Just tried Updatest and gave up. I agree with Claus, it is far too confusing, far too many permissions and installs required without proper explanation. Impressed that he has persevered.
The recent versions walk you through the set up options which makes it very straightforward. But It certainly isn’t as simple as MacUpdate was, but well worth persevering, in my opinion.
Hey, thanks for the shoutout!
I am the developer of Taphouse. I would love it if you guys give it a try.
Let me know what’s missing and what would you like to see improved. Since launch 2 weeks ago, i have implemented more than 10 features and fixed a ton of bugs all thanks to user’s feedback.
Help me make this the best GUI for Homebrew, i appreciate all your time.
I am not an “expert” computer user, although neither am I an inexperienced beginner. I have happily been using MacUpdater as a paid/registered user for the past several years, and was surprised and saddened by the news that it would not continue to be developed and maintained.
I was gratified to see this covered in TidBITS, and have been checking back in here with the hope of learning of some recommended alternative. I must confess being disappointed that the discussion seems to have stopped without any good recommendations from anyone. Oh well…
I suggest you try Updatest yourself. You may find it fine as I and at least one other do, or you may find it too complicated and be put off by the Homebrew element.
A new (to me) name emerged this week, Taphouse which works in a very similar way to Updatest.
Part of the issue is that there are few alternatives to MacUpdater, I’ve moved to Updatest and used it from it’s early beta when it had a different name.
It’s good and is evolving rapidly but due to how MacUpdater works it might not pick up all the updates.
No it can’t be as good as MacUpdater because of all the manual input MacUpdater needed.
For me Updatest finds everything except Adobe apps, Epson apps and a small number of other apps. Also not Xcode apps.
It monitors and updates 93 apps for me.
It’s a great shame MacUpdater is going away, but I absolutely understand why it’s being killed. You can’t grow a commodity feature that relies on a lot of manual work because people will be expecting to pay a pittance for it.
As to what’s next, TBH once I’ve grabbed all the installers for my existing apps, I’m going to wipe and reinstall and … not bother tracking updates. It was always OCD, there was never any actual need.
So farewell MacUpdater, but here’s to a more relaxed lifestyle.
I mostly agree with you. The one problem MacUpdater helped solve for me was the one where you open an app you haven’t used for a while and you find that you have to update it before you can perform whatever task you opened the app to perform. I hate that.
Yes, I do agree that it’s annoying.
What I will probably do is dismiss the update alert when it appears, then make a quick note to download the installer and update when I next get the chance. Indeed, if there were a way to be notified by some other means, even an email, I’d turn off automatic updating entirely.
What this means is that I will have recent downloads for apps that I know are working, and I won’t be panicking about downloading apps that I rarely, if ever, use. So long as I have the licence keys in my email, it’s really not a problem.
Updatest is improving daily. Up to v2.1 now, and it is detecting everything available (as compared with Nektony’s App Cleaner & Uninstaller). I am an absolute beginner with Homebrew, but I can make it work with almost no effort.
My experience as well. If you tried and rejected one the betas have another look.
And since I posted, another version - now at 2.1.1. A new version pretty much daily, and getting faster and better each time.
I meant to say that my experience of the new “Community” option in Updatest as a source of updates is not good and I have turned the option off. I suspect it may be of use in other regions but here in UK none of the reported Community updates are available. It used to happen with MacUpdater as well for probably the same reason.
I have turned it off too. I expect Updatest to show updates available and to get one (maybe) a day earlier via someone else noticing it and reporting it isn’t something I would pay for (and for those who don’t know, this is going to become a subscription only feature).
What might be the issue with App Cleaner and Uninstaller?
If you mean why did I say that being a module of MacCleaner Pro would count against it, then that was because MCP has been very heavily advertised in the past (perhaps crossing into spamming territory) and probably serves little or no purpose. Having said that, they have been quick and efficient at providing support, and being based in Odessa, they are not (yet) under Russian control. I am now using Updatest alone for managing updates and it is working well, to the point where I no longer miss Macupdater. If Updatest did not exist, I would be using App Cleaner and Uninstaller.
What I want is an app that checks for and finds updates. I am not interested in an app that installs those updates. What I want is an update checking app that does the following:
I’ve posted previously on my own comparison of MacUpdater, Latest, Updatest, and MacUpdate Desktop ( The Fate of MacUpdater? - #30 by MacDrew2000 ). While I understand my security requirements are higher than a lot of users, I am not comfortable allowing ANY third party app to install, update, or uninstall other apps (whether via the “App Management” permission or via the use of Homebrew). And because I use a firewall (Little Snitch) to block many apps (over 50) from accessing the internet (especially apps with elevated privileges, like input monitoring), I can’t rely on the in-app update check features of those blocked apps. So a third party tool to tell me about updates is very valuable.
Updatest is probably the closest match to what I am looking for in terms of the above features and the breadth of its database. The new Updatest Network is likely to help expand its app database. I also really like the ability to manually add a GitHub source to monitor for an app. But I really wish Updatest had a “Download Update” button to download an update to the Downloads folder without attempting to install it.
The Updatest maker is very responsive…try asking him.