Best one-time-purchase Mac apps

What it does: iA Writer is a focused writing app built around Markdown. No sidebars, no formatting toolbars, no distractions. Just you and the text. It exports cleanly to Word, PDF, and HTML, and syncs via iCloud or Working Copy for writers who use version control.

Why it wins: iA Writer is the gold standard for focused writing on Mac. It's been refined since 2010, and the team has never wavered from its original premise. The typography is exceptional, the focus mode genuinely helps, and the file format is plain Markdown, which means your writing belongs to you forever. No proprietary format, no lock-in. The $49.99 one-time price is a fair deal for a decade of use.

The honest tradeoff: iA Writer is for solo writing. If you need real-time collaboration, Google Docs will serve you better. And if you want a notes-plus-writing hybrid, Obsidian or Bear may be a better fit. But for essays, articles, and serious long-form work, iA Writer is in a category of its own.

Best for: writers who want one calm, permanent place to work. Buy it once, use it for years.

What it does: PDF Expert is the most capable PDF editor available on Mac outside of Adobe Acrobat. Annotate, edit text, merge documents, fill forms, sign, redact, and compress PDFs. It's fast, native, and handles large files without complaint.

Why it wins: Readdle, the company behind PDF Expert, has been making iOS and Mac productivity apps for well over a decade. PDF Expert is their flagship. The one-time perpetual license is still available alongside their newer subscription tier, choose it at checkout. For most PDF work (annotating, signing, light text edits), the perpetual version covers everything you'll ever need.

The honest tradeoff: Readdle's subscription tier adds some extras, including OCR and advanced text editing across more file formats. If you do heavy PDF editing daily, weigh whether those features justify the ongoing cost. For most people, the one-time license is plenty. Adobe Acrobat is the only competitor with deeper PDF editing capability, and it's significantly more expensive as a subscription.

Best for: anyone who works with PDFs regularly and doesn't want to pay Adobe every month. Check the pricing page and select the perpetual option.

What it does: Mimestream is a native Gmail client for Mac. It uses Gmail's API rather than IMAP, which means labels, filters, and all of Google's email intelligence work exactly as they do in the web interface, but in a genuinely native Mac app with proper keyboard shortcuts, notifications, and system integration.

Why it wins: Mimestream threads the needle: Gmail's label system and smart categorisation, inside an app that feels like it belongs on a Mac. Fast, native, and built specifically for how Gmail works. The one-time option makes it permanent rather than recurring.

The honest tradeoff: Gmail accounts only. If you use iCloud or Fastmail, it won't help. For Gmail-primary users who spend serious time in email, it's the best native client available.

Best for: people who live in Gmail and find the web interface slow or disruptive. One of the few email apps that genuinely earns its price.

What it does: Obsidian is a local-first notes app built around plain Markdown files. Notes live in a folder on your Mac as text files you can open in any editor. Obsidian adds linking, graph views, tags, and an extensive plugin ecosystem on top. The Catalyst licence is a one-time payment that unlocks early access to new builds and insider features.

Why it wins: Obsidian stores your notes as files you own. No proprietary format, no account required for core functionality. It's as close to permanent software as you'll find: even if Obsidian as a company disappeared tomorrow, your notes would still be readable in TextEdit. The plugin ecosystem is deep enough to replace Notion for many use cases, with none of the Electron overhead of Notion's desktop app. See best Mac apps with no telemetry for why local-first matters.

The honest tradeoff: Obsidian has a learning curve. If you want something to just open and start typing in, Bear or Apple Notes is friendlier. Obsidian rewards the time you put into setting it up; it's not a great default for casual notes. Sync between devices requires either iCloud (free) or Obsidian Sync (subscription). The core app is free; the Catalyst licence is optional.

Best for: people who take a lot of notes and want them to last. The plain-text foundation means no vendor lock-in, ever.

What it does: Alfred is a keyboard launcher and automation tool for Mac. The free version replaces Spotlight with a faster, more capable search. The Powerpack (one-time purchase) adds Workflows, which let you automate repetitive tasks, build custom search integrations, and chain actions together without writing code.

Why it wins: Alfred has been the gold standard Mac launcher since 2010. The team at Running with Crayons has resisted the subscription model entirely: the Powerpack is still a one-time purchase, and it entitles you to all future Powerpack updates. The Workflows system is genuinely powerful, experienced users build automations that save hours a week. Raycast has become a popular alternative, but it moved toward a subscription model for its AI features. Alfred stays paid-once.

The honest tradeoff: Alfred's Workflows have a steeper learning curve than Raycast's extensions, which are easier to install. If you want quick out-of-the-box integrations, Raycast may feel faster to set up. If you want a tool you configure once and rely on for a decade, Alfred's track record is hard to beat.

Best for: anyone who wants a Mac launcher they can build on over years without a subscription creeping in. The Powerpack is one of the best-value one-time purchases in Mac software.

What it does: Shiny is a menu-bar app that shows your Mac's memory pressure at a glance and clears inactive RAM with a single click. It runs silently until you need it, and takes about two seconds to act when you do. No agent, no login item, no background processes beyond the menu bar icon itself.

I make this app, so I'll be direct: if memory isn't an issue for you, you don't need it. But if you regularly see the spinning beach ball after a long browser session, or notice your Mac slowing down before you restart it, Shiny solves that problem with a single click. $4.99 once, for up to three Macs, no subscription, no telemetry. See why Shiny is priced the way it is.

The honest tradeoff: macOS manages memory well on its own, and on a Mac with 16GB or more you may rarely feel pressure. Shiny is most useful on 8-16GB machines with heavy browser or creative app use. It doesn't do anything macOS can't do itself, it just makes the action accessible in one click rather than buried in Activity Monitor.

Best for: Mac users on 8-16GB who want a permanent fix to the occasional memory slowdown. The lowest-stakes one-time purchase on this list.

What it does: Bear is a polished, native notes app for Mac and iOS with Markdown support, tag-based organisation, and an excellent writing experience. It's one of the most thoughtfully designed indie apps on the Mac App Store. Bear Pro (the paid tier) adds export formats, themes, and cross-device sync.

Why it's here: Bear's primary paid tier is a subscription at $2.99/month, which technically disqualifies it, but it's too good to omit. The free tier is genuinely useful, and if you want something friendlier than Obsidian but more capable than Apple Notes, Bear is the answer. The team has shipped thoughtful updates for years. Obsidian is the purer one-time alternative; Bear is the better out-of-the-box experience.

Best for: writers and note-takers who want something between Apple Notes and Obsidian. The friendliest Markdown notes app on Mac.