Setapp – Review

Setapp
Setapp Limited
$9.99 monthly, $8.99 per month for a year subscription (paid annually), education pricing available. 30 day trial subscription

Setapp is a subscription service for Mac software. For a monthly fee of $9.99, or $8.99 per month on an annual subscription, you have access to over 100 Mac programs. The included categories are Maintenance, Lifestyle, Productivity, Writing and Blogging, Education and Research, Developer Tools, Task Management, Mac Hacks, Creativity and Personal Finance.

The applications, which are the full paid versions, can be installed, used, uninstalled and reinstalled at any time as long as your subscription is active. You can install the software on two Macs. The subscription can be cancelled at any time, however, for the annual subscription, you do pay for the year up front.

To get started, you go to the Setapp website and create an account. They offer a 30 day trial subscription, so all you need is your name and email address. Once you create the account it will download the app to manage the service. Additionally, you need to verify your email. The download is a simple installer that puts the app in your application folder. You then browse and install the available software from this application and manage your account from their website.

To install an app, browse to the app you want to install and click the arrow pointing down. You can click on “On My Mac” to see what programs are installed from Setapp. Once the item is installed, you will find it in your Applications folder and you can use it as long as you have the Setapp app installed with a current subscription. If you do not have the Setapp application installed, you will be presented with a message saying that you need an active subscription and the Setapp application installed. To uninstall a program, just drag it from the Applications folder to the Trash bin. You can reinstall it at any time during your active subscription.

 

 

This service will only be valuable it if the applications offered are worth the price of the subscription. I can honestly say that it is and they are. Included are some of today’s must have applications. My personal favorites include Disk Drill Pro, iMazing and Clean My Mac. For two Macs, the cost of these programs alone would be around $200. There are too many great items to mention, but you can view the list on their website. The Setapp program itself is easy to navigate and also checks for updates on the programs you have installed. You can also get free months for your subscription by referring others to the service.

I can’t find much wrong with the Setapp service. Developers are happy because they get paid for their work. Customers are happy to get to use great software at a fraction of the cost. This may be the future of delivering programs to our Macs, especially if it’s this inexpensive and easy to use.

I found only two minor annoyances with the Setapp application itself. If you install a program that loads as a login item, you will get the error saying that it can’t run because Setapp is not installed. This is because the login item loads before the Setapp application. The other minor issue is that Spotlight shows all programs offered by Setapp in its search, even if it’s not installed. These are minor issues and do not change the fact that this is an excellent service. Look through the list of applications they offer and if you think you can use at least three of them, then this is a no brainer.

MyMac Review Rating is 9 out of 10. Loads of useful applications for two Macs for a small monthly fee. Able to cancel at any time means that there is no commitment.