Setup
I got my first Mac on the 18th of January, 2022. I was 17 years old, having only experienced a 2017 iMac as the closest Mac relative.
One of the reasons I wanted to get a Mac after having used a Windows device for so long is the large amount of greatly designed software that is both enjoyable to use and improves workflow, which is unachievable on Windows devices.
After having my Mac for over three years now, I have fallen in love with Mac apps so much that I think if you were to bring me one, I would have tried it, heard about it, or used it. Every wrapper, webapp, productivity tool, gimmick, menubar app, clone; tried and tested, and I can safely say I've come up with the most definitive list of apps, alternatives, honourable mentions, for anyone looking to get some new kit for their Mac.
I'll be taking the approach of me getting a brand new Mac and installing apps in order of chronological importance. Please skip ahead if certain aspects do not resonate with you.
Blank State
Starting fresh, cleaning the Dock. Every Mac comes with 22 apps placed in the Dock, to both advertise Apple's services to their users, while also showing you how much you can do with macOS.
First step, remove as many as you can. These apps have no real purpose in the dock, in a functional manner. Each of these will either not be used, have a keyboard shortcut or gesture to activate, or have no functional purpose being in the dock, as we'll improve the experience later.
Essentials
Web Browser
I have spent the past three years conversing, arguing and debating about which is "the best" browser to use, both on macOS and Windows. The end result is a mixture of what the user's needs and pain points are.
In my case, as a designer, one of the most important aspects of the apps I use will always be that I enjoy the look and feel of the application while using it. Unlike something like a utility tool, a browser is an application I constantly am in, so making it feel like home is important to me.
With that said, my browser of choice is Arc by The Browser Company, for its attention to detail, native feel, and customisation options. Built on Chromium, it supports all Chrome extensions, and is optimised for web development and viewing.
Though browsers like Orion and SigmaOS both are based on WebKit yet support Chrome extensions, the design of both browsers leaves a lot to be desired.
The security of Arc is outlined in their privacy policy, which does not bother me as much as the more strict browser enthusiasts. Firefox and its many forks and skins also leave a lot to be desired, as they lack proper design, but excel in security, which is what their ideal userbase is more focused on.
App Launcher
macOS has a few app launchers available, not to mention the one that comes baked with the OS. The main contenders are Raycast and Alfred
From my perspective Raycast is the clear winner for its ease of use, large feature set, and design. While Alfred is functionally great, the design language, ease of use, and support is poor in comparison.
Both have some sort of concept of "Addons", where Raycast has extensions and Alfred has workflows. After using both, Raycast's implementation is miles ahead as it doesn't require the user to understand how the addon works, and doesn't allow editing of the addon's functionality, unless given the option by the developer.
Aside from Raycast, for even faster opening and closing of applications I use BetterTouchTool which allows me to set any combination of keys to open certain applications.
For instance:
✦ 1
– Open Arc
✦ 2
– Open Vesktop
✦ 3
– Open Spotify
✦ E
– Open Eagle
✦ F
– Open Figma
✦ ⇥
– Open Telegram
✦ §
– Open Finder
I've found this to be the best part of my setup, as I don't need to constantly write the name of the application I'd like to use every time I'd like to launch it.
This application exists separately due to an issue in Raycast where assigning keyboard shortcuts to open apps causes them to hide when the activator is pressed again, whereas BetterTouchTool only focuses the app.
In order to get the desired effect above, I use an app called Karabiner Elements to change the functionality of the right ⌘ key to simulate pressing ⌘ ⌥ ⌃ ⇧ at the same time.
Raycast Extensions
Out of the 2,100+ extensions available on the Raycast store, I've found only a few to be useful on more than one occasion.
I use this mainly because I hate opening Terminal just to update or install something. With the Raycast extension, I can search, install, and update packages way faster. It looks way nicer than a terminal dumping text at me.
This one is a real timesaver when I’m deep in Finder. Instead of right-clicking, copying the path, opening Warp, typing cd, and pasting like a caveman, I just hit the shortcut and Warp opens directly in that directory. It’s perfect when I’m poking around folders and suddenly need to run a script.
Super simple, but genuinely useful. Instead of digging through Activity Monitor like it’s 2009, I just search the name of whatever’s misbehaving. Mostly some Adobe slop or some random background app. Then I nuke it from Raycast. You can even kill multiple processes at once.
If you’re already using CleanShot X, this just makes the whole experience smoother. I’ve set up commands for screenshot types I use often, like scrolling shots or all-in-one capture. It allows me to save up some valuable keyboard shortcut space, so I can instead just search the command by name.
I can’t overstate how bad the default macOS color picker is. It’s ancient, clunky, and feels like something from a UI museum. This one just works. It’s simple, but not basic. It saves picked colors, converts formats, shows them in the menu bar, and even has AI color picking if you’re into that. Compared to SIP, which has a hundred niche designer features, Raycast’s color picker feels lighter and actually faster to use. SIP is great, but 90 percent of the time, this does the job better.
No, this isn’t placeholder text I forgot to replace. This extension literally generates any amount of lorem ipsum you want. As a designer, I constantly use it to fill in whatever random UI element I’m working on that doesn’t need real content yet. It’s a silly tool, but a good one.
I use this constantly. Most often to convert large blocks of text to something cleaner like PascalCase or full capitalization. Super handy for naming components or labels. The one I use most is TitleCase, to the point where I’ve bound it to a keyboard shortcut just to save clicks in my design workflow.
For whatever reason, Apple decided their SF Symbols catalog should basically just be a searchable text file. The native app makes it a chore to copy anything. This extension skips that. You can search instantly, copy the symbol name in different formats, and paste straight into Figma or Xcode without thinking. I use it constantly for prototyping and writing out symbol names in code. It saves way more time than it should.
Someone sends you a Spotify link, but you’re on Apple Music. Or vice versa. This fixes that in two seconds. Great for sending people songs without asking what app they use. No one should still be doing that in 2025.
Calendar
Picking a calendar might sound like a simple task, but the intricacies of calendar management are actually more complicated than most people think. Before even picking a calendar application, you first need to decide where your calendar will be hosted. Apple, for example, both hosts your calendar and allows you to view it, same for Google with Google Calendar.
Both services are the most popular choice for users who have a calendar, excluding Outlook for enterprise users.
My hosting service of choice, Google Calendar. I chose it after using Apple Calendar for the first half year of my Mac experience. I switched due to the large amount of third-party apps that don't support Apple's hosting method, such as Cron (now Notion Calendar) at the time of me moving.
I've found that unless you are using Apple's services, the choice of Apple hosting your calendar falls to bits.
After picking your hosting service, the next step is to pick an app that actually displays your calendar. I've chosen Cron (now Notion Calendar), simply for the quality of life features that it offers.
Amie came in close, but due to its to-do list feature – which I do not use, and therefore see as bloat – AI integration, and missing personal features, I couldn't stick to it.
Within the same realm as calendars, email also falls into the same issue of requiring both a hosting service and a client app.
My choice: Apple Mail. Strictly for its free addition to iCloud+ that allows for multiple custom domains and a catch-all for email addresses. My secondary choice would be Google's own email hosting, which I would still pair with Apple Mail, but due to the large cost difference, Apple as an email host was a no-brainer
Window Management
When you’re in a space with as many windows as a desktop operating system, you’re bound to need a way to manage them. Using your mouse to drag things around works, but it’s slow, imprecise, and honestly kind of annoying once you’ve seen what a proper window manager can do.
Apple finally added native window tiling in macOS 15. It exists. It’s not good. No custom sizing, no real keyboard control, and no concept of cycling layouts or snapping with intention. That’s why I use Loop, which I’ve written about elsewhere on my site. It’s the only window manager that actually feels like it was designed for how I use my Mac.
There are also other options like Rectangle Pro and heaps of other oddly specific window managers such as Swish and 1Piece. Though all of them lack something, be it design or features.
I’ve mapped all my window controls using the above mentioned Karabiner Elements, turning the right Command key into a Hyper key (⌘⌥⌃⇧). With that, ✦ A, AA, and AAA move windows to the left at two-thirds, half, and one-third widths. Same thing with ✦ D for the right side. Vertical splits are on ✦ W and ✦ S, each one stepping from two-thirds down to one-third depending on how many times the key is tapped.
Corners are handled with ✦ O, I, K, and L for top-right, top-left, bottom-left, and bottom-right. ✦ C centers the window, ✦ ; and ✦ ’ both toggle a full sized window (because I refuse to use full screen).
I’ve also set up a few specific layouts like ✦ X, which centers the window and sets it to 50 percent width at full height, mostly used for applications that are chat-based, so I don't have to strain my eyes and head looking from side to side. I can simply make the window thinner for an optimal reading rate, and ✦ M, MM, and MMM for fixed sizes I use frequently depending on what I’m working on.
Lastly, I use ✦ P through ✦ PPPPPP to step a window horizontally across the screen in sixths; same width, same height, just evenly distributed from left to right. Perfect for keeping smaller apps lined up without overlap.
Loop doesn’t try to overdo anything. It just gives me fast, consistent control over how things are arranged, and once it’s set, I don’t think about it again.
Audio
I’ve been using SoundSource as my audio mixer for as long as I can remember. It’s one of those apps that just stays running in the background because I end up needing it constantly. The main thing I use it for is music. I like bass-heavy audio, so I usually push the low end up and drop the treble as far as it’ll go. Not because it’s technically better, but because I like actually feeling the sound, especially when I’m wearing good headphones or have a speaker with real range.
Outside of EQ, it also solves one of the more annoying things about macOS: you can finally control the volume of individual apps. If I want Spotify loud but Slack quiet, I don’t have to do any workarounds or adjust it per app. It just works. There’s also a bunch of extra audio effects like echo, reverb, and pitch shifting, which are fun to mess with if you’re into tweaking how things sound.
Clipboard Manager
While there are a few functional clipboard managers for macOS, including one completely built into Raycast, I still find myself coming back to Paste. Something about it taking up as much space as possible at the bottom of my screen, but not too much that it gets annoying, while also having visually separate spaces for tagged items just makes it much cleaner than the alternatives that I found.
Password Manager
I have had many an argument about which password manager is worth using. Bitwarden, Proton Pass, Apple Keychain… Yet ever since 1Password 8 was released, I knew that that would be my favorite strictly because of the amazing integration that it has with macOS and the sleek design that comes with it.
Battery
After having gone through three laptops, two of which were MacBooks, I have learned quite a lot about laptop batteries and how you need to treat them with care and definitely not keep them plugged into the wall 100% of the time because you don't leave the house.
But thanks to AlDente, I no longer have to worry about that problem. This app allows your MacBook to draw power directly from the wall instead of relying on its battery. Essentially, you are preserving your battery in the same condition it was in when you first bought it, as if it were still sitting in the back of the Apple store.
Keeping your laptop's battery at somewhere near 80% seems to be the sweet spot, as I've had my current MacBook for around 6 months and it's still at 100% battery health.
Collecting
I use Eagle to collect and manage visual references. It’s probably the best file collector I’ve ever used. The tagging system is solid, the visual layout makes sense, and despite it being built in Electron, there’s still no native Mac app that competes. I use it for saving everything, screenshots, design inspo, UI references, things from my Pinterest boards, cute cat pictures.
The only downside is the lack of a mobile app, but someone made an iOS app called Hive that syncs with your Eagle library through cloud storage. I can share files straight to Hive from my phone, and they land in the right place on my Mac. It’s not official, but it works well enough that I use it constantly.
Terminal
I use Warp as my terminal, strictly because I don’t care to memorize shell commands or fiddle with plugins just to make something usable. Warp has AI built in, so if I need to do something, I just describe it in plain English and let it handle the command. That alone makes it worth it for me.
The interface is also the best I’ve used. Each command is in its own block, so it’s way easier to read than the usual wall of terminal noise. It’s built in Rust, so it’s fast, and it syncs with my VS Code theme without extra config. I know some people get annoyed that it requires an account, but I genuinely don’t care. I just want a terminal that looks good and works without wasting my time.
Fun
Notch
I’ve gone through almost every Notch app available on macOS. Around 16 at this point. I’ve tried Notchnook, DynamicLake, MediaMate, BoringNotch, Folder Hub, Peninsula, NotchDrop, TopDrop, Notched Up, Notchmeister, and others I probably forgot. They’ve all had issues; wrong corner radius, janky animations, bloated UI, weird bugs, or just poor performance. Most are built in Electron or SwiftUI without much polish.
The only one that actually delivers is Alcove. It replicates the iOS dynamic island almost perfectly. The animations are smooth, it’s responsive, and it looks like something Apple might’ve made if they cared enough to bring the feature to macOS. The attention to detail is insane. It’s native, fast, and doesn’t feel like a toy. Out of every option I tried, Alcove is the only one that didn’t disappoint. I could write a full post just breaking down why it’s so much better than everything else.
Battery Buddy
It’s just a little guy •ᴗ•. That’s it. All BatteryBuddy does is replace your default battery icon in the menu bar with a cute smiley face. Nothing more, nothing less. It still shows when it’s charging, but now your battery looks happy while doing it.
Emojis
I use an app called Rocket. It lets you type emojis using Slack-style shortcuts; just a colon, then the name of the emoji, and it pops up a little search box wherever you’re typing. Even in places that normally don’t support that kind of input. I use it all the time, especially because it also tracks which emojis I use the most and breaks them down by category. It’s fast, works in every app, and feels way smoother than scrolling through the default emoji picker.
Rocket’s free, but the Pro version adds things like GIFs, symbols, and snippets, which I don’t really need; but the base version already does everything I want. If you type emojis more than once a day, it’s worth installing.