# Open source Mac apps written in Swift

> Want to see how a real Mac app is put together? These shipping open source Mac apps are written in Swift, many with SwiftUI. Updated November 8, 2026. Page: https://macpip.com/rankings/open-source-swift-mac-apps

Tutorials show you a button. Real apps show you the hard parts: menus, settings windows, the menu bar, sandboxing, updates and all the little Mac details. Every app here is a real app people use every day, with its code open on GitHub.

Rows marked SwiftUI tag themselves that way on GitHub. Plenty of the others use SwiftUI too, often next to AppKit, which is how most good Mac apps are built today.

## How this ranking works

- Source: GitHub's public repository data (stars, language, last push).
- Read on: November 8, 2026. Updated every week.
- Included: Apps from the hand-picked open source list whose main language on GitHub is Swift.

## The list

| # | App | GitHub stars | Last push | Maker | On MacPip | Link |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | IINA: The video player most Mac people switch to and keep. | 47,058 | 2026-11-08 | IINA | No | https://github.com/iina/iina |
| 2 | Stats: CPU, memory, network and battery in your menu bar. | 43,234 | 2026-11-08 | Serhiy Mytrovtsiy | No | https://github.com/exelban/stats |
| 3 | UTM: Run Windows, Linux or another macOS in a window. | 36,784 | 2026-11-07 | UTM | No | https://github.com/utmapp/UTM |
| 4 | MonitorControl: Brightness and volume keys for external displays. | 34,670 | 2026-10-14 | MonitorControl | No | https://github.com/MonitorControl/MonitorControl |
| 5 | Vorssaint: A big toolbox of small menu bar helpers in one app. | 33,654 | 2026-11-05 | vorssaint | No | https://github.com/vorssaint/vorssaint-utils |
| 6 | Rectangle: Snap windows with shortcuts. Small, free, does one job well. | 30,258 | 2026-11-06 | Ryan Hanson | No | https://github.com/rxhanson/Rectangle |
| 7 | Ice: Hides and sorts a crowded menu bar. | 29,989 | 2026-10-06 | Jordan Baird | No | https://github.com/jordanbaird/Ice |
| 8 | cmux: A Ghostty-based terminal with vertical tabs, made for coding agents. | 28,747 | 2026-11-08 | manaflow-ai | No | https://github.com/manaflow-ai/cmux |
| 9 | AeroSpace: A tiling window manager in the style of i3, set up with one text file. | 23,770 | 2026-11-06 | Nikita Bobko | No | https://github.com/nikitabobko/AeroSpace |
| 10 | CodeEdit: A code editor built the Mac way. Still early, moving fast. | 23,102 | 2026-10-17 | CodeEdit | No | https://github.com/CodeEditApp/CodeEdit |
| 11 | CodexBar: Shows your Codex and Claude Code usage in the menu bar. | 23,061 | 2026-11-08 | Peter Steinberger | No | https://github.com/steipete/CodexBar |
| 12 | Maccy: A light clipboard history you open with one shortcut. | 22,245 | 2026-10-26 | Alex Rodionov | No | https://github.com/p0deje/Maccy |
| 13 | Mos: Smooth scrolling for a regular mouse, and its own scroll direction. | 21,852 | 2026-10-25 | Caldis_Chen | No | https://github.com/Caldis/Mos |
| 14 | Aerial: The Apple TV aerial videos as your screen saver. | 21,242 | 2026-05-16 | John Coates | No | https://github.com/JohnCoates/Aerial |
| 15 | Compositor: A layered image editor that wants to be the Photoshop of open source. | 18,537 | 2026-11-08 | Robbie | No | https://github.com/robbietilton/Compositor |
| 16 | iTerm2: The terminal many Mac developers have used for years. | 18,265 | 2026-11-08 | George Nachman | No | https://github.com/gnachman/iTerm2 |
| 17 | AltTab: Windows-style alt-tab with window previews. | 16,503 | 2026-11-04 | lwouis | No | https://github.com/lwouis/alt-tab-macos |
| 18 | Amethyst: Automatic tiling windows, with no config file needed. | 16,318 | 2026-11-06 | Ian Ynda-Hummel | No | https://github.com/ianyh/Amethyst |
| 19 | Hidden Bar: Tucks menu bar icons away behind one arrow. | 15,360 | 2026-10-31 | Dwarves Foundation | No | https://github.com/dwarvesf/hidden |
| 20 | Easydict: Dictionary and translation, with offline text recognition. | 15,248 | 2026-11-08 | tisfeng | No | https://github.com/tisfeng/Easydict |
| 21 | Palmier Pro: A video editor built around AI tools. | 14,702 | 2026-11-02 | Palmier | No | https://github.com/palmier-io/palmier-pro |
| 22 | FluidVoice: Dictation that runs on your Mac, not in the cloud. | 12,909 | 2026-11-08 | ALTIC | No | https://github.com/altic-dev/FluidVoice |
| 23 | Thaw: A newer open source menu bar manager. | 12,622 | 2026-11-08 | thaw-app | No | https://github.com/thaw-app/Thaw |
| 24 | PlayCover: Runs iPhone and iPad apps on Apple silicon Macs. | 12,109 | 2026-10-22 | PlayCover | No | https://github.com/PlayCover/PlayCover |
| 25 | Loop: Window management with a radial menu. Pretty and quick. | 11,945 | 2026-10-18 | Kai | No | https://github.com/mrkai77/Loop |
| 26 | Boring Notch: Turns the notch into a music and file shelf. | 11,316 | 2026-11-08 | The Boring Team | No | https://github.com/TheBoredTeam/boring.notch |
| 27 | NetNewsWire: A fast, free RSS reader from people who love the Mac. | 10,513 | 2026-11-08 | Ranchero Software | No | https://github.com/Ranchero-Software/NetNewsWire |
| 28 | FineTune: Volume per app and multi-output audio from the menu bar. | 10,076 | 2026-07-09 | Ronit Singh | No | https://github.com/ronitsingh10/FineTune |
| 29 | Tinycast: A light launcher for everyday tasks. | 9,292 | 2026-11-08 | Abue Ammar | No | https://github.com/abue-ammar/tinycast |
| 30 | Secretive: Keeps your SSH keys in the Secure Enclave. | 9,257 | 2026-10-18 | Max Goedjen | No | https://github.com/maxgoedjen/secretive |
| 31 | WhatCable: Tells you in plain English what each USB-C cable can do. | 9,095 | 2026-10-13 | Darryl Morley | No | https://github.com/darrylmorley/whatcable |
| 32 | Clipy: A clipboard history with snippets. | 8,964 | 2026-11-08 | Clipy Project | No | https://github.com/Clipy/Clipy |
| 33 | VirtualBuddy: Virtual Macs on Apple silicon, simple to set up. | 8,938 | 2026-11-04 | Guilherme Rambo | No | https://github.com/insidegui/VirtualBuddy |
| 34 | MiaoYan: A light Markdown notebook. | 8,751 | 2026-11-08 | Tw93 | No | https://github.com/tw93/MiaoYan |
| 35 | WWDC: Watch Apple's developer videos in a proper app. | 8,749 | 2026-06-17 | Guilherme Rambo | No | https://github.com/insidegui/WWDC |
| 36 | CotEditor: A plain text editor that opens instantly. | 8,677 | 2026-11-08 | CotEditor Project | No | https://github.com/coteditor/CotEditor |
| 37 | Xcodes: Install and switch between Xcode versions. | 8,641 | 2026-10-13 | XcodesOrg | No | https://github.com/XcodesOrg/XcodesApp |
| 38 | Gifski: Turns videos into good looking GIFs. | 8,598 | 2026-09-11 | Sindre Sorhus | No | https://github.com/sindresorhus/Gifski |
| 39 | Osaurus: Run local AI models and agents in one native app. | 8,148 | 2026-11-08 | Osaurus | No | https://github.com/osaurus-ai/osaurus |
| 40 | Mochi Diffusion: Makes images with Stable Diffusion on your own Mac. | 7,977 | 2026-11-08 | Mochi Diffusion | No | https://github.com/MochiDiffusion/MochiDiffusion |
| 41 | DeskPad: A virtual display, handy for sharing just one screen. | 7,926 | 2026-02-28 | Bastian Andelefski | No | https://github.com/Stengo/DeskPad |
| 42 | PureMac: A free cleaner with no tracking. | 7,693 | 2026-11-08 | Moamen Basel | No | https://github.com/momenbasel/PureMac |
| 43 | FSNotes: Markdown notes kept as plain files. | 7,568 | 2026-11-08 | Oleksandr H. | No | https://github.com/glushchenko/fsnotes |
| 44 | Dayflow: Writes a timeline of your day from your screen, privately. | 7,401 | 2026-11-03 | Jerry Liu | No | https://github.com/JerryZLiu/Dayflow |
| 45 | LinearMouse: Mouse and trackpad settings Apple left out. | 7,142 | 2026-11-06 | LinearMouse | No | https://github.com/linearmouse/linearmouse |
| 46 | Applite: A friendly app store for Homebrew apps. | 7,128 | 2026-09-12 | Milán Várady | No | https://github.com/milanvarady/Applite |
| 47 | VoiceInk: Voice to text on your Mac, private and quick. | 7,051 | 2026-11-07 | Prakash Joshi Pax | No | https://github.com/Beingpax/VoiceInk |
| 48 | OpenInTerminal: Opens the current Finder folder in Terminal or your editor. | 7,048 | 2026-10-25 | Jianing Wang | No | https://github.com/Ji4n1ng/OpenInTerminal |
| 49 | VimR: A Neovim app for the Mac. | 7,015 | 2026-10-10 | Tae Won Ha | No | https://github.com/qvacua/vimr |
| 50 | eqMac: A system-wide equalizer. | 6,829 | 2026-09-19 | Bitgapp | No | https://github.com/bitgapp/eqMac |
| 51 | DockDoor: Window previews when you hover the Dock. | 6,537 | 2026-11-08 | ejbills | No | https://github.com/ejbills/DockDoor |
| 52 | NearDrop: Receives files from Android phones with Quick Share. | 6,343 | 2026-09-19 | Gregory K | No | https://github.com/grishka/NearDrop |
| 53 | OnlySwitch: Lots of quick toggles in one menu bar menu. | 6,044 | 2026-11-08 | Bo Liu | No | https://github.com/jacklandrin/OnlySwitch |
| 54 | MarkEdit: Like TextEdit, but for Markdown. | 5,954 | 2026-11-04 | MarkEdit.app | No | https://github.com/MarkEdit-app/MarkEdit |
| 55 | Lunar: Smart brightness for external monitors. | 5,735 | 2026-10-25 | Alin Panaitiu | No | https://github.com/alin23/Lunar |
| 56 | MeetingBar: Your next meeting and its join link in the menu bar. | 5,398 | 2026-11-04 | Andrii Leitsius | No | https://github.com/leits/MeetingBar |
| 57 | LyricsX: Lyrics for whatever song is playing. | 5,253 | 2026-07-22 | ddddxxx | No | https://github.com/ddddxxx/LyricsX |
| 58 | Atoll: A Dynamic Island for the notch. | 5,227 | 2026-11-08 | Hariharan Mudaliar | No | https://github.com/Ebullioscopic/Atoll |
| 59 | SwiftBar: Put the output of any script in your menu bar. | 4,761 | 2026-11-08 | SwiftBar | No | https://github.com/swiftbar/SwiftBar |
| 60 | OpenUsage: Tracks what your AI subscriptions are using. | 4,569 | 2026-11-08 | Robin Ebers | No | https://github.com/robinebers/openusage |

## Questions

### What are good open source SwiftUI apps to learn from?
Start with the most used ones: IINA, Stats, UTM and MonitorControl. They are real apps with real users, so their code solves real problems.

### Are these apps pure SwiftUI?
Some are. Many mix SwiftUI with AppKit, Apple's older Mac framework, because some Mac features still need it. That mix is worth learning too.

### How many open source Swift Mac apps are there here?
104 of the 132 hand-picked open source Mac apps list Swift as their main language.