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Top 100 Essential Mac Applications

mactricksandtips.com — An up to date list of the top 100 Apple Mac applications. These are the applications that every Mac should be installed with. Examples include the free to the not so free but all worth having for any Mac user.

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  • beerbarron, on 02/05/2008, -14/+16Some great apps there:) app fresh is awesome
    • 31213121, on 02/05/2008, -3/+3yeah, though I miss Inkscape, a great (Especially for those people who use GIMP atm for their vector thingy's......) Illustrator alternative: http://www.thefreesuite.com/post/20658946
    • hinkbot, on 02/05/2008, -4/+5A couple that aren't on the list that i use frequently:
      smultron - i use it every day, great text editor ( http://smultron.sourceforge.net/ )

      drag n crop - just found this app a few weeks ago. i have a digital picture frame that results in some stretched images. using this app, i can crop a folder of images down. ( http://www.harveyosity.org/dragncrop/ )
      • turpenine, on 02/05/2008, -0/+1drag and crop would be way easier to use automator for.
    • Zippo, on 02/05/2008, -3/+10For all the Mac users out there, AppCleaner does the same thing as AppZapper and it's free. I use it regularly and never had an issue with it.
      http://www.freemacsoft.net/AppCleaner/
      • RedS0x, on 02/05/2008, -1/+4But there is no ZAP sound!
        • dbr_onix, on 02/06/2008, -1/+1Use your imagination, make it yourself!
      • djh816, on 02/06/2008, -2/+1Yeah, ***** AppZapper, it just reads the receipt files and deletes the files referenced. Anything the apps make afterwords are still left alone.
        • dbr_onix, on 02/06/2008, -0/+1How do you propose it automagically detects what files have been created by the application, and wether the user wants these files deleted?
          It wipes the applications ApplicationSupport directory, preferences and caches. That's all I think it should do.. It shouldn't delete all the files that applicatino has downloaded, or say Documents/SomeAppsProjects/ since I most probably will want to keep those... AppZapper should delete the "invisible files" hidden away in /Library/ and such
    • streak, on 02/06/2008, -1/+1Entirely missing from the list is the very first application everyone should install: 1Password. A must-have for anyone who values their on-line security and privacy.
      http://1password.com
    • fucayama, on 02/06/2008, -0/+1I don't begrudge a new app list on Digg now and again since there's new mac owners popping up all the time but this one's got too much fluff and duplicates. Chris Pirillo's list includes much of the same but is worth a look.
      Also opensourcemac.org should be consulted for a more focused hand-picked selection, plus they're all free.
  • yoyobean, on 02/05/2008, -17/+4Solid list, but needs Twitterific to be complete. Also Eschalon :)
  • pruppert, on 02/05/2008, -3/+12Nice. Found a few I didn't know about.
  • meshman, on 02/05/2008, -4/+26Oh these headlines are just too tempting sometimes.
    • tomservo51, on 02/05/2008, -10/+3Aka.....The only 3rd party Apps available for MACs
      • Vermifax, on 02/09/2008, -0/+2www.xsilva.com
        www.propellerheads.se
        www.mactopia.com

        Please, come back when you're at least 18.
  • Kakcoo, on 02/05/2008, -7/+154Yeah. Every Mac user should have at least 100 third party apps (included two finance apps) installed.
    • PHovey, on 02/05/2008, -7/+7I have 45, and that seems like a lot numerically, but it's really not that much. I use a lot of them on an everyday basis.
    • jj101, on 02/05/2008, -3/+6They can all be essential without all being applicable to everyone. Although useful is probably more accurate.
    • banmaster, on 02/05/2008, -16/+8But, steve told me that all macs come with EVERYTHING you need right out of the box! He can't be telling lies can he!!
    • Wargalas, on 02/05/2008, -15/+7Well Mac users aren't all that bright, so it might be better if they think they have a lot of programs.
    • avihappy, on 02/05/2008, -10/+1I have nearly 400 programs installed (395 to be exact).
    • Larz0rz, on 02/05/2008, -2/+39"49) Fish
      A simple little program that shows you little fishes swimming around."
      That's what I call essential...
    • Peavey, on 02/05/2008, -2/+8Two virtualization programs? I don't think we all need Boot Camp, Parallels, and VMware Fusion.

      At least I don't.
    • jim1977, on 02/06/2008, -7/+1"Every guy should have 100 third party apps."

      Are... are you actually implying that Macs should only use software made by Apple? Because wow. That's sucking some serious advertising *****. Jobs should start a branch of Scientology if he's got this much power over his customers.
      • Jawsh91, on 02/06/2008, -1/+6No, he wasn't implying that...at all.
        • jim1977, on 02/06/2008, -2/+1Then what's the significance of 'third party?' Ignoring that, is the dude just saying he doesn't think people should be allowed more than 99 applications?

          Damn. I have like six left to go.
    • stackered, on 02/06/2008, -0/+1Oh of course. Could never function without Fish.
  • The_Wallbanger, on 02/05/2008, -2/+134Inaccurate. There are only 99 apps listed. Wallsaver is listed as #47 and #58.
    • davidrools, on 02/05/2008, -31/+10everyone knows there aren't really 100 apps for the mac.
    • Okitaz, on 02/05/2008, -1/+25You're supposed to have two copies of it.
      It's essential.
    • pnightingale, on 02/06/2008, -2/+3QUESTION. what kind of bear is best?
      FALSE. Black bear.
    • jim1977, on 02/06/2008, -1/+2Apparently you and over 70 other people have Asperger's syndrome.

      Damn. Sorry you guys had to find out this way.
  • Alaerus, on 02/05/2008, -5/+6Tech Tool Pro and Disk Warrior, can't live without them.
  • gizzymo, on 02/05/2008, -5/+73what on earth is crapware stuffit doing on that list??
    • zwilliams, on 02/05/2008, -2/+37I agree, StuffIt needs to die. Unarchiver is far better.
    • robbh66, on 02/05/2008, -1/+13Stuffit is probably one of the 3 worst programs I've ever installed on my mac :(
    • avihappy, on 02/05/2008, -2/+21Stuffit can Shoveit.
    • iSnooze, on 02/06/2008, -0/+3I completely agree, what's next.... Norton perhaps ???
      • virtualball, on 02/06/2008, -1/+2I've always had a cousin who I looked up to in computers. He's four years older than I am and has always seemed to know so much about computers and hacking. The day I felt like I surpassed him was four months ago when he installed Norton onto my grandfather's computer. ... n00b :)
    • JaredXM, on 02/06/2008, -3/+4What is the problem with stuffit? I have it and haven't noticed any problems. I use it to unpack rars and zips.
      • Fixadent, on 02/06/2008, -1/+1same here... what's bad about it?
      • Mr8lack, on 02/06/2008, -0/+5Well the first problem would be having to sign up onto a freaking mailing list just to download the program....
        • magical1492, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1Thats why God invented mailinator.
      • clockdist, on 02/06/2008, -1/+0I don't like Stuffit because you can't preview the contents of an archive.
        (If you can, please share how)
      • kzrp, on 02/06/2008, -0/+0It has never worked for me. I open a terminal and use unzip instead.
  • rossnyc, on 02/05/2008, -21/+10No IE5 on list? Worthless.
    • thefurball, on 02/05/2008, -7/+3I have IE5 via CrossOver on my Mac. heh.
    • BlackMask, on 02/06/2008, -1/+1no malware, spyware and all that BS when i browse porn? worthless isn't it?
    • rossnyc, on 02/06/2008, -0/+1You people are retarded...obv a joke...dumbasses.
  • gaetanocaruana, on 02/05/2008, -9/+3very good solid list :)
  • dyranios2, on 02/05/2008, -3/+83I hadn't seen this list in a few weeks I was beginning to worry...
    • danbowden, on 02/05/2008, -7/+4I have to agree! How many times do we see these lists!?! Still there are a lot of Mac switchers at the moment so I guess it's useful to a lot of Digg users.
    • gaetanocaruana, on 02/05/2008, -4/+7I am one of those who recently bought a mac to experiment with.... This list helped me :D
      • BlackMask, on 02/06/2008, -2/+1bought a macbook pro on jan 17th. not that anyone cares, but this beast runs unreal tournament 2004 with all the settings turned to highest at 60 framers per second. waiting for ut3 now. Enjoy your mac! :-D
  • Steinr, on 02/05/2008, -7/+1There is quite few good ones on there, however they left out uapp which is a free alternative to app zapper. And a few are not worthy of the mention...
  • thesoze, on 02/05/2008, -14/+4Windows is one of them..since Apple needs to create an app that can run it...because Mac is better but just in case
    • 1807, on 02/05/2008, -4/+1you know what else runs windows really well? A PC!
  • getrealnow, on 02/05/2008, -16/+2.mac is so useful, everyone loves it.
    • LouTreize, on 02/05/2008, -3/+3I don't know if you're being sarcastic but uhhh, i think it's useful. I use it a lot. And i have a feeling those digging you down (and i'll be dugg down too), can't afford it!
    • getrealnow, on 02/06/2008, -0/+2I was being sarc, its to expensive for what it does, and in fact has a lot of problems.
      • BlackMask, on 02/06/2008, -0/+1it's a ***** waste, but i don't have a problem with spending huge amount of money on products that are reliable and i need, which is why i bought an iphone and macbook pro. but be aware, not all apple products aren't what they advertise them to be. ,mac is a joke. stay away from it. so is ProHelp for 99 per year lol. add macbook air to your BS list too
  • jjustice, on 02/05/2008, -4/+26If *100* applications are "essential," you are doing too much on the computer =]
  • Barr08, on 02/05/2008, -5/+36if you need 100 apps to make your computing experience complete, then maybe you should consider a different os

    that being said, i love leopard and use it every day - with only about 20 apps
    • Firehed, on 02/05/2008, -1/+4Yeah - a lot of these, while good, are either redundant or completely unnecessary for most people. CSSEdit for example, while a fine app, is hardly essential to all Mac users. The same goes for... well, almost the entire list. I have five or six third-party apps that I run on a daily basis (and a bunch of stuff that exists which I don't really think about), and I do quite a lot on my MBP.
    • BlackMask, on 02/06/2008, -0/+1the apps that came with Leopard are working fine for me, although the mouse is so irritable that i had to get steerMouse. Don't know if apple would ever fix it. all leopard installations have been affected with this problem. today i went to an apple store and tested every single imac and macbooks and they are all affected. asked an employee about it and he said it's just like that. yeah right.
  • seantubridy, on 02/05/2008, -5/+7I wish there was a way I could block all articles with titles containing the word "top" followed by a number.
  • wukillabee, on 02/05/2008, -14/+5#1. Windows XP dualboot
    • robbh66, on 02/05/2008, -1/+4That was the first thing I installed a year ago when I got a mac. 3-4 months later I took it off because I never used it.
    • BlackMask, on 02/06/2008, -0/+1I'm surely not going to need that BS because ut3 for mac is coming out in Spring. Have fun with an OS that doesn't come with everyday necessary ***** preinstalled.
    • zongamin, on 02/06/2008, -0/+1Hope you get ill!
  • HaSatan, on 02/05/2008, -16/+19BURIED for "15) Azureus One of the best bittorrent clients out there. Has lots of user extensions through the use of plugins."
    • ransomduke, on 02/05/2008, -3/+42Transmission ftw
    • blackhydra, on 02/05/2008, -4/+9Why are you getting buried? Azureus can suck my left nut.
    • Scott2, on 02/06/2008, -1/+3Buried for Office.
    • skyshock1, on 02/06/2008, -1/+3Buried for NOT INCLUDING OPERA OR CAMINO.

      WTF.
  • undy242, on 02/05/2008, -2/+3So in the past month that's 300 apps listed...all of them being duplicated from list to list.
  • scottious, on 02/05/2008, -4/+23What? no TextMate?
    • betobeto, on 02/06/2008, -0/+1Not all Mac users are coding geeks. That said, Textmate is probably the finest of that kind of tools.
    • magical1492, on 02/08/2008, -0/+1Textmate would definitely be on my list.
  • wdwpsu, on 02/05/2008, -20/+4I didn't think the Mac had 100 apps available for it, yet.
    • theotheragentm, on 02/05/2008, -3/+3You've mistaken Mac OS for BeOS.
    • sleepwalkers, on 02/05/2008, -1/+2Your troll-fu is weak.
    • AronT, on 02/05/2008, -2/+2I've got 3 macs and even I thought that was kinda funny!
  • kohawks, on 02/05/2008, -8/+1Cue all the comments about how these lists aren't needed because "mac sux".
  • adhiza, on 02/05/2008, -8/+3*yawn*
  • blinktude, on 02/05/2008, -13/+2i thought number 1 would be boot camp so can you can run windows
    • theycallmebubba, on 02/06/2008, -1/+2yeah, but windows is crapware, so it wouldn't make it onto this list...
  • theotheragentm, on 02/05/2008, -2/+15I'd hardly call a fish tank simulator essential, but fun nonetheless.
  • LastDitchHero, on 02/05/2008, -14/+2Where is Vista, XP, and Ubuntu?
  • serpicolugnut, on 02/05/2008, -3/+14The kid should have listed a good grammar/spell checker, because the writing on the site is horrid.

    Plus, I have a hard time taking anyone seriously who claims that Nvu is just as good as Dreamweaver. Please. And yeah, no TextMate on the list seriously damages the credibility of the list.

    Move on, nothing to see here.
    • sequethin, on 02/05/2008, -1/+1agreed on Nvu - I've tried it on mac, linux and windows and it sucks on all of them. Coda ftw. (I'm a programmer not a designer... and for that coda is great)
    • dacjames, on 02/05/2008, -1/+0Nvu gets the job done for free... except when it crashes every 45 minutes or so.
  • seantubridy, on 02/05/2008, -3/+6Ok, I'm in the process of writing a browser add-on that will hopefully keep a user from seeing all top ten, top 100, etc. lists that appear on digg . Now if some other people will write similar add-ons, we can post an article titled "Top 10 list of add-ons for eliminating Top 10 lists from digg.
  • UCFmethod, on 02/05/2008, -1/+52Buried for having Transmission at # 24 and Azereus at #15

    • Kloud, on 02/06/2008, -0/+1I buried it for having Azereus, period.
  • deiasison, on 02/05/2008, -11/+0For Switchers, "It's About Time to learn the Switch to Mac" - http://www.ItsAboutTimeProducts.com

    They also just announced an iPhone learning tool that's really cool.
    • robbh66, on 02/05/2008, -1/+3It's about time for you to stop spamming you or your friends company.
  • iamgnat, on 02/05/2008, -2/+12Inaccurate. Some how i've managed the last 7 years with less than 10% of those Apps.

    It's a good list of Apps to know about in the event you actually need them, but essential implies that you can't get by without them.

    -dave
    • SolidForce, on 02/05/2008, -0/+1loosen up dave!

      but i agree. :)

      honestly most mac users really only need to know about one thing. YouPorn.com ;)
    • lathicentropy, on 02/05/2008, -2/+1buried for being a homophobic site.

      xtube ftw.
  • sethaldridge, on 02/05/2008, -5/+3If you have to have 100 apps to get a computer to work that is just "supposed to work" then I'm not sure it really just works. 100 apps is ridiculous! I have a PC...because I can't afford a MAC yet, and I only have a handful of apps on it.
    • Angostura, on 02/05/2008, -2/+4Sigh. Don't take 'essential' too literally.
    • lathicentropy, on 02/05/2008, -0/+3it costs money to have MAC addresses now?!
      geez...
  • itchytooth, on 02/05/2008, -0/+27Are you kidding? I won't get out of bed for less than 1,000 apps.
  • deiasison, on 02/05/2008, -16/+0For Switchers, "It's About Time to learn the Switch to Mac" - http://www.ItsAboutTimeProducts.com

    They also just launched a really cool iPhone learning tool.
    • banmaster, on 02/05/2008, -0/+5Stop spamming your crappy little site you jerk!!
    • Syphon8, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2Switchers are the stupidest people in the world.
  • kwilliam, on 02/05/2008, -2/+94"49) Fish
    A simple little program that shows you little fishes swimming around."

    I quit reading at that.
    • node3, on 02/05/2008, -0/+6Yeah, they really should have been more informative about that app. It's showing the little fishes swimming around in the liquid cooled G5s, which makes it essential really just for certain G5 owners.

      It's the swimming motions of the fish that keeps the liquid circulating, so it's really important to keep an eye on them.
    • jdenial, on 02/06/2008, -0/+0actually.. thats the only won i downloaded
  • BIGJHUB, on 02/05/2008, -1/+1kinda a lame list. somebody should do one with all free apps. even if the list was lame...at least everything would be free
  • Fibula, on 02/05/2008, -8/+1Firefox and Azureus? Shameful.

    Shiira and Transmission are the way to go.
  • stutimandal, on 02/05/2008, -0/+4I don't know about you, but I don't use more than 5-10 apps on a daily basis. Browser being the most-significant one, and text-editor a close second.
  • Sparkbank, on 02/05/2008, -1/+5Yeah. http://www.coolmacapps.com has this whole "list" idea beaten.
  • jimj13, on 02/05/2008, -2/+0If you use web applications (Gmail, flickr, etc.), then you really need Hana - http://alloutsoftware.com/hana/
  • Qdub, on 02/05/2008, -3/+3Some apps I think they should have included....
    Camino, Miro, VisualHub, MTR, Burn/Toast
    • Narbo, on 02/05/2008, -0/+2Agreed the author out some really good stuff.

      VisualHub is possibly the best format conversion software ever right down to the cynical/funny error messages.

      Toast is by far the best app in CD/DVD prep/burning.

      The author also forgot about DiskWarrior and other extremely well established diagnostic utilities.
  • Rentiak, on 02/05/2008, -2/+4Let me help you out, since you obviously don't understand some basic definitions.....

    Essential (es·sen·tial) -a - absolutely necessary; indispensable: Discipline is essential in an army.
    Extraneous (ex·tra·ne·ous) - a - Not constituting a vital element or part.
    [Dictionary.com]
  • maoyama, on 02/05/2008, -0/+9Um... I think I may have found a typo in your title. You titled this post "Top 100 Essential Mac Applications" but I think what you MEANT to say "100 Mac Applications"
    • banmaster, on 02/05/2008, -0/+1But "a simple little program that shows you little fishes swimming around" is essential right??
  • irgeorge, on 02/05/2008, -0/+5A few useful programs, but the the article was so poorly written it was painful to trawl through.
  • TheWeez, on 02/05/2008, -1/+1DasBoot FTMFW!
  • Kaitsu, on 02/05/2008, -11/+2There are actually 100 programs for Mac?
    • Me1000, on 02/05/2008, -1/+41997 called they want their joke back!
      although the same can be said for my whole post...
      • Vermifax, on 02/09/2008, -0/+1He wasn't joking. He's really that ignorant....
  • ytsohptwhere, on 02/05/2008, -2/+19dugg for having all 100 on a single page
  • PhillyMJS, on 02/05/2008, -0/+5"85) SuperDuper.
    Another great backing up utility although its not fully Leopard compatible at the time of writing."

    He should have waited another day. SuperDuper 2.5 was released today, and is fully Leopard compatible (and a kickass app, IMNSHO).
  • terma, on 02/05/2008, -0/+0Yea! Install all of them and watch your Mac lock up even faster than it does by default. Where is the list of "Top 100 Windows XP Applications"? I'm sure its more interesting.
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