The paid Mac apps worth paying for.

Buy-once vs subscription — the framing that matters

Every Mac purchase decision in 2026 hinges on this: buy-once or subscription? The Mac developer community is split. Apple gently pushes subscriptions because they're predictable revenue. Many developers prefer buy-once because customers buy more enthusiastically.

Our honest position: prefer buy-once where the app does one thing well and doesn't need constant server-side updates. Subscriptions are justified for apps that include cloud services (Bear sync, Raycast AI), apps that update aggressively (CleanMyMac X malware definitions), or apps that bundle dozens together (Setapp).

Setapp — the only subscription bundle that works on Mac

Setapp is a Mac-only app subscription that bundles 250+ premium apps for R230/month. The headline apps:

• CleanMyMac X (R720/year individually) — system cleaner, malware scanner, storage visualisation.
• Bartender 5 (R250 once individually) — menu bar tidiness for Mac power users.
• Mosaic (R200 once) — advanced window management.
• Ulysses (R750/year individually) — writing app with library and Markdown export.
• MoneyMoney, TablePlus, Paw, SQLPro — dev/finance tools.
• And 245+ others, including indie apps you've never heard of.

The maths. CleanMyMac alone is R720/year, or R60/month. Add Bartender, one writing app and one window manager and you're at R230/month equivalent buying separately. Setapp pays for itself the moment you use 3+ apps.

Launcher — Raycast Pro

Raycast free is already the best Spotlight replacement on Mac — extensions, clipboard history, snippets, calculator, window management, system commands. Raycast Pro (R140/month or R1,500/year) adds:

• Raycast AI — built-in GPT-style chat, image generation, summarisation invoked from your launcher.
• Cloud sync — your snippets, quicklinks and aliases sync across all your Macs.
• Custom themes — minor but nice.

Worth it if: you live in your launcher and want AI baked in. Free version remains genuinely excellent — try free for a month before considering Pro.

Productivity & tasks — Things 3

Things 3 is the cleanest, most opinionated task manager on Mac. Buy-once R220 (Mac) + R130 (iPhone) + R450 (iPad if you want it). No subscriptions. No telemetry. Has been continuously updated by Cultured Code for over a decade.

Compared to subscription alternatives:

• Todoist (R85/month) — pays for Things in 4 months.
• TickTick (R65/month) — pays for Things in 5 months.
• Reminders (free, pre-installed) — adequate for grocery lists. Doesn't scale.

The catch: Things is Apple-only. No Windows, no Android, no web. If you live cross-platform, Todoist remains the safer bet.

Writing — Bear vs iA Writer

Two beautiful Markdown writing apps, different philosophies:

Bear (R30/month or R270/year)

Notes-app style library with tags, links between notes, beautiful typography, iCloud sync. Subscription model funds the cross-device sync and active development. Pick this if you want one app for all your notes, drafts and writing projects.

iA Writer (R200 one-time)

Document-per-file. Open a folder, edit Markdown files. The typography is the best of any Mac writing app — IBM Plex Serif, intelligent line spacing, focus mode that fades all but the current paragraph. Pick this if you prefer your writing in version-controlled files and don't want subscription.

Both are excellent. The choice comes down to whether you organise writing by library (Bear) or by files-and-folders (iA Writer). Both are vastly better than Word for any Markdown-based writing — articles, blog posts, documentation, fiction drafts.

Creative — Final Cut, Logic, Affinity, Adobe

Final Cut Pro — R5,800 one-time

Apple's professional video editor, optimised for Apple silicon to the point that an M3 MacBook Pro edits 4K ProRes faster than most Windows workstations costing 3× as much. If you're a Mac-first video creator, Final Cut is the answer.

DaVinci Resolve — Free / R5,800 Studio

The free version is industry-standard for colour grading and is genuinely excellent for editing. The right starting point if you're learning to edit — it's also the standard in film and TV, so the skills transfer everywhere.

Logic Pro — R3,500 one-time

Apple's professional audio workstation. One-time purchase, regular free updates, Apple silicon-optimised. The cheapest legitimate way into pro-grade music production on Mac — Ableton Live Standard alone is R3,400, Pro Tools R450/month subscription.

Affinity Suite v2 — R2,800 for all three apps

Affinity Photo (Photoshop replacement) + Affinity Designer (Illustrator replacement) + Affinity Publisher (InDesign replacement). All three for R2,800 one-time. v3 lands Q3 2026 with a ~R2,000 upgrade price for existing users. Compared to Adobe Creative Cloud at R650/month — R7,800/year, forever — Affinity is the most obvious paid-app upgrade most photographers and designers in SA can make.

Power-user utilities

BetterTouchTool — R200 lifetime

Custom trackpad gestures, keyboard shortcuts, window snapping, menu bar automations — all in one app. Lifetime licence R200 (USD-equivalent ~$10). Optional R350 lifetime + iCloud sync. The Mac power-user's secret weapon. Apple's roadmap has slowly absorbed some BetterTouchTool features into macOS, but it remains years ahead.

Magnet (R85) vs Moom (R230) — buy-once window managers

If free Rectangle doesn't quite scratch your itch:

• Magnet (R85, App Store) — polished UI, reliable updates, the buy-once Rectangle replacement.
• Moom (R230, direct) — custom layouts saved as presets, grid-snap with mouse drag, the most flexible.

Soulver — R460 one-time

A calculator that lets you write maths in plain English. "30% of 1,200" returns 360. "USD 150 in ZAR" converts using live rates. "5 hours 30 minutes plus 2 hours 15 minutes" returns 7:45. For anyone who does light financial maths, hourly billing, conversions or back-of-envelope calculations, Soulver replaces both the macOS Calculator and Excel for a third of the time.

CleanMyMac X — R720/year (or via Setapp)

The honest take: most Mac users don't need it. macOS handles caches, temporary files and storage well by default. CleanMyMac is useful for one thing — the Space Lens view that visualises what's eating storage. If you have a 256 GB MacBook Air that fills up, that view answers "where did my storage go?" instantly. The built-in macOS Storage tool (Apple menu → About This Mac → Storage) does most of the same work for free.

Full list — by use case with ZAR pricing

Key takeaways

1. Prefer buy-once where the app does one thing well. Subscriptions justified for cloud services or bundles.
2. Setapp (R230/month, 250+ apps) pays for itself when you use 3+ bundled apps. Free 7-day trial first.
3. Things 3 + BetterTouchTool + Soulver + iA Writer + Magnet = R1,165 once. Equivalent subscriptions: R1,000+/year forever.
4. Affinity Suite v2 R2,800 vs Adobe R7,800/year — easiest paid-app upgrade most SA creatives can make.
5. Audit monthly software spend annually. Anything unused for 60+ days, cancel.

Frequently asked questions

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