What are the best free developer tools apps for Mac?

By community activity, Raycast, Zed and Ghostty are the top picks on Mac App Index right now.

Are these developer tools apps completely free?

Not all of them. 5 are completely free; 7 are free to download, with in-app purchases or a paid upgrade for extra features.

How many free developer tools apps are there for Mac?

Mac App Index lists 12 apps: 5 completely free, 7 free to start, 0 paid upfront and 0 by subscription. 4 are open source.

Free developer tools apps for Mac

12 developer tools apps you can use on Mac without paying upfront. 5 are completely free and 7 are free to start, with in-app purchases or paid upgrades. Most popular right now: Raycast, Zed and Ghostty.

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Hot

Raycast

A faster launcher with superpowers

140Free + in-appDeveloper tools

Zed

Code editor built for speed and collaboration

83Free + in-appDeveloper tools

Ghostty

Fast, native terminal emulator

26FreeDeveloper tools

CotEditor

Plain-text editor built for macOS

14FreeDeveloper tools

Xcode

Apple's IDE for every Apple platform

43FreeDeveloper tools

Proxyman

Inspect and debug HTTP traffic

82Free + in-appDeveloper tools

BBEdit

Professional text and code editor

25Free + in-appDeveloper tools

Tailscale

Private network across your devices

38Free + in-appDeveloper tools

OrbStack

Fast Docker containers and Linux machines

16Free + in-appDeveloper tools

TablePlus

Native client for many databases

20Free + in-appDeveloper tools

iTerm2

Terminal replacement for macOS

38FreeDeveloper tools

Visual Studio Code

Free code editor from Microsoft

14FreeDeveloper tools

How we picked: every app here is listed in developer tools on Mac App Index and is either completely free or free to start with in-app purchases. Apps are sorted by community activity; switch to Top or New to reorder them. How we rank apps

Frequently asked questions

What are the best free developer tools apps for Mac?: By community activity, Raycast, Zed and Ghostty are the top picks on Mac App Index right now.
Are these developer tools apps completely free?: Not all of them. 5 are completely free; 7 are free to download, with in-app purchases or a paid upgrade for extra features.
How many free developer tools apps are there for Mac?: Mac App Index lists 12 apps: 5 completely free, 7 free to start, 0 paid upfront and 0 by subscription. 4 are open source.