Best Mac apps in 2026: the eight I use every day

They are the two big ones, and they compete less than it looks.

Notion is a shared space: documents, databases, tasks and the context of a project in one place other people can join. The free plan is plenty for one person, with two limits worth knowing: files you upload cannot exceed 5 MB, and a page keeps 7 days of history. After that, Plus costs €9.50 per member a month and Business €19.50, according to its pricing page. Its requirements documentation asks for macOS 13 or later.

Obsidian is the opposite: your notes are Markdown files in a folder on your Mac, linked to each other, with no account and no server. It is free for personal use, with no limits. The paid parts are optional: Sync is $4 per user a month billed annually ($5 a month billed monthly), Publish is $8 per site a month billed annually, and the commercial licence is $50 per user a year.

The quick rule: if someone else is going to read what you write, Notion. If it is yours and you want it to still be yours in ten years, Obsidian. And watch out for a common mix-up: having the files locally is not a backup. You still need Time Machine or whatever you use.

Raycast replaces Spotlight and takes over everything you do often: searching, calculating, pasting from a clipboard history, firing off text snippets, moving windows. Its free plan already includes that, extensions included; what you pay for is the AI part, cloud sync, dictation and themes, at $10 a month or $96 a year on the Pro plan. The catch that matters in 2026: its site says the current version requires macOS Tahoe and an Apple Silicon Mac. If your Mac is Intel or runs an earlier macOS, this is not your app.

Rectangle does one thing, well and for free: putting windows on half the screen, in quarters or full screen with a shortcut or by dragging to an edge. It is open source and its current download asks for macOS 14 or later. There is a paid Rectangle Pro, which is a separate product with more options and a 10-day trial. For most people the free version is enough.

CleanShot X is the paid one most people end up buying: screenshots with annotations, scrolling capture, hiding desktop clutter, screen recording with an editor that zooms on its own, and cloud upload so you can share a link. Basic costs $35 one-time with a year of updates, and carrying on receiving them after that is $19 a year; the Pro plan, which is a subscription, costs $10 per user a month billed annually. It needs macOS 13 or later.

Shottr is the cheap and surprisingly complete alternative: annotations, scrolling capture, pixelation, object removal, reading text out of an image and a colour picker. It runs on a pay-what-you-want model, with a basic licence at $12 that covers up to five computers. Its site asks for macOS 12 or later.

IINA is the video player you should have instead of QuickTime: it opens almost any format, and it is free and open source under GPLv3, with no tracking. It needs macOS 12, or macOS 11 on Intel Macs.

This is the one that surprises people who have not met it. LocalSend sends files between your Mac, your phone, a Windows PC, a Linux box or an Android over your home wifi, with no account, without uploading them anywhere and without a cable. It is free and open source under the Apache 2.0 licence. If the devices cannot see each other, it is almost always the firewall or they are on different wifi networks.

For anyone who came from AirDrop and has an Android in the house, this solves the whole problem.

Neto is my app, so take it with that caveat. It is a personal finance app that puts your spending, your savings, your investments and your debts into a single number, your net worth, without connecting your bank: you log transactions yourself in a couple of taps. For anything with a market price it does bring the price in: crypto, stocks and ETFs by ticker, and funds by ISIN with the daily net asset value.

This year's change is that it is no longer the iPhone app stretched out. There is a native Mac app, built in SwiftUI, with the same sign-up, the same settings and the same features as the phone one, adapted to a big screen: a sidebar, multiple columns, shortcuts and real windows. It needs macOS 15 or later and also runs on Intel Macs that reach that version.

It is free, with a Pro plan at €1.99 a month or €49.99 a year on the App Store and a three-day trial. And because it is a universal purchase, if you already pay for Pro on the iPhone, the Mac is included. There is more detail in net worth and in expense tracker, and you can check whether your fund is in the fund and ETF catalogue before installing anything.

What you should know: logging is manual by design. If what you want is balances that update themselves from your bank, Neto does not do that.

The last one is a friend's, which is why it goes at the end and with the disclosure up front. Make Mac Better bundles into a single purchase what many people solve with six separate apps: arranging and tiling windows, a second Dock with widgets, captures with an editor, screen recording, the notch module, keeping the Mac awake, sorting files and 44 PDF, image and video tools. It also moves photos from your phone to the Mac by reading a QR code.

It costs €19.99 as a one-time payment, taxes included, for one active Mac, with a five-day refund window. It needs macOS 15 and an Apple Silicon Mac. If your Mac is Intel, rule it out.

The honest thing is to say where the limit is: an app that does ten things rarely beats the best app at each one. If windows are all you need, Rectangle is free; if it is only screenshots, CleanShot X is sharper. If it is four or five of those things at once, the maths works in its favour. They have their own list at best Mac apps in 2027, where Neto also shows up.

Do not install all eight. Start from the problem you have today:

• I waste time looking for things. Raycast, if your Mac supports it.
• My windows are a mess. Rectangle, free.
• I send a lot of screenshots. Shottr if you want to spend little, CleanShot X if you do it daily.
• I move files between my phone and my Mac. LocalSend.
• I have no idea where my money goes. Neto.
• I want one purchase that covers several. Make Mac Better.

And one general recommendation for 2027: before paying for any subscription, work out what the whole year adds up to. Between a Notion, a Raycast Pro and a couple more, it piles up without you noticing. It is broken down in best Mac apps in 2027.