These 7 Setapp Tools Alone Make the Subscription Worth It

Some have free alternatives, but free isn't always better

Photo by Carrie Zimmer on Scopio. Used under license.

What is Setapp, and why would any self-respecting, open source supporter want to use it? Especially one prone to shiny app induced procrastination?

Setapp is one monthly subscription for 200+ Mac apps of varying usefulness and quality. This open source supporter/shiny app sucker uses it because seven of them on their own are enough to have the subscription make financial sense. The rest are nice-to-haves that feed my appetite for new toys, and are, quite often, surprisingly useful.

It took two years, several lists, and a cost/benefit analysis spreadsheet for me to finally front up the cash for Setapp. When you look at what made my list of top apps, bear in mind that I’m a designer, writer, and plain text enthusiast who likes to frolic in productivity playgrounds.

The Top 7

These seven tools would cost me nearly $190 on their own, without considering those in the following section. A Setapp subscription at the time of writing is $9.99 a month for a single user, or $12.49 a month to add an iOS device.

💰 = I’ve bought or subscribed to this app in the past

1. Hookmark 💰 — Links files, webpages, and PDFs

Standalone price: $29.99 (Standard)/$69.99 (Pro) for 12 months of updates 
I’m officially in love with Hookmark! Here’s 7 minutes on why. 
In short, Hookmark lets me use a plain text app like Obsidian as a project launcher. I can open documents in any app right from my project page, and can create shareable, non-brittle links to specific text or images in long, boring PDF documents.