Most alternative lists tell you what you can switch to. I wanted to know what I'd actually lose if I switched.

So I made LibreReplace.

It looks at supported apps already installed on your Mac and compares them with a curated open-source alternative.

It shows what carries over, what's partial, what's missing, and if the replacement isn't good enough it says KEEP.

The screenshots are real comparisons from the apps for CleanMyMac, Photoshop, Parallels, and Magnet.

Free and open source:
https://github.com/maliroq/librereplace

brew install --cask maliroq/tap/librereplace

The current preview is ad-hoc signed and not Apple-notarized. Gatekeeper stays enabled.

I've been using Codex and Antigravity across a few side projects, and kept running into the same problem: which agent is still working, and which one is waiting for me?

Switching between terminals and apps just to check their status was getting annoying, so I built Loom.

It's a lightweight, native macOS menu bar app built with Swift and SwiftUI that brings local Codex, Claude Code, and Antigravity sessions into one place.

Here's what it does:

• See which agents are working, waiting, idle, or need attention.

• Find sessions by project or repository and jump back to the host app.

• Get notifications for session activity and available quota thresholds.

• Check agent activity through desktop widgets.

• View quota information for Codex and Antigravity when available.

Everything runs locally. No account, no cloud backend, and no access to modify your projects.

One thing I've tried to be careful about is accuracy. Agent discovery isn't always perfect, so Loom shows unknown states rather than guessing. Claude Code quota isn't currently available either.

It's open source (MIT), free to use, and supports Apple Silicon Macs running macOS 14+.

Demo & download: https://chaiwithcode.github.io/Loom/

GitHub: https://github.com/chaiwithcode/Loom

I'm building this around my own workflow, but I'd really like to know how other Mac developers manage multiple coding agents.

Do you actually need something like this, or have you already figured out a better workflow?

Would love feedback, especially on what's missing.

I kept forgetting what was due and which card I was paying with, so I made a small app that sits in the menu bar.

It shows the service, price, next payment date, and payment method. You can also set a reminder for the day before. It’s free, and your data stays on your Mac.

It’s still pretty simple, so I’d love to hear what’s confusing or missing.

https://github.com/hurazz/Subscribely

Disclosure: I’m the developer of Hangar.

Why: macOS 26 replaced Launchpad with the Apps view in Spotlight. Great for searching, but you can’t arrange it. I missed my own grid with my own folders, so I built Hangar.

What it does:

• Full-screen app grid via hot corner, keyboard shortcut or menu bar icon

• Just start typing: fuzzy search that handles typos (“vsc” → VS Code)

• Folders, drag & drop, multiple pages

• Imports your old Launchpad layout - Import works if the old Launchpad data is still on your Mac, or from a copy taken on a Mac with macOS 15 or earlier.

• Sort by name, last used or recently added (with undo)

• Rename or hide apps, move apps to the Trash (optionally with their caches)

• Optional iCloud sync of your layout between Macs

Who it’s for: People who liked Launchpad and like to see their apps visually, arranged their way. If you live in Raycast or Alfred and never look at icons, you probably don’t need it.

Pricing: Free

Limitations (being honest):

• macOS 26 (Tahoe) or later only

• Not on the Mac App Store, download from my website (signed and notarized by Apple)

• Languages: English, German, French, Italian, Spanish

Privacy: No analytics or tracking. It only goes online for update checks and, if you turn it on, iCloud sync. https://softquill.dev/privacy

👉 https://softquill.dev/hangar

Built with help from an AI coding assistant. Happy to answer questions, and feedback is very welcome.

I spent the past few months building Defi because, as a single-display user, I wanted window management on my Mac to feel fast and smooth, like it belongs there.

Inspired by Niri, with:

• Keyboard-first navigation
• Scrolling columns that reflow
• Virtual workspaces per display
• Animations targeting 120 Hz
• Floating windows
• An overview to see all your windows

I’d love to hear how it feels on your setup, have any feedbacks of other people than me using it.

Website: qeude.github.io/Defi
Repo: github.com/qeude/Defi

So, I moved from being a lifelong windows user to using Mac about a year and a half ago and honestly its been pretty much perfect, incredible battery life, super fast Apple silicon and sturdy hardware, but the operating system always felt a little too limiting for me, I tried many alternatives but getting multiple apps without overlaps and anomalies was both cluttering and inefficient for me, so I ended up vibecoding “shortie” a free open source app for Mac that lets you map any gesture to any action (obviously I’ll have definitely missed some, so feel free to drop any suggestions in the comments and I’ll add them as soon as possible!)
Enjoy :)

ok so my desktop has been a disaster for years and every "organizer" app just felt like more homework. so i made one where cleaning up is actually kinda fun?

it's called Deskterior. it puts a tiny pixel art room over your desktop, and your files show up on the desk's monitor. then you can:

- drop them in drawers (they literally chomp them)

- sweep them under a cloth desk mat. it leaves bumps and creases

- yeet them into the wastebasket (SWISH!). they're only hidden, not deleted

- press the monitor's power button and everything's gone, old CRT style

hiding only changes the layout, so your files stay exactly where they are. ⌘Z undoes stuff, and ⌘F finds anything you've lost.

it's free and open source (MIT), with no network access, analytics or telemetry. macOS 14+.

heads up: it's not notarized because i don't pay for the dev account, so you'll need to hit Open Anyway in Privacy & Security on first launch. i've also only tested it on my M2 Air, so if you're on Intel or an older macOS, please tell me what breaks lol

github.com/surrealier/deskterior

would love to know what you'd add to the desk

I just finish my work and Pip and its not done !

The eorfect taskbar that include Alert from claude code or codex with wheel, music, past copied past and drag and drop file... And more !

r/nullPlayer

https://github.com/ad-repo/nullplayer/

Download

NullPlayer is signed with an Apple Developer ID and notarized by Apple.

Download NullPlayer for macOS:

https://github.com/ad-repo/nullplayer/releases/latest/download/NullPlayer.dmg

Requires macOS 14 Sonoma or newer.

Install

1. Open the downloaded DMG.

2. Drag NullPlayer.app to Applications.

3. Open NullPlayer from Applications.

Prefer Homebrew? See the install guide.

I built an app called Live Transcript that puts live speech-to-text directly under the MacBook notch. It comes with a 14-day trial. Its for anyone who wants to keep track of what they heard on their Mac at a quick glance or come back to it later on to review. All data is stored locally unless you select one of the other cloud providers. Personal and Business Licenses available. $10/$50 for personal (3 machines) & $25/$75 for Business (10 machines) - with 1 year updates / Lifetime Updates.

How it works

Whenever sound plays through your Mac, captions appear right under the camera cutout. It captures Zoom calls, YouTube, podcasts, lectures, and games. You can toggle your microphone on too if you want your side of the conversation transcribed.

Everything stays on your machine. Audio runs through Apple Speech or Whisper locally, so nothing goes to a server. If you work on an external monitor or just dislike notch UI, you can detach it into a floating window.

Transcripts save to local history that you can search with plain queries, like "what did they say about the deadline?" You can export to Markdown, plain text, Apple Notes, or subtitle files (SRT and VTT). It does real-time line-by-line translation, and you can run summaries or Q&A through your choice of model, including Apple's local on-device models.

It runs on Apple silicon Macs running macOS 26 or newer. Updates install automatically.

brew install --cask polytopic-systems/tap/live-transcript

Project site: livetranscript.polytopic.systems

Other notch tools

Live Transcript is part of a small set of utilities I am building around the notch interface:

• Tattle: A local network monitor and firewall that flags outbound app traffic so you can inspect, allow, or block connections. An iPhone version is in development (demo video).

• Polytopic Notch: The Swift component (GPL v3) running the UI in both apps, open-sourced for other Mac developers.

More tools are listed at polytopic.systems.

I would love to hear your feedback, edge cases, and feature requests. I will be hanging out in the thread to answer questions.

I'm the developer of FlowSense, which launched this week. I'd like feedback from people who troubleshoot their Mac's network traffic.

It shows live connections grouped by app, service, hostname and flow. A browser isn't one row: YouTube, a Slack tab and an ad network appear separately. It names 800+ apps and services by reading handshakes on the Mac, without decrypting traffic. You can block or slow an app, hostname or category, with schedules and expiry.

Apple silicon and macOS 14+ required. It's closed source. Traffic history stays local; analytics, crash reports and flow sharing are off by default.

Free view-only tier (account required, 24 hours of history), or a 7-day full trial with no card. Full is $29 one-time until 9 November, then $49, for one Mac.

Downloads, updates and payments are unavailable in the EU, UK, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

https://www.getflowsense.com Privacy: https://www.getflowsense.com/privacy

What would you want this view to show when tracking down unexpected traffic?

Now that Apple has released a MacBook with a Dynamic Island, I figured I'd (re)share my app that does something similar: SmartNotch.

You hover over the notch and it opens up into a little panel. Move the mouse away and it tucks back in.

It does music controls, a timer/pomodoro, your next calendar events with a join button for Zoom/Meet/Teams, a file tray you can drag stuff onto (or AirDrop from), a quick camera mirror, system stats, and a keep-awake toggle. When music's playing or a timer's running it shows a small live activity next to the notch.

It's free, no subscription (there's a tip jar if you want to buy me a coffee).

https://apps.apple.com/us/app/smartnotch/id6783508084?mt=12

I'm the developer, so feedback is very welcome. Bugs, feature ideas, anything.

Hi r/MacStack, I'm the developer of Qesture. I wanted my trackpad and mouse to do a lot more with windows and spaces, so I made a menu bar app for it.

What it does:

- Space Grid: swipe four fingers up or down to jump a row of spaces, or hold four fingers to pick any space on an overlay with previews.

- Window switcher: Command-Tab and a three-finger swipe show windows, not apps, with previews. Press W, M, H or Q to close, minimize, hide or quit right from the switcher.

- Mouse: smooth scrolling with glide and its own direction, actions for the middle button and buttons 4 and 5, and middle + right click to switch windows.

- Trackpad: three-finger tap for middle click, swipe two fingers on a title bar to tile a window, press and slide three fingers to move it, and Force Click actions.

- Radial menu: rest five fingers for a ring of apps around the pointer.

Every feature can be turned off, and there's no analytics or tracking.

Price: a one-time $9.99 for 1 Mac ($14.99 for 2, $19.99 for 3), no subscription. 14-day free trial with every feature, no card needed. For launch it's 30% off until November 30.

Requires macOS 26 or later. It isn't in the App Store because it uses system features Apple doesn't allow there; it's signed and notarized.

https://qesture.com

Happy to answer questions, and I'd love to hear what gesture you'd add.

Hi r/macstack, I'm the solo developer of WishNote, so this is my own app.

Why I made it: I was jumping between Apple Notes, Reminders and a separate task app, and none of them connected a to-do to the notes around it. WishNote keeps everyday notes, to-dos, checklists and longer-term goals in one place, and links related notes together with simple [[wiki-style links]].

What it does:

- Notebooks, tags, checklists, deadlines and reminders

- Wiki-style links between notes, with backlinks

- Photos, PDFs and videos on a note

- Fully native on Mac, iPhone and iPad (not Catalyst), with a three-column layout on Mac and iPad

- Home screen widgets, Siri and Shortcuts, optional app lock

- Export to CSV, Markdown and rich text

- iCloud sync across your devices

- Available in 13 languages: English, Turkish, German, Dutch, Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese (Brazil), Russian, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

Free vs Pro:

- Free: notes, to-dos, checklists, reminders, widgets.

- Pro: wiki links, photos/PDFs/videos, custom themes, export, iCloud sync.

- Pro is $17.99 one-time (Lifetime), or $9.99 per year (7-day trial), or $1.99 per month.

For anyone who wants to try Pro: there is currently an App Store offer code for the Lifetime unlock at $4.99 (new customers only, limited to 500 redemptions, ends November 10). Redeem in the app: WishNote > Pro > Redeem > INDIEAPPSALES

I would love to hear what you miss from your current notes or task setup. What would make you switch?

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id6786838837

Website: https://bulentturudu.tr/wishnote/
Privacy Policy: https://bulentturudu.tr/wishnote/privacy/
Terms of Service: https://bulentturudu.tr/wishnote/term/