50+ Useful Mac Applications for Freelancers and Professional Designers
For one reason or another, a lot of freelancers use Macs. As a full-time freelancer and part-time geek, I really like to play around and tweak with applications on my Mac too. There’s little confusion that Mac is a popular platform for web designers and freelancers as it offers an enormous range of software for designing, managing, developing ,publishing websites and tracking, processing, administering your financial things.
It may be the raw power, the stability or the cool slim look? Well, we all know why that really is. It’s the applications! The software that makes the hardware bling, and it’s not necessarily depends on big gadgets and widgets, but often we rely on the smaller, even more useful applications. Here’s in this article we will round up some different web design and freelancing related apps that every Mac-powered freelancer and professional should consider.
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Useful Mac Applications for Freelancers and Professional Designers
If you’ve just got yourself a new Mac for this Christmas and totally clueless what to install, this article is for you. Realizing the increasing demand of useful applications across the web, we regularly feature commercial and free software on instantShift, so decided it was time to bring a roundup of highly useful Mac applications to your attention. Just keep in mind that this list isn’t a ranking list of Mac appz. So, Let’s start with this compilation that every web developer, designer and freelancer should consider.
01. RapidWeaver
RapidWeaver is ideal for anyone looking to create a beautiful website. Whether it’s your first or five-hundredth website, RapidWeaver has all the tools you need to quickly create pages or design and layout. Its award winning features provide the easy yet the most powerful interfaces to make website creation very easy. It’s based on web standard code and you can publish to anywhere via built in support FTP, SFTP and MobileME.
02. Postbox
Postbox offers you powerful new ways to find, use, and view email messages and content, organize work life, and simply get things done. Postbox works behind the scenes to catalog everything in your email: every bit of text, every contact, address or link, every picture, document or attachment. This smart information engine provides you with ultra-fast search, smarter and more intuitive views, and tools to help you organize and focus.
03. Coda
If you think that you are a hardcore coder then this is the right application for you. Coda is software that will help you build a website from the scratch and also assist in management of files with FTP functionality known as Transmit. Developed by Panic, it is one stop solution for all developers. You can manage files, edit codes, preview and debug all from the Terminal provided by Coda. In nutshell, it’s a One-Window Web Development for Mac OS X
04. GIMP
GIMP is an acronym for GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed program for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It has many capabilities. It can be used as a simple paint program, an expert quality photo retouching program, an online batch processing system, a mass production image renderer, an image format converter, etc.
05. Transmit
A next-generation FTP and SFTP client for Mac OS X. With its famously clean drag and drop interface, and powerful features set, Transmit makes maintaining files and folders through the Internet as easy as, well, the Mac!
06. Fontcase
Fontcase is a font management application that provides an elegant and powerful workflow to help you organise the fonts you have installed on your system. Designed to be an iPhoto for your fonts, Fontcase has a powerful tagging system, which is designed to let you control your fonts like you control your music. Fontcase can preview every font for you, whether it is activated or not. There’s no need to burden your system with thousands of fonts; you keep them all in Fontcase and activate them only when you need them. Other applications instantly recognise a new font without you having to restart them.
07. Billings 3
Macworld “Eddy” award-winning Billings 3 designed to make professional time billing easy for anyone, Billings 3 delivers a wide variety of convenient features that help you keep your business running smoothly. It helps you track your time and expenses, generate high-quality invoices with over 30 professionally designed templates, and easily monitor client accounts. The logical workflow and intuitive interface make these tasks simple. Work faster with such functions as recurring and consolidated invoices, individual time-entry annotation and overdue client monitoring. You also get 30 handy business reports such as “retainer balances” and “billed and collected” so the vital details you need are always at your fingertips.
08. Harvest
Harvest lets you and your staff track time, log expenses, and create invoices in one simple, integrated workflow. Set yourself or your team up on Harvest in just a few minutes, and instantly start tracking time and expenses. Use the Harvest graphical reports to see the distribution of your company’s resources in a visual, intuitive way. Quickly create an invoice, and with just a single click, bill your client. Harvest offers a free iPhone app, Twitter integration and an outstanding user experience.
09. Silverback
Silverback is a user testing software which is suited for all Mac based softwares. It provides feedback to the developers on the usability with live screen activity, video capture of participants, audio comments and on the fly recording with exporting features.
10. Querious
Querious is a new MySQL database management application written from the ground up exclusively for Mac OS X Leopard. Unlike mindless Mac OS X versions of applications made for Windows or Linux, Querious is a stunning new app that is precise and easy to understand, giving you full control without getting in your way. It’s very easy to viewing, searching, editing, importing, exporting, and structuring your data with Querious, you can even open up raw CSV or Tab files in a spreadsheet-like document. Need to rename or reorder the columns? No problem. Searching for data is a breeze, and you can even convert the whole file to another format in a snap.
11. Times
Times is a unique and innovative newsreader for Mac OS X Leopard. Instead of treating news like email, Times presents you with headlines and photos from a variety of sources all in one place, letting you more easily discover the news you want to read. Like your own personal newspaper, you can put feeds into separate areas, create pages for different subjects, and more.
12. Code Collector Pro
Code Collector Pro is a storage app for code snippets. From HTML to Cocoa, C++ to Ruby, Code Collector Pro looks after all your code snippets, letting you quickly reference them whenever you want. With support for Smart Groups, Tagging, TextMate Bundles, integration with codecollector.net and much more Code Collector Pro is the best way to store, organise and share code snippets on the Mac.
13. Dropzone
Aptonic extrapolates the Drag and Drop feature of Mac to unlimited possibilities. Using core animation features, and adaptive Grid system it can train all of your installed applications to embrace drag and drop. For Example, Drop a bunch of pictures on to the Flickr Upload destination and Dropzone uploads them for you. It can even copy the direct image URL to the clipboard so you can paste it to a friend. You can also setup multiple accounts. Or, Drop some text onto the Save Text destination, Dropzone asks you for a name, and saves it for you. Great for storing those little snippets of text that you don’t want to lose.
14. LaunchBar
An award winning productivity utility that offers an amazingly intuitive and efficient way to control your computer. It provides instant access to various kinds of information — documents, applications, contacts, bookmarks, music, and much more – just by entering short abbreviations of the searched item’s name. LaunchBar further offers a wide range of options for operating with the found items. It lets you switch between running applications, browse the contents of your hard disk, navigate through your iTunes Music Library, your Address Book, your web bookmarks, and it performs arbitrary web searches.
15. The Hit List
The Hit List is a simple, yet sophisticated application to manage the daily chaos of your modern life. Based on the simple concept of making lists, The Hit List lets you plan, forget, then act when the time is right. The Hit List keeps things simple by not forcing you to learn a system. It can be as simple as just keeping a list of things to do as you would on a piece of paper.
16. LittleSnapper
A dedicated tool for designers and developers to take and catalogue screenshots and ‘webshots’, full-size screenshots of webpages. As well as handling the taking of shots, LittleSnapper also allows users to organise, categorise and manage them through the application’s image library.
17. Pixelmator
The beautifully designed, easy-to-use, fast and powerful image editor for Mac OS X has everything you need to create, edit and enhance your images. Pixelmator is a beautiful design tool that combines ease and features to create a powerful photo editor. It provides a variety of precise selection tools, full range of assortment tools, painting tools all matched to the layer basedimplementation.
18. Candybar
CandyBar allows you to change the system icons in Mac OS X that you normally can’t, including including the trash can, volumes, default folder, and more! CandyBar 3 also now includes a full-featured icon organizer (formerly called Pixadex) that acts like an iPhoto for your icons: collect and store your icons in the same application you use to change them! Of course, there’s more: CandyBar also now lets you customize the look of Leopard’s dock. Too shiny? Too flashy? Make it look the way you want by simply dragging images in to replace.
19. Espresso
With Espresso you dont need to choose between beauty and power? Between features and speed? Elegant syntax highlighting, superior navigation, code folding, smart CodeSense, contextual text snippets, spell check, rich extensibility and raw speed: presenting a state-of-the-art text engine for code artists.
20. TextMate
TextMate is a versatile plain text editor with a unique and innovative feature set which caused it to win an Apple Design Award for Best Mac OS X Developer Tool in August 2006. A rapidly growing community have created modes for more than a hundred different “modes” including support for all major programming languages, writing prose in structured formats such as LaTeX, Markdown, Textile, etc., blogging, running SQL queries, writing screen plays, doing your budget, and much much more.
21. Evernote
Evernote allows you to easily capture information in any environment using whatever device or platform you find most convenient, and makes this information accessible and searchable at anytime, from anywhere. With it, you can clip webpages, take notes, make snapshots with the iSight camera, clip screenshots, and create to-do lists. Everything is seamlessly synchronized with the web, and made available across all the devices and platforms you use, including iPhone, Evernote for Mac, Evernote Web, and Evernote for Windows. For photos with text such as whiteboards, business cards or wine labels – Evernote makes those images searchable.
22. Scribbles
Scribbles is a drawing tool for everyone. Whether you want to sketch a cartoon, draw a birthday card or jot down some design ideas, Scribbles can help bring your imagination to life. Scribbles is based around a groundbreaking core technology that allows the artist to break free of the restrictions of typical drawing apps. You never have to pre-define the size of your canvas. You can zoom in to your drawings with unparalleled precision and Scribbles will magically re-render your art so you never encounter a jaggy edge or blocky pixel.
23. Bowtie
An enhancement to your iTunes experience. It allows you to control your iTunes using shortcuts, and updates your last.fm account. It is developed on a javascript, CSS and xHtml which adds themes to your Bowtie. Add style to your iTunes with Bowtie.
24. Versions
Versions provides a pleasant way to work with Subversion on your Mac. Whether you’re a hardcore Subversion user or new to version control systems, Versions will help streamline your workflow. Say hello to the fresh new look of your repository and start saying less to that command-line interface. Make sure to download the free demo to take it for a spin. The Timeline view shows recent revisions, complete with commit log notes and a full list of changed files. Users can click any file in the timeline to get a diff with its previous version. The Browse view is loaded with tools to dig in to the history of any versioned file or folder, and integrates with your favorite comparison tools.
25. Vector Designer
VectorDesigner can create vector drawings, diagrams, illustrations, raster image handling, filtering and color correction. VectorDesigner offers everything users need to create professional level vector artwork, such as posters, brochures, stickers, logos, web design, tshirts and more.
26. Anxiety
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.
27. Notify
Notify is a new Gmail notifier for OS X which supports multiple accounts. Each account has individual notification options, and you can easily check what’s in each account via the tabbed interface.
28. ExpanDrive
A SFTP/FTP/Amazon S3 client that acts like a USB drive as same as ExpanDrive acts just like a USB drive plugged into your Mac. Open, edit, and save files to remote computers from within your favorite programs—even when they are on a server half a world away. ExpanDrive enhances every single application on your computer by transparently connecting it to remote data.
29. Aptana
Aptana Studio provides a full-featured JavaScript-focused Ajax application development environment. The Community Edition represents the core pieces of the Aptana frameworks for editing, debugging, synchronization, and project management. If you’d like to try Studio Professional, it will automatically revert to the Community Edition once the trial expires.
30. Things
Things is task management solution that helps to organize your tasks in an elegant and intuitive way. Things combines powerful features with simplicity through the use of tags and its intelligent filter bar. A Leopard style source list allows for quick and easy focusing. Together with a beautiful user interface, Things aims at the seemingly impossible: making task management both easy and fun.
31. DeskShade
DeskShade cures boring and cluttered desktops. Why bother with a desktop picture when it’s covered by ugly icons? Are you happy with a static background? Download Now and get one step closer to desktop nirvana. It’s features includes, Tidy up your desktop without having to do any cleanup work, DeskLock catches sneaky family and co-workers red handed, Build a collection: drag pictures straight from a web page to DeskShade, Easy desktop variations with the built-in color shifting, Enrich your experience with cinematic desktop transitions, Play full screen movies in DeskMovie for unobtrusive viewing etc.
32. xscope
Quickly available via the Mac OS X menu bar, xScope’s flexible tools float above desktop windows and UI elements making measuring a breeze. xScope is really seven tools in one that will help any designer do their job faster and produce more accurate results.
33. Socialite
Socialite (formerly EventBox) is a beautiful Mac OS X application, designed to make it easy to stay in touch with the social networks and services that matter to you. From news on Digg, photos on Flickr, statuses and photos on Facebook and Twitter updates, to full Google Reader RSS syncing, Socialite keeps all your social networks in one convenient place.
34. Lineform
A completely new drawing program. Winner of a 2006 Apple Design Award, it is the ideal tool for vector-based diagrams and illustrations. Powerful features combine with a simple interface to create an intuitive artistic process. Universal Binary, launches in a second, and has all the illustration tools you want: powerful Bezier editing tools, Boolean operations, powerful typesetting, artistic strokes, SVG for full document import/export, and much more.
35. Skitch
Skitch allows you to take screenshots on your Mac, edit them and share them with others. It makes the sharing process seamless by making it a natural workflow to send the image (with edited arrows and other highlights helpful to your client) to them via email or automatic website uploads. It is especially popular with the designer community, as they show their clients rough drafts of their work in a nearly automated process. It makes it simple to work remotely with someone and pass on work revisions and get feedback quickly.
36. Intaglio
ntaglio is a traditional Macintosh drawing & illustration application exclusively for Mac OS X. Patterned after the original Macintosh drawing applications, Intaglio is intuitive to beginners and familiar to traditional Macintosh users. Intaglio builds on the 2D graphics, text, color, and scripting capabilities of Mac OS X to provide unprecedented power and flexibility in an inexpensive drawing program. Intaglio isn’t just compatible with with Mac OS X, it was designed from the ground up to fully exploit the capabilites that make this platform ideal for graphics work. Naturally Intaglio is great for casual users, but it is also an ideal tool for experienced graphics experts who need special features or want a simpler experience than what is provided by the usual multi-platform graphic franchises. You can download and try Intaglio in demo mode before you purchase it.
37. Cha-Ching
Cha-Ching is a fun and easy to use money manager, done Mac OS X style. A tag based database lets you organize and search for your incoming and outgoing transactions your way. With Cha-Ching, you can also organize pending transactions, so you can keep track of the the cash you owe the electric company as well as the cash others might owe you and with iCal integration, you’ll never forget a payment. Cha-Ching also offers fun little doodads you may have not expected–you can keep a photo inventory of your purchased items for insurance and tax purposes, or just for fun. There is also iSight integration to take pictures of your goods for insurance or tax purposes. You can create ‘Smart Drawers’ to filter through your library of transactions by title, keywords, amount and more.
38. Flow
Flow is an FTP client for Mac OS X Leopard. Flow supports FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, and iDisk connections, file-editing, and concurrent transfers. On the Mac, you’ve become accustomed to software that’s not just powerful, but elegant too. Armed with the belief that file-transfer should be no exception, we made Flow. Flow brings the best of the Mac to your server’s files and folders. Put simply, Flow makes working remotely every bit as intuitive and natural as working locally with the Finder.
39. ForkLift
Forklift is a powerful file manager and ferociously fast FTP client clothed in a clean and versatile UI that offers the combination of absolute simplicity and raw power expected from a well-executed Mac software. ForkLift will connect to any remote server FTP, SFTP, Amazon S3, WebDAV, the SMB, NIS and AFP shares on your local network, or your Bluetooth mobile phone- pretty much anything you can plug into or hook up to a Mac. ForkLift also carries a complete toolbox for managing your files, including Folder Synchronization, Batch Renaming, Archive handling, Application deleter, editing files over remote connections and many more. All these power features are packaged into a Finder-like, dual-pane interface that delivers superior workflow while remaining absolutely familiar to use, along with QuickLook, Spotlight search and all.
40. Sequel Pro
Sequel Pro manage your MySQL databases with the best looking MySQL Database Management App on Mac OS X. Sequel Pro is the perfect tool for working with database-driven websites and applications. Delivered with Universal support, Sequel Pro will run lightning fast on your Intel Mac. With support for browsing and modifying tables with 100,000+ rows, and databases with more than 100 tables.
41. Cyberduck
An open source FTP, SFTP, WebDAV, Mosso Cloud Files and Amazon S3 browser for the Mac. It features an easy to use interface with quickly accessible bookmarks. The outline view of the browser allows to browse large folder structures efficiently and you can quickly preview files with Quick Look. To edit files, a seamless integration with several external editors makes it easy to change content quickly. Both Amazon CloudFront and Cloud Files from Rackspace can be easily configured to distribute your content in the cloud. Many OS X core system technologies such as Spotlight, Bonjour and the Keychain are supported and a large number translations makes you feel at home. Many localizations are available.
42. CSS Edit
CSSEdit makes editing stylesheets easy and intuitive. With features like live inline previewing of styles and a unique grouping system, it offers a lot of punch in a low-cost package. Other features include CSS grabbing from other sites, favorites for often-used styles and font sets, etc.
43. Delicious Library 2
Delicious Library allows you to import, browse, and share all your books, movies, music and video games with Delicious Library. You can catalog, browse, and share all your books, movies, music, and video games. Get your Mac, a webcam, and Delicious Library and rediscover your home library. Just point any FireWire digital video camera, like an Apple iSight, at the barcode on the back of any book, movie, music, or video game. Delicious Library does the rest. The barcode is scanned and within seconds the item’s cover appears on your digital shelves filled with tons of in-depth information downloaded from one of six different web sources from around the world.
44. Expression Engine (Web Publishing)
ExpressionEngine is a flexible, feature-rich content management system that empowers thousands of individuals, organizations, and companies around the world to easily manage their website. If you’re tired of the limitations of your current CMS then take ExpressionEngine for a spin.
45. Blender
Blender is the first and only fully integrated 3D graphics creation suite allowing modeling, animation, rendering, post-production, realtime interactive 3D and game creation and playback with cross-platform compatibility – all in one tidy, easily and free downloadable package! The software is being distributed under the GPL license, with sources available at blender.org as well.
46. ColorSchemer
ColorSchemer Studio is a professional color-matching application that will help you build beautiful color schemes quickly and easily with quality features like Work with RGB and CMYK colors in a color-managed environment, Create and save color palettes, Identify color harmonies, Access over 1 million pre-made color schemes with COLOURlovers integration, Pull unique palettes from photos or images, Transform a single color into a complete color scheme etc.
47. CleanMyMac
CleanMyMac represents a 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. CleanMyMac includes features that can Slim Universal Binaries, Clean Unneeded Languages, Rotate Logs, Clean Caches, Quick and Secure Erase, Application Uninstallation, and Killing Trash Left From Buried Applications. CleanMyMac can save gigabytes of disk space and enhance your computer speed. Go ahead and give it a shot! Your Mac will definitely be grateful!
48. BBEdit
BBEdit is the leading professional HTML and text editor for the Macintosh. Specifically crafted in response to the needs of Web authors and software developers, this award-winning product provides a plethora of features for editing, searching, and manipulation of text. BBEdit transforms text with high performance. An intelligent interface provides easy access to BBEdit’s best of class features including grep pattern matching, search and replace across multiple files, function navigation and syntax coloring for numerous source code languages, FTP and SFTP open and save, AppleScript, Perl and Mac OS X Unix scripting support, glossary support, and a complete set of HTML tools.
49. HyperEdit
A lightweight HTML editor with a preview pane that displays the webpage live as you type. HyperEdit breaks the tedious cycle of writing HTML, saving the file, then reloading and viewing the page in the browser by combining the writing phase with the viewing phase. This clarifies the effects of your changes and speeds up the overall process of making a webpage. W3C-based validation will red-underline any mistakes. It uses the same rendering engine found in Safari, so it is not only standards-compliant, but also very fast.
50. OnTheJob
On The Job is a time tracking solution designed with ease of use in mind. Easily track the time you spend on multiple clients and multiple tasks. The clear and simple interface is designed to get out of your way, so you can spend less time keeping track of your time, and more time working productively. With low memory usage, and a small footprint, On The Job is designed for anyone, from web designers to lawyers, who need a truly simple solution for tracking their time.
51. Playback
Playback allows you to share your media with any Playstation 3, Xbox 360, or other UPnP compatible device. It automatically integrates with iTunes, iPhoto, Aperture, Adobe Lightroom 2, Photobooth, EyeTV, and more. You can share all content from these applications or choose specific playlists and albums. Playback can also share media stored in folders or even make entire disks available to your Playstation 3 or Xbox 360. By default, Playback will share almost any content on your system. No configuration required!
52. Warehouse
Warehouse is a web based application for Subversion. It is simple browser that gives you control over the repositories of your Subversion as well as share it with your trusted group with few clicks. No more hassles over ssh codes, warehouse app bookmarkers act as flag points so that you do not get lost in the intricacies of the code.
53. PlainView
Plainview is a full-screen web browser. It has a presentation mode – so you can build a presentation of, say, 10 sites you’ve built, and then show them one by one. Skip to the next site by hitting a hot key. We use this a lot for our Dog and Pony shows. We fire up one site we’ve done. Browse around. Show it. Time to move on? Skip to the next site, without opening up a location bar. Seamless, beautiful presentations. You can also save presentations, add bookmarks, import your bookmarks, exit full-screen mode, open multiple windows, and view Quicktime movies. And check out the slick way we manage popups!
54. DiscoApp
Disco is workflow based disc burning software made for the Mac. Tackle all of your standard burning tasks along with other utilities like Discography, Spandex, and full session support. One fun features about Disco is that it emits 3D interactive smoke in real time as you burn your media. It also automatically detects files that are too big to fit on your media, and allows you to place them on additional discs.
Find Something Missing?
While compiling this list, it’s always a possibility that we missed some other great apps!. Feel free to share it with us.
Great list and information, thanks for sharing.
Great post! I’m going to check some of these out. I featured a few of the same, like GIMP, on my blog in a “Free All in One Graphic Designer’s Kit”.
That’s a great list I’ve seen before. By the way, you can win free license for Billings 3 by enter the contest here: http://aext.net/2009/12/marketcircle-giveaway-contest-free-licenses-for-professional-time-billing-app/
Awesome list! Thanks for sharing! :)
great list thanks for sharing, how SizeUP a nice app for mac users with two screens http://www.irradiatedsoftware.com
And all of that with a planning management touch: http://www.planningforce.com/product/versions/ :)
A project planning software for both Mac and windows ;)
Fantastic list, so useful; thank you.
Surprised at the omission of DropBox and Droplr; both extremely useful tools that will improve workflow.
Thanks for the informations, tutorials and tools!
I am not a Mac user but I must confess that these softwares are great and useful. Are they also available for PC?
These applications are really helpful for a freelancer , thanks for sharing
ohhhhhh man this list is massive. best list i have found so far these will help me so much thank you times 400000
i love my mac …………..and its cool appz
I found your site on stumble. At the moment I am building a web site, would it be possible to place a link to your site.
Cheers from Mac Friends
Kudos to you! I hadn’t tohugth of that!
Very helpful applications for freelancers. I have used GIMP tool for images and loved working with it. And also Replicon time tracking software for managing time, another amazing tool. replicon.com/time-tracking-software.aspx
I’m using ookkeeaapp (ookkeeaapp.com) and Bill (billtheapp.com)
They work together and are very easy to use
Thanks for sharing. I was working as a freelancer as well as in bigger companies and I was always using and am still using timr.com
timr keeps track of working hours and project time as well as project budgets and let’s you define hourly rates.
It comes with a team tracking feature and mobile apps that work online AND offline
Definitely worth every dime.
Thanks for sharing. I’m using TablePlus and it’s a really good alternative to Sequel Pro