# New Mac essentials

> The first ten things we install on a fresh Mac, before anything else. 10 native Mac apps, hand-picked by MacWorthy. Facts checked 2026-10-19.

## Compared

| App | Price | Mac App Store | Homebrew | Open source |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| [Raycast](https://macworthy.com/apps/raycast/) | Free + Pro | No | `raycast` | No |
| [CleanShot X](https://macworthy.com/apps/cleanshot-x/) | One-time purchase | No | `cleanshot` | No |
| [Rectangle](https://macworthy.com/apps/rectangle/) | Open source | No | `rectangle` | Yes |
| [Ice](https://macworthy.com/apps/ice/) | Open source | No | `jordanbaird-ice` | GPL-3.0 |
| [Maccy](https://macworthy.com/apps/maccy/) | Open source | No | `maccy` | MIT |
| [Amphetamine](https://macworthy.com/apps/amphetamine/) | Free | Yes | No | No |
| [The Unarchiver](https://macworthy.com/apps/the-unarchiver/) | Free | Yes | `the-unarchiver` | No |
| [IINA](https://macworthy.com/apps/iina/) | Open source | No | `iina` | GPL-3.0 |
| [AppCleaner](https://macworthy.com/apps/appcleaner/) | Free | No | `appcleaner` | No |
| [Stats](https://macworthy.com/apps/stats/) | Open source | No | `stats` | MIT |

## The apps

- **[Raycast](https://macworthy.com/apps/raycast.md)** (editor's pick): A faster way to do everything on your Mac. Raycast replaces Spotlight with a launcher you can extend. Window management, clipboard history, snippets, a calculator and a large extension store come together behind one shortcut.
- **[CleanShot X](https://macworthy.com/apps/cleanshot-x.md)** (editor's pick): The screenshot tool that does everything. Capture areas, windows or scrolling pages, annotate, blur, record video or GIF, hide desktop icons and share to the cloud. Over fifty features, all fast.
- **[Rectangle](https://macworthy.com/apps/rectangle.md)**: Window snapping with keyboard shortcuts. Rectangle moves and resizes windows into halves, thirds and corners with shortcuts or drag-to-edge snapping. Free and open source.
- **[Ice](https://macworthy.com/apps/ice.md)**: A powerful, free menu bar manager. Ice hides menu bar items behind a click or hover, offers a separate bar for overflow and lets you restyle the menu bar.
- **[Maccy](https://macworthy.com/apps/maccy.md)**: A tiny, keyboard-first clipboard manager. Maccy lives in the menu bar and keeps a searchable list of what you copied. It is free, open source and out of your way.
- **[Amphetamine](https://macworthy.com/apps/amphetamine.md)**: Keep your Mac awake, on your terms. Amphetamine stops sleep for a duration, while an app runs, while a download finishes and more. Powerful triggers, free forever.
- **[The Unarchiver](https://macworthy.com/apps/the-unarchiver.md)**: Open almost any archive format. The Unarchiver extracts RAR, 7z, Lha, StuffIt and dozens of legacy formats, and handles foreign file names properly.
- **[IINA](https://macworthy.com/apps/iina.md)** (editor's pick): The modern media player for macOS. Built on mpv, IINA plays nearly anything with Picture-in-Picture, online subtitles, thumbnails and a design that feels like Apple made it.
- **[AppCleaner](https://macworthy.com/apps/appcleaner.md)**: Uninstall apps and everything they left behind. Drop an app onto AppCleaner and it finds the caches, preferences and support files to remove alongside it.
- **[Stats](https://macworthy.com/apps/stats.md)**: Free system monitor for the menu bar. Stats shows CPU, GPU, memory, disk, network, battery and sensors as compact menu bar widgets. Open source and lightweight.

HTML version: https://macworthy.com/collections/new-mac-essentials/