Just wanted to say that I love MacUpdater! It’s focus on usability and getting the app to function with so many types of updaters is what makes it a “classic macOS app” that is always a must-have for me.

I work exclusively on desktop apps nowadays, creating https://lowtechguys.com and https://lunar.fyi and I can say there are a few very annoying issues with this desktop ecosystem.

    1. Auto-updating
    2. Payments and licensing
    3. Friction on trying the app

If you think about it, a web app can be instantly used by loading an URL, is automatically updated with a simple deployment, and you can just slap a Stripe Checkout on it and have payments.

On desktop, all those things have to be solved by hand with various combinations of frameworks/libraries.

The macOS App Store for example solves all the above issues, but its sandbox limitations can make an app impossible. Lunar for example is not allowed on the App Store, and my rcmd app switcher is still missing window switching because App Store restricts apps from fetching windows of other apps.

Of course, all those issues can be seen as advantages by other people:

    1. Immutable code (no auto updating means the dev can't break or rip out features from a working app)
    2. Free apps (licensing being so hard, a lot of small apps are released for free because the devs have capitulated on the payment front)
    3. Works offline (installing apps is not that hard really)