The trend of open source software is growing on Mac, and there'south no shortage of quality apps. You might be familiar with some common ones, like VLC, Firefox, LibreOffice, Handbrake, and more.

Here'south a list of some less pop open up-source Mac apps yous should endeavor. You may be surprised past how useful they can be.

1. IINA

iina audio and video player

IINA is a mod audio and video histrion for Mac. It has an entirely new design and supports Forcefulness Touch, the Affect Bar, and pic-in-pic. When you open a video, it automatically adds other videos in that folder to a playlist. If y'all're listening to an audiobook or podcast, then IINA lets you quickly navigate between MP3 chapters.

The actor is minimal, with buttons for a playlist, music mode, picture-in-picture, and settings. Information technology can automatically fetch subtitles for movies, provided you log in with an OpenSubtitles account.

Information technology also offers many customization options, including changing the interface theme, tweaking sound/video settings, customizing the subtitle await, and configuring new key bindings.

Download: IINA

2. Cyberduck

add connection in cyberduck

Cyberduck is an FTP customer for Mac. It lets you lot connect, scan, and manage the content stored on SFTP, WebDAV, Dropbox, Amazon S3, Backblaze B2, and more. The interface works like a browser and mimics common navigation and sorting features.

The outline view lets you lot browse large binder structures efficiently, while the Quick Wait feature tin can preview files without downloading them. Y'all can also organize bookmarks with elevate and drop and check the history of all visited servers.

Uploading files is a one-footstep procedure. Elevate and drop bookmarks to Finder and drib files onto bookmarks to upload. Y'all tin even sync local directories with a remote server.

Download: Cyberduck

3. Cryptomator

cryptomator vault in cyberduck

Ane of the best features of Cyberduck is the integration with Cryptomator. It works past creating a vault directory in the cloud storage and encrypts files and folders with AES-256 nix keys. Anything you put inside this vault will encrypt transparently.

That means no subconscious backdoors from third parties, and greater privacy when using cloud services. The app is easy to utilise. All you have to practice is create a new vault and enter a proper name and passphrase to secure it.

Download: Cryptomator

4. Skim PDF Reader

skim pdf reader features

The congenital-in Preview app has exceptional support of PDFs and images, just alternative PDF reader Skim goes one step ahead. It has congenital-in support for AppleScript, LaTeX, BibDesk, and more. The left side of the principal window lets you view page thumbnails or the tabular array of contents. Meanwhile, the right side has a note panel that allows you to see all the annotations and notes you created.

Skim includes a feature called the reading bar to help you lot concentrate. And the content pane has a powerful born search characteristic: it highlights the search term on relevant pages and groups them by density and sheet.

If the book has thousands of pages, you tin take a snapshot for reference or split the PDF into 2 halves. In combination with thumbnails/table of contents, you tin skim the book faster. And finally, yous can export all notes and annotations as a text file.

Download: Skim PDF Reader

5. BibDesk

bibdesk interface and citekey customization

Creating a bibliography is a tough job; information technology'southward easy to make formatting errors. That'south where the BibDesk app can aid. Just get the BibTeX citation of a source and put it in the app to create a well-organized library. If you work in different LaTeX editors, then you can write and cite with BibDesk effortlessly.

Using the app is easy. Create a library and search for papers on Google Scholar, ACM, arXiv, JSTOR, Springer Link, and more. Every publication offers a cite key with details like the article type, writer, yr, and more than. Copy the cite central, and BibDesk will automatically retrieve all the details.

You tin also elevate and drop the PDF and make full in the details. The app supports exporting the bibliographic information to various formats, such as BibTeX, XML, HTML, and more than. Or if you adopt, but copy the details and paste them into your documents instead.

Download: BibDesk

6. SelfControl

selfcontrol mac app

If y'all find yourself slipping into procrastination and wasting fourth dimension on distracting sites, then this app will prove useful. Add together the website you want to block in the blacklist window. Move the slider to decide the duration of the block (the minimum is fifteen minutes). Click Start, then blazon your password to start the cake.

Download: SelfControl

seven. Katana

katana screenshot app

Katana is a simple screenshot utility that lives in your bill of fare bar. Take a screenshot with a hotkey, and the app volition then upload the file to several image hosts, including Imgur and Pomf. If you wish to shorten the link, copy the URL and press another of the app'due south hotkeys.

Download: Katana

8. Kap

kap screen recorder tool mac

QuickTime Player comes with screen recording capabilities, but they're pretty limited. Kap is a smashing culling that sits in your menu bar for easy access.

The crop tool menu has half-dozen preset layouts, including 1:ane, 4:3, 16:9, and more. You can likewise manually insert custom values or capture the entire window of an app---the layout guidelines will e'er remain visible. Kap even lets you record mouse movements.

If you take an attached microphone, y'all can add together your phonation to the recording. Finally, you can export your screeencast in dissimilar file formats, such as GIF, MP4, WebM, and APNG.

Download: Kap

9. SlowQuitApps

slowquitapp black overlay on top of the app

About Mac users know that Cmd + W cardinal closes a window or tab, while the Cmd + Q quits the entire app. The problem is that since those keys are near each other, it's like shooting fish in a barrel to quit an app past mistake.

This app adds a filibuster to Cmd + Q to prevent accidental closures. When y'all printing Cmd + Q, a countdown overlay will announced to a higher place the current window. This puts the quit action on hold until the inaugural completes. You can increment the delay from i 2d to, say, five seconds with this Terminal command (the time is in milliseconds):

          defaults write com.dteoh.SlowQuitApps delay -int 5000        

Download: SlowQuitApps

10. MarkText

marktext markdown editor app

MarkText is a cross-platform Markdown app (what's Markdown?) designed with simplicity. It supports both CommonMark Spec and the GitHub Flavored Markdown Spec. The app has all the features of a typical Markdown app, including support for both light and dark themes. The standard preview window that replaces markdown syntax symbols with their proper formatting is here too.

It includes different modes to assist you focus on writing, whether it'south an article or code. MarkText also has an autocomplete characteristic to pair brackets, supports emojis, and has built-in back up of MathJax. Yous tin export your draft as HTML or PDF if you like.

Download: MarkText

11. CotEditor

coteditor user interface

CotEditor is a lightweight text and code editor. It features a clean and straightforward interface that lets you quickly modify line endings, file encoding, and syntax coloring. It supports virtually threescore programming languages, and so you lot can choose the syntax coloring as needed.

The built-in Info side console lets you lot view detailed data about the file, including text encoding, character count, and more. It has excellent support of regular expressions, a powerful characteristic for finding and replacing text commonly found merely in paid editors.

It likewise lets y'all split the window into two halves, so you tin keep one window for reference while you lot work in another. If you lot piece of work with a lot of text, this is a handy app to accept.

Download: CotEditor

12. KeePassXC

keepassxc password manager for Mac

KeePass is a pop password manager for Windows. Unfortunately, it's not available for macOS. 1 Mac alternative is KeePassX, just it rarely gets updated. KeePassXC is a customs fork of KeePassX and the best way to use this tool on your Mac.

KeePassXC uses the KDBX countersign database format. That means you tin share your database with KeePass without worrying well-nigh compatibility issues. It also natively integrates with any browser. But printing a hotkey to autofill username and password fields.

You can organize passwords into different groups, plus it has a password generator that allows you lot to generate long and secure passwords. Past default, the app will lock after 30 seconds, but yous can increase that duration. When you copy a password, the clipboard volition clear itself after ten seconds for security.

Download: KeePassXC

13. Sloth

sloth mac app

Longtime Mac users have likely seen an annoying error message that a particular file, procedure, or port is in use. For example, you can't unmount a deejay because some unspecified files are in use. This type of error is difficult to troubleshoot.

The lsof Terminal command lists all open files, processes, directories, devices, and more on your device. But using this command is tough. That'southward where this app tin can pitch in.

Sloth offers a GUI built on top of lsof with additional useful features. Y'all can filter the output, kill a file'southward owner process, display file info, and more than. This makes it easier to inspect what apps are using which files and sockets.

Download: Sloth

14. Fluor

fluor mac app

Apple'due south keyboard (aside from MacBook Pro models with the Bear on Bar) has a row of function keys at the peak. These keys perform dual functions; as well equally shortcuts like changing your screen brightness and volume, they tin also human action every bit standard function keys. The Fn modifier key adjusts this behavior.

Fluor lets you alter the behavior of the function keys on a per-app footing. It detects the active app and changes the behavior of the keys in the groundwork. In the app, the circle icon represents the default pick. The sun icon is for the key's shortcut, whereas the Fn button acts as standard function keys (F1, F2, etc.).

Download: Fluor

fifteen. Karabiner-Elements

karabiner elements mac app

Karabiner-Elements lets you remap the entire keyboard. You can remap a single office key or make complex modifications. If yous switch between Windows and macOS often, this app will help y'all create a consistent experience.

Some rules are bachelor for download, so you go a feel for the capabilities of this app. I utilize it to assign complex modifier keys to a unmarried function key and media keys to unlike functions. The app also lets you ready profiles or create rules for input devices.

Download: Karabiner-Elements

Open-Source Mac Apps Are Awesome

These open-source apps for Mac showcase some of the best options available, and they're all complimentary to boot. Chances are y'all can notice an app that does just what yous need and doesn't cost anything.r

If this list has intrigued you, check out our roundup of the best open-source browsers and our guide to living an open-source life. And if you're looking for more Mac app recommendations, check out this list:

10 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Apply Spotify

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