I’m really disappointed about the demise of MacUpdater. I have a LOT of apps (over 300 according to MacUpdater!). I could probably uninstall many of them, but I actually do use most of them.
@Michael: Quite possibly I’m missing something, but doesn’t almost every software these days remind you about available updates? Last time I used macupdate.com was about 12 years ago when they offered some special pricing for 1Password.
The reason a tool like MacUpdater is critical is that I have many apps that, for security reasons, I have blocked (using Little Snitch) from accessing the Internet. As a general rule, for apps that have elevated privileges (like Karabiner-Elements, which requires Input Monitoring, or Bartender 5, which requires Screen & System Audio Recording), I have blocked them from accessing the internet. So without something like MacUpdater, I would have to keep a list of apps and manually check for updates, which would be a huge pain and waste a lot of time. (I do allow some apps, like browsers and Thunderbird, to install their own updates.)
One of the things I love about MacUpdater is that it doesn’t just provide an option to install an update, but it provides (1) release notes displayed in the app, (2) a link to the release notes URL, (3) a link to the developer website, and (4) a link to the download location for the update.
I have not given MacUpdater (or any other app) the “App Management” permission necessary to update or delete other applications, and I never will. That requires putting far too much trust in the update app. Consequently, I need an update checker app to provide me with the download links so I can download each update and install it myself.
What would be awesome is an update tool that had a “download update file to folder” option that would automatically download updates with the click of a button instead of installing them. (As a general rule, I also scan all new apps and app updates with VirusTotal. That might be overkill, but I’d rather be safe than sorry. It would be even better if the update tool had an option to scan the files with VirusTotal and then link to the VirusTotal scan results.)
Thanks @gilby101 for the mention of AppLite. Thanks @Nello for the link to a list of options. I’ll check them out. AppLite looks like similar to Latest, which doesn’t appear to provide download links. (@mikebhm ) I can’t tell if App Cleaner & Uninstaller provides links to the developer websites and download pages.
Edit: For anyone who, like me, is on the extra cautious side when it comes to security, I highly recommend Suspicious Package and Apparency for inspecting installer packages and apps.
Edit #2: I have installed Latest, Updates, and MacUpdate Desktop (alongside MacUpdater). Here are the scan results:
- MacUpdater: 60 updates available (258 apps up-to-date)
- Awesome! Best in class.
- Latest: 39 updates available
- This app finds the most updates after MacUpdater (but still finds fewer than 35% fewer apps than MacUpdater, based on the apps I have installed).
- Nevertheless, this is the worst of the bunch. It doesn’t even link to the developer website. It sometimes shows release notes, and sometimes it doesn’t. The only option is to use Latest to install the update (which I will not allow). BUT, I guess it is useful for letting me know apps that have upates for me to manually locate the website and the download file.
- Missing Features:
- Size of app database/available updates
- Download links
- Links to developer websites
- Updatest: 19 updates found (Note: I have not installed Homebrew or the Homebrew Mac App Store components.)
- For apps that use Sparkle, it provides a link to the Sparkle feed, from which I can extract the download location. But I wish it simply provided a link in the GUI.
- For Electron apps, it links to the download location.
- When it can find them, it shows release notes in the GUI.
- But it finds the fewest updates.
- Missing Features:
- Size of app database/available updates
- Direct links in the GUI to downloads for Sparkle apps
- Direct links to the developer websites
- MacUpdate Desktop: 32 updates available (414 apps founds, including system apps like “System Settings”)
- Second best user interface after MacUpdater (in my opinion).
- It finds the second most available updates, and it links to developer websites.
- But it installs a background daemon, and it won’t run if it is disabled, which is annoying.
- Missing Features:
- Size of app database/available updates
- Direct download links
- Ability to use without constantly running/autostart background daemon