Indie apps need ongoing revenue in order to keep operating. People are sick of subscriptions. These statements are in conflict, but they are indisputably both facts, which is a problem if you want applications built by small teams to continue existing.
Setapp points a potential way forward: an indie app bundle for Macs. This service—offered by a company based in Kiev, Ukraine—offers access to over 240 Mac apps for $9.99 a month. (You can save 10% by paying annually, and there’s even an education discount.)
The list of applications offered, which you can browse online, includes many well-regarded indie applications that have previously appeared at the top of the Mac App Store charts. If you buy a lot of Mac apps—and, in particular, if you subscribe to a lot of Mac apps—it’s a package well worth checking out. There’s even a seven-day trial if you want to get a feel for it.
The application works similarly to an app store, albeit one where you’ve already paid for everything it offers—you can explore and install as many of the bundled applications as you want. There are a few applications in it that I use every day, some of which I’ve written about for Lifehacker. There’s Session, a combination Pomodoro timer and distraction blocker that I use when I’m having trouble focusing. There’s Eter, my favorite radio app, and MarsEdit, the best blogging app for Mac. I also use WifiExplorer every time I need to diagnose a wireless network problem, and I generally appreciate having access to apps like Permute (a media converter), Numi (a prettier calculator app), BetterZip (an archiving tool), and GetBackupPro (a Mac backup app, obviously).
Credit: Justin Pot
I could go on—though the sheer number included might make you expect a lot of shovelware, there are a lot of well-regarded apps in this bundle, all included in your monthly subscription without ads. Whenever I’m searching for an application to accomplish a something, I really like searching Setapp first—it’s nice to know I won’t have to pay anything extra to get access to a useful new tool. If you too like having purpose-built, native Mac applications for specific tasks, consider this my unqualified endorsement.
