There's a huge catalog of applications available for Mac. From paid apps to free apps, and including those that are open source. Choosing one over the other depends on many factors, but in any case, it's good to carefully consider which ones can best meet our needs. With that in mind, let's look at 12 very interesting free and open source apps compared to their paid alternatives.
Open source and free alternatives for our Mac
Free doesn't mean lower quality. Proof of this can be seen in apps like VirtualBox, Handbrake, or OBS Studio, just to name a few examples. These are very complete apps, with broad community support thanks to their open source nature, and with features that are in no way inferior to paid solutions.
- Handbrake: An essential tool for the conversion and encoding/decoding of videos that stands out for its wide compatibility with a long list of formats. Available for Mac, Windows, and Linux, this free and open source project is a benchmark in its field.
- Darktable: The best free alternative to Lightroom for managing RAW files and digital negatives, supported by an active community that contributes new functions and improvements periodically.
- VirtualBox: Developed by Oracle, this operating system virtualization app is an alternative to Parallels or VMWare. An app with which we can install Windows or Linux on the Mac with great ease and completely free of charge.
- Jellyfin: An alternative to Plex, the content manager, that stands out for its capabilities, being totally free and open source and compatible with multiple platforms and devices.
- OBS Studio: A reference tool for live streaming. Maintained by a community of volunteers, it offers a robust and free solution for live broadcasts on platforms like Twitch, YouTube, and others.
- Blender: An impressive application for creating 2D and 3D content supported by companies like Epic Games and Ubisoft. An app that is continuously evolving and regularly receiving new features.
- VLC: A multimedia player that supports almost any existing file format, known for its efficiency and ease of use.
- Calibre: A really comprehensive ebook manager. An app that allows us to read, organize, edit, and share electronic books with a multitude of tools and options to do exactly what we need with our ebooks easily.
- Keka: A compression and decompression tool for macOS, which, being free, offers all the functionality—if not more—than other paid options. If we want to support the project, we can buy the app through the Mac App Store.
Completing the list are gems like OpenEmu, a game emulator; Kodi, a complete multimedia center; and Audacity, a powerful audio editor. Each one of these apps excels in its respective field and demonstrates that free alternatives can be, in several aspects, even superior to their paid counterparts.
These 12 applications for our Mac are clear evidence that it's possible to obtain high-quality tools at no cost. Applications that, moreover, receive considerable community support and, due to their open nature, can be considered, to a certain extent, standards in their field, with which the documentation and content dedicated to them is really high. Options, as this 7 essential free games for the iPhone, to be taken into account over their paid alternatives.
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