.

Free Ruler

Handy little utility for those times when you want to measure something on your screen. Over 20 years old!

FreeCAD

FreeCAD is an open-source parametric 3D modeler made primarily to design real-life objects of any size. Parametric modeling allows you to easily modify your design by going back into your model history and changing its parameters.

FreeFileSync

Folder comparison and synchronization app creates and manages backup copies of your files. Instead of copying every file every time, it determines the differences between source and target folders, then transfers the minimum amount of data needed.

FreeMind

A mind-mapping software written in Java designed to be a high productivity tool. Useful for keeping track of projects, brainstorming, small databases, and more.

FreeScaler

Use AI models to upscale low-resolution JPG or PNG photos. You can batch upscale of a folder of images.

FreeTube

Open source app lets you watch YouTube videos in a browser without tracking or ads. Subscribe to channels without an account.

FreshBatch

Batch rename files and extensions — just tell it what folder you want to modify, what about the filename you need to change, and what you want to change it to.

Frost

Use calming music and a selection of beautiful backgrounds to help focus on your writing. Allows you to save files to your computer.

Ghostery

Find out who is tracking you on the web — ad networks, data providers, publishers and other companies. Learn more about them and decide who you want to block.

GIF Brewery

Take a video or screen recording, then crop it, set the frame rate, apply filters and add captions. A nice change from the clutter of web-based GIF makers.

Gifski

Convert videos to high-quality GIFs.

GIMP

Have you ever wished there were a free version of Photoshop? Well, there is — kind of. It’s called GIMP, and it does a good job of such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. OK, it’s is not exactly Photoshop, but it you may find it comes close enough. And in case you were worried, GIMP no longer requires that X11 be installed on your Mac.

Giphy Capture

Capture videos, or anything else that moves on your screen, as an animated gif with one-click stop and start. Allows for precision editing and sharing with friends.

GnuCash

Personal and small-business financial-accounting software, freely licensed under the GNU GPL. Allows you to track bank accounts, stocks, income and expenses. As quick and intuitive to use as a checkbook register, it is based on professional accounting principles to ensure balanced books and accurate reports.

Grab2Text

Capture and copy text from images, then paste it into a text editor. Keeps the history of your last 10 extracted texts. Can also extract QR codes.

GrandPerspective

Scan your folders to get a colourful view of what is inside them. Then hover with your cursor to see what files are represented. It’s a great way to see what’s taking up all the space.

Growly Calculator

A spreadsheet that specializes in crunching numbers. There are plenty of functions, similar to the ones in Excel, but not nearly as many. Supports DIF, CSV and RTF.

Growly Write

A simple — but not too simple — app for people who want a word processor with the features they actually use. Everything is easy to find in a format panel that includes a multitude of features.

Handbrake

Multithreaded video transcoder supports most common multimedia files and any DVD or Bluray-like source that is not copy-protected. Outputs to several popular file formats, including the one for Apple TV.

Handy Calculator

Calculator with easy-to-see numbers fades from view when not in use. You can input complete formulas, including parentheses, before hitting the equal sign. Handles copy and paste.

Heynote

A scratchpad for developers. Each note is a block with formatting or syntax highlighting for plain text, math, markdown or one of several programming languages. Math blocks do calculations.

Hidden Bar

Simple and effective way to hide the icons cluttering your menu bar. Decide which ones you want to hide, then use an arrow icon to reveal them when needed. They’ll hide themselves again after a time that you set.

HideSwitch

A super simple way to show and hide system files. Just use the toggle on a semi-transparent bezel.

Hocus Focus

Automatically hides application windows that have been inactive for a certain period of time (you decide how long), leaving only the apps you’re using visible. Keeps your screens clutter free and your mind focused.

HotKey

Get easy access to your apps and scripts from the menu bar. Or skip the mouse and use custom keyboard combinations.

Hovrly

Put times from various cities in your menu bar — 24-hour or AM/PM. Use a slider to show how the times compare through the day.

Hugin

Assemble a mosaic of photographs into a complete immersive panorama, stitch any series of overlapping pictures and much more.

Hyper

A beautiful and extensible command-line interface, built on open web standards. Lots of potential for innovative additions.

Hyperkey

Remap the caps lock key to shift, control, option and command — all combined — to create a new modifier key. Great for those who never use caps lock for its intended purpose.

iCanHazShortcut

Set up shortcuts for virtually any Terminal command. You may find it more convenient and flexible than Apple’s Automator.

IINA

Open source video player built from the ground up for modern versions of macOS. Supports common media types and outputs high-quality video optimized for retina screens.

Image Tricks

Apply a number of cool effects to your pictures: adjust colours, add blurs, distort with twirl, bump and pinch, or stylize with mosaic, crystalize and halftone. Plus much more. You can also generate original images using similar effects.

ImageAlpha

Greatly reduce file sizes of 24-bit PNG files (including alpha transparency) by applying lossy compression and conversion to a more efficient PNG8+alpha format. Compatible with iOS, all browsers, and degrades well in IE6.

ImageOptim

Drag and drop .jpeg, .png and .gif images and see them instantly slim down. This open source app works by finding the best compression parameters and removing unnecessary comments and colour profiles. Which is just what you want to make websites load faster.

Inkscape

If only there were a free version of Illustrator … or FreeHand … or CorelDraw. Inkscape aspires to be all these things and has lots of support.

Integrity

Quickly scan websites for broken or bad links. Results can be exported to various visualization formats.

iTerm2

Imagine Terminal with a slick interface — including split panes, autocomplete, instant replay and Growl support — and you’ve got iTerm2. It is a successor to iTerm.

Itsycal

Easy access from the menu bar to a calendar for the current month and a listing of appointments and events imported from the Calendar app that comes with your Mac. Unpinning allows you to move it around the screen.

iTunes Alarm

Not only puts you to sleep and wakes you up, but does the same for your Mac. This app plays the music of your choice as you fall asleep, then puts your Mac to sleep at the time you designate. Later, it can wake your Mac and play another song (or radio station) to wake you up. There’s even a snooze button.

iZip

Wizard takes you step by step through the archiving process, including naming, option for extra compression, password protection, level of encryption, and ability to store and share online at files.com.

Joplin

Open-source, cross-platform note-taking and to-do app organizes into notebooks. It supports markdown and can be synced with one of several cloud services. You can import from Evernote.

Jumpcut

Save up multiple snippets of text and paste them at will from the menu bar or from a translucent display invoked by a keyboard shortcut.

Kap

Open source screen capture with good options for sizing, and plenty of opportunity for added features.

Kapow

Keep track of your hours for one project or many. Clock in and out with a start/stop button like you would with a punch clock. A checkbox helps you keep track of billing.

Karabiner-Elements

Customize your Mac keyboard — simply change normal keys to other keys or set up complex rules.

Kdenlive

Open source video editor features multi-track editing, configurable interface and shortcuts, titler, dozens of effects and transitions, audio and video scopes, proxy editing, keyframeable effects — and more.

KeePassXC

Cross-platform software saves user names, passwords, URLs, attachments and more in a single encrypted database. Entries are sorted in customizable groups, and there is an integrated search function. A browser extension is available.

Keeping You Awake

A coffee cup icon that keeps your Mac awake when you click it. You can also set the duration. Great if you miss the now-defunct Caffeine, and don’t like Amphetamine’s pill icon.

Keka

Excellent file archiver compresses 7z, Zip, Tar, Gzip, Bzip2, DMG, ISO. It extracts RAR, 7z, Lzma, Zip, Tar, Gzip, Bzip2, ISO, EXE, CAB, PAX, ACE (PPC). Main compression core is p7zip (7-zip port).

KeyboardCleanTool

Many is the time I’ve tried to clean my keyboard, only to have multiple accidental key presses play havoc on the screen. This app does just one job — turn off your keyboard.

KeyClu

Tap your Mac’s command key twice, then hold, and see a display of the app you’re currently using. In some cases, the list is enormous!

Kid3

Easily tag multiple audio files without having to re-type the same information. Supported files include MP3, Ogg/Vorbis, FLAC, Monkey’s Audio, MPC, MP4/AAC, MP2, Opus, Speex, TrueAudio, WavPack, WMA/WMV, WAV and AIFF.

Kindle for Mac

No Kindle? No problem. Select from the 800,000 Kindle books available from Amazon and read them on your Mac. Features include syncing, notes, highlights, and search.

Kodi

Media player and entertainment hub with an interface for TV and remote controls. Play and view most videos, music, podcasts, and other digital media files from local and network storage media and the internet.

Krita

Digital painting tool developed by artists who “want to see affordable art tools for everyone.” Aimed concept artists, illustrators, matte and texture artists, and the VFX industry. But designed so that amateurs also find it useful.

LastPass

If you’re looking for a way to save all the logins and passwords you use at various websites, you can’t do much better than 1Password. However, the free version of LastPass — acting as a browser extension — covers many of the basic functions. It comes highly recommended by PCMag, and is worth a look if you need something free.

Later

Hide all the windows in a session and bring them back when you need them, either manually or with a timer. Great for when you need to clear the decks before a video call.

Latest

Handy little utility scans your apps for updates. It even finds tiny updates that don’t show up in the Mac App Store.

Launchpad-Customizer

Easily change the number of rows and columns in your launchpad, letting you place more or fewer icons in a single page.

Left

Distraction-free editor allows you to place markers in your text, which show up in a side panel. Comes with an inline thesaurus.

Leomard

Third-party Reddit apps may no longer be working, but they’re starting to appear for the alternatives. Leomard — a Mac client for Lemmy — is in the early stages, but quite functional.

Lepton

A well-organized collection of snippets is incredibly handy for coders, and Lepton does this nicely. It’s basically a front end to whatever you have stored at github, so it’s synced wherever you go.

LibreOffice

Developers unhappy with the turn taken by OpenOffice.org when it was acquired by Oracle set off to create their own open source office suite — and the result is LibreOffice. The About Us section notes that it is based on the principle of developers “sharing their work with the world in a non-restrictive way.”

Lightweight PDF

Compress PDFs by up to 90 per cent with a drag-and-drop interface that promises a balance between file size and quality. Protect your privacy by avoiding websites with similar functionality.

Linear

Use a ruler to measure stuff on your screen in pixels or ems. Make as many rulers as you like. Great for web designers.

Linearity

A pretty good alternative to Illustrator that is free for individuals.

LinearMouse

Set up scrolling direction, pointer acceleration, pointer speed and modifier keys — separately for each device. Your mouse and trackpad can be customized differently.

linked

A nice calendar based journal. It has a built-in search, files saved in your Documents folder, and text styling that includes to-do, list and code blocks.

LiteIcon

Change your system icons by dragging new ones onto the ones you want to replace, then click Apply Changes. Restore icons by dragging the new ones out.

LiveQuartz

A free image editor based on layers and CoreImage filters. You have the layers on the left and the filters on the right of the window. To edit an image, just drag it into the layers’ list and it will be added as a new layer.

LMMS

Create melodies and beats, synthesizing and mixing sounds, arranging samples and much more. The playback with a typing or MIDI keyboard. Bundled with ready-to-use content.

Logseq

Knowledge base works with local plain-text markdown and org-mode files to write, organize and share your thoughts, create to-do lists, and much more.

LosslessCut

Losslessly trim or cut out parts of video/audio, merge or concatenate arbitrary files, extract all tracks from a file — and much more.

Lulu

Keep track of apps, or even malware, on you Mac that are communicating with a remote server. Block anything that looks suspicious or unnecessary.

Maccy

This clipboard distinguishes itself with a search input for when the number of items you’ve copied gets unwieldy. There is a free version, but it’s hard to find on the site. Use the download button below.

MacDown

Open source markdown editor for OS X, released under the MIT license, heavily influenced by Chen Luo’s Mou. Features highly customisable markdown rendering, syntax highlighting in fenced code blocks, sophisticated auto-completion.

MacDropAny

Sync any folder on your Mac with a cloud service — including Dropbox, iCloud Drive, Copy, MediaFire, Hightail, hubiC, Google Drive, Box, OneDrive, Mega and Creative Cloud. Just two steps.

MacJournal

Keep a personal journal with a calendar and time line. You can also group entries, and use it as a notes app. Started out free 18 years ago, went paid, and now it’s free again.

MacPacker

Preview your archives without extracting them. Supports zip, tar, and lz4, with more to come.

MacTracker

A database of information on every Mac ever made — even those made by companies other than Apple. No detail is too obscure. You can even play startup chimes.

Manta

Customizable templates for creating invoices and keeping track of them. Contacts allow you to keep information for billing the same client. Save as a PDF, then send it by email or print it off.

MarkEdit

A simple and lightweight open source markdown editor with support for Shortcuts.

MarkText

A markdown editor with support for tables, diagrams, math formulas and code blocks. Supports CommonMark and GitHub flavoured specs.

Mashduo

Compare your iTunes library with a friend’s and see which songs you don’t have in common. Or use it to make sure your own libraries are in sync. Also helps with making sure a migration goes well.

Media Converter

Convert avi, wmv, mkv, rm, mov and more using several presents, including iPod/iPhone. You can also create your own presets or download others. Smart settings keep your video in the correct aspect ratio.

MediaHuman Lyrics Finder

Find and add missing lyrics to songs in your music library. Won’t overwrite current lyrics. Drag and drop tracks from your favorite music player (e.g. iTunes) and the app does the rest.

MeetingBar

Keep track of upcoming meetings in the menu bar — integrated with 20+ meeting services, so you never forget and can quickly join. Download and support Ukraine.

Megawords

Nirvana for word nerds — search for anagrams, rhymes, crossword solutions, allowable Scrabble words — plus the usual definitions and synonyms.

Meme Generator

Have mindless fun taking bizarre photos that have been circulating around the Internet — annoying Facebook girl, for example — and applying your own slogans to them. Or, as the website version puts it: “Bluntly offensive statements and careless advice with animal icons.”

Microsoft To Do

There are plenty of choices for to-do-list apps for the Mac, but they don’t come much slicker than To Do, the successor to Wunderlist. Nice animations and a selection of backgrounds combine with a feature set that includes the ability to make and search multiple lists, check off each item, and sync everything between your Mac and other devices.

Miro

Open source music and video player works with your current music library, converts and syncs to Android, allows you to buy from Amazon, downloads, plays and converts almost any video, shares media over a network, and features fast torrent downloads.

Monolingual

Claim valuable space on your hard drive by eliminating localization files for languages you never use.

Moped

A light-weight text editor that supports syntax highlighting for dozens of programming languages. Choose from several themes and mono-spaced fonts.

Mos

Set the direction of your Mac’s touch pad and mouse wheel separately — plus, make scrolling smoother than ever. Apps can be managed individually.

Motion FX

Moving in front of your Mac’s camera was never so much fun. Select an effect and watch what it does with face tracking and other technology. Presets include smoke, fire, rainbow plasma and 77 others. Five modes include video warp, which warps live video using your mouse or trackpad. Download is from the Mac App Store.

Motrix

A nice interface for heavy downloaders who need to keep organized. Supports BitTorrent and Magnet.

MPlayerX

Powerful, easy-to-use, beautiful multimedia player works with almost any format. Smooth playback even with full HD. Supports multi-touch, intelligently detects subtitles. I’m content with QuickTime, but those who seek the ultimate video experience may find this more satisfying.

mpv

This one comes with scripting capabilities that “can make the player do almost anything.” Make your own or grab one from the wiki.

Muzzle

Automatically turn off those annoying, and possibly embarrassing, notifications when you’re screen sharing.

NameChanger

Rename a list of files quickly and easily — and see the changes as you type. Options for changing names include: replace first occurrence, replace last occurrence, replace all, wildcard, prepend, append, character removal, sequence and date.

Natron

Open source digital compositor for VFX and motion graphics. The software features powerful keying and 2D tracking tools that are staple for all current film production visual effects. Flexible roto and rotopaint tools can generate unlimited layers of masks, mattes and shapes.

NetNewsWire

The revered RSS feed reader is back with an open source version by Brent Simmons as his contribution to the open web. Features include a Safari extension for feed-adding, direct feed-downloading, and syncing via Feedbin.

NetSpot

Map out your wireless network and set up hotspots to ensure you’re getting good coverage. Walk around your building with a MacBook to set up points on a map, then let the app test the wifi strength in each spot.

Nisus Thesaurus

Pump up the free TextEdit that comes with your Mac by adding the well-done Nisus Thesaurus. Just select a word, and look it up with your Services submenu.

Notable

The developer couldn’t find a notes app that did everything he wanted, he made his own. Supports markdown, with notes stored on your computer, zen mode, and split view. Sync via third-party services such as Dropbox.

Note Calculator

Use every-day text for your calculations. Supports variables and blocks of multiple variables. Can get a total or an average.

Notenik

An open-source notes app with almost too many features to list. Notes are plain text files that can be opened and edited with any text editor. Each consists of fields, starting with title and body — you can add more and organize using these fields.

Notepad Next

Notepad++ is a venerable text editor for Windows, and now you can run a reimplementation of it on macOS — complete with icons from the ’90s.

Notes SE

Notes app with a simple interface syncs via iCloud across Mac, iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch. Create links by typing in the URL. Supports widgets and Shortcuts.

Notion Calendar

An alternative desktop interface for Google Calendar. It features a menu bar item, scheduling, time zones, multiple languages, command menu and, of course, optional integration with other Notion products.

Noto

General-purpose text editor supports extensive encoding, multi-selection indentation, invisible characters and iCloud Drive integration.

OBS Studio

Use it for video recording, mixing and live streaming. Unlimited numbers of scenes can be made up of screen captures, images, text, browser windows, webcams and more. Switch seamlessly with custom transitions.

Obsidian

Knowledge base, with markdown support for plain text files, helps get your thoughts in order with a graph view. Extensibility allows for much customization of anything you do with text.

ocenaudio

Features include: real-time preview of effects, cross-platform support, multi-selection for delicate editions, efficient editing of large files and fully featured spectrogram.

Omnivore

Save articles, newsletters and documents and read them later — focused and distraction free. Add notes and highlights. Organize your reading list the way you want and sync it across all your devices.

One Task

Focus on one task at a time by creating a list of tasks for the day. The first one will show up in a widget. Check it off when it’s done, and the next one appears.

One Thing

Put text of your choice in the menu bar as a constant reminder — an inspiration, a goal, or something that need to get done.

OneNote

Digital notebook from Microsoft lets you take notes (including pictures), share them and collaborate with others across multiple devices.

OpenOffice

Now that a native Mac version is available, this open source alternative to Microsoft Office is a worthy option to consider along with LibreOffice.

OpenShot

Simple yet powerful cross-platform app features trimming, 3D animation, unlimited tracks, video effects, audio wave forms, title editor, slow motion effect, and more.

Opera

Browse fast, secure and ad-free, chat directly in your browser, easily connect your devices share files. Surf with enhanced privacy and free VPN.

Origami Studio

Designers can create interactive prototypes and applications, enabling them to visualize and test concepts before implementation. Panels including the Canvas for layout, the Patch Editor for adding interaction and animation, and the Layer List for organizing layers.

Orion

A web browser based on Webkit — the same as Safari. No tracking or ads by default. Supports extensions not only from Safari, but also Chrome and Firefox. In beta as of this writing.

Paintbrush

A Cocoa-based paint program similar to Microsoft Paint and the now-defunct MacPaint. It can open and save to most major image formats, including BMP, PNG, JPEG, and GIF.

Pandan

Keep track of how long you’ve been actively using your computer with a time display in the menu bar. Optionally, you can set the app to give a break reminder.

PanWriter

A markdown text editor with support for pandoc, which allows for converting from and to markdown, HTML webpages, Word .docx, EPUB eBooks, LaTeX for academic publishing, and more. Work flows can be automated from the command line.

Pause

The app that reminds you to take a rest from the computer. You can customize the suggestions, notification style, and the frequency and duration of breaks.

PDF Merger

An easy way to merge PDF documents into one file. Just click the “add” button or drag and drop. A couple more clicks and you’re done.

PDFgear

Read, edit, convert, merge, split, annotate, fill out, compress, OCR, organize, and sign PDF files across devices. Free for now, but will charge for premium services in the future.

Pearcleaner

Uninstall your apps, along with associated files, just like AppCleaner — but with some additional features such as a Sentinel monitor helper and differentiation between regular apps and web apps.

Penc

Use your trackpad to move and resize windows, or snap them into halves and quarters.

Permanent Eraser

When you empty the trash on your Mac, you’re telling the system to forget about those files. If that’s not good enough, Permanent Eraser will overwrite your data 35 times, scramble the original file name, and truncate the file size to nothing.

Pester

Set a time you have to do something and Pester will remind you by bouncing in the dock, playing a system alert, speaking a message (that you create), and displaying a message and the time. Actually, you have a choice — it will do some or all of those things.

Phoenix Slides

A quick and easy way to browse photos in a folder, optionally as a slideshow. Some JPEG transformations are also available.

Photoscape

Photo viewing and editing software has many features, including rotate, straighten, resize, crop, color adjustment, auto level, white balance, curves, levels, paint brush, red eye correction, and clone stamp.

Pictogram

An easy way to change the icons for your apps — and easily revert if you change your mind. A good place to find a new icon is at macOSicons.

Pika

This colour picker lets you check out contrast ratios and confirm WCAG accessibility compliance. Choose from formats like formats like hex, RGB, HSB, or HSL. You can set up a global hot key to access it from anywhere.

Pinta

Drawing and image editing program features drawing tools, adjustments and effects, full history, multiple layers and work spaces.

Pipad

A calculator that uses a combination of numbers and text. Features include variables and up-to-date exchange rates.

Pixlr

Image editor from Autodesk has dozens of filters, effects, overlays and borders. Tools allow for fast edits, refinements, styles and stickers. More features require a monthly subscription.

Plain Text Editor

Ideal for those who prefer their text with no formatting. Options allow for optimal line length, word, character and line count, a transparent background and keeping the window on top.

Pock

Get the most out of your MacBook’s touch bar with this widgets manager.

Pomy

Timer helps reduce eye strain by reminding you to look away from the screen every 20 minutes — for 20 seconds.

Poolsuite

Listen to upbeat, uninterrupted music on five different channels: default, Indie Summer, Hangover Club, Tokyo Disco and Friday Nite Heat. Also available are the latest 20 tracks, and a spot for your favourites.

ProNotes

Apple Notes extension gives you two great improvements: Format text by highlighting it and choosing from a bar or create headings and lists with markdown syntax.

Pulsar

The sun may have set on Atom, but a new day is dawning with Pulsar — an evolution of the highly hackable code editor.

Pure Paste

It can be super annoying to paste some text into, say, an email message, only to find that a bunch of formatting came along for the ride. This app makes sure you can have nothing but plain text.

Pushbullet

Exchange notes and files between your iPhone and Mac. Also universal copy and paste — select some text on your Mac, copy it, and it will appear in your iPhone’s clipboard.

Quicksilver

Keyboard addicts will love the the way this app lets you of find and launch files and applications without touching the mouse.

Quitter

Automatically hide or quit apps after periods of inactivity. Minimizes distraction from social apps like Twitter and Slack, news readers, or your email app.

RawTherapee

A powerful, cross-platform raw photo processing system designed for developing raw files from a broad range of digital cameras. Features non-destructive, 32-bit processing engine, modern demosaicing algorithms, and advanced color+detail editing.

Raycast

Launch apps, search files, do calculations, check you clipboard history, access your calendar — and much more. Extensions allow you to work with other apps such as Zoom and G Suite. Free while in beta. Basics will remain free when out of beta.

Recordia

Record audio from the menu bar or a keyboard shortcut. You can optionally record at lossless quality. Previewing and trimming can be done in the Finder.

Rectangle

Another app that lets you move and resize windows, using keyboard shortcuts or snap areas. This one is based on Spectacle, which is no longer being maintained.

Reminders MenuBar

A nifty way of accessing — and adding to — what’s in your Reminders app from the menu bar. Has a choice of icons and an option to include today’s count.

Remote Mouse

Turn your iPhone, iPad or iPod into a wireless remote control for your Mac or PC — just like working with a real mouse and keyboard. Useful for presentations.

Retro Typer

Easily access ascii, emojis, gifs and memes from a command palette. Highlight the one you want, hit return and it’s copied to the clipboard.

RGB MusicLab

Ever wonder what a musical Mona Lisa would sound like? RGB MusicLab takes the pixels in a painting, judges their colours and brightness, then interprets them to create music. Don’t like what you hear? There are many options to adjust your final composition.

Riffworks T4

Guitar recording and online collaboration program includes looped recording, automatic track creation, InstantDrummer, effects, song posting, online collaboration, and a tutorial in 14 languages. You can record songs online with friends for free.

Rocket

Type a colon, followed by the name of the emoji you want, and voilà — the emoji appears. Anywhere on your Mac.

Satellite Eyes

Automatically change your desktop wallpaper to the satellite view of where you are, right now. Pull your laptop out somewhere new, and your desktop will automatically change to the view from overhead.

Scaler Bandwidth Monitor

Stay on top of your Mac’s download and upload speeds in the menu bar. Click to visualize with a chart.

Scheduler

Schedule the automatic launching of applications, Applescript applets, documents, websites and file downloads at startup time or at a given time and date. There are many other scheduling options.

Scribus

This open source alternative to the likes of QuarkXPress and InDesign supports CMYK colour, separations, ICC colour management and versatile PDF creation. It may take some getting used to, but there is a strong community of users to offer support.

Script Kit

Create a script to do pretty much anything your Mac is capable of — or choose one from the community — and launch it from the app.

Sea Monkey

Powered by Mozilla, it’s a web browser, an e-mail and newsgroup client, an IRC chat client and a web page creator all rolled into one.

Seashore

Think of it as GIMP with a friendly interface. It won’t replace Photoshop, but it goes a long way. Development has restarted after a long hiatus.

SelfControl

Block access to distracting websites, mail servers or anything else on the Internet for any period of time you like. They stay block until the time is up — even if you restart your computer or delete the application.

Semulov

List all mounted volumes in your menubar, categorized by type. Clicking on a volume menu will unmount/eject that volume. Supports Growl unmount and mount notifications.

Shareful

Add extra powers to the share menu: copy, save as, open in, and more. Available in any app that has a share button.

Shazam

Click on Shazam to listen to any music playing on your computer, or within earshot. It will give you the name and artist.

Shortcat

You may never need your mouse again. Access your Mac’s user interface from a command palette — click buttons, focus text fields, invoke menu commands, switch windows, and more.

ShotBox

Use the normal Mac keyboard combinations for creating screenshots, and get the added option of sharing and markup in a little popup window.

Shotcut

A free, open source, cross-platform video editor with support for many audio and video formats and codecs plus many image formats. Native editing means no import required.

Signal

Privacy is top priority for this messaging app, which uses end-to-end encryption. “We can’t read your messages or listen to your calls, and no one else can either.”

Simple Comic

A reader for e-graphic novels using the .cbr/.cbz graphic novel file format for a collection of page images. Features include multi-page reading modes, a thumbnail browser, and support for both right-to-left and left-to-right reading (for manga).

Simplenote

Excellent way to synchronize notes between iOS, Mac, Android and Kindle. Tags help you stay organized and search results appear as you type.

Skype

What’s not to like about making free phone calls with your computer? Well, it’s not quite as handy as an actual telephone. But at this price, it sure is tempting.

Smart Converter

A drag-and-drop interface allows this program to analyze a video file and convert it efficiently to the format of your choice. Conversion goes faster, and quality is maintained, if analysis shows not all parts of the file need to be changed.

SmartBackup

Sync folders and volumes, or create a bootable clone of your Mac startup disk.

Spaced

Organize your menu bar items by spacing them into groups.

Spaceman

View your spaces in the menu bar in one of four different styles. Rectangles, numbers, rectangles with numbers, or named spaces. Icons indicate whether a space is active.

Sparrow

Get the day’s high and low in the menu bar along with a dropdown giving hourly forecasts for the day. Choose from eight different themes.

Spectacle

Organize your windows with easy-to-remember keyboard commands. Put them to the left, right, top or bottom. Put them corners. Centre them. Make them go full screen. It’s a great way to make comparisons, and it works in all apps. No longer actively maintained.

Spectrolite

Create colourful risographs suitable for prints and magazines. Extensive documentation available for this distinctive art form.

Stando

Gentle notifications remind you to sit, stand or adjust your posture based on your preferences. Gain insights with sitting and standing habits tracked over time.

Stats

Check your Mac’s stats at a glance in the menu bar. Stats covers disk, network, CPU and RAM. You can also see what’s going on with GPU, sensors and fans.

Stellarium

Gaze with wonder through Stellarium at the night sky constellations from wherever you happen to live on this planet. Then go outside and see the stars as they are. Other cool ways to check out the universe are Celestia and SkyORB.

StreamToMe

Play music, video and photos in a wide range of formats, streamed live over wi-fi or 3G from your Mac. No prior conversion or syncing required. Can be played on your devices wherever you are as is they were stored natively on them.

Stretchly

Sometimes you need to take a break from the computer. This app will remind to do just that — at intervals you set. Lots of other little features.

SubEthaEdit

Collaborative coding for programmers has powerful editing tools, command line access and ability to create scripts. Now free and open source.

Sublime Text

Sophisticated text editor for code, markup and prose has a slick user interface and features goto anything, multiple selections, a command palette, distraction-free mode, split editing and instant project switch. A licence is required for continued use, but there is no time limit for evaluation.

Super Productivity

Create time sheets and work summaries to track and document your work. Connects with Jira, GitLab and GitHub. Features include a pomodoro timer, a break reminder and an anti-procrastination page.

Switch

Convert audio files to one of 16 formats. If it doesn’t have the codec you want, it will download it on the fly.

Syncthing

Continuously synchronize files between two or more computers in real time online or over a local network — private and encrypted. Only devices you have explicitly allowed can connect to your other devices.

Synfig

Vector-based animation features layers and filters, a bone system for cut-out animation, and vector-tween — transform any vector shape into another.

System Color Picker

A nice app version of the color picker that comes with your Mac. It can be invoked from the menu bar or record your own shortcut. It gives values in hex, hsl and rgb.

Tasktic

A to-do app with some interesting features: You can rank items, schedule them, put them on a timer, archive them, make them a “maybe”, and more.

Tempbox

Create a disposable email address so you can sign up for an account without fear of being spammed, targeted with ads or open to data leaks. Best used for services you just want to try out.

Th-MakerX

Drag and drop one image, many images or a folder of images to be resized and output as jpeg or png. Options for margin, canvas, destination, resolution, watermark and more.

The Unarchiver

Decompress several different compression formats, including some of the obscure ones that OS X can’t handle. Interface fits in nicely with the Finder.

Thorium Reader

Access EPUB 3 publications in reflow or fixed layout format, audiobooks and visual narratives, PDF documents and DAISY 2.02 and 3 accessible ebooks; LCP protected or not.

Thunderbird

From the makers of Firefox, an open source email client that features tabbed browsing, filtering and timeline tools, plenty of customization, and robust security measures.

Tiles

Easily organize your windows by dragging them to the edges of the screen, using keyboard shortcuts, or clicking on options in the menu bar.

TimeMachineEditor

Customize backup intervals for Time Machine — by number of hours, by calendar date and time, or when inactive. Macworld has a good writeup.

Timer

Stopwatch, alarm clock, countdown and clock utility all in one. Click “Download” for free version.

TinkerTool

Not satisfied with the system preferences Apple gives you access to on your mac? TinkerTool lets you get at that hidden stuff too numerous to mention. If you’re the type who can’t leave well enough alone, then tinker away.

todometer

A to-do list with a bar graph to show how many task you have completed or put on hold for the day.

Tomahawk

Open source music player without the iTunes bloat allows you to gather all your music sources and downloads in one place. Create playlists, invite friends, listen to radio stations.

TomatoBar

Put a pomodoro timer in your menu bar. This technique breaks tasks into timed intervals with set rest periods in between. The app keeps track of the times for you.

Tomighty

A desktop timer designed for the Pomodoro Technique — a simple and effective time management method that helps you focus on tasks that require long periods of concentration.

TopNotch

Blend the notch in your MacBook Pro with the menu bar. Can also added rounded corners to your wallpaper.

Tor

Remain anonymous on the Internet while web browsing, messaging or remote logins. Works with many existing clients to bounce your communications around a distributed network of relays run by volunteers all around the world.

Tot

This tiny scrapbook with a gorgeous interface can live either in the dock or the menu bar. It’s a handy place to keep seven pages of temporary notes, and no more. Syncs with iCloud.

Transmission

Enter the amazing world of torrents with this lightweight BitTorrent client. A simple, intuitive interface gives access to an efficient, cross-platform back-end. Also built on the BitTorrent concept is Tomato Torrent.

Transnomino

Batch rename many files at once — from simple to complex using regular expressions. This app can monitor a folder and automatically run a recipe when files are dropped in it. Extensive support for AppleScript.

TRex

Copy text or URLs to your clipboard from anywhere — PDFs, images, videos, screenshots, Zoom calls — with OCR technology. Free but you can support with an Mac App Store purchase.

Tuneful

Control playback, and show current song, for Spotify and Apple Music from the menu bar. Also control shuffle, repeat options, volume and output device. There is an optional floating mini player.

Tux Paint

Give your children hours of enjoyment with this simple paint program — or, what the heck, indulge your inner child.

TweetDeck

Spread tweets into columns spanning the width of your computer screen with sections for friends, mentions, direct messages, trending topics and recommendations. In addition to Twitter, you can sign up for Facebook, Buzz, LinkedIn, Foursquare and MySpace.

Twobird

Use your inbox as a to-do list. Email starts in Low Priority. You can click on Remind to send it to a built-in calendar or To-Do to send it to the Inbox, where it stays until you mark it Done.

Tyke

One of the free apps I use the most. Super handy for transitory notes that I used to fill physical notebooks with.

Unclack

Mute your mic while you type and no one will know you’re busy on your keyboard during a Zoom meeting. Allows for pausing so you can type and talk. Three icons to choose from.

Ungoogled Chromium

Google Chrome is based on the open source Chromium. Without all the dependencies added by Google, Chromium is faster, safer and more private.

Unison

Panic’s app for Usenet newsgroups is no longer being developed, but one last free release promises to keep customers happy for awhile.

Upscayl

Take a grainy old picture, and make it both bigger and better with the help of AI.

uTorrent

World’s most popular BitTorrent client features bandwidth prioritization, scheduling, RSS auto-downloading and Mainline DHT (compatible with BitComet). Supports the Protocol Encryption joint specification and peer exchange.

Vanilla

Hide menu bar icons on your Mac. Just click on the arrow.

Vectr

Vector drawing program promises intuitive tools, real-time collaboration and scale-able graphics.

Velja

Open links in the browser or matching app of your choice. Custom rules let you open links based on which app the link was clicked in.

Vienna

The venerable open sources RSS reader still provides an interesting alternative after many years in active development

VirtualBox

Run Windows or Linux on your Mac with this open source alternative to Parallells or VMWare Fusion.

VirtualDJ

Mix in real-time the various components of your tracks (vocals, instruments, kicks, hihats, etc.) for live mashups and seamless transitions — opening the door to new ways of mixing that were not possible before.

Visual Studio Code

Open source, cross-platform text editor from Microsoft has thousands of extensions, IntelliSense completions and built-in support for Git.

Vivaldi

Lots of highlights, but you can go as minimal as you want. Enjoy the built-in ad and tracker blocker, email client and notes manager. Also: build your own browser themes and translate highlighted text.

VLC Player

It will play just about any kind of video or audio format you can imagine — thus making VLC Player one of the most popular downloads of all. But it has a big rival you might want to consider — MPlayer.

Vox

Lightweight, nice-looking music player supports FLAC, MP3, AAC, Musepack, Monkey’s Audio, OGG Vorbis, Apple Lossless, AIFF, WAV, IT, MOD, XM, Games Music and many others. Plus, there are several effects, and you can export to MP3, AAC, WAV and other formats.

VPaint

Experimental app, which will forever be in beta, features free-form sketching, sculpting, painting, animation, and onion skinning. It will eventually evolve into VGC Illustration and VGC Animation.

WeekToDo

Organize your to-do lists by day of the week, and get a seven-day look at what’s coming up. You can also make custom lists. Allows for notifications and tweaking the appearance.

Wings 3D

Create three-dimensional models such as a frog or, well, how about SpongeBob Squarepants. Check out the gallery to see the amazing things that are possible.

WordPress.com

Manage your WordPress.come and self-hosted WordPress sites with the convenience of a desktop app.

WordService

Add a number of services to your free TextEdit, along with Nisus Thesaurus, and you’ve pretty much got a free, full-featured text editor. Find a bunch of other freeware you might like at the WordService website.

X Lossless Decoder

Decode, convert and play lossless audio files — can be split into tracks with cue sheet when decoding.

Xmenu

Add one or more menus to the menu bar for accessing files and data. Pre-set menus include Applications, Developer, Home, Documents and Snippets. Or define your own. (Not a system hack.)

XnConvert

Batch image-converter and resizer supports common formats such as JPG, PNG, TIFF, GIF, Camera RAW, JPEG2000, WebP and OpenEXR in addition to over 500 other image formats. Operations include rotating, adding watermarks, adding text, and adjustments for brightness, shadows and more.

XnView MP

This powerful photo viewer, image manager and image resizer supports JPEG, TIFF, PNG, GIF, WEBP, PSD, JPEG2000, OpenEXR, camera RAW, HEIC, PDF, DNG, CR2.

XRG

It’s getting a little long in the tooth, but still works and does a whole lot of monitoring: CPU, GPU, memory, battery status, temperature, network and disk — plus current weather and stock market data.

Yippy

Launch Yippy and get a nice big list of your most recently copied items, including images. Highlight the one you want, press return, and the item will paste into the location of your cursor. Position the window on any edge of your screen, in the centre — or go full screen.

YouTube to MP3

Go to the YouTube music video you want and copy the URL. You can then click the paste button in the app and hit the download button. A music MP3 will show up in your Music folder or, if you choose, iTunes. Super simple.

yt-dlp

YouTube doesn’t give you a way to download videos, but that doesn’t mean you can’t do it with a third-party app like this one.

Zavala

Full-featured outliner syncs on Mac, iPhone and iPad. Allows for embedded images, customized fonts, searching, crossing off items, adding notes, linking and sharing.

Zotero

Designed as a way to collect, organize, cite, and share research, but could also be used as for notes. Organize with collections, tags and saved searches. Sync across devices or a web browser. Share and collaborate with as many people as you like.