50 Mac Apps With Well Designed & Sexy Interfaces
Ever since the roundup of 21+ essential iPhone apps with sexy interfaces crashed my hosting server (!), I understand how much people love roundups of well designed apps.
This post is a round up of 50 handpicked Mac apps that have either well designed or have really sexy interfaces or both! They’re not arranged in any order, just random.
I know it’s a giant list to digest, so bookmark this for future reference! Also, leave a comment if you think I have missed out a Mac app of this category.
Pixelmator
[$59 | Website]
Pixelmator is a great alternative to Photoshop, low memory footprint and extremely beautiful.
Tapedeck
[$25 | Website]
TapeDeck is a powerful and fun new audio recorder for Mac OS X Leopard. It’s just like your old analog tape recorder, only better. A lot better.

Snowtape
[$29 | Website]
Snowtape lets you listen to radio stations and record them live. And more! Read my review.

Delibar
[$18 | Website]
I have a review for Delibar coming up next week, so stay tuned! Delibar is a full featured Delicious.com Mac client. Delibar focuses on giving Mac OS X users an easy and quick tool for searching, managing and sharing their Delicious bookmarks.

CleanMyMac
[$29.95 lifetime or $14.95 6 month license | Website]
CleanMyMac represents sophisticated all-in-one-suite utility that helps keep your Mac clean and healthy. With just two simple clicks you can delete useless files that basically pile up and waste your valuable disk space.

Swatch
[$4.95 | Website]
Swatch lets you group your colors together in ‘Swatches’ to later be used throughout your project. Working in CSS? Easily copy the hex value to paste right into your stylesheet.

Snippet
[$12.95 | Website]
An unobstrusive snippets management tool for your Mac.

Anxiety
[Donationware | Website]
Anxiety is a super-lightweight To-do list application for Mac OS X Leopard that synchronizes with iCal and Mail. Its aim is to provide a streamlined, easily accessible interface to add and check off your tasks, while remaining poised to melt into the background at a moments notice.

Capo
[$49 | Website]
Capo is a musician’s best friend. It lets you slow down your favorite songs, so you can hear the notes and learn how they are played.

Bodega
[Free | Website]
Bodega is like Apple’s App Store, but for Mac! Extremely well designed to say the least.

Blogo
[$25 | Website]
Blogo is a blogging app for Mac that supports Wordpress, Blogger, Typepad, Typo, Drupal, Joomla, and Expression Engine. This post is composed speedily with Blogo!

LittleSnapper
[$39 | Website]
LittleSnapper is a screenshot snapping and management app.

Things
[$49.95 | Website]
If you only have budget for only one Mac OS X to-do list tool, look no further than Things. There is also an iPhone app that can sync with Things for Mac

The Hit List
[$49.95 | Website]
Another to-do list tool for Mac, more fancy design, no iPhone app yet.

Notebook
[$49.95 | Website]
More than just an outliner or text processor, NoteBook is idea management software that supports Mac users at every stage of a project, no matter how large or small.

Coverstream
[€14.95| Website]
Control, search and browse music unobstrusive with a coverflow like interface. Gorgeous!

Tangerine
[$24.95 | Website]
Tangerine! lets you easily create playlists of upbeat music, or playlists for relaxing. It works by analyzing the BPM and the beat intensity of your music. Spend your time listening to music, not making playlists.

TuneUp
[$29.95 lifetime or $19.95 annual license | Website]
Your music collection is a mess. TuneUp fixes it. Automagically.

Coversutra
[$19.95 | Website]
CoverSutra gives you a handy and attractive way to control iTunes without having to leave your current application.

Notify
[Free | Website]
Notify provides a simple and elegant way of keeping track of what’s in your Gmail inbox. With support for multiple accounts, and a beautiful tabbed user interface, you can’t go wrong with Notify.

Just Notes
[Donationware | Website]
A simple, beautiful and powerful notes app. The nice user interface lets you focus on the important things – taking notes

Postbox
[$39.95 | Website]
Postbox lets you work with email the way you’ve always wanted. Powered by an ultra-fast email engine and a sharp-looking, intuitive interface, Postbox will help you focus, save time, and get more done.

NewsLife
[$14.88 | Website]
NewsLife is the simplest way to stay up-to-date with tons of websites without even having to touch your web browser until you see something you want to read.

Stuf
[£12.99 | Website]
Stuf is a clipboard manager with a beautiful HUD like interface.

Cha-Ching
[Free during beta | Website]
My personal favorite finance management app. Manage your finances quickly and easily with Cha-Ching 2 for the Mac. Quickly create a budget, enter transactions and track spending, all within a beautiful user interface that will make managing your finances a true pleasure.

Awaken
[CAD$15 | Website]
Gently fall asleep with the sleep timer and wake up on time with Awaken.

Fontcase
[$56 | Website]
A beautiful font management app!

DaisyDisk
[$19.95 | Website]
With DaisyDisk you can free up disk space by quickly finding and deleting big, useless files. The program scans any mounted disk and displays it on the sunburst map, where segments mean files and folders, proportionally to their sizes. The map is easy to read and navigate. You can also quickly preview any file and reveal it in Finder to delete.

iStat Menu
[Free | Website]
The most advanced system monitor for Mac, and dare I say the most beautiful.

Dropzone
[$10 | Website]
Dropzone is a Mac application that makes it faster, easier and more fun to get things done on your Mac. Share files and text, launch applications and extend via a powerful ruby based API.

Midnight Inbox
[$35 | Website]
Midnight Inbox helps you work smarter and with less stress, automating your inputs and organizing your tasks, files, and information so that you can always be in control. Collect emails, files, calendar and to-do items and notes automatically. Process all of your collected items into to-do items you can actually do when and where you are able. Organize those to-do items into projects you can track easily. Review your lists, projects, and collections to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. Do everything on your lists with a Zen-like focus.

Picturesque
[$29.95 | Website]
Picturesque is a simple app with a simple goal: to make images more beautiful. Whether you are in web or print, your images can benefit from a touch of Picturesque magic.

Aperture
[$199 | Website]
Aperture 2 delivers streamlined tools for moving photos from capture to output with uncompromising quality.

Lightroom
[$299 | Website]
Adobe Photoshop Lightroom 2 software is essential for today’s digital photography workflow. Now you can quickly import, process, manage, and showcase your images — from one shot to an entire shoot. With Lightroom 2, you spend less time in front of the computer and more time behind the lens.

ScreenFlow
[$99 | Website]
Capture the contents of your entire desktop at the same time as your video camera, microphone and computer’s audio. Sophisticated editing tools allow you to create incredible screencasts in no time.The finished result is a QuickTime or Windows Media movie, ready for publishing to your website or blog.

Tweetie
[Free (w/ads) $19.95 (no ads) | Website]
Very low memory footprint and pretty Twitter client for Mac! A standalone iPhone app is also available.

Socialite (previously known as Eventbox)
[Not Available Yet | Download Socialite beta 2 from here | Website]
You can manage your social life on Socialite, an all in one social media client where you can tweet, digg, Facebook, Flickr, read RSS feeds, Google Reader, Reddit and more.
Eventbox has been bought over by RealMacSoftware who subsequently renamed the app as Socialite.

Twistori
[$12 | Website]
Twitter visualization app for Mac.

Canary
[Free | Website]
Canary is a Twitter client that is beautifully designed, fun to use and has everything you’ll ever need. Canary’s user interface is slick and straightforward and helps you do what matters most fast and easily. It does more than you would expect it to and the best part: it’s free with no ads.

Delicious Library
[$40 | Website]
Catalog your books, movies, music, software, toys, tools, electronics, & video games

Tags
[$29 | Website]
File tagging app for Mac.

1Password
[$39.95 | Website]
I wonder what I’ll do without 1Password! 1Password can create strong, unique passwords for you, remember them, and restore them, all directly in your web browser.

Propane
[$20 during beta | Website]
A Mac client for users of Campfire. Campfire™ is a web-based group chat tool from 37signals®. It’s like Instant Messaging, only better because it’s designed for groups and runs in your web browser.

Espresso
[€59.95 | Website]
Espresso is a web development app by MacRabbit.

CSSEdit
[€29.95 | Website]
Also created by MacRabbit, CSSEdit lets you, as the name suggest, edit CSS!

Coda
[$99 | Website]
My personal favorite for web development! Text editor + file transfer + svn + css + terminal + books + more = whoah.

Billings
[$39.99 | Website]
Billings is an invoicing and time tracking app.

On The Job
[$39.95 | Website]
Similar to Billings, On The Job gets your invoicing job done.

Rapidweaver
[$79 | Website]
Rapidweaver lets you create beautiful websites quickly and easily!

xScope
[$26.95 | Website]
Want to measure stuff on your screen? xScope can help you get the job done.

Flux 2
[£40 | Website] Suggested by Irfan Q
Flux 2 is an extensible web development tool that enables developers to write HTML, CSS, PHP etc. FTP (including SFTP), Local Disk, and MobileMe are all supported in a completely rewritten publishing system.

Textmate
[£40 | Website] Suggested by svenlito
Peeps who uses Textmate stands by Textmate, they must have done something right as one of the most popular tools for developers.

Writeroom
[$24.95 | Website] Suggested by Powitsjj
For people who enjoy the simplicity of a typewriter, but live in the digital world. WriteRoom is a distraction free writing environment. Unlike the cluttered word processors you’re used to, WriteRoom lets you focus on writing. Also comes with an accompanying iPhone app ($4.99)!

Scrivener
[$39.95 | Website] Suggested by twiedi
Scrivener is a word processor and project management tool created specifically for writers of long texts such as novels and research papers. It won’t try to tell you how to write – it just makes all the tools you have scattered around your desk available in one application.

Vinoteka
[€29.90 | Website] Suggested by William
Vinoteka is a brand new wine cellar management software for Mac. Extremely easy and fun to use, Vinoteka offers a realistic interface to manage your bottles (wine, liquors or spirits) recreate your cellar and organize wine tasting sessions. No matter if wine is new for you or if you already are an expert, Vinoteka is here to make your wine experience the best.

Contactizer
[$119 | Website]
Contactizer Pro is an amazing all-in-one solution for managing, sharing and organizing your personal and business information. Contactizer Pro 3.8 makes your business management experience more efficient, productive and inventive. Following the prodigious success of its predecessor, OD4Contact, many users worldwide continue to choose Contactizer Pro for their calendar, organizational and management needs. Contactizer Pro, specifically built for Mac OS X, provides a wealth of powerful PIM features, all through an innovative, elegant and intuitive interface.








Love the list, found a few apps that i could do with but (always a but) I think Flux 2 by The Escapers should have made the list as well.
As usual, mac applications are so elegant and silky smooth… :)
Ouh, you put Canary in? I thought the embossed buttons on the usernames were horrid.
I think writeroom should be on here as well, simple UI, but really great. http://www.hogbaysoftware.com/products/writeroom
Irfan Q: How did I missed out Flux 2?
Alexis Brille: Really sorry you don’t like Canary. Anybody else?
Powitsjj: I wanted to include Writeroom, it’s a great app. But there is almost no UI, which is great because that was intentional. Good that you mention Writeroom though.
It’s not really fair to mention Postbox as it seems to be Mozilla Thunderbird 3 with a price tag.
dyn: I think it’s fair for developers to put a price tag on their apps for the effort they’ve put in. Postbox may look or feel like Thunderbird (might be because of its founder’s previous involvement with Modzilla), but if they roll their own email app that people prefers, it’s up to users to pay for it, for users who don’t like the idea of paying, they can always go for other free alternatives.
I don’t think it’s unfair to include Postbox as a top mac app, unless it is ugly.
Totally awesome to see Fuel Collective (Snippet & Swatch) in the list! Can’t wait to share the new stuff we’re coming out with I designed!
Stephen: Great work on Snippet & Swatch! I’m keeping an eye on your future developments like PunchClock and Meaty!
i would have added textmate.
I’d like to add Scrivener to that list. It’s a great app for writing and organizing stuff and has served me well for a couple of months now.
Go to website
Vinoteka the wine software and cellar manager could be added to the list ;-)
TidyTunes, great app.
The link to Textmate is actually for Flux2.
The correct link should point to MacroMates.com :)
Thanks for spotting that Josso!
I can’t believe Skitch wasn’t included. A beautiful-to-look-at-and-use screencapture application that’s free.
How can you put TuneUp on this list? The UI is horrid.
I’d like to add Ommwriter to the list.
It’s beautiful.
http://www.ommwriter.com/
A really badly put together list, and it includes applications of dubious merit, CleanMyMac’s page at i use this appears to have been spammed. And then to include TextMate off of the back of a comment? It’s a great application (that I wish I could make more use of) but it’s interface is as it should be, bare.
hey
thanks for the info. great!
cheers
Pat: I’m sorry that you find TuneUp UI horrid. Design taste is different for everyone.
Chris: What has this list gotta do with CleanMyMac’s iusethis.com page being spammed? Also, I didn’t consider TextMate sexy, I use Coda myself. That’s why I put “suggested by” someone else.
Errr.. why Textmate included? It’s a text editor, no hard core UI design.
My fave UI:
- Acorn
- Awaken
Very nice list! I use a few of these and have just learned about some new ones. So, I guess I’m heading on down to the dev’s/apps websites to check ‘em out (after I post this). :)
Clean My Mac should be removed because the developer’s ethics are highly questionable (note MU reviews all being from people with only one post, all five stars, all uninformative), and for the uniquely absurd licensing system. Timed licenses are so un-Mac.
Timi – should you not disclose that you created – and sell – a competing product before you start asking for another to be removed?
If that had anything to do with the reason I would have mentioned it.
If the developer was respectable I wouldn’t have such a problem with the app. Competition is what makes apps better, giving reason to have the latest ideas and changes.
I wouldn’t mind seeing a competitors product recognized, so long as the developer wasn’t such a sketchy sleazeball.
Where is Plex on this list?
Most be one of THE most sexy Mac apps :)
@SUBERAPPS: The list is an endorsement of these applications, no? That one of them is made by someone who has questionable ethics is an important point. If you don’t think it’s important, that’s too bad, ever heard of David Wantanbe (Inquisitor, Xtorrent etc.)?
Hey Chris, cool down man. I created this list with apps that displays a good sense of design, not counting user suggested ones.
I bought CleanMyMac when the app’s design was refreshed, I thought it looked good and boy it also worked good. I wanted to buy another for my partner’s Mac too but it requires another license. Went to their site and realized if you buy two you get the other at a discount. It was too late for me because I already bought one license.
I emailed the developer with the hope of letting me purchase another license at a discounted price and guess what, he sent me another license free.
It felt good and I thought it was really nice of the developer.
So here you go. I’m not affiliated with CleanMyMac or anything just in case you’re thinking.
If the app looks good, it goes on this list. Simple as that.
As a a new (relatively) Mac user, I love posts like this.
And for future posts, if you dare to put yourself out there, you may want to include a small bit about personal boundaries! No need to spaz out on a guy who is picking some of his fav design apps. Have an opinion, embrace it, feel good about it, and respect the same of someone else.
I humbly submit Acrylic’s ‘Times’ application – a minimalistic (but beautiful AND useful) RSS reader app for mac.
website:
http://www.acrylicapps.com/times/
If only a few of my other face apps would worry more about ui (mail, macjournal, adium, ps, skype)
Thanks for this list…
;)
thank you very much for this list. I`m a webdesigner and there defenitly some tools which make my life easier.
great post…
Hi,
another extremely useful and nice is OmniGraffle.
Filip
Thanks for this list btw, good job!
Thanks Filip!
Thanks for taking the time to put this list together. Lots of new stuff to have a look at and some that immediately seem just what I need. Thanks.
You’re welcome Flaneur, glad you find it useful! :)
Thanks for this list! These applications are awesome.
I’d also add the Snippets application that I found in your blog: http://www.snippetsapp.com
@Max You’re very welcome, glad you like it. :)
You forgot Ommwriter! far better than writeroom and free too!
Thanks for the great list. They are really useful. I have book marked and hope to be back soon!
I would add ‘Bean’ to your list. In a world of complex word processors, it is a joy to use such a clean simple one.
Thank you for your work. I really enjoy going through the list. I’m always on the lookout for a new attractive and clean.app.
Great list. thanks.
i would also add Snagit. Great app.
Awesome design,
You forgot Spotify is soo beautiful and sexy indeed!!!
CHeeRS!
I have to agree that Ommwriter deserves inclusion – it should definitely go onto the next top 50 list of most beautiful Mac apps.
textmate is awesome
iclipboard is much better than stuf
Some of them are really nice, thanks for the inspirational app designs
cool same interface 50 times
Some of these are truly useful but some are a total waste of time and money imho
take a look at the Evernote app for mac. very easy to use note pad – you can include images, text, and specify its source (url)