Best free apps for Mac in 2020
Michael BerryhillThe Mac App Store is full of all manner of apps, from simple utilities to complex programs. New apps are published every day, making it hard to find the best of the best — which is where we come in.
We've gathered the best free apps for the Mac, all in one place so you don't have to go digging.
In researching the best free apps for the Mac, I started by using Apple's category list. This makes it easier to cover the wide variety of content available.
If an app is on the Mac App Store, it is in one of the 21 categories that Apple has listed.
Because this is a "free" app list, I tried to only include apps that are truly free or whose functionality is not diminished without an in-app purchase.
You will see some apps that have premium content that can be unlocked with an in-app purchase, but I've included them on the list because I feel that the free content is noteworthy.
Slack
Slack is a must-have app for anyone working remotely with others. It is the best business chat app around. The Mac app is a chat window, so you can keep your conversations going without having to log into a web browser every time.
You can have multiple accounts running at the same time and there are dozens of helpful bots that you can add to any chat room.
TextWrangler
When it comes to coding, nothing keeps your characters more organized than TextWrangler. The text editor works with a wide variety of coding syntax and even has color coding for different programming languages.
You can easily access files on FTP and SFTP servers. It is also a fantastic app for non-programmers for its many smaller details, like line wrapping, email templates, and quote styles. It is one of the best free code editors around.
iTunes U
Right inside the iTunes app on your Mac is a universe of knowledge. There are thousands of specialized courses, which you can download for free, that are lead by professors at some of the most popular colleges in the world.
You can learn statistics from Harvard, business from Stanford, psychology from Yale, and much more. Subjects cover architecture to women's studies, with practically everything you can think of in between. To access iTunes U, open iTunes on your Mac and select it from the menu.
VLC media player
VLC is the best free, open-source media player for the Mac. With it, you can play nearly any media file, including MPEG-2, MPEG-4, MKV, WebM, WMV, and much more.
It has a number of customizable features so you can create your ideal viewing situation or set up your music listening experience the way you want.
It does support DVD and Blu-ray decryption through the libdvdcss library if you are so inclined to use it.
Audacity
Audacity is one of the best free audio editors. You can record live audio for podcasts, turn tapes and records into digital music, and edit tracks. If the original recording is a little too bright, you can add a filter to bring down the highs.
Trim the excess off of the front or back of a recording, and even blend one track into another. It is very easy to use, so you don't have to be a professional recording artist to get into it.
Shazam
The popular song identification program that was folded into Siri on the iPhone is also available on the Mac. Shazam listens to your music and tells you what you want to know about it. While it's running, it will tell you the name of a song and artist.
While you're listening to tunes, it will automatically create a playlist of tracks you can listen to with Apple Music (when available), even if you are currently listening to music with a different service.
Click a track to see lyrics and watch music videos on Shazam's website, too.
Pocket is sort of like the folder your mom used to keep with newspaper and magazine clippings in it. You can save articles, videos, recipes, and more, right in Pocket for reading later.
It's the perfect app for people who like to browse the entirety of the internet with no real focus, but don't have the time to read everything they come across.
Save articles for offline viewing so you can read new content while you are on the bus or at the park.
The app has a nifty tool that highlights the most important articles of the day, so you can read content organized by priority.
Polarr Photo Editor Lite
Polarr is a basic photo editing app with excellent tools for image adjusting. You can adjust color, light, clarity, highlights, shadows, and more. Add effects like color shadows, lens distortions, vignettes, and filters.
This app works best when you are trying to enhance your pictures, not when you are trying to get artsy with them. If you can't seem to get your picture just right, trigger one of the helpful tutorials to learn how to brighten dark images or properly add white balance.
There are dozens of pro-level tools, but they are designed to be used by anyone.
Evernote
Evernote is like that basket you have next to the couch or that drawer in your kitchen that has everything in it. You can clip web pages, link status updates, add music, store pictures, create new notes, and share anything you want with others.
Not only is it the perfect junk drawer for every digital thing you could possibly want to save, but it is also totally organizable so your junk looks more like a perfectionist's desk.
You can make checklists, set reminders, drop notes into existing documents, annotate pictures, and all manner of stuff. It does practically everything except fix the kitchen sink.
Mactracker
Apple geeks, pay attention. This little reference tool is going to impress you. It features detailed information on every single Apple product ever made, including things like processor speeds, original price, and current selling price. Did you know that the first Macintosh only had 1 MB of memory?
With Mactracker, you will know all about all the Macs. And, you can input your own Apple devices, too. So you can keep track of what you own and whether it is still under warranty. It covers more than just Mac's too.
You can look up servers, PowerBooks, and every software update for every device.