HN Explorer

Ask HN: What are some good non-subscription Mac apps?

31 points by replwoacause ↗ HN
I am up to my eyeballs in subscriptions and would like to know about some apps that use a perpetual license. I am finding that I would prefer to own my apps instead of renting them.

Bonus points if the app is native and even more bonus points if the developer is indie. Here are my suggestions:

- Typinator: https://www.ergonis.com/products/typinator/ - Tap Forms: https://www.tapforms.com - BBEdit: https://www.barebones.com

46 comments

[ 3.0 ms ] story [ 68.6 ms ] thread
petecooper
Panic Nova. Serif Affinity suite.

Edit: Nova is arguably a subscription in some respects, there is an optional support & upgrade path for a fee, but the app works just fine without it.

https://nova.app/

https://affinity.serif.com/

willyt
All the affinity stuff is great. They could triple their prices and I'd still be happy to buy all three apps.
open-source-ux
Affinity suite

I also recommend the Affinity apps and hope Affinity continue with the perpetual licence model.

In contrast, the SaaS subscription model is a juggernaut that shows no sign of slowing down and is eating the old desktop app model. For example, Sketch is a popular desktop app for creating UI designs and used to offer a perpetual licence. But Sketch faces competition from Figma (and lesser from Adobe XD), and Sketch are now wholly a subscription service.

pixel_tracing
Weird that’s it’s a MacOS app but none of the supported languages on the homepage list Swift or ObjectiveC support
sgirard
SnippetsLab https://www.renfei.org/snippets-lab/

I keep project notes in SnippetsLab. The Markdown support is great and I output really nice looking PDF files when I need to share something professional looking with management.

lawgimenez
Reeder for RSS and read it later. Things for tasks. Sublime Text 3 for scripts, though I haven’t yet paid the license.
randomluck040
Can you explain what makes things worthwhile for you? I’ve taken a look at it but to me it looks like every other todo app out there. I don’t have any specific use case for a to do app other than a chockable list though.
skydhash
Things user here:

It’s nice to use. That’s the main reason for me. It’s a specific app for each device (phone, tablet and laptop). Which means the UX is specifically tailored to the patterns of the device. The closest to it for me is Bear (my note taking app). IA Writer and Reeder came close (still not as nice)

lawgimenez
UI is just very quick and simple and not intimidating. I don't like labeling colors (like Todoist, MS ToDo) on my tasks too since it will take more work and time to think.

What I most used is their deadline feature. On other to-do apps this is the due date, but for me that concept is a little confusing, since I use Things for both work, family and personal.

I have a recurring project called Monthly Bills and each tasks has a deadline of their payment.

skydhash
What I bought and personally use:

- Things 3

- iA Writer

- Bartender

- Alfred

- Cleanshot X

- Sip

- Tot

- Keyboard Maestro

- Tim (time tracker for freelance work)

- Swinsian (Very good, but no dark mode)

- Doppler (Good)

- PDF Expert (Preview was a pain with annotation)

- Reeder

- Mela

- Pixelmator Pro

- Dash

- Affinity Photo & Designer

janejeon
+1 for iA Writer. Fair pricing, and it was the only thing my ADHD ass could actually use to sit down and get writing.
feerceKitteh
PCalc, Arq for backup, Sublime text/merge, Charles/Proxyman http debugging, Alfred, iStat Menus, Little Snitch
jamil7
Things, Proxyman, Postico, Lumen
justusthane
iThoughtsX for mind mapping

MacVim

Rogue Amoeba AirFoil for using a Mac as an AirPlay hub

Little Snitch for outbound firewall

Soulver 3 notepad calculator

webmobdev
Multi-platform ones. Don't worry about "native" apps unless it is multi-platform or you'll get too tied to a specific eco-system and won't be able to migrate if you need to.
randomluck040
Generally I agree, that's why I try not to lock myself in as well. However, if you use e.g. a eco-system specific markdown editor with a specific feature set or workflow that feels like it's tailored to you and you have the markdown files, I think it's fine since you can take your data with you when you leave.
skydhash
I think I would like open formats and protocols instead of the mess with Electron. So like the sibling comment, native markdown editor + a sync folder.
ryanlitalien
- Cinch - Snap windows

- SizeUp - Quick resize apps

- Itsycal - Minimal taskbar calendar

- Alfred - Quick launcher

AprilArcus
OmniGraffle single-handedly keeps me from switching to Linux. They have non-subscription pricing here:

https://store.omnigroup.com/omnigraffle?pk_vid=40876fd2b0ffb...

eevilspock
draw.io, aka https://www.diagrams.net

- Like OmniGraffle, but free, works great and open source! - You can use it online, saving to your cloud drive - Or you can install the desktop version

GitHub: https://github.com/jgraph/drawio

runjake
And if you're a programmery-type, you can programmatically generate graphs using DOT/Graphviz and load them into draw.io for final tweaking!

I used to use OmniGraffle, but have since jumped over to Draw.io. OG is far more elegant, but draw.io is just handier overall.

willyt
A little bit Off-topic... I just googled for it, and I couldn't find the answer anywhere. Does anyone know, what is the minimum that a developer can charge as a yearly subscription on the apple App Store? Can you have multiple in-app subscriptions active at once? Just curious.

For an app like 1password, which has been finished for years now, you wonder how much it would cost to have someone check that the code still compiles ok and tweak it for the latest Xcode release. Doesn't sound to me like a full time year round job for one person. They could sell their syncing service as a separate additional in-app subscription to cover their AWS (or whatever) costs. Their developers must be completely bored of trying to come up with new ideas for how to change it to justify bumping the version numbers by now. So bored they are porting it to electron.

sandstrom
Cleanshot X (app for taking screenshots and easily annotate them, with e.g. arrows and text)
yokoprime
This app is great, absolutely worth it if you need to take screenshots for reports, projects, documentation etc. Very powerful annotation tools
cpach
Acorn and Typora.
egberts1
Anyone know of a good Mac app that can handle fed up location of photos?

I’ve got many copies of the same photos and could use a decent backup tool.

Bonus point if it can recover from bit-rot.

randomluck040
What is fed up location? Do you mean location written into exif?
yokoprime
NetNewsWire is a great free and open source RSS reader. It has completely replaced Reeder for me. Is also out on iOS
andrei_says_
I’ve happily paid for all of these and keep getting my money’s worth many times over.

* Things * Alfred * Nimble Commander * Transmit * Little Snitch * SublimeText and SublimeMerge * Affinity Photo and Designer * Davinci Resolve * Sound Paint * Cleanshot X * iStat Menus * IA Writer

kowlo
- Things

- Alfred

- Nimble Commander

- Transmit

- Little Snitch

- SublimeText and SublimeMerge

- Affinity Photo and Designer

- Davinci Resolve

- Sound Paint

- Cleanshot X

- iStat Menus

- IA Writer

andrei_says_
Thank you. My daily allowance on HN expired before I could make the edit.