I’m the developer of Floodtide, a Mac app updater I started building when MacUpdater was discontinued. Its update server is due to stop at the end of December, so if you still rely on it, now is a good time to try the alternatives. Here’s where Floodtide is today.
What it does: it scans the apps you already have and checks each one against wherever its developer actually publishes updates. That covers Sparkle feeds, Homebrew casks, GitHub releases, Electron update feeds, Microsoft AutoUpdate, Google’s updater and the Mac App Store, plus a hand-researched list of about 2,000 apps that publish versions somewhere awkward. Then Update All installs them together.
A few things I care about:
- Before it replaces anything, the download has to be the same app (bundle ID), from the same developer (signing team), and pass Gatekeeper. If it can’t verify an app, it gives you a link to the developer’s page instead of guessing.
- It keeps a copy of the old version, so a bad update is one click to undo.
- Betas are off unless you turn them on, per app.
- For each app you can see which sources it checked and what each one said, so it’s never a black box.
New for MacUpdater users: File > Import from MacUpdater reads your MacUpdater ignore list and exported app list, shows which of those apps Floodtide covers, and lets you request the ones it doesn’t. There are also keyboard shortcuts that match MacUpdater’s (Cmd-L to open an app, Cmd-S to show it in Finder and so on).
It also handles Homebrew formulae, App Store updates, audio plug-ins and screen savers. It runs on macOS 13 or later, Intel and Apple silicon, in English, German and Spanish.
Pricing: a 14-day full trial with no account or card. After that, scanning stays free, and installing updates needs a one-time licence: $14.99 / £10.99 / €12.99 for 3 Macs. There’s also an optional yearly add-on (the Tide) for newly researched apps; you don’t need it for anything above.
I’m happy to answer questions here. And if it misses an app you use, tell me which one; that’s how the list grows.