Macs are powerful machines for various kinds of professional work. However, there are still many things it can't do well or do at all natively, which warrants the need for third-party apps.
That said, you need the right third-party apps to extend your Mac's functionality. So, here's a list of some of the best apps you should install to get the most out of your Mac.
1. CopyClip
CopyClip is one of the best clipboard managers for Mac. It stores everything you copy or cut on your Mac to your clipboard. That way, you can access it later and copy and paste it wherever you want.
Using CopyClip is very simple. As soon as you launch it, it puts an icon in your menu bar. Clicking this icon gives you a list of all the text clippings you've copied previously. You can choose how many clippings the app remembers and displays by going into CopyClip's settings.
Likewise, you can also tell CopyClip not to record the text snippets you copy inside specific apps. This can be useful with apps like your password manager, for instance, wherein you don't want a third-party app to have a record of the text you copy to your clipboard.
Download: CopyClip (Free)
2. Rectangle
Using multiple apps side-by-side on a Mac isn't the most pleasant experience. Rectangle, a third-party window manager for Mac, promises to fix this and elevate the multitasking experience on your Mac.
With Rectangle, you get an array of layouts to arrange your app windows in, along with several customization options to tweak the behavior of app windows as per your preference. You can snap windows on the screen using keyboard shortcuts. Or, if you're just getting started, drag and drop app windows onto the desired area on the screen or hit Rectangle's menu bar icon and select a layout to snap the apps into that layout.
While Rectangle is available in both free and paid versions, the free tier gives you access to all of its valuable features. But if you wish for more, like iCloud support, custom window sizes, and edge windows, you can upgrade to Rectangle Pro to unlock them.
Download: Rectangle (Free, paid version available)
3. Shottr
Shottr is one of the best screenshot tools for Mac. It's fast, lightweight, and gives you a range of useful features. To begin with, you can take a screenshot of the active window, a specific app window, the complete screen, or a particular area on the screen.
Or, if the content is stretched vertically on the screen, like a website, you can capture a scrolling screenshot to fit everything in one image. Another useful screenshot option is delayed screenshots, which makes it easy to capture context menu items, for instance.
Shottr also has a built-in editor to help you crop, annotate, and edit screenshots quickly. It includes all the necessary tools; you can even use it to blur or remove elements in your screenshots.
Last but not least, Shottr also comes with an OCR feature. This simplifies capturing text from images, so you don't have to take a screenshot and select the text manually, which can be slow and time-consuming.
Download: Shottr (Free)
4. Latest
Latest solves one of the biggest inconveniences on the Mac: keeping third-party apps that are unavailable on the App Store up to date. It's essentially an app updater that lets you update both App Store and non-App Store apps in one place. Currently, you can use it to update all third-party apps that use Sparkle for updates, which is a large chunk of Mac apps.
To use Latest, all you need to do is launch the app. This will return a list of all the apps on your Mac that are due for an update. You can then click on an update suggestion to view what's new or changed. And once you feel an update is worth installing, you can choose to update the apps one by one or collectively.
Download: Latest (Free)
5. CheatSheet
Most apps offer keyboard shortcuts to help you perform actions quickly and efficiently. However, memorizing these shortcuts or looking them up online for every single app can be quite a task.
This is where the CheatSheet app comes in. It's a simple Mac app that helps you find all the keyboard shortcuts for various apps on your Mac. Simply open the app whose shortcuts you want to find out and press and hold the Command key. As you do this, you'll see an overlay screen with a list of all the keyboard shortcuts that the app supports.
If you've recently switched to a Mac, CheatSheet can make your life a lot easier, and therefore we recommend you download it right away.
Download: CheatSheet (Free)
6. Amphetamine
Using your MacBook in clamshell mode requires you to have it connected to power the whole time; the moment you disconnect the charger, it puts your MacBook to sleep. However, many people don't like this idea, as it can reduce the maximum charging capacity of the battery.
Amphetamine helps you get around this situation. It keeps your Mac awake in clamshell mode even when it's not on power. To use it, you simply need to flip the switch on or off from the menu bar, after which you can continue to use your MacBook in the clamshell mode without connecting it to the power.
Alternatively, you can also set Amphetamine to toggle on automatically with a trigger. For instance, you can set up a trigger so that Amphetamine automatically turns on a new session when you connect your MacBook to a particular network.
Amphetamine requires a helper program called Amphetamine Enhancer to work. This is because Amphetamine—like other Mac App Store apps—is sandboxed, so it can't perform the necessary actions required to override the clamshell mode limitation. You'll see the option to download and install it during the setup.
Download: Amphetamine (Free)
7. Dropover
If you frequently move files, text clippings, etc., between different apps on your Mac, you need Dropover. Dropover is essentially a shelf where you can temporarily hold the items you want to move between different apps. It works with all kinds of content, like images, videos, links, documents, text snippets, etc.
Once installed, all you need to do is bring up the Dropover shelf and move the items from one or multiple apps you want to move over. After this, navigate to the destination folder or app and drag and drop the items you want to move across onto it.
Dropover also offers instant actions, which help you perform certain operations directly without creating a shelf. For example, it can help you quickly AirDrop the dragged files, resize them, remove their metadata, and more. Besides, the app gives you several customization options to tweak its behavior according to your preference.
With Dropover, you get a 14-day free trial with no restrictions. Once the trial ends, you can continue to use the app but in a limited capacity. To do away with the limitations, you can upgrade to the paid version for $4.99.
Download: Dropover (Free, premium version available)
TinkerTool is a powerful app that helps you unlock various hidden system preferences in macOS—that you otherwise don't find under System Settings—to get the most out of your Mac. These include preferences for built-in apps like Finder and Safari to other system elements, like fonts.
For instance, enabling the Add "Quit" item to Finder menu option in Finder settings puts the Quit button in the Finder menu, which makes quitting Finder a little more convenient. Or, enabling Show hidden and system files shows you all the hidden and system files inside a folder.
Besides, you can even export your preferences or import ones from another Mac to use with the new one. If you ever wish to revert to the default settings, you can reset all the changes you made with a simple click.
That said, remember that all the preferences available to you in TinkerTool depend on the macOS version running on your Mac.
Download: TinkerTool (Free)
Unlock Your Mac's True Potential With Third-Party Apps
Apple's App Store is the home to all kinds of apps spread across various categories, such as productivity, tools, etc. However, many utility apps that aren't available on the App Store often go unnoticed—like most of the ones on this list. They can unlock the true potential of your Mac and help you get the most out of it.