10 macOS Apps Web Developers Need

macOS is one of the best-operating systems preferred by many web developers. Apart from its efficiency and hardware reliability, what developers love about macOS is the abundance of developer tools available to enhance their productivity and save much of their time.

In this article, I’d like to share with you some of the best developer tools for macOS; from database administrators to API managers, you’ll find a wide variety of tools in the list. Let’s take a look.

1. Tower

Tower is a Git client for macOS that makes Git simple and efficient. Users enjoy an elegant and comprehensive interface and a feature set that offers them the full power of Git.

Tower abstracts the complexity of Git into a user-friendly interface. It allows many actions to be performed with a simple drag and drop, and errors can be easily undone. Users can improve their productivity with features such as single line placement, submodule support, or file history.

Notable Features:

• Undo everything from restore revert commits and older revisions to recovering deleted commits or undo local changes.
• Multiple windows allow you to keep several projects open at the same time.
• Changes from remote servers are automatically downloaded in the background for you so it always remains up-to-date.
• Many complex tasks may be completed quickly and easily with drag and drop.

2. TablePlus

TablePlus is a macOS database application with a beautiful modern interface, an intuitive GUI, and support for popular databases. It supports multiple databases: PostgreSQL, Amazon Redshift, MariaDB (MySQL), Cockroach DB, SQL Server, SQLite, Oracle, Redis, Apache Cassandra, MongoDB, and Vertica.

TablePlus has many security features to safeguard your database, including multi-step authentication, TLS encryption, and native libssh.

Notable Features:

• Query, edit, and manage your databases quickly and simply with a native app.
• Personalize the appearance and parameters to your preferences.
• User-friendly GUI offers a simple and tidy spreadsheet-like editor, where you can browse, query, or edit your data and database structure.
• Smart query editor that includes best practices for using the default SQL editor to increase your productivity.

3. Postman

Postman is a popular program for developers to test various APIs or send POST and GET requests to a server.

It has a user-friendly graphical interface. Also, you can very easily customize the cookies you pass, HTTP headers, and form parameters. All this allows you to conveniently check the operation of any API, and even a regular website.

Notable Features:

• Easily integrate test suites into a CI/ CD service using Newman, a CLI tool for running tests from the command line.
• Easy-to-use REST client.
• Supports different types of API (REST, SOAP, etc.).
• Generate code snippets to send a request from another application.

4. FlexiHub

FlexiHub is one of the most useful Mac apps for iOS developers. With it you can share your iPhone or iPad over the network, giving developers the ability to remotely connect to these devices without having to connect them directly to their computer every time. This is especially useful when testing and debugging iOS apps.

Notable Features:

• Comprehensive technology for providing remote access to various devices.
• Automatically detects the type of device connected to the remote computer.
• Remote access to all devices connected via USB or serial port.
• Possibility of permanent remote access to connected devices.
• Data compression, which is used to reduce traffic and increase data transfer rates.
• Access control, which is used to restrict access to connected devices.

5. Homebrew

Homebrew is a package manager that allows you to install various packages, programs, and utilities from the terminal, which will help you expand the functionality of macOS. It is simple and effective, saving you a lot of time and effort.

Notable Features:

• Straightforward to install software packages and multiple dependencies can be handled with a single command.
• Supports almost all common software packages.
• Development is fast, DSL is built in Ruby, and syntax is simple and easy to understand.

6. Xcode

Xcode is an Apple Integrated Development Environment (IDE) that you use to create applications for Apple products such as iPad, iPhone, and Mac. It provides tools to manage the entire development workflow – from building an app, to testing, optimizing, and submitting it to the App Store.

Notable Features:

• Comes with a well-designed and easy-to-use UI creator.
• Enables a developer to learn profiling and heap analysis in a natural way.
• Excellent for code completion.

7. Navicat Premium

Navicat Premium for macOS is a powerful database administration tool that allows you to connect to MySQL, MariaDB, MongoDB, SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL, and SQLite databases at the same time and all in one application.

Notable Features:

• ER data modelling.
• Creating and dropping databases, tables, indexes, and users.
• Unicode support.
• HTTP and SSH Tunnel.
• SQL Minifier.
• Database backup and recovery.

8. CodeKit

CodeKit is an app that speeds up and improves web development and helps users create professional websites. It can compile any language, optimize images, and create a LiveReload connection that will be available in any browser, on any device, check JavaScript syntax, and much more.

Notable Features:

• Supports tabs, spaces, and line numbers just like your typical IDE.
• Adjust font size and spaces.
• Save your code without refresh (with AJAX).
• Cache-proof code release each time you save.

9. Dash

Dash is an API that serves as a documentation browser and snippet manager. It collects documentation on HTML5, CSS3, jQuery, Sass, LESS, and some other programming languages and helps to organize the storage of snippets and instantly search for documentation on any API you need in your work.

In addition, there is the possibility of offline access to more than 200 sets of API documentation.

Notable Features:

• Methods are conveniently shown in a special table of contents.
• You can create search profiles to easily switch between sets of documents.
• Collect snippets of code that you reuse often.
• Snippet Manager.

10. iTerm2

iTerm2 is a handy open-source Terminal emulator to help you manage your workflow efficiently. In addition, it is highly customizable and supports many OS features, including window transparency, full-screen mode, Growl alert system, and programmable hotkeys to speed up the development process.

The app is great for experienced web developers who spend a lot of time on the Terminal. It is also convenient to work with multiple tabs, automate routine commands, and find regular expressions.

Notable Features:

• Highly configurable with a lot of customization options.
• Multilingual with support for Unicode combining marks, internationalization, and many other Unicode features.
• Divide a tab up into multiple panes, each one showing a different session.

Bonus: Transmit

Transmit is a powerful and versatile macOS app that makes it easy to manage and organize large files across multiple servers in the clouds. It is a simple and reliable solution for users who need to maintain websites, upload numerous photos, or perform backups.

Notable Features:

• Fast transfers.
• Intuitive interface.
• Integration with Panic Sync and Finder.
• Built-in batch renaming feature.