# Best utilities apps for Mac

> Small, sharp tools for disks, displays, batteries, keyboards and files. 38 native apps, hand-picked by MacWorthy. Facts checked 2026-10-19.

## Compared

| App | Price | Mac App Store | Homebrew | Open source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Bartender 6](https://macworthy.com/apps/bartender-6/) | One-time purchase | No | `bartender` | No |
| [Ice](https://macworthy.com/apps/ice/) | Open source | No | `jordanbaird-ice` | GPL-3.0 |
| [iStat Menus](https://macworthy.com/apps/istat-menus/) | One-time purchase | No | `istat-menus` | No |
| [Stats](https://macworthy.com/apps/stats/) | Open source | No | `stats` | MIT |
| [Amphetamine](https://macworthy.com/apps/amphetamine/) | Free | Yes | No | No |
| [Keka](https://macworthy.com/apps/keka/) | Open source | Yes | `keka` | Yes |
| [The Unarchiver](https://macworthy.com/apps/the-unarchiver/) | Free | Yes | `the-unarchiver` | No |
| [DaisyDisk](https://macworthy.com/apps/daisydisk/) | One-time purchase | Yes | `daisydisk` | No |
| [AppCleaner](https://macworthy.com/apps/appcleaner/) | Free | No | `appcleaner` | No |
| [Hazel](https://macworthy.com/apps/hazel/) | One-time purchase | No | `hazel` | No |
| [BetterTouchTool](https://macworthy.com/apps/bettertouchtool/) | One-time purchase | No | `bettertouchtool` | No |
| [Karabiner-Elements](https://macworthy.com/apps/karabiner-elements/) | Open source | No | `karabiner-elements` | Unlicense |
| [Mos](https://macworthy.com/apps/mos/) | Open source | No | `mos` | Yes |
| [BetterDisplay](https://macworthy.com/apps/betterdisplay/) | Free + Pro | No | `betterdisplay` | No |
| [Lunar](https://macworthy.com/apps/lunar/) | Free + Pro | No | `lunar` | No |
| [AlDente](https://macworthy.com/apps/aldente/) | Free + Pro | No | `aldente` | No |
| [coconutBattery](https://macworthy.com/apps/coconutbattery/) | Free + Pro | No | `coconutbattery` | No |
| [Homerow](https://macworthy.com/apps/homerow/) | One-time purchase | No | `homerow` | No |
| [TextSniper](https://macworthy.com/apps/textsniper/) | One-time purchase | Yes | `textsniper` | No |
| [PopClip](https://macworthy.com/apps/popclip/) | One-time purchase | No | `popclip` | No |
| [Clop](https://macworthy.com/apps/clop/) | Free + Pro | No | `clop` | No |
| [KeyCastr](https://macworthy.com/apps/keycastr/) | Open source | No | `keycastr` | BSD-3-Clause |
| [Latest](https://macworthy.com/apps/latest/) | Open source | No | `latest` | GPL-3.0 |
| [Tidzy](https://macworthy.com/apps/tidzy/) | One-time purchase | No | No | No |
| [BrowserBar](https://macworthy.com/apps/browserbar/) | One-time purchase | No | No | No |
| [Letra](https://macworthy.com/apps/letra/) | One-time purchase | No | No | No |
| [Posture Reminder AI](https://macworthy.com/apps/posture-reminder-ai/) | Subscription | No | No | No |
| [Diskscape](https://macworthy.com/apps/diskscape/) | Free + Pro | Yes | No | No |
| [Strata](https://macworthy.com/apps/strata/) | One-time purchase | No | No | No |
| [MacOSCleaner](https://macworthy.com/apps/macoscleaner/) | Open source | No | No | Yes |
| [Mole](https://macworthy.com/apps/mole/) | One-time purchase | No | `mole-app` | No |
| [DisplayBuddy](https://macworthy.com/apps/displaybuddy/) | One-time purchase | No | `displaybuddy` | No |
| [Klack](https://macworthy.com/apps/klack/) | One-time purchase | Yes | No | No |
| [Purge](https://macworthy.com/apps/purge/) | Open source | No | `purge` | MIT |
| [MacTools](https://macworthy.com/apps/mactools/) | Open source | No | `mactools` | GPL-3.0 |
| [AirSync](https://macworthy.com/apps/airsync/) | Free + Pro | No | `airsync` | No |
| [Harbor](https://macworthy.com/apps/harbor/) | Open source | No | No | GPL-3.0 |
| [FlowKeys](https://macworthy.com/apps/flowkeys/) | Free + Pro | No | No | No |

## The apps

- **[Bartender 6](https://macworthy.com/apps/bartender-6.md)**: Organize and hide menu bar icons. Bartender tidies your menu bar with hidden sections, triggers, rules and custom spacing, so only what matters shows.
- **[Ice](https://macworthy.com/apps/ice.md)**: A powerful, free menu bar manager. Ice hides menu bar items behind a click or hover, offers a separate bar for overflow and lets you restyle the menu bar.
- **[iStat Menus](https://macworthy.com/apps/istat-menus.md)**: Your Mac's vital signs, in the menu bar. CPU, GPU, memory, network, sensors, battery and weather, with beautiful graphs. The gold standard of system monitors.
- **[Stats](https://macworthy.com/apps/stats.md)**: Free system monitor for the menu bar. Stats shows CPU, GPU, memory, disk, network, battery and sensors as compact menu bar widgets. Open source and lightweight.
- **[Amphetamine](https://macworthy.com/apps/amphetamine.md)**: Keep your Mac awake, on your terms. Amphetamine stops sleep for a duration, while an app runs, while a download finishes and more. Powerful triggers, free forever.
- **[Keka](https://macworthy.com/apps/keka.md)**: The macOS file archiver. Compress and extract 7z, ZIP, RAR, TAR and more by dragging onto the Dock icon. Free to download, paid on the App Store to support development.
- **[The Unarchiver](https://macworthy.com/apps/the-unarchiver.md)**: Open almost any archive format. The Unarchiver extracts RAR, 7z, Lha, StuffIt and dozens of legacy formats, and handles foreign file names properly.
- **[DaisyDisk](https://macworthy.com/apps/daisydisk.md)**: See what's filling your disk. DaisyDisk scans your drives and draws a sunburst map of folders, so finding and clearing space is visual and quick.
- **[AppCleaner](https://macworthy.com/apps/appcleaner.md)**: Uninstall apps and everything they left behind. Drop an app onto AppCleaner and it finds the caches, preferences and support files to remove alongside it.
- **[Hazel](https://macworthy.com/apps/hazel.md)**: Your personal file-organizing robot. Hazel watches folders and files your documents, renames screenshots, empties the trash and runs scripts based on rules you set.
- **[BetterTouchTool](https://macworthy.com/apps/bettertouchtool.md)**: Customize every gesture, key and button. Map trackpad gestures, mouse buttons, keyboard shortcuts and the Touch Bar to thousands of actions. Unmatched depth.
- **[Karabiner-Elements](https://macworthy.com/apps/karabiner-elements.md)**: The keyboard customizer. Remap any key, build complex modifications like a hyper key, and set per-device rules. Free and open source.
- **[Mos](https://macworthy.com/apps/mos.md)**: Smooth scrolling for any mouse. Mos makes wheel mice scroll smoothly and lets you reverse direction separately from the trackpad.
- **[BetterDisplay](https://macworthy.com/apps/betterdisplay.md)**: Unlock your displays. HiDPI on any monitor, brightness and DDC control, virtual screens, Picture-in-Picture and more for every display you plug in.
- **[Lunar](https://macworthy.com/apps/lunar.md)**: Smart brightness for external monitors. Lunar syncs external monitor brightness with your built-in display and controls volume and contrast over DDC.
- **[AlDente](https://macworthy.com/apps/aldente.md)**: Charge limiter for a longer battery life. Keep your MacBook battery between healthy levels when you're plugged in all day. AlDente can also calibrate it and charge from heat-aware schedules.
- **[coconutBattery](https://macworthy.com/apps/coconutbattery.md)**: Battery health at a glance. See your battery's real capacity, cycle count and age, for your Mac and connected iPhones and iPads.
- **[Homerow](https://macworthy.com/apps/homerow.md)**: Click anything without a mouse. Press a shortcut and Homerow labels every clickable element on screen. Type a label to click it.
- **[TextSniper](https://macworthy.com/apps/textsniper.md)**: Copy text from anything on screen. Drag over an image, video or PDF and TextSniper copies its text with on-device OCR. It also reads QR codes and barcodes.
- **[PopClip](https://macworthy.com/apps/popclip.md)**: Actions for selected text, everywhere. Select text and PopClip shows a bar of actions: copy, search, translate and more from hundreds of extensions.
- **[Clop](https://macworthy.com/apps/clop.md)**: Automatic image, video and PDF optimizer. Clop shrinks whatever you copy or save, so screenshots, videos and PDFs are lighter without you having to think about it.
- **[KeyCastr](https://macworthy.com/apps/keycastr.md)**: Show your keystrokes on screen. An open-source keystroke visualiser for screencasts, demos and teaching.
- **[Latest](https://macworthy.com/apps/latest.md)**: Every app update, in one place. Latest checks the App Store and Sparkle feeds for updates to all your apps and shows release notes before you update.
- **[Tidzy](https://macworthy.com/apps/tidzy.md)**: Search your files by the words inside images and PDFs. Tidzy runs on-device OCR over screenshots, photos and scanned PDFs so you can find them by what they say and copy text straight out. It also renames screenshots, flags plain-text passwords and clears out old installers, with undo for every change.
- **[BrowserBar](https://macworthy.com/apps/browserbar.md)**: Change the default browser from the menu bar, no prompt. A menu bar list of your installed browsers: pick one and it becomes the default for every link you click. After a one-time setup macOS stops asking you to confirm, and a global shortcut returns to the browser you used before.
- **[Letra](https://macworthy.com/apps/letra.md)**: Drag over any text on screen to copy it. Press a shortcut, select a region of a video, PDF, screen share or image, and Letra puts the recognised text on the clipboard using on-device OCR. It also reads QR codes and keeps a searchable history of captures.
- **[Posture Reminder AI](https://macworthy.com/apps/posture-reminder-ai.md)**: Watches for slouching through the webcam. Posture Reminder AI calibrates to how you sit or stand, then uses the camera and an on-device model to notice when you slump and reminds you to straighten up. Reminder frequency and an energy-saving mode are adjustable.
- **[Diskscape](https://macworthy.com/apps/diskscape.md)**: A treemap of what is filling your disk. Diskscape maps a folder as nested boxes sized by bytes and coloured by content type or age, and groups developer leftovers such as node_modules, DerivedData and package caches. Scanning is free; moving files to the Trash from the map needs a subscription.
- **[Strata](https://macworthy.com/apps/strata.md)**: See what is using your disk, then clear it with undo. Strata maps the whole drive at real folder sizes, including the parts Finder hides, and finds leftover app files, build caches, downloaded AI models and duplicates. Everything it removes goes to the Trash and can be put back from inside the app.
- **[MacOSCleaner](https://macworthy.com/apps/macoscleaner.md)**: A free cleaner and uninstaller with no telemetry. MacOSCleaner scans thousands of known cache and leftover paths, removes apps with their support files, finds duplicates and reclaims Xcode and Docker space, with every file shown before it goes. Apple Intelligence explains unfamiliar items on-device; it needs macOS 26.
- **[Mole](https://macworthy.com/apps/mole.md)**: Cleanup, uninstalls and system stats in one window. The Mole app clears caches and stale AI tool data, uninstalls and updates apps, maps disk usage and shows live stats in the menu bar, with every item listed for review first. It is a one-time purchase built on the free, open-source mo command-line tool.
- **[DisplayBuddy](https://macworthy.com/apps/displaybuddy.md)**: Brightness and input controls for external monitors. DisplayBuddy uses DDC to change brightness, contrast, volume and input source on external displays from the menu bar or keyboard, and saves presets you can switch by schedule. It is a one-time purchase and is also on Setapp.
- **[Klack](https://macworthy.com/apps/klack.md)**: Mechanical keyboard sounds for every keystroke. Klack plays recorded switch sounds as you type, with separate key-down and key-up samples, slight pitch variation and spatial audio. Pick a switch from the menu bar and set the volume.
- **[Purge](https://macworthy.com/apps/purge.md)**: A careful Mac cleaner that uses the Trash. Purge finds app caches, logs, developer tool leftovers, old installers and large files, marks each as safe or worth checking, and moves what you pick to the Trash so it can be restored. It skips projects you are still working on.
- **[MacTools](https://macworthy.com/apps/mactools.md)**: A bundle of system controls in one menu bar item. MacTools collects display brightness and resolution, disk and Xcode cleanup, a battery charge limit, fan presets, launch item management and live CPU, memory and network stats in a single menu bar panel. Extra tools come from its plugin catalogue.
- **[AirSync](https://macworthy.com/apps/airsync.md)**: Continuity-style features for Android phones and Macs. AirSync mirrors your Android notifications to the Mac, where you can reply or dismiss them, and syncs the clipboard over your local network with AES encryption. The paid AirSync+ tier adds screen mirroring, desktop mode, media and call controls and a file browser.
- **[Harbor](https://macworthy.com/apps/harbor.md)**: One download queue for torrents and media links. Harbor handles torrent files, magnet links and public video or audio URLs through yt-dlp in a single native queue. It offers traffic profiles, per-download speed limits, watch folders, tags, proxies and selective file downloads from torrents.
- **[FlowKeys](https://macworthy.com/apps/flowkeys.md)**: An on-screen keyboard that cuts down on presses. FlowKeys is a floating keyboard for people who type with a mouse, head pointer, eye tracker or switch. Learned word predictions, dictation, dwell clicking, scan mode and text shortcuts reduce how many presses a sentence takes.

HTML version: https://macworthy.com/categories/utilities/