Subscriptions are rapidly becoming the preferred way to watch movies and TV shows, listen to music, or read books. For one low monthly fee, services like Netflix, Apple Music, and Amazon Kindle Unlimited offer a seemingly limitless number of entertainment options for consumers on a budget. When it comes to buying Mac software however, the options are more limited.

Adobe Creative Cloud caters to photography, design, and video professionals, while Microsoft has the productivity market covered. Otherwise, Apple fans have little choice but to purchase the applications they need.

Although the Mac App Store makes buying apps easier than ever, the selection is slim, and potential buyers must wade through a lot of cruddy apps to discover the gems. The Mac App Store is even more complicated for software developers, who are restricted from offering paid upgrades or free trial versions of their products. Building on their own experience selling high-quality Mac software directly to consumers as well as through Apple’s storefront, Ukrainian developer MacPaw decided to build a better app distribution service from the ground up — one that eliminates the Mac App Store pitfalls and makes installing software as easy as watching a movie on Netflix. Setapp is a completely new way to install and use your favorite Mac software as part of a monthly subscription.

After signing up for a free 30-day trial at and downloading a small app on your Mac running OS X 10.10 or later, Setapp seamlessly installs in your Finder sidebar, a folder in the Dock, and the menu bar for easy access from anywhere on your system. Once installed, Setapp users have unlimited access to a curated catalog of only the best Mac apps from a roster of developers across a wide range of categories. Browse the available catalog of 60-plus apps — with new titles added each month — or type in the menu bar search field to quickly find what you’re looking for. Not sure what an app does? Simply double-click an icon to open a preview window with complete details including version number, space required, and screenshots, or press the space bar to get a QuickLook instead.

To install an app on your Mac, just click the Open button in the lower right corner. After a brief download, the new software will be available for use alongside other apps installed on your system.

You don’t even have to uninstall existing apps also offered by Setapp, although there are benefits to doing so, since Setapp offers freedom from intrusive advertising, as well as background updates. In everyday use, Setapp offers a more Mac-like experience than Apple’s own store.

For starters, there are no painful in-app purchases or paid upgrades to deal with — only the full, unlocked versions of each application, which are automatically updated as new versions are available. Best of all, Setapp users aren’t limited to only a handful of apps from the roster — subscribers can download as few or as many of the available apps as they want. For only $9.99 per month, Setapp delivers the productivity and utility apps users want from dozens of leading third-party developers in the Mac community. And it’s a better value for users, since the current lineup would cost over $2100 if purchased separately. Some favorites include the popular iOS device utility iMazing, remote access app Screens, bill tracker Chronicle, Instagram desktop browser and uploader Flume, robust download manager Folx Pro, and MacPaw’s own system optimizer and duplicate finder dynamic duo, CleanMyMac and Gemini.

This isn’t throwaway software or crippled freemium versions of premium apps, but the best and brightest full-featured editions available on the Mac. If you’re a Mac owner in the market for a better app buying experience, check out by downloading today and taking advantage of the entire app catalog absolutely free for the first 30 days. After that, pay only $9.99 per month to continue using any installed software or download new apps as they’re released. Install Setapp and you’re all set!

Instagram has remained pretty hard to access on desktop computers since its launch back in 2010. It has expanded to include a, but many capabilities available on the mobile version like upload or direct message are still nowhere to be found. Bring full Instagram capabilities to your desktop and really show off those photos Photo: Fortunately, since Instagram has loosened up on its API restrictions, more third-party apps have come to the rescue in recent years. In fact, it’s now possible to have a nearly complete Instagram experience on the Mac. These three apps available in the Mac App Store let you direct message in Instagram, upload your photos and of course browse through your feed. Upload Instagram Photos with Uplet We’ve actually written about, but it’s still arguably the best way to upload Instagram photos from your Mac.

Its sole purpose is to do just that. Just launch the app, log in with Instagram, click Add Photos and you’re set. But the best feature about Uplet is that it’s also one of the only apps available that can bulk upload to Instagram. That means you can select multiple photos and upload them all at once, each with their own captions. Once you’ve selected one or several photos, just put in your caption(s) and click Share or Share All to post them to your Instagram account.

A downside is that you can’t apply any filters in Uplet, so you’ll have to do your editing beforehand. That’s easy though too — check out perfect for quickly editing photos for Instagram. Another downside is that, which may be steep for some folks.

You really have to want batch uploading bad enough. Share in Private with Direct Message for Instagram Direct Message for Instagram is another Mac app that doesn’t try to be anything it’s not.

Log in with your Instagram account to have the app pull up your direct messages in a UI that looks nearly identical to Instagram’s official app. Click a conversation to view images and messages sent to you, plus write your own message, attach photos or send a heart. You can also compose new messages from scratch. The app supports push notifications so you’ll get a banner alert every time you get a new direct message if you please.

Flume On Setapp Gorgeous Instagram App For Mac Computer

Plus you can mute notifications for specific conversations if you’re engaged with some more than others. A little disappointing is that the app can’t enlarge photos or videos, so whenever you click the message sent to you, the original Instagram post opens in a browser window. It’s a small price to pay though. Speaking of small prices to pay, in the Mac App Store.

Explore All of Instagram with Flume Flume is a near perfect Instagram client for Mac. It lets you browse your Instagram feed in a beautiful gallery format, plus still take advantage of nearly every major feature. It even builds in both uploading and direct messaging, though neither to the extent of the aforementioned apps. And it looks great on OS X Yosemite and El Capitan. View and interact with your home feed, see your likes and activity, view direct messages, upload a photo and explore the rest of Instagram all from Flume. Plus you can choose from either a scrolling column view or a gorgeous grid view.

Arguably the best part about Flume is that it still orders your photos in reverse chronological order, bypassing Instagram’s new algorithm to “recommend” photos you supposedly want to see first. In the Mac App Store.