About a week ago, I wrote my 30+ best free mac apps. While free apps are always good, there are also a lot of amazing apps that cost some money. The hard part is, knowing which apps to buy and which ones not to buy. There are a lot of times when I see people buying apps that are either just not good or they’re free app that are better. On the contrary, a lot of people don’t know about many of these shareware apps and they miss out on the wonderful things they can do. I have put together 10 apps that I think are worth buying. You should realize that these are not 10 ESSENTIAL apps worth buying. You should only buy these apps if you need them. For example, one the apps is called Coda. This app is only useful if you have a website and you code a lot. Don’t go out and buy this app if you have no use for it. Also, I want to add that this list is shareware only and not commercial software. There are some great commercial software (Roxio Toast, VMWare Fusion, etc), but this list is strictly for shareware. Anyway, Enjoy!
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1PasswordI love 1Password. You have no idea how many times this app has saved my life. 1Password is called 1Password because all you have to do is remember 1 password for the rest of your life. When you first use a username and password on a website, 1Password will save that information. When you go on that site again, you can simple click a button and 1Password will not only put in your information, but sign you in as well. This way, you don’t have to use the same password over and over again in different sites. 1Password remembers everything for you. 1Password is also great if you have an iPhone. It will create an ajax bookmark so that you can easily get your passwords on your iPhone, without having to reload the page. Demo: http://1passwd.com/home/show_movie |
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AppZapperWhile there are other apps that do very similar things as AppZapper, AppZapper is definitely the fastest and coolest. AppZapper is the uninstaller that Apple forgot. You would think that dragging an app into the trash does it, but it doesn’t. When you do that, you miss all the preferences and other related files it creates. AppZapper removes all of the useless files in just a drag and a click. Demo: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szn8eVM8WXc |
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AwakenI use Awaken every morning to wake up for school. Before I got Awaken, I used to wake up to my horrible sounding alarm (BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP). Now, I pleasantly wake up to The Beatles or whatever else is on my top 25 most played playlist. Another great thing about awaken is that it can wake your computer from sleep mode. This way, you can put your computer to sleep for the night (I do this just to make sure nothing wakes me up at night) and still have your alarm go off. Awaken offers many features such as schedules, sleep timer, egg timer, snooze, apple remote support, backup alarm, etc. I trust Awaken to do its job everyday and I have not been let down yet. Demo: none |
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CodaWebsites can be tough to handle. If you are changing the code of your website frequently, you know the deal. You have your text editor open, with a FTP client open to save files to the server. You are previewing in Safari, running queries in Terminal, using a CSS editor, and reading references on the web. Coda simplifies this all. Coda is code editor, CSS editor and an FTP client all together. Coda will connect and publish to your site in just one click. But that’s not all. Coda has one of the best User Interfaces I have seen on any application. I don’t even use Coda and I can tell that it is a one of a kind app. If you code a lot for your website, you want Coda. Demo: Check out their beautiful website, also http://youtube.com/watch?v=wJIuM80KR9o&feature=related |
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iStopMotionIf you’re into Stop Motion videos, you’re going to either need this, or Final Cut Pro. If you don’t want to spend $1000, I would say this if your best choice. iStopMotion makes Stop Motion animation easy and fun at the same time. You wouldn’t believe what kind of cool animations can come out of this program. Try it out! Demo: (Examples) http://www.boinx.com/istopmotion/examples/ Company: Boinx |
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MarsEditMarsEdit is a very powerful blogging tool for your Mac. MarsEdit will allow you to manage and post to your blog in a really great environment. There are 3 general things about MarsEdit that I love. It’s simple, it’s good and it allows you to get away from your browser based editors. Mars Edit works with WordPress, Blogger, TypePad, Movable Type, LiveJournal, Drupal, Vox and more. You can see my full review on MarsEdit here, http://appleintellect.com/marsedit-bloggers-best-friend/ Demo: none |
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ScreenFlowScreenFlow allows you to record professional screencasts with ease. Not only can ScreenFlow make screencasts at a very high frame rate, allowing you to record all the nice motions your mac makes (dock magnification, expose, movies), but it also has an amazingly powerful editor built in. This editor allows you to do many things, such as callouts, zooms and pans, 3D effects, etc. This is what makes ScreenFlow the best in its class. You can see my full review of ScreenFlow here: http://appleintellect.com/screenflow-setting-the-bar-for-screencasting-apps/ Demo: http://www.varasoftware.com/products/screenflow/screencasts.html |
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StompStomp is great for the video lovers out there. Stomp seems like a simple video compressor, but is actually much more. With Stomp, you can crop your videos, re-size them, add effects and more. Stomp offers a very helpful list of presets when compressing your video iPhone, iPod Touch, iPod Video, Apple TV and YouTube, etc.) This is very useful when trying to put something up on YouTube quickly. Demo: http://youtube.com/watch?v=k_5H-87jY_A |
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TransmitTransmit is the best FTP app for Mac OS X. If you have a website, but do not need Coda, Transmit if right for you. Although there are free solutions such as CyberDuck, Transmit’s UI really makes it an apps worth buying. It has many features that make using FTP a breeze. Demo: none |
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PixelmatorPixelMator is the ultimate replacement for Adobe PhotoShop. Pixelmator is a beautifully designed, easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editor. If you are not a professional, but are still interested in editing photos, PixelMator is perfect for you. PixelMator can do almost anything PhotoShop can do, and it looks good while doing it. Demo: http://youtube.com/watch?v=_9fquJqQzTA&feature=related |
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March 14th, 2008 at 7:12 am
Roxio’s Toast?
Unless anyone knows of a freeware alternative?
March 14th, 2008 at 2:15 pm
Sadly, Toast is another must have. I guess you can use Disk Utility to burn CDs, but there aren’t any other full featured cd burning programs out there. And no, disco doesn’t count.
Other things I’ve paid for on my Mac:
Scrivener
Yojimbo
things (when it comes out)
Bee Docs timeline
March 14th, 2008 at 2:27 pm
I gather that the theme of this article is shareware rather than commercial software. In that case…
I’ll add UNISON, a usenet newsreader. Well worth the $25.
March 14th, 2008 at 9:50 pm
If you are working with video, I have found the free app called
“iSquint” to be one of the most useful Mac Video tools out there. It will convert .mov to .m4v or h264 (ipod movies format) If you need to compreess a movie before YouTubing, this is your ticket.
Zane reply on August 2nd, 2008 8:48 pm:
I agree 100%. Though, I will tell you, iSquint is one thing, but VisualHub is AMAZING. I use it all the time, though I think I may at some point try stomp, as ShinyWhiteBox.com is one of my sponsors!
March 14th, 2008 at 10:15 pm
Pixelmator, Awaken,1password, and Appzapper are my favorites. I really never use iStopMotion but I guess it’s fun if you do movies often.
March 15th, 2008 at 10:16 pm
“If your into Stop Motion videos, your gonna either need this, or Final Cut Pro.”
*The word is YOU’RE. -An abbreviation of YOU ARE.
March 15th, 2008 at 10:25 pm
wow, I didnt realize that spelling mistakes offended people so much
March 15th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
yes thank you for this list…I was looking for a cheap Photoshop/cs3 ish replacement. Pixelmator will do just fine…Thanks again!
March 15th, 2008 at 11:51 pm
yes thank you for this list…I was looking for a cheap Photoshop/cs3 ish replacement. Pixelmator will do just fine…Thanks again!
App Zapper is definitely one of my all time favs too.
March 16th, 2008 at 2:44 pm
If you like Awaken, you will love iAlarm.( http://www.xultrasoft.com/iAlarm/) It will read custom messages to you, read the weather to you and launch applescripts in addition to playing tunes.
Zane reply on August 2nd, 2008 8:50 pm:
The new version of awaken can run apps, so you could make an applescript that does all those things and put it in Awaken, though I will definitely try iAlarm. (How come I always find supposedly better alternatives after I’ve paid?)
March 29th, 2008 at 6:35 am
I have all the apps on this list other then Transmit, which is not needed, cause I have Coda.
May 27th, 2008 at 5:42 pm
Nearly all of these programs were in the last MacHeist weren’t they?
May 27th, 2008 at 5:45 pm
Yes, 4 of them. It was a great bargain in my opinion
June 9th, 2008 at 3:27 am
I read similar article also named Apps Worth Buying | Gabe Jacobs Blog, and it was completely different. Personally, I agree with you more, because this article makes a little bit more sense for me
June 18th, 2008 at 6:16 pm
I read similar article also named Gabe Jacobs Blog, and it was completely different. Personally, I agree with you more, because this article makes a little bit more sense for me