macOS is a platform that people don't necessarily associate with customizability, but it absolutely is one. There are a lot of tools you can get to modify the system in ways that make your experience better or make your workflow more efficient. Everyone knows the typical tools like Alfred, Raycast, Path Finder, and more, but these are some of the best apps you can install that you may not necessarily have heard of.
5 NotchNook
A Dynamic Island for your Mac
This is probably one of the more high-profile apps on this list, but NotchNook basically turns your Mac's Notch into a Dynamic Island. With NotchNook, you can control your media, view your calendar, or store files inside your laptop's notch.
How it works is pretty simple. When the app is up and running, and there's nothing playing in the background, the notch simply serves as an access point for your nook. This is the part of NotchNook that houses widgets and apps, like media playback controls, shortcuts, calendar, mirror, and more. You can customize it to fit exactly what you need. For example, we configured it to simply be media playback controls and a mirror. There's also a tray, which serves as a short-term file storage and as a quick AirDrop toggle.
NotchNook isn't a free application, but it costs $25 to buy outright, or $3 to use it monthly.
4 Stats
An iStat Menus alternative
Plenty of people have heard of the iStat Menus application on Mac, but few know its free and open-source alternative simply called "Stats". Stats is a program I can't live without on my Mac, and there are a few reasons why. It shows you more information about your Mac in the menu bar so that you can get a better picture of your Mac's overall health. From CPU usage to RAM usage and even features like battery health.
When you click those icons, you'll get a brief run-down of what's happening on your machine, including what's actively using your CPU, GPU, or RAM. On top of that, you can see battery health information at a glance, showing how much power is being drawn, the temperature, the capacity in mAh, and how muhc more battery you have left at the current rate of energy discharge. For example, I'm on 99% with an average of 11.41W used right now, and it tells me that I have 6 hours and 58 minutes left of battery left.
Stats is a completely free and open-source application, and a great alternative to iStat Menus.
3 Amphetamine
Keep your Mac awake
If you want to keep your Mac awake at certain times without the screen dimming or turning off, Amphetamine is one of the best out there. You can choose a duration or make it so that it always keeps your display (and connected displays) awake when a certain program is running, and you can set up triggers to automate it too. For example, you could make it turn on when connected to your home Wi-Fi, or you could make it turn on when connected to a specific Bluetooth device.
If you're someone that sometimes wants their Mac's screen to stay on (but not often enough to change the default display dimming settings), then Amphetamine is one of the best apps you can get. I use it quite a bit when doing development work or when taking notes. It's a completely free app available on the App Store, too.
2 AppCleaner
Remove programs entirely
To uninstall applications on Mac, plenty of people simply delete the program from their Applications folder. That won't get everything though, even if it's the official way that Apple recommends. Those apps may still have files lingering elsewhere, and that's where AppCleaner comes in. You drag and drop an app into it, and it will identify where other files belonging to the app are kept. It will then offer to remove those, so that you don't miss a thing.
This is a utility tool that will help you clean up space on your Mac properly. Even though most of those files tend to be significantly smaller than the app itself, it's still good to be organized and tidy, and that's what AppCleaner does. Like most of the other programs on this list, AppCleaner is also free!
1 Ice
Customize your menu bar
Long-time users of macOS may have heard of Bartender. It's a way to add some customization to your menu bar, including quickly hiding icons that may be taking up space. There are other customization options available, but the big one is the ability to hide icons that are there. Bartender costs $16, but Ice is a free and open-source alternative that can handle hiding menu bar items for you.
Ice will automatically hide all of the icons that it can, and you can then move icons between a hidden section and a visible section. To view your hidden items, you can click the white dot to show all of them in your menu, and click it to hide them again. It can't hide the control center or Siri, but it can hide everything else, and you can also add an "Always Hidden" section where items will never show, even when you click the white dot to show all of your icons.
Ice has other customizations too, including menu bar color changes and tinting, a transparency mode, and so much more. It's available on GitHub, and a must-have for anyone serious about Mac customization.