That is undeniably true. I never actually uninstalled MacUpdater, but I don’t rely on it, either. Still, it has been doing an excellent job staying current with the handful of apps I use every day. Good to hear that there are a range of apps attempting to address the issue. Best wishes for Floodtide.
The main problem I’ve run into is these type of updaters just look for new versions without checking to see if the updates will run on the installed OS version. My old iMac is maxed out at MacOS 10.13.6 but I’d be told to install an update that required MacOS 10.14 or later. I just stopped using them.
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Fair enough, if it still covers the apps you use daily there’s no reason to
move. One thing worth knowing: CoreCode’s own site now says of the free 3.5
that they “don’t verify updates anymore”, so anything it flags is unverified.
Thanks for the good wishes.
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Mine, so take that into account.
Honestly they overlap a lot, and Updatest got there first. Both read the
app’s own update source instead of keeping a version database, which is the
thing that killed MacUpdater.
Two differences that matter day to day. Floodtide installs Sparkle updates
itself rather than opening each app’s own updater, so 40 apps is one pass and
not 40 dialogs. Last I checked Updatest hands Sparkle and Electron apps off to
their built in updater, correct me if that’s changed. And it doesn’t need
Homebrew installed or apps adopted into it. It reads the cask index over the
web and verifies the checksum before swapping the bundle. It also runs on
Ventura, Updatest wants 15.
£10.99 for 3 Macs, 14 day trial.
If you’re on Updatest and happy with it I wouldn’t bother switching.
Yeah, that’s exactly the kind of thing an updater should handle.
Floodtide won’t run on 10.13.6 unfortunately, it needs macOS 13+. But on supported Macs it checks the minimum macOS version and picks the newest update your system can actually run, rather than just blindly offering the latest one.
Your comment also made me spot a Homebrew compatibility issue, which I’ve now fixed in 0.5.3, so genuinely thanks for pointing it out.
That’s something MacUpdater used to be quite good at, and every time it failed for me, the developer fixed it immediately. But now that he no longer maintains it, failures have become more common.
Yeah, that’s the sort of thing I’m trying to avoid with Floodtide as well. If something slips through, I’d much rather know about it and fix it quickly than have people lose trust in the updater.
If it is okay, I’d genuinely be interested in you trying Floodtide and seeing how it behaves with the apps on your Mac. I’m happy to give you a licence key for free. If you spot anything it gets wrong, I’d actually really appreciate the feedback.
I did download Floodtide a couple of weeks ago, and it really has advanced quite a lot since then. It’s clear that @henningraffi50 is putting serious effort into it.
The small number of apps that I use that are not covered by Floodtide (Emailchemy, Lingon, Mail Archiver X, Scrutiny, VMware Fusion, and a couple of others) are still tracked by MacUpdater, so for now, the combination of Floodtide as my primary update tracking app and MacUpdater as a secondary app works well for me.
It took me a few minutes to orient myself with Floodtide’s app categories, but once I did, they made a lot of sense to me. In contrast to an oversimplified interface, Floodtide feels like it is “as simple as possible and as complex as necessary” for moderately technical users. (That’s one of the hardest compliments to earn from me.)
I purchased a license a few days ago. Thanks for a solid app!
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Micropixels Software, the maker of the BatFi battery maintenance app, has a new app called Herald that aims to do the same thing. “It reads the real version out of each app you have installed, works out the newest version from the app’s own update feed, and updates with one button: download, check the code signature and the notarisation, confirm the incoming copy carries the same developer identity as the app it replaces, quit, swap, relaunch. If any step fails, it puts the old app back. It never touches App Store or Setapp apps; it lists them and hands you to the updater that owns them.” The developer asks that you send feedback if you have an app you’d like to track that Herald doesn’t already track. There’s a one-week free trial, then it’s $7.50 for the first year (with discount code, which I’m encouraged to share) and $15 a year after that. I haven’t yet tried it.
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I was a paying MacUpdater customer, could not find a replacement I liked, and wrote my own. It reads each app’s own update source, plus Homebrew, the App Store, npm, pip, Cargo, audio plugins, skills, Docker and many more in a single local scan.
Compare them all and pick the one that fits your needs best. I would welcome your feedback. Thanks!
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Hi. I’m Lora, I work at Nektony (we make MacCleaner Pro and App Cleaner & Uninstaller).
@drmoss_ca, thanks for the kind words about our support. I’ll pass it on to the guys.
One thing I’d like to correct, though, since people still find this thread. We’ve never advertised MacCleaner Pro with pop-ups or scare warnings. There are a few “Mac cleaner” apps with similar names that did, and I think that’s where the reputation comes from.
AC&U is part of the MacCleaner Pro bundle, but you can also buy it on its own. Both are actively developed, with regular updates.
If anyone has questions about our apps, I’m happy to answer them here.
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You are absolutely right, Lora. I was confusing MacCleaner Pro with Clean My Mac. Sorry for any confusion. App Cleaner & Uninstaller is an excellent product, which is why I have bought two licenses for two Macs.
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Thanks so much, and no worries at all! Really glad you like App Cleaner & Uninstaller.
Hi Rafael,
Developer of Updatest here. When you do a comparison against a competing product please check your accuracy.
What you said about Updatest is not true. Updatest does not defer Sparkle updates as you described, it functions identically to how you do it within Floodtide. It does, however, require the user to invoke a manual action to update an Electron app as that’s how they’re designed to function.
Homebrew is also only required if you want to be able to adopt your apps into Homebrew (which is the complete coverage suite that Updatest provides). We also read the cask index, just like you do.
Please make sure, as I would be doing the same if someone asked me to compare to your product, to validate and make sure you’re accurate when describing comparisons, as the key features you outlined as differentiators between you and Updatest already existed in Updatest long before Floodtide was created.
Good luck with your app and I wish you the best!
Sorry to be skeptic here. I used MacUpdater since v1, but only to scan for updates. I always installed them myself from a trusted source. I love the idea of an app that can scan and install updates, but how would one verify that the updates installed by either of these new apps is not been tampered with in any way? (no offense to any of the developers, I just want to be safe.)