Where to find free Mac apps on your own
Where do the free Mac apps in thriftmac come from? If you want to find them yourself instead of waiting for them to show up here, try these places.
Just one caveat: People have different ideas of what “free” means. Some apps have a free version with a limited set of features. I don’t include those in thriftmac. They have to be 100 per cent free.
macapps subreddit: Hardly a week goes by without someone asking for free app recommendations. Redditors happily chime in with their favourites, often showing the most enthusiasm for new or innovative apps.
MacUpdate: You can filter this site so that it only shows free apps. There are some older gems here that still work just fine. Also, you can tell if the app truly is free — in a section called “monetization,” it will say “absolutely free.”
MacMenuBar: It’s amazing how many apps are available for the menu bar — and this site has them all. There is a convenient “free” tag. And with menu bar apps, free almost always means 100 per cent free.
Hacker News: It’s not unusual for the comments to take off into discussions about apps people like. Sometimes a developer will introduce a new app to the community.
TidBITS: An occasional feature called AppBITS shows off handy little apps that are often free. I totally trust the reviews on this site.
Github: Use Google to search for something like “site:github.com mac apps” and you’ll get several lists of apps, some of which indicate the free ones. Some of these lists don’t appear to be maintained, so you might have to do some slogging.
YouTube: There are plenty of videos listing free apps. I’m not always sure which to trust and which are a waste of time. Just keep in mind that YouTubers are desperate to monetize.