Nice Things for Your Mac | Nice Things

Nice Things for Your Mac<br>A Mac is great out of the box — but some tools can transform how it feels to use every day. The following is a curated collection of popular Mac tools that can help you work faster, stay focused, and get more out of your Mac. It won’t cover everything, but it’s a solid starting point.

Launchers

Alfred<br>A fast launcher and automation hub that takes Spotlight-style search much further. Free; paid Powerpack available.

Raycast<br>A modern launcher with extensions, scripts, snippets, team tools, and built-in AI features. Free; paid plans available.

LaunchBar<br>A keyboard-first launcher for opening apps, searching files, and running quick actions. Free trial, paid license.

Window Management

Rectangle<br>A simple free utility for snapping and resizing windows with keyboard shortcuts. Free; paid pro version available.

Magnet<br>A polished window snapping app that brings familiar split-screen layouts to Mac. Paid app.

Swish<br>A gesture-based window manager built around trackpad swipes and quick movements. Free trial, paid app.

Loop<br>An open-source window manager with quick snapping zones and a lightweight feel. Free; open source.

Menu Bar Apps

Bartender<br>A menu bar organizer for hiding, rearranging, and controlling crowded status icons. Free trial, paid license.

Ice<br>A free menu bar organizer for hiding clutter and keeping only important icons visible. Free.

Hidden Bar<br>A lightweight open-source utility for collapsing less-used menu bar icons. Free; open source.

Monitoring

Stats<br>A menu bar monitor for CPU, memory, network, sensors, battery, and system activity. Free; open source.

iStat Menus<br>A detailed hardware monitoring suite for menu bar system stats and sensors. Free trial, paid license.

Monitor Control

MonitorControl<br>A utility for controlling external monitor brightness, volume, and display settings. Free; open source.

Lunar<br>An adaptive brightness and monitor control app for external displays and advanced setups. Free; paid pro version available.

Vivid<br>A brightness utility for unlocking extra display brightness on supported Mac screens. Free trial, paid license.

Calendars

Dato<br>A menu bar calendar, clock, timezone, and meeting helper with a clean interface. Paid app.

MeetingBar<br>A menu bar companion for seeing upcoming meetings and joining calls quickly. Free; paid supporter options available.

Itsycal<br>A small menu bar calendar for quick date checks and lightweight event viewing. Free.

Text Utilities

PopClip<br>A floating text action menu for searching, formatting, translating, and processing selected text. Free trial, paid app.

Espanso<br>An open-source text expander for snippets, variables, scripts, and cross-platform automation. Free; open source.

Maccy<br>A lightweight clipboard manager focused on speed, keyboard access, and simple history search. Free; optional paid App Store version.

Power Tools

BetterTouchTool<br>A deep customization app for gestures, shortcuts, window actions, and input device automation. Free trial, paid license.

Keyboard Maestro<br>An advanced automation tool for building macros, triggers, workflows, and repeatable actions. Free trial, paid license.

Dropover<br>A temporary drag shelf for collecting files, links, and snippets before dropping them elsewhere. Free; paid pro version available.

BetterDisplay<br>A display utility for scaling, brightness, virtual screens, and external monitor controls. Free; open source.

Notes

Bear<br>A clean Markdown notes app for writing, tagging, and organizing personal knowledge. Free; paid subscription available.

Obsidian<br>A local-first Markdown knowledge base for linked notes, plugins, and personal research systems. Free for personal use, paid add-ons available.

Notenik<br>A lightweight note organization app built around plain text, metadata, and flexible collections. Free.

Task & Productivity Apps

Things 3<br>An elegant personal task manager for projects, areas, deadlines, and daily planning. Paid app.

Todoist<br>A cross-platform task manager for lists, projects, recurring work, and collaboration. Free; paid plans available.

Developer Tools

iTerm2<br>An enhanced terminal with profiles, panes, search, triggers, and deep customization. Free.

Ghostty<br>A fast GPU-accelerated terminal focused on native performance and clean defaults. Free.

Kitty<br>A fast keyboard-centric terminal with GPU rendering, tabs, layouts, and scripting. Free; open source.

Fork<br>A polished Git client for commits, diffs, branches, history, and everyday repository work. Free evaluation, paid license.

Screenshots and Recording

CleanShot X<br>A polished screenshot and screen recording tool with annotation, cloud sharing, and capture history. Paid app.

Shottr<br>A fast screenshot utility with scrolling capture, OCR, annotations, and pixel measurement tools. Free; paid pro version available.

Kap<br>A lightweight screen recorder for quickly capturing, trimming, and exporting simple recordings. Free; open source.

System Utilities

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