The Discover shelf.
The best software we’ve found, picked by hand. No paid placements, no affiliate links, and every listing includes the honest downside.
Allbrowserdeveloperdiagramseditorfile-transferfilesimageslauncherlearningmenu-barnetworkingnotespasswordsphotospowerproductivityread-laterreadingreferencerssscreenshotssecurityself-hostedsoundsyncterminalutilitieswebsiteswriting
RaycastThe launcher that ate the dock.The rare productivity app that actually replaces habits: launching, clipboard history, window snapping and scripts all live one keystroke away. The extension store keeps it growing.The catch: Easy to over-configure; the free tier nags about AI features you may not want.Details
ArcBrowser, rethought.Sidebar tabs, spaces and a command bar that make a hundred open tabs feel organised. The best ideas in browsers this decade came from here.The catch: Development has slowed since the maker shifted focus; heavy on memory.Details
ObsidianNotes that link back.Plain Markdown files on your own disk, connected into a graph. It respects your data like nothing else in the category, and the plugin ecosystem is enormous.The catch: The learning curve is real, it rewards tinkering and punishes drive-by use.Details
CleanShot XScreenshots, perfected.Scrolling capture, instant annotation, a cloud link on your clipboard before the shutter sound ends. The tool macOS screenshots should have been.The catch: Paid, and the cloud features push a subscription.Details
IceTames the menu bar.Free, open source, and does one thing cleanly: hides the menu-bar clutter you don't need until you do.The catch: Occasional rough edges around notch Macs and menu-bar spacing.DetailsSShottrAnnotate anything.Absurdly fast screenshot markup with pixel measurement, OCR and blur built in, from one developer, nearly free.The catch: Mac-only and the UI is utilitarian rather than pretty.DetailsKKlackMechanical keyboard sounds, done first.The app that made Macs sound mechanical. Beautifully polished, battle-tested, and it does the one thing perfectly.The catch: No key overlay or typing tests, it is deliberately just the sound.DetailsAAmphetamineThe gold standard for keeping a Mac awake.Free, mature, endlessly configurable. Triggers, schedules, scripting. If your Mac must stay awake with the lid open, this is the tool.The catch: The closed-lid case needs a separate companion app or workaround.DetailsBBitwardenThe password manager to beat.Open source, audited, and the free tier is genuinely usable rather than a trap: unlimited passwords across unlimited devices. Moving off a browser's built-in store to this is the single highest-value hour most people can spend on their own security.The catch: The apps are functional rather than lovely, and autofill misfires on a stubborn minority of sites.DetailsTTailscaleYour devices, on one private network.Puts every machine you own on a private network as if they were in the same room, with no port forwarding and no VPN config to hand-write. Reach the home server from a phone on mobile data, and it simply works.The catch: Convenience depends on trusting Tailscale's coordination service, and the mental model takes an afternoon to click.DetailsLLocalSendAirDrop that doesn't care what you own.Sends files straight between two devices on the same network, no account, no cloud middleman, no size ceiling. It is the answer to the oldest annoyance in mixed households: getting a video off an iPhone and onto a Windows laptop.The catch: Both devices must be on the same network, and Wi-Fi with client isolation switched on will block discovery.DetailsSSyncthingFile sync with nobody in the middle.Keeps folders identical across your machines by talking to them directly, so there is no storage tier to outgrow and no company holding the files. Once configured it runs for years without attention.The catch: First setup is genuinely fiddly, and there is no first-party iOS app.DetailsIImmichYour own photo library, on your own disk.The first self-hosted photo app that does not feel like a downgrade: phone auto-backup, face and object search, shared albums, fast timeline scrubbing. The closest thing to leaving a subscription photo service without losing what you liked about it.The catch: You are now the sysadmin, backups included, and releases move fast enough that upgrade notes are worth reading.DetailsEExcalidrawThe whiteboard that opens instantly.Loads in a browser tab with nothing to sign into and gets a diagram out of your head in under a minute. The deliberately hand-drawn look is the point: it reads as a sketch, so nobody argues about pixel alignment instead of the idea.The catch: That same sketch aesthetic is wrong for anything that has to look finished.DetailsPPhotopeaPhotoshop in a browser tab.Opens PSD, XD, Sketch and RAW files in a tab, with layers, masks and adjustment tools that hold up for real edits. Astonishing to hand someone a layered file and have them open it on a borrowed laptop with nothing installed.The catch: Ad-supported unless you pay, and very large files will make the tab work hard.DetailsSSquooshShrink an image without guessing.A split-screen slider showing the original against the compressed version at whatever quality you pick, so you stop guessing at export settings. Everything happens in the browser, so the image is never uploaded.The catch: One image at a time, no batch mode, and development has been quiet for a while.DetailsHHave I Been PwnedFind out which breach had your email.Type an address and see which known breaches contained it, run for years as a public service with no upsell. The notification service is the useful half: it emails you when an address turns up in something new.The catch: It only knows about breaches that became public, so a clean result proves nothing.DetailsWWayback MachineRead the page that got deleted.The internet's memory. Recovers dead documentation, quietly edited articles and products whose marketing site no longer admits a feature existed. You can also archive a page yourself before linking to it, which is the honest way to cite something that might move.The catch: Coverage is uneven, dynamic pages often archive badly, and it can be slow under load.DetailsAAnkiRemember things on purpose.Spaced repetition that schedules each card for the moment you are about to forget it. Unglamorous and slightly ugly, and nothing else comes close for languages, exams or the parts of a job you have to actually know.The catch: The interface is dated, the options are overwhelming at first, and the iOS app is a paid one-off that funds the rest.DetailsNNetNewsWireRSS, free and native.A fast, genuinely native feed reader with no algorithm, no ads and no business model with designs on your attention. Following twenty sites directly is still the best answer to an algorithmic feed deciding what you see.The catch: It reads feeds rather than syncing them: for cross-device sync you bring your own service.DetailsHHomebrewHow software gets onto a Mac.One command installs almost anything, and one more updates all of it at once. It also turns setting up a replacement Mac from an afternoon of downloading installers into a list you can re-run.The catch: It is a terminal tool with no interface, and a major upgrade occasionally breaks something you had working.DetailsGGhosttyA terminal that feels instant.Native, GPU-accelerated and fast in the way you notice within a minute of using it, with sane defaults instead of a configuration project. A rare case of a developer tool that is also pleasant on day one.The catch: Young next to the long-established terminals, so some niche features and integrations are still missing.DetailsZZedThe editor that keeps up with you.Written for speed first, and it shows in the places editors normally stutter: huge files, project-wide search, keystrokes under load. Collaborative editing is built in rather than bolted on.The catch: The extension ecosystem is a fraction of VS Code's, so a plugin you rely on may not exist yet.DetailsRReadwise ReaderThe read-later app for people who read.The rare queue that expects you to come back: article, PDF, email newsletter and video all land in one inbox, with highlighting that survives the app. If your saved links genuinely do get read, this is the most capable place to keep them.The catch: Subscription only, priced for heavy readers, and the feature surface is a lot if you just want a tidy list.DetailsHow the shelf works
✓We use it first
Nothing lists here on reputation. If it doesn’t survive daily use, it doesn’t appear.
◇Cons required
Every listing names its downside. A shelf with no criticism is an ad.
∅No money involved
No paid placements, no affiliate links. Makers can’t buy their way on.