Apple builds a great operating system. But macOS has blind spots — small, persistent annoyances that millions of users hit every single day and work around manually because there's no built-in fix.
These five apps patch those gaps. Each one does exactly one thing, does it well, and stays out of your way the rest of the time.
1. TogglePresent — One Click to Presentation Mode
The problem: You're about to present. Your desktop is a mess, notifications are on, and your speakers are unmuted. You spend the next 90 seconds frantically clicking through System Settings while your audience watches.
TogglePresent fixes this with a single menu bar click. It hides desktop icons, silences notifications, mutes your speakers, and minimizes open windows — all at once. Click again when you're done and everything comes back.
Price: $4.99 (lifetime license, all updates free) macOS: 14.0+
2. Ghost Text — Extract Text from Anywhere
The problem: You see text on your screen — inside an image, a locked PDF, a video frame, a UI element — but you can't select it. So you type it out manually, character by character.
Ghost Text captures any text from any region of your screen with a keyboard shortcut (CMD+Shift+2). It runs entirely offline using Apple's Vision framework, copies the result to your clipboard, and keeps a history of everything you've captured.
No accounts. No cloud. No monthly subscription.
Price: $4.99 (lifetime license) macOS: 12.0+
3. Smart Folder — Organize Downloads in Seconds
The problem: Your Downloads folder has 847 files. You know you should organize it. You never do.
Smart Folder scans your selected folder, categorizes every file by type, and shows you a side-by-side before/after preview. Confirm, and it sorts everything into clean subfolders — Videos, Images, Documents, Code, Archives, and more. It even handles duplicates and skips locked files gracefully.
One undo button if you don't like the result.
Price: Free macOS: 14.0+
4. NaturalMouse — Separate Scroll Directions per Device
The problem: macOS has one "Natural Scrolling" toggle that affects your trackpad and external mouse together. Most people want natural scrolling on their trackpad but traditional scrolling on their mouse. There is no native way to do this.
NaturalMouse detects when you plug in an external mouse and automatically flips scroll direction for it — while leaving your trackpad alone. It responds in under a second, runs at 0% CPU when idle, and lives only in the menu bar.
Price: Free macOS: 14.0+
5. Googly Eyes — Because Your Menu Bar Can Be Fun
The problem: You stare at your screen for 8+ hours a day. Nothing stares back.
Googly Eyes puts a pair of animated eyes in your menu bar that follow your cursor in real time at 60 FPS. They blink when you click. Choose from 17 styles: classic googly eyes, or 16 Naruto-themed Sharingan and Rinnegan variants with optional spinning animations.
It's silly. It's delightful. Your coworkers will ask about it.
Price: Free macOS: 14.0+
What These Apps Have in Common
All five are built by a single developer — native Swift, zero external dependencies, no data leaving your device. They're small, fast, and built to solve one problem correctly rather than ten problems poorly.
This is indie macOS development at its best: identify a genuine pain point, ship a focused solution, and charge a fair price (or nothing at all).