Developer Tools

An advanced tiling window manager that brings i3-like control to macOS desktops.

Ghostty is a fast, platform-native terminal emulator written in Zig that uses native macOS UI (SwiftUI) and GPU acceleration, differentiating itself with true native integration unlike Electron or cross-platform toolkit alternatives. It supports tabs, splits, 24-bit color, Unicode, and extensive configuration while maintaining excellent performance. 44k stars with active daily development.

ImHex is a feature-rich hex editor built natively in C++ for reverse engineers and developers, with a custom pattern language for analyzing binary structures, a disassembler, and a dark-mode-first UI designed for extended use. It runs natively on macOS (Apple Silicon and Intel) and supports plugins for extended functionality. 52k stars and actively maintained.

Alacritty is a cross-platform OpenGL-accelerated terminal emulator written in Rust, known for its performance and minimal resource usage on macOS. It follows a philosophy of integrating with other tools rather than reimplementing features, making it fast and lightweight with extensive configuration via TOML. Actively maintained with 62k stars and widely used as a daily driver.

A shortcut discovery overlay that helps you learn and remember macOS app hotkeys.

Tabby is a highly configurable terminal emulator, SSH client, and serial terminal for macOS with a rich plugin ecosystem. Despite being Electron-based, it provides substantial native integration via a built-in encrypted SSH credential store, Zmodem file transfers, and multi-pane split views with persistent sessions. Actively maintained with 69k stars and broad developer adoption.

Zed is a high-performance, multiplayer code editor written in Rust. Built by the creators of Atom and Tree-sitter, it offers GPU-accelerated rendering, native macOS performance, and real-time collaboration built in.

Lapce is an ultra-fast, open-source code editor written in Rust using its own GPU-accelerated UI framework. It offers modal editing, built-in LSP support, remote development, and a plugin system.

Insomnia is a powerful open-source API client for REST, GraphQL, WebSockets, and gRPC. It features a clean UI, environment variables, authentication helpers, and a plugin ecosystem — a popular Postman alternative.

WezTerm is a GPU-accelerated cross-platform terminal emulator and multiplexer written in Rust. On macOS it ships as a native .app bundle with full macOS integration — tabs, panes, ligatures, and a built-in config language (Lua). Faster than iTerm2 and Terminal.app, with a massive feature set.

DB Browser for SQLite is a high-quality, open-source GUI for creating, designing, and editing SQLite database files. A must-have tool for developers who work with SQLite — no command line required.

Open-source code editor for macOS built with SwiftUI

Beekeeper Studio is a modern, cross-platform SQL editor and database manager. It supports MySQL, PostgreSQL, SQLite, SQL Server, and more. Features tabbed connections, a query editor, and a clean dark-mode UI.

GitButler is a native macOS git client built with Tauri/Rust/Svelte that introduces virtual branches — letting you work on multiple features simultaneously without the friction of branch switching. A genuinely novel take on git workflow, backed by Netlify's founder. Active development and strong community.

iTerm2 is the de facto terminal emulator for macOS, packed with features the default Terminal.app doesn't have: split panes, search, autocomplete, a hotkey window, tmux integration, and extensive customization.

Fast, native Git GUI for macOS with real-time repository visualization

Native macOS GUI for lsof to see every open file and socket

The easiest way to install and switch between Xcode versions

Native MySQL and MariaDB database client for macOS

Fast, native hex editor for macOS