8 Complete Alternatives to Native macOS Apps for 2025: Rapidly Reshape Your Mac Workflow

It wasn’t until I stripped down my macOS and reinstalled it from scratch that I had a revelation: the system’s seemingly “flawless” built-in apps were silently bogging down my efficiency. For years, I had tried countless apps, tweaked endless settings, and repeatedly told myself, “This is good enough.” But in reality, it was only when I replaced every single default tool that I truly understood what it means to be unburdened.

Below is my personally tested “Complete Suite of Native macOS App Replacements for 2025.” I hope that one day, this guide can help you too, so that the moment you open your Mac, you’ll instantly realize: there is a faster, smoother, and more personalized path waiting for you.

Browser: Safari → Brave

The Problem
The first rays of morning light streamed through the blinds into my study. I rolled out of bed and habitually clicked on Safari to catch up on the news. But that’s when it hit me: not only does Safari have limited extension support, but it also loads certain web pages slowly, with frequent stutters and hangs. In comparison, while Chrome is slightly faster, its memory consumption is staggering. Worse still, Google is constantly helping advertisers, big and small, to “track” my reading habits. Whenever I was tracking global news, it felt like someone was peering over my shoulder at my cards — I had no sense of security at all.

The Alternative: Brave

So, I finally decided to let go of Safari and chose Brave as my main browser. Built on the Chromium engine, Brave is compatible with all websites while also featuring powerful built-in ad-blocking and privacy protection. It feels like it comes with its own shield. The moment I open Brave in the morning, the entire interface feels light and snappy. Web pages load incredibly fast, and all the ads and pop-ups have vanished.

In Action
Whether I’m binge-watching a series late at night or juggling multiple tabs of academic papers, Brave runs smoothly with almost no lag. I once had over a dozen tabs open for market research, and Brave didn’t cause the system fan to “whir” under pressure. Instead, it was like a powerful steed, galloping through the ocean of data, continuously loading the next piece of information. And in that stream of information, you won’t see annoying ad links or analysts secretly collecting your behavioral data — all you get is a clean and seamless browsing experience.

Why It’s Better?

• Speed Meets Privacy: By removing junk ads and tracking scripts, Brave significantly improves page load speeds while safeguarding your browsing privacy.
• Clean and Efficient: It’s as if Chrome has been “deep-cleaned,” with all the bloated, unnecessary plugins removed, leaving only the core browsing experience. In other words, Brave is like a modified sports car — it looks a lot like Chrome, but under the hood, it’s powered by a lightweight engine that lets you run faster and quieter.

General Notes: Apple Notes → Obsidian

The Problem
Working from home, I often need to jot down all sorts of inspirations, fragmented ideas, article outlines, and code snippets. I initially tried using Notion for this, but I found myself waiting over ten seconds for notes to load, and the “clunk” of opening a database view was maddening. I switched back to Apple Notes, and while it was fast to launch and sync, it only met the most basic text-recording needs. It was completely incapable of supporting complex note systems, creating connections between notes, drawing mind maps, or managing LaTeX formulas. When I wanted to link a research paper, a few charts, and several lines of LaTeX, Apple Notes felt like a small pocketknife when what I needed was a Swiss Army knife.

The Alternative: Obsidian

Then, I discovered Obsidian — a Markdown-based “second brain.” It stores all your notes in a local folder (a “Vault”) without any proprietary, closed-off formats. From quick daily inspirations to long-term research project archives, everything can be easily connected using bi-directional links. Obsidian’s plugin ecosystem is also incredibly rich: you can set up everything from daily to-do management to drawing mind maps and rendering math formulas with KaTeX in just a few minutes.

In Action
Every morning, I open Obsidian and jump into my “Daily Note” template to record my brainstorms from the night before. Between the lines of text, automatically generated backlinks appear in the sidebar, allowing me to instantly jump to related topics. In my “Reading Plan” note, I drew a reading workflow diagram directly with Markdown syntax, visualizing the steps: “Topic Selection → Reading → Note-Taking → Deconstructing Knowledge → Forming Insights.” Even when traveling for work, I can use the Obsidian mobile app’s draft feature to jot down ideas on the go. When I get back to my MacBook, a quick sync brings all the content to my desktop version with zero delay.

Why It’s Better?

• Fully Local & Flexible Sync: All notes are stored locally as Markdown files and can be synced via Git, Dropbox, iCloud, or various other methods.
• Zero Lock-in & Infinite Extensibility: You don’t have to act like a “database administrator.” You can create countless relationships between notes with a single line of text and expand its functionality with plugins to suit your personal needs.
• A Flexible, Uninterrupted Writing Flow: No loading waits, no complicated configurations. Just enter the editing interface and focus on your thoughts. In Obsidian, your notes become a labyrinth of interconnected passages, where every turn can lead to your next “aha!” moment.

System Search: Spotlight → Raycast

The Problem
Sometimes when I want to quickly open a file or switch to an un-launched app on my Mac, the first thing I think of is hitting Command+Space to bring up Spotlight. However, Spotlight's search speed is inconsistent, and its keyword matching often leaves me scratching my head. Don't even get me started on Siri Search, a clumsy "voice assistant" that's hardly any help. As for Finder, its interface looks substantial but is inefficient: windows open with a noticeable lag, and finding what I need requires a lot of clicking and scrolling.

The Alternative: Raycast

By chance, I saw people in a community raving about Raycast, so I downloaded it to give it a try. The moment I did, it felt like I had opened Pandora’s box — I had no idea Mac search and shortcuts could be so “deeply customizable.” Raycast not only launches apps quickly but also manages clipboard history, controls system settings, runs scripts, and can even execute entire workflows with a single command typed into the search bar.

In Action
One weekday afternoon, while editing a document, I suddenly remembered an idea I had recorded in Obsidian over the weekend. Normally, I’d have to use Command+Tab and cycle through all my open apps. But now, I just press Option+Space, type "obs open vault," and instantly unlock the specific note in Obsidian. I even configured a custom script in Raycast: typing "todo add finish monthly report" automatically appends a new task to my specified Todo.txt file. Even adjusting volume or screen brightness is just a simple shortcut away. Raycast is like a secret weapon hidden deep within the system, bringing macOS back to its Unix roots: everything can be done with a keyboard command.

Why It’s Better?

• Ultimately Keyboard-Driven: Almost every action can be completed with keyboard shortcuts, eliminating the need to reach for the mouse.
• Powerful Extensions: Its built-in plugin store covers system control, search, script execution, and much more. You can also write your own or install third-party extensions.
• Seamless Workflow: From opening apps and finding files to managing your clipboard and running scheduled tasks, Raycast centralizes all your actions, eliminating the need to switch between multiple tools. With Raycast, every keystroke feels like steering a ship; a moment’s thought gets you exactly where you need to go.

Writing Tool: Apple Notes → Ulysses

The Problem
When I set out to write a long piece, like a blog post, technical article, or book review, I used to try drafting in Apple Notes. But that “casual note-taking” experience felt like trying to write a novel in a text message box — the text would wrap unpredictably with the window size, and paragraph management was a mess. As for Microsoft Word, it felt like a heavy burden: its complex features and endless styling options were a constant distraction. And while Obsidian is great for notes, it can be a bit clumsy when it comes to formatting for publication. You have to constantly think about Markdown syntax, and a small mistake can lead to formatting errors.

The Alternative: Ulysses

Just when I was at a loss, I saw someone in a community strongly recommend Ulysses. It offers an incredibly clean writing interface: white text on a dark background, lines of text neatly arranged, with no distracting toolbars. The moment I opened Ulysses by the window at dusk, it felt like stepping through a door into a space dedicated solely to writing: no cluttered icons, no massive settings panels, just a blank canvas that invites pure focus.

In Action

At midnight, I’m in Ulysses, writing a memoir about a trip. The sound of raindrops on the windowsill accompanies the “clack-clack” of my keyboard in the quiet room. I seamlessly embed all the necessary Markdown syntax and then, with a single click, export it as a beautifully formatted HTML file. All the headings, quotes, and image links are “automatically packaged” perfectly. The next morning, when I open Ulysses on my phone, the synced draft is still neat and perfectly formatted, with no need to worry about styling.

Why It’s Better?

• Focused Writing, Minimalist & Distraction-Free: Opening Ulysses is like entering your own “writing meditation room,” which invisibly pushes you to concentrate on your thoughts.
• One-Click Export, Seamless Style Migration: Whether you’re publishing to a blog, printing as a PDF, or exporting to WordPress, Ulysses preserves your formatting, letting you focus on writing, not styling.
• Cross-Device Sync: Switch seamlessly between your Mac, iPad, and iPhone to capture creative inspiration anytime, anywhere. In Ulysses, writing feels like a poetic solo journey, where you and your words cultivate ideas in the quiet of the night.

Screenshot Tool: Built-in Screenshot → CleanShot X

The Problem
“Click!” I press Shift+Command+4, drag to capture a screenshot, and the image saves to my desktop with a messy string of numbers as its filename. Need to edit it? I have to open it in Preview, crop it, add annotations, save it, and then drag it to the target application. The whole process is as cumbersome as taking a picture with Stone Age tools: every action feels like chopping wood with a pickaxe. And don't even get me started on screen recording; the system's built-in recorder only meets the most basic needs, with no real-time annotation, no overlays, and no cloud-sharing integration.

The Alternative: CleanShot X

It wasn’t until I met CleanShot X that I realized “taking a screenshot” could be an “elegant form of expression.” After installing it, no matter which shortcut I press, it quickly captures the full screen, a window, or a selected area, automatically hides desktop icons, and pops up a small toolbar. This lets me instantly doodle, add arrows, pixelate sensitive information, add text, or even blur parts of the screenshot in real-time. But the most amazing feature is its ability to automatically upload the screenshot to the cloud and generate a short link, which I can share with colleagues, friends, or a blog backend in one click. The whole process is so fast, it’s done before I’ve even had a chance to think.

In Action
Once, I was discussing a product design prototype with a friend and needed to capture a UI detail and add an arrow to explain it. In the past, I would have had to drag the screenshot, open Preview, crop it, export it, and then copy it into our chat. But with CleanShot X, I just use a shortcut to activate the tool, select the area, and the annotation bar appears instantly. I drew a circle, added an arrow, and clicked “Share to Cloud.” In just 10 seconds, I sent the annotated image to them. They could view it just by clicking the short link, no download required. Even recording short instructional videos is a breeze — I can quickly edit, compress, and automatically upload them in CleanShot X, saving time and effort.

Why It’s Better?

• All-in-One Screenshot & Editing: No more “capture → open third-party app → edit → save → share.” CleanShot X integrates all these steps into a single, compact floating toolbar.
• Cloud Sharing & History: Screenshots are automatically synced to the cloud. If you need to find one later, you can pull up your history with one click in CleanShot X, no more hunting for files on your desktop.
• Video Recording & Annotation Features: Whether you’re making a demo video or annotating a design mock-up, you can do it easily without all the extra work. With CleanShot X, screenshots suddenly feel “alive.” Every annotation is as precise as a drawing, making communication more efficient and vivid.

Preventing Sleep: Keep Your Mac Awake → Amphetamine

The Problem
Sometimes I’m downloading large files at home or running a render that takes hours, only to find that my Mac automatically went to sleep in the middle of the night, interrupting the task. Worse, when I’m deep in a writing session, I want the screen to stay on and not go into standby just because I haven’t touched the keyboard for a few minutes. But temporarily disabling sleep in the system settings requires digging into “System Preferences → Energy Saver” and adjusting options one by one, which feels like trying to alter my computer’s DNA with a shovel.

The Alternative: Amphetamine

Later, I discovered Amphetamine — a small utility designed specifically to keep your Mac awake for extended periods. With just a click on its menu bar icon, you can choose to “Keep Awake Until a Specific Time” or “Keep Awake Until an App is Closed.” It’s incredibly simple. Even better, you can create triggers based on scenarios, such as: “When I launch Xcode, automatically keep the system awake for 2 hours,” or “When connected to power and network download speed exceeds 1MB/s, automatically keep awake.”

In Action
Last weekend, I was playing a documentary at home while also using ffmpeg to transcode a large batch of videos. After setting up Amphetamine, I walked around my studio and came back to find my Mac's screen still bright and clear, with the tasks running without a hitch. I can also share a remote assistance link with a colleague and not have to worry about my machine going to sleep and breaking the connection. When I'm writing late into the night, Amphetamine ensures the screen never goes dark or enters standby. It's like having a "personal bodyguard" secretly watching over me, making sure my workflow is never interrupted.

Why It’s Better?

• Simple and Intuitive: Just click the menu bar icon to quickly enable or disable “Keep Awake” mode, no more fumbling through System Preferences.
• Flexible Triggers: It can automatically keep your Mac awake based on running applications, power status, network conditions, and more, saving you the trouble of manual adjustments.
• Balances Energy Savings and Efficiency: By actively controlling when your Mac stays awake instead of globally disabling sleep, you avoid wasting energy. With Amphetamine, my Mac — and I — have peace of mind. It’s always ready to go at my pace, without me ever worrying about it “falling asleep” on the job.

Menu Bar Management: Apple’s Native Menu Bar → Hidden Bar

The Problem
Have you ever had this experience? Your menu bar at the top right is packed with icons, one after another: network status, Bluetooth, volume, screenshot tool, VPN, Dropbox, clipboard manager… it’s dizzying. Sometimes, for a simple task that requires just one click, I have to scan through a dense row of icons for what feels like an eternity to find the right tool. Every time I see that trypophobia-inducing menu bar, I can’t help but think: “Is this thing trying to kill me?”

The Alternative: Hidden Bar

Then I found Hidden Bar, which lets you “tuck away” extra icons into a hidden panel. After installing it, a small arrow appears in your menu bar. Click it once, and the hidden icons pop out. Click it again, and everything except your core icons is neatly packed away. The next time you need to open a less-frequently used tool, just click the arrow to expand the panel and quickly find what you’re looking for. It’s a final farewell to the cluttered mess of icons.

In Action

When I’m working — drawing, coding, or reading documents — I’m focused on the center of my screen and don’t want to be distracted by the chaos in the menu bar. This morning, while editing video footage, my screen was dedicated to Premiere Pro. Hidden Bar kept all the non-essential icons tucked away, leaving a “clean” menu bar with just the core icons like volume, Wi-Fi, time, and Raycast. This let me concentrate on my creative work. When I needed to check the sync status of Dropbox or OneDrive, a light click on the arrow pulled out the hidden icon panel from the right, all neat and elegant in a pop-out overlay.

Why It’s Better?

• Restores Visual Serenity: Keep only your core icons visible and hide the rest to eliminate visual distractions.
• One-Click Collapse, One-Click Expand: See them when you want, hide them when you don’t. No more “searching for a needle in a haystack” in your menu bar.
• Simple, Free, and Open Source: It’s designed to “de-stress” your workspace without taking up any system resources. It’s like sipping a cup of calming tea. With Hidden Bar, my menu bar has become a sanctuary. Now, it’s just me and the core tools I’m actively using.

Terminal Tool: Terminal → Warp

The Problem
As someone who isn’t a professional sysadmin or backend developer, I only occasionally use the Terminal for a few ls, cd, or git commit commands. While macOS's native Terminal is good enough for basic functions, its interface is dull, its color scheme is bland, and it lacks any "dynamic" feel. Whenever I wanted to quickly search my command history or preview file contents, the native Terminal felt slow and unresponsive. Even a simple "search" required clicking through the menu bar.

The Alternative: Warp

Then I discovered Warp — its interface is like strapping a rocket to the Terminal. When you open Warp, you’re greeted with a window that looks more like a code editor: autocompletion suggestions, colorful syntax highlighting, split-pane functionality, and AI-powered suggestions are all immediately impressive. For someone like me who only needs simple commands, these features might seem like icing on the cake, but it’s these small improvements that turn every trip to the terminal into a satisfying, almost “ceremonial” experience.

In Action
One afternoon, I opened my Obsidian backup script in Warp. As I typed ./backup.sh, autocompletion instantly popped up, suggesting that my next input should be the "backup directory path." I hit the arrow key and jumped right to it—this combination of a few commands was so much faster than in the native Terminal. Even more magically, when I ran a Python script in the terminal, Warp automatically organized the output log into collapsible "blocks," which made debugging a breeze. I no longer had to scroll endlessly to find that one red error message.

Why It’s Better?

• Modern Interface & Smart Suggestions: With colorful highlighting, autocompletion, and command snippets, it looks more like a high-end IDE than just a “black-and-white” window.
• Rich Productivity Features: Split panes, multiple tabs, session sharing, and block folding keep your workflow for complex commands and script debugging uninterrupted.
• Simple and Easy to Use: For the average user, even basic ls, cd, and git operations are streamlined by Warp, turning terminal use into a pleasure rather than a hardcore ordeal. For example, when I run git log in Warp, I can actually click on a commit in the log to see a detailed file diff view. In the native macOS Terminal, I'd just be scrolling through lines of text. The difference in efficiency is night and day.

Conclusion

The built-in apps on Apple’s system may seem “complete,” but they hide many small details that can subtly slow you down. After replacing these native tools one by one with more professional, focused alternatives, my MacBook’s overall performance feels like it’s been “supercharged.” From browsing the web and writing notes to taking screenshots and using the terminal, every step is faster and smoother.

If you also feel that your workflow is “a bit clunky” or want to try new tools to boost your efficiency, consider starting with the apps mentioned above:

• Replace Safari with Brave for faster, more private browsing.
• Replace Apple Notes with Obsidian to build your own “palace of knowledge.”
• Replace Spotlight with Raycast to put system control at your fingertips.
• Replace Apple Notes with Ulysses to make the writing process more focused and ceremonial.
• Replace the native screenshot tool with CleanShot X to make every capture efficient and beautiful.
• Replace the need for a separate app with Amphetamine to keep your Mac from sleeping and interrupting your progress.
• Replace a cluttered menu bar with Hidden Bar to restore peace to your interface.
• Replace the native Terminal with Warp to turn command-line use into a pleasure, not a chore.

If even one of these tools helps you feel more comfortable, focused, or even have a bit more fun in your daily work, then I’ll be delighted. In an era where “experience is everything,” I hope you too can polish your Mac until it’s a seamless extension of yourself — effortless, powerful, and a joy to use.