The following is a list of Mac software – notable computer applications for current macOS operating systems.
For software designed for the Classic Mac OS, see List of Classic Mac OS software.
Audio software
Digital audio workstations
Ableton Live Ardour Cubase Digital Performer GarageBand Logic Pro and MainStage REAPER Reason Renoise Steinberg Nuendo
Audio editing
Audacity – digital audio editor
DJing
djay – digital music mixing software Mixxx – DJ mix software
Notation software
Dorico Impro-Visor – notation software with a particular orientation towards jazz solos LilyPond Overture MuseScore
Misc audio tools
Audio Hijack – audio recorder baudline – signal analyzer BeaTunes - BPM analyzer and iTunes companion tool Cog – open source audio player, supports multiple formats fre:ac – open source audio converter and CD ripper ixi software – free improvisation and sketching tools Jaikoz – music file mass tagger Max – Cycling 74's visual programming language for MIDI, audio, video; with MSP, Jitter Music MiniPlayer - miniplayer for Apple Music ReBirth – virtual synth program simulates Roland TR-808, TB-303 Recycle – music loop editor
Discontinued audio apps
Adobe Soundbooth – music and soundtrack editing Audion – media player BIAS Peak – mastering Finale – proprietary music notation software iTunes – audio/video Jukebox by Apple Logic Express – prosumer music production by Apple Logic Studio – music writing studio package by Apple Apple Loops Utility – production and organisation of Apple Loops Apple Qmaster and Qadministrator Mainstage – program to play software synthesizers live QuickTime Pro – pro version of QuickTime Soundtrack Pro – post production audio editor WaveBurner – CD mastering and production software RiffWorks – guitar recording and online song collaboration software
Chat (text, voice, image, and video) Active
Adium – multi-protocol IM client Colloquy – freeware advanced IRC and SILC client Discord – IM and VoIP social platform FaceTime – videoconferencing between Mac, iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch iMessage – instant messaging between Mac, and iDevices Irssi – IrssiX and MacIrssi Kopete – free multi-protocol IM client LiveChat – online customer service software Microsoft Teams – team collaboration application Palringo Psi (instant messenger) – free IM client for the XMPP protocol Signal – open-source, encrypted messaging service for IM, voice calls and video calls Snak – IRC client (shareware) Ventrilo – audio chatroom application Telegram – cross-platform, encrypted IM client WhatsApp
Discontinued aMSN – free Windows Live Messenger clone AOL Instant Messenger – discontinued as of December 15, 2017 ChitChat – open-source IM client supporting the Yahoo! Messenger protocol HexChat – IRC client, discontinued as of February 9, 2024 Skype – telecommunications application supporting IM and VoIP-based videotelephony retired as of May 5, 2025 Ircle – IRC client (shareware) Microsoft Messenger for Mac – cross-platform IM client Yahoo! Messenger – IM client, also supporting VoIP, file transfers and webcam hosting
Children's software Kid Pix Deluxe 3X – bitmap drawing program Stagecast Creator – programming and internet authoring for kids
Developer tools and IDEs
Apache Web Server – free and open-source web server software AppCode – an Objective-C IDE by JetBrains for macOS and iOS development Aptana – an open source integrated development environment (IDE) for building Ajax web applications Clozure CL – an open source integrated development environment (IDE) for building Common Lisp applications Code::Blocks – open source IDE for C++ CodeWarrior – development environment, framework Coldstone game engine – game engine specializing in role-playing and adventure-style games Cursor – code editor integrating advanced artificial intelligence features Dylan – programming language Eclipse – open source Java-based IDE for developing rich-client applications, includes SWT library, replaces Swing by using underlying OS native windowing abilities Fink – Debian package manager for ported Unix software Free Pascal – Object Pascal compiler, XCode plugin available GNU Compiler Collection – collection of compilers for different programming languages, hardware architectures and operating systems Glasgow Haskell Compiler Helix – relational database IDE Homebrew - Package manager for installing many open source, mostly terminal based, utilities. Includes Apache, PHP, Python and many more. HotSpot – Sun's Java Virtual Machine IntelliJ IDEA – a JAVA IDE by JetBrains (free limited community edition) Komodo – commercial multi-language IDE from ActiveState Lazarus – cross-platform IDE to develop software with Free Pascal, specialized in graphical software LiveCode – high-level cross-platform IDE MacApp – application development framework for Pascal and C++ Macintosh Programmer's Workshop (MPW) Macports – a package management system that simplifies the installation of free/open source software on the macOS. Macromedia Authorware – application (CBT, eLearning) development, no Mac development environment since version 4, though can still package applications with the 'Mac Packager' for OS 8 through 10 playback Mono – open source implementation of Microsoft .NET Framework with a C# compiler NetBeans – modular, open source, multi-language platform and IDE for Java written in pure Java Omnis Studio – cross-platform development environment for creating enterprise and web applications for macOS, Windows, Linux, Solaris Panorama – database engine Perl – programming language PHP – programming language Python – programming language Qt Creator – an IDE for C++ GUI applications, by Trolltech Real Studio – cross-platform compiled REALbasic BASIC programming language IDE ResEdit – resource editor Script Debugger – an AppleScript and Open Scripting Architecture IDE SuperCard – high-level IDE Tcl/tk – scripting shell & GUI utility that allows cross platform development. Included with macOS. TextMate – multipurpose text editor that supports Ruby, PHP, and Python Torque (game engine) – game creation software Visual Studio Code – code editor and IDE with debugging features WebKit – open source application framework for Safari (web browser) WebObjects – Java web application server and a server-based web application framework wxPython – API merging Python and wxWidgets Xcode – IDE made by Apple, which comes as a part of macOS and is available as a downloadon, was called Project Builders of Florida tech
Email Email clients Apple Mail – the bundled email client Entourage – email client by Microsoft; analogous to Microsoft Outlook Eudora Foxmail Lotus Notes Mailbird Mailplane – a WebKit-based client for Gmail Microsoft Outlook Mozilla Thunderbird Mulberry – open-source software for e-mail, calendars and contacts Outlook Express Postbox Proton Mail Sparrow – as well as Sparrow Lite
Other email software Gmail Notifier
FTP clients Classic FTP Cyberduck Fetch Fugu FileZilla ForkLift Interarchy Transmit WebDrive – FTP and cloud client Yummy FTP
Games
Steam – digital distribution software for video games and related media
Graphics, layout, and desktop publishing CAD, 3D graphics 3D-Coat Autodesk Alias Ashlar-Vellum – 2D/3D drafting, 3D modeling ArchiCAD AutoCAD Blender BricsCAD Cheetah3D Cinema 4D FreeCAD SketchUp – 3D modeling software Houdini Lightwave MacDraft - 2D CAD Maya Modo PowerCADD ZBrush
Distributed document authoring Adobe Acrobat – software to view, create, manipulate, print and manage PDF files Preview – built-in image viewer and PDF viewer of the macOS operating system
Icon editors, viewers Icon Composer – part of Apple Developer Tools IconBuilder – plugin for Adobe Photoshop and Macromedia Fireworks for the editing and creation of icons Microsoft Office
File conversion and management Active Adobe Bridge – digital asset management app BibDesk – free bibliographic database app that organizes linked files Font Book – font management tool GraphicConverter – graphics editor, opens/converts a wide range of file formats Photos – photo management application
Discontinued iPhoto – discontinued photo management application
Layout and desktop publishing Active Adobe InDesign – page layout iCalamus – page layout iStudio Publisher – page layout Pages – part of iWork QuarkXPress – page layout Ready, Set, Go! – page layout Scribus – page layout TeX – publishing MacTeX – TeX redistribution of TeX Live for Mac Comparison of TeX Editors The Print Shop – page layout
Discontinued iBooks Author – created interactive books for Apple Books
Raster and vector graphics This section lists bitmap graphics editors and vector graphics editors. Active Adobe Illustrator – vector graphics editor Adobe Photoshop – also offers some vector graphics features Affinity Designer – vector graphics editor for Apple macOS and Microsoft Windows Anime Studio – 2D based vector animation Collabora Online – enterprise-ready edition of LibreOffice Corel Painter Fontographer GIMP – free bitmap graphics editor GraphicConverter – displays and edits raster graphics files Inkscape – free vector graphics editor Luminar Paintbrush – free simple bitmap graphics program Photos – official photo management and editing application developed by Apple Photo Booth – photo camera, video recorder Pixelmator – hardware-accelerated integrated photo editor Polarr – photo editing app Retouch4me Arams – AI-based photo editor Seashore – open source, based around the GIMP's technology, but with native macOS (Cocoa) UI
Discontinued Adobe Fireworks – supports GIF animation Adobe FreeHand – vector graphics editor
Aperture – Apple's pro photo management, editing, publishing application GIMPShop – free open source cross-platform bitmap graphics editor MacPaint – painting software by Apple (discontinued)
Integrated software technologies
Bonjour – service discovery on a local area network Finder QuickTime Terminal X11.app
Language and reference tools Cram (software) Dictionary (software) Encyclopædia Britannica Rosetta Stone (software) – proprietary language learning software Ultralingua – proprietary electronic dictionaries and language tools World Book Encyclopedia – multimedia
Mathematics software Fityk Grapher Maple (software) Mathematica MATLAB MathMagic Octave (software) – open source R (programming language) Sysquake SciLab – open source
Media center Boxee – Mac and Apple TV Front Row Mira MythTV SageTV Plex Kodi
Multimedia authoring Adobe Director – animation/application development Adobe Flash – vector animation Adobe LiveMotion – a discontinued competitor to Flash, until Adobe bought Macromedia Apple Media Tool – a discontinued multimedia authoring tool published by Apple Dragonframe - stop motion animation and time-lapse iBooks Author – created interactive books for Apple Books (discontinued) iLife – media suite by Apple Unity – 3D authoring
Networking and telecommunications Apple Remote Desktop Google Earth iStumbler – find wireless networks and devices Karelia Watson (defunct) KisMAC Little Snitch – network monitor and outgoing connection firewall NetSpot – software tool for wireless network assessment, scanning, and surveys, analyzing Wi-Fi coverage and performance Timbuktu – remote control WiFi Explorer – a wireless network scanner tool
News aggregators
Feedly – news aggregator, and news aggregator reading application NetNewsWire – news aggregator reading application NewsFire – news aggregator reading application RSSOwl – news aggregator reading application Safari (web browser) - news aggregation via built-in RSS support Apple Mail – news aggregation via (discontinued) built-in RSS support
Office and productivity AbiWord Adobe Acrobat – PDF viewer and editor Address Book – bundled with macOS AppleWorks – word processor, spreadsheet, and presentation applications (discontinued) Banktivity – personal finance, budgeting, investments