Best Mac apps native to Apple silicon

From its maker: Droppy brings files, clipboard history and everyday controls to your Mac's notch or a floating Dynamic Island. Gather files in the File Tray, find text, links, images and files you copied, control music and arrange shelf widgets for your daily tools.

From its maker: Your relationship as a living tree. Journal, shared calendar, pinboard and bucket list for iPhone, iPad, Mac and Apple Watch.

From its maker: ByeCtrlClick blocks the context menu that opens when you Control-click, system-wide and in every app. Right-click keeps working.

Cuewake lets you attach notes, checklists, links and files to Mac apps and webpages, so your next step is waiting when you come back to them. It is a one-time purchase at $9, needs no account, works offline and runs natively on Apple silicon. It needs macOS 14 Sonoma or later.

Slap Alert is for founders who like to see a sale land. It watches Stripe, Paddle, RevenueCat, Polar or Dodo Payments with a read-only key, and Shopify orders arrive by webhook. For every new sale, a pixel monkey slaps a sticky note on your screen with who paid and how much, and win cards mark milestones like your first $1k. It is free for scripts, or $19 once with a 7-day trial.

From its maker: Built for designers, photographers, and visual thinkers, Linger is a private, local-first aesthetic library for macOS. It keeps your saved images, screenshots, and sources together with your own notes and vocabulary.

From its maker: Launchpad for Mac, back the way you remember it. Apple removed Launchpad in macOS 26 and 27; LaunchHome brings back the full-screen app grid, pages, folders and drag-and-drop.

Attic tidies up after you. Old screenshots and downloads move to a folder on your Mac by themselves, and nothing is ever deleted. No cloud and no account. It is $5 once at its launch price, then $9 and $15.

From its maker: Espresso is the Everything-style file search app para Mac: every file on every disk as you type, even disks that aren’t connected. Native, private, free for personal use.

From its maker: Tidymint is a free, open-source Mac cleaner with no tracking. It shows what fills your disk space, explains each item, and moves only what you pick to the Trash, so the last cleanup can be undone.

From its maker: uRSS is a fast, private RSS reader and Podcast app for iPhone, iPad, and Android. No accounts, no cloud, no noise.

From its maker: CATPOD | PIXEL CAT COMPANION CatPod is a native macOS desktop pet: a pixel-art cat that roams the display you are working on, curls up beside you while a focus session runs, and naps when you leave the desk. FOCUS KEEPS THE CAT PURRING.