Apple includes a bundle of useful software with every Mac, but this barely scratches the surface of what’s possible with free third-party apps. While installing apps is simple—either by dragging the APP file into your Applications folder or running a simple package installer—Mac package manager Homebrew makes it easier and faster.
There are more apps available via Homebrew than you probably think, and the utility makes for a bustling hive of free and open-source software. Here are my favorites, and the one-line commands you can use to install them.
What’s Homebrew?
For the uninitiated, Homebrew is package manager that lets you install Mac apps via the command line. Before you roll your eyes and close the tab, you should know that it’s incredibly easy to use and well worth taking two minutes to set up. We’ve got afull tutorial that covers using Homebrew on a Mac, but if you want to get started right now simply open a Terminal window and run the following:
/bin/bash -c “$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"
Once the setup has been completed, you can use a few simple commands to install, search for, get more information about, and remove apps and command-line utilities.
To install an app, use thebrew installcommand. To search for something, simply typebrew search. To get more information about a package, typebrew info(handy to find out the current version and get the project’s homepage). To remove an app, all you need is a simplebrew uninstall. Replacewith the package, obviously.
You can learn even more commands using thebrew helpcommand, but you won’t need to go beyond this to get your money’s worth out of Homebrew. Whenever I’m looking for a new app I’ll always check whether it’s available on Homebrew first. A major reason is being able to update everything with a simplebrew upgradecommand in the Terminal.
1Firefox
brew install firefox
I use Safari almost exclusively, but I also have four other browsers installed at any one time. Part of it is because of this job, but it’s often the case that some websites just don’t work properly in Safari. In cases like this,Firefoxis my default choice because it’s free, private, and independent of Microsoft and Google.
In addition to the mainfirefoxcask, you’re able to also install beta (firefox@beta) and nightly (firefox@nightly) versions, among others. You’ll also find browsers like Chromium (chromium), Vivaldi (vivaldi), and Edge (microsoft-edge, but alsomicrosoft-edge@devfor the development arm) in the repository.
2darktable
brew install darktable
darktableis a free and open-source photography workflow tool that rivals Lightroom and similar premium products. With it you’re able to browse, select and rate, develop, and export RAW image files. Though the app has a bit of a learning curve, it’s one that’s well worth taking some time to master. It’s also highly customizable, allowing you to set up your editing environment exactly how you like.
3Itsycal
brew install itsycal
Itsycalis asingle-purpose Mac app I couldn’t live without. The app places a small calendar in your Mac’s menu bar, giving you a month’s view at a glance. That’s how I use the app 90% of the time, since I’m bad at visualizing dates. Itsycal also displays your upcoming calendar appointments for a selected date and lets you create new events right there from your menu bar.
You can click a button to open Apple’s main Calendar app (this doesn’t replace Apple’s app, it simply augments it), and customize the app to display events from specific calendars and accounts (or show nothing at all).
4Kodi
brew install kodi
Kodiis a free and open-source media center application. You’re probably raising your eyebrows and wondering if I really need Kodi installed oneveryMac, but it’s currently installed on all three Apple computers I own: my work MacBook Pro (for work reasons), my old MacBook Pro (for remote media reasons), and my Mac mini media center (for obvious reasons).
The app is arguably the most polished and extensible example of its kind, can be controlled with a gamepad, and even works with emulators and games. For streaming, you may also grabStremio(stremio) too.
5AltTab
brew install alt-tab
AltTabis a small tweak that adds Windows-style Alt+Tab behavior to macOS. Whereas Command+Tab only switches between active applications, AltTab allows you to add a shortcut that switches between all active windows. It also displays a preview of the window before you switch to it and adds a range of helpful shortcuts so you may go full-screen, minimize the window, or quit the app from the switcher itself.
This isa killer app for anyone who is switching from Windows, who misses that operating system’s default behavior. But even for macOS veterans like myself, it’s a handy app little tool.
6Jellyfin
brew install jellyfin
Jellyfinis afree and open-source Plex alternativemedia server app. Unlike Plex, Jellyfin doesn’t gate features like hardware-accelerated transcoding or mobile playback behind a paywall. Though it’s a little rougher around the edges than Plex, the app is powerful, easy to use, and now has native clients available for a large range of devices. It also supports universal plug-and-play (UPnP) for streaming to devices without a native app.
Use Jellyfin to curate a local media collection and serve devices all over your local network. Though the app is most useful on my Mac mini media center, I’ve got it installed on my main MacBook Pro for those instances when I want to share a video by dropping it into my nominated Jellyfin shared folder.
7speedtest-cli
brew install speedtest-cli
Homebrew isn’t just great for grabbing full apps, it’s alsopacked with useful command line utilitieslikespeedtest-cli. As the name implies, this utility lets you fire off a quick internet speed test from the comfort of Terminal by running thespeedtest-clicommand. This is far quicker than opening a browser window and waiting for everything to load (including the ads), especially combined with an app likeRaycastor aFinder alternative with a pinned Terminal window.
you’re able to run far more complex speed tests by adding flags, just runspeedtest-cli helpfind out more.
8gallery-dl
brew install gallery-dl
Another handy command line utility,gallery-dlis an image downloader that supports a wide range of sources. It’s super-handy for downloading a whole library’s worth of images at once, with support for sources as varied as Wikimedia, Flickr, Instagram, Bluesky, imgur, Tenor, Reddit, and much more. For basic usage, use the following:
gallery-dl -D “path/to/folder/” “URL”
Replacingpath/to/folder/with the intended destination for your files andURLwith the website (but maintaining the quotes). Use thegallery-dl –helpcommand for the full low-down. The tool is pretty intuitive, I’ve used it to grab public domain images from Wikimedia galleries (like the excellentVanamo Online Game Museum) in far less time than it would take to manually browse the collection via a web browser.
9yt-dlp
brew install yt-dlp
Another handy command-line tool for saving media locally,yt-dlpis a video downloader. I recently used it to grab Apple’s WWDC 2025 keynote from YouTube so I could scrub through it locally and grab screenshots without having to worry about YouTube’s pesky controls and drop-shadow overlay. Like gallery-dl, the tool supports a ridiculous number of websites, from YouTube and Vimeo through to social media platforms like Facebook and Bluesky and much more. For basic usage, use:
yt-dlp -P path/to/folder/ “URL”
Replacepath/to/folder/andURLwith the intended destination and source respectively (retaining the quotes). Useyt-dlp –helpto see the ridiculous number of options available to you (including quality settings and authorization workarounds).
The example above downloads the lowest YouTube “default” quality. To download at higher quality, run the following:
yt-dlp -F “URL”
Now look at the numbers next to each release, and use the lowercase-fflag to pick one and include that in your download command.
10wget
brew install wget
While specialized image and video downloaders make life easier,wgetlets you download anything from anywhere with a simple command. It’s the oldest and best download manager, and it features a range of additional flags you can use to manage all of your downloading needs. For a simple download, use:
wget URL
ReplaceURLwith a link to the file location on a remote server. Add-P path/to/folder/(replacingpath/to/folder/with your destination) to specify where you want the files saved. Add flags like-Mto mirror a whole website, or-cto resume a failed download. There’s a lot more you’re able to do with wget, run thewget –helpcommand to find out more.
The truth is that many of your favorite everyday apps are easily available via Homebrew. While it makes little sense to uninstall things just to install them again, keep this in mind the next time you’re setting up a Mac from scratch.
