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Photo by Carrie Zimmer on Scopio. Used under license
As a designer, writer, and productivity nerd, these 7 Setapp tools make the subscription worth it. Some have free alternatives, but free isn’t always better.
What is Setapp, and why would any self-respecting, open source supporter want to use it? Especially one prone to shiny app induced procrastination?
Setapp is one monthly subscription for 200+ Mac apps of varying usefulness and quality. This open source supporter/shiny app sucker uses it because seven of them on their own are enough to have the subscription make financial sense. The rest are nice-to-haves that feed my appetite for new toys, and are, quite often, surprisingly useful.
It took two years, several lists, and a cost/benefit analysis spreadsheet for me to finally front up the cash for Setapp. When you look at what made my list of top apps, bear in mind that I’m a designer, writer, and plain text enthusiast who likes to frolic in productivity playgrounds.
These seven tools would cost me nearly $190 on their own, without considering those in the following section. A Setapp subscription at the time of writing is $9.99 a month for a single user, or $12.49 a month to add an iOS device.
💰 = I’ve bought or subscribed to this app in the past
Standalone price: $29.99 (Standard)/$69.99 (Pro) for 12 months of updates
I’m officially in love with Hookmark! Here’s 7 minutes on why.
In short, Hookmark lets me use a plain text app like Obsidian as a project launcher. I can open documents in any app right from my project page, and can create shareable, non-brittle links to specific text or images in long, boring PDF documents.
Standalone price: $29.00 one-time payment, or $10/month
I’ve tried out Shottr (free at the time of writing), but keep coming back to Cleanshot. It’s easy to use, and I like the auto shadow it puts behind window grabs. This is one I’d buy if it wasn’t on Setapp.
Standalone price: about $14.99 ($21.99 AUD)/year
Unlike the free alternatives, Paste keeps snippets of graphics. It also lets me organise pasteboard items I’d like to keep in named groups. I like the visual preview of web addresses — makes it easier to swipe through and find what I’m looking for. Every time I’ve tried out a new clipboard manager, I’ll quit Paste to keep it out the way. It usually only takes a day or less before I start it up again, simply because it’s so easy to use, and it syncs with my iOS devices. That’s a huge drawcard!
Standalone price: $15
You probably can’t name a menu bar organizer I haven’t tried. The issue with most of them is how they go about hiding the icons, and how they handle the notch. When I’m using an app that has a lot of menu items, I don’t want any of them obscured by the blank space that apps like Vanilla place over menu bar icons. I want true hiding, and notch-free visibility of even a large number of menu bar items. I haven’t properly evaluated Hidden Bar and Dozer, but so far I can’t see that they make the grade.
Bartender works beautifully and keeps out the way. It avoids the notch by showing menu bar items in an additional dropdown bar.
Standalone price: $9.99
I regularly generate PDFs in my work as a small-fry educational publisher. My most recent work, a 500+ page interactive PDF teacher’s planner, was 28MB until PDF Squeezer trimmed it down to 7MB. Smaller for customers to download, and snappier in their iPad notes app. The ilovepdf website does a similar thing (with limitations) for free, but it isn’t as easy or convenient to use. I’ve also found I get a slightly different result from one to the other.
Standalone price: $9.99
This app is invaluable for prepping sample images for the teacher resources in my Shopify and Teachers Pay Teachers stores. I’m sure Affinity Photo can do the same thing, but PhotoBulk is a lot simpler to use.
Standalone price: approx $40/year
I’m a long-time user of CleanMyMac. Some people think you don’t need utilities like this, but I’m not so sure. It’s beautiful, easy to use, and I’m convinced it helps my machine to run better.
These are the apps I’m using because I already have a Setapp subscription. They’re nice to have, but it’s questionable that I’d pay for some of them on their own.
💰 = I’ve bought or subscribed to this app in the past
⭐ = I use it often
The only reason this category didn’t make it into the top 6 is because I rarely use them. They great apps and even better value with the Setapp subscription, but my bases are covered in Obsidian, so I usually don’t even think of these fellas. Still, I’m happy to have them on hand for research purposes when I want to compare how things work together.
TaskPaper 💰 — Plain-text task management _Standalone price: $28.99
_In my early plain text days, I used TaskPaper coupled with Editorial. A good combo, but I don’t need it any more.
NotePlan — One space for all your work _Standalone price: $119/year; $11.99/month
_NotePlan was a big part of the Setapp drawcard for me. I was enamoured with the idea of it, but the reality wasn’t what I thought it would be. There’s a lot to love about NotePlan, but the calendar integration and sweet features come at the cost of customizability. Still, I’m convinced NotePlan will be the perfect plain text notes app for some people.
Ulysses 💰 — Write and publish from one app _Standalone price: $39.99/year; $5.99/month
_Ulysses is a fantastic app; I can see it being in many people’s top six. My writing workflow has me using a keyboard shortcut to open a completed Obsidian draft in iA Writer (which I was happy to spend big bucks on), and publishing to Medium from there. Ulysses is, at this point, more complicated than I need a writing app to be. It’s great that it can read folders in my Obsidian vault, but I’m not a novelist, so I can’t see a need for it when I’m having such fun in Obsidian.
Marked 💰 — Live Markdown preview Standalone price: $13.99
Work in plain text while seeing your work previewed in beautiful, customizable rendered — and synced — Markdown. It has a nice set of tools for writers. Ideal companion for plain text apps that don’t have their own rendering engine.
TextSoap — Make sure your text has no errors
Standalone price: $50
I haven’t tried this one, TBH, but it seems worth a look.
Typeface 💰 — Find the perfect font Standalone price: $35.99
I like being able to search for fonts by stylistic features. RightFont is my first choice for several reasons, including built-in icons to vector, but Typeface is still a nice, light way to find the font I’m looking for.
Mockuuups Studio — Generate mockups for all devices
Standalone price: Free for 10 mockups, or $144/year
I use this one occasionally for product shots and Medium article graphics. There’s a lot available for free online, so this one is a convenience, not a must.
Squash — Compress and resize images
It’s on my to do list to compare Squash with PhotoBulk. iloveimg can do the same thing online, (with limitations) for free. When I was looking for the standalone pricing, I came up blank for Squash, but stumbled across the attractive Squoosh, which seems to be free.
Image2icon — Turn images into icons
Standalone price: $9.99
I use Image2icon to make my interactive planner folders pretty. It’s fun to be able to change how a folder looks, and makes it easier to pick out of a crowd. It also creates favicons and the like.
AlDente Pro ⭐ — Set battery charging limits Standalone price: $10/year
According to the AlDente website, macOS lies to us about battery percentage. Do they really? No idea. AlDente helps me believe my battery will last longer, so, gullible or not, I’m sticking with it for now.
Workspaces 💰 — Set up your work in one click Standalone price: $19.99
I used Workspaces in the past, but have replaced it with Obsidian + Hookmark. Workspaces could be a gateway to the magic of Hookmark for people who haven’t yet grasped the idea of ubiquitous linking.
Due 💰 ⭐ — Receive persistent reminders Standalone price: $14.99
I’ve used Due extensively in the past, and still do for particular tasks I need to be reminded about until they’re done. It’s an awesome tool for people who want to be nagged into doing specific tasks.
MindNode 💰 — Mind map and brainstorm ideas Standalone price: $2.49/month; $19.99/year
iThoughtsX 💰 — Brainstorm and visualize ideas Standalone price: $49.99
Amazing value right here if you’re into mind mapping software. I go through phases, so it’s nice to have these guys on hand.
Renamer ⭐ — Rename a batch of files Standalone price: $19.99
This utility gives me a lot more control over the renaming process than the built-in Mac Finder version. I used it extensively alongside VS Code when putting together my KJV Markdown Bible for Obsidian.
Yoink 💰 ⭐ — Improve drag and drop Standalone price: $5.99
I’ve used Yoink for years to help me drag files from one folder to another folder (in a folder in a folder). Very handy: when you need it, you need it.
One Switch ⭐ — Access macOS features fast Standalone price: $4.99
This one is pure convenience. I use it occasionally.
Backtrack ⭐ — Record audio from the past Standalone price: $9.99
I have Backtrack on all the time, because I’m a just in case person. Haven’t needed it yet, but it’s good to know I can save audio I didn’t know I needed until after it was over. Similar to Just Press Record on iOS, which once saved a taxi driver from being convicted of assaulting a lying, conniving, nasty piece of work.
If money is your main concern, you’ll need to study the current offerings and do the math.
Attention: I don’t recommend Setapp to people who have a serious case of shiny object syndrome! Unless you’re a hopeless case (news: there’s no such thing) on a tight budget, and it helps contain the spending you were going to do anyway.
The subscription price is worth it for me at this point, but if that changes I’ll just go back to buying the apps I really need, on their own. I freely admit that I find it fun to try out and play with new software from time to time. Setapp gives me that fix, on top of the apps I really do have a legitimate use for.
There are affiliate links in this article, but Setapp doesn’t know I’m writing this. I hope you’ll consider using my link if this piece has convinced you that a Setapp subscription will improve your life. Thanks to June Thomas and Tessa Dawson for reading why I’m so pleased Hookmark came to Setapp, and for requesting the full list of apps that keep me a subscriber.
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