Updatest Makes Mac App Updates Safe and Easy

Software updates are a fact of life. On the iPad and iPhone, all updates come directly from Apple’s App Store. But the Mac is a different animal.

Yes, you can download apps from the Mac App Store. But you can also download apps from a third-party developer’s website, GitHub, or even Homebrew. But even with these options, it can be difficult to know whether your Mac’s third party application updates are coming from legitimate sources or spoofed malware sites.

Keeping track of new app updates on your Mac is not only a tedious chore, it can also potentially lead to compromising your Mac’s security.

Updatest’s interface includes a sidebar on the left, showing the available updates for your Mac. On the right, you can see details for each available update.

This is where Updatest comes in: it’s billed as “your home for Mac updates”. Updatest will show you what software needs updating, but unlike other Mac apps in this space, Updatest will also show each app’s security details, giving users the ability to see an application’s notarization status and other security information. Update pulls from verified sources only, meaning that every new update is coming directly from the developer, not a third party.

Version numbers are available both in the side bar and the main window pane. (See red annotation.) Updatest will also show the install path for the application (also annotated in red).

Updatest works with the Mac App Store, Sparkle, Electron, GitHub releases and even Homebrew. Sparkle is a popular open-source framework that enables macOS apps (and Electron apps) to self-update securely and easily. Electron is a framework for building cross-platform desktop apps (Mac, Windows, and Linux). Homebrew is a free, open-source package manager for macOS that simplifies installing, updating, and managing software directly from the Terminal.

Updatest supports Homebrew formulae updates. You can update these terminal apps from within Updatest.

Updatest interface is pretty straight forward. A sidebar on the left shows any available updates. On the main window, you’ll see details for the app you have selected. At a glance, you can see the version number, any release notes, bundle identifiers, macOS System software compatibility, architecture (Intel or Apple Silicon), notarization, and more.

Updatest’s settings allows the user to define locations where installed apps reside.

Updatest can be customized. Choose which repositories you want to use and which you want to ignore.

The sidebar offers two views. Under the Search bar within the sidebar, click the left button to view all available Mac App Store, Sparkle and Electron app updates. Click the right button (with the Terminal icon) and all of the Homebrew app updates are shown.

And speaking of Homebrew, Updatest has extensive support for that platform. Homebrew formulae can be updated in bulk, or one at a time. Updatest provides users with each app’s dependency information, licensing info, developer’s webpage and install location

Right-click on an app in the sidebar, and you can choose whether to update, skip update, or ignore the app altogether.

Updatest brings much needed flexibility to updating one’s Mac. One feature that I really like is the ability to temporarily skip an update, or ignore an update altogether. (I’m looking at you, iWorks.) Right-click on an app, and choose your option. (You can always change your mind at a later time.)

Updatest is a relatively new app, which has only recently come out of its extensive beta-testing period. I find Updatest to be really useful at letting me know which of my Mac apps need an update. Mac App Store applications, along with Sparkle-based Mac apps, can be updated directly from within Updatest. Click the “Update” button and Updatest will update your app. The same is also true for Homebrew apps. But some applications (notably Dropbox, Krita and OneDrive) require the user to follow the developer’s provided link from Updatest, to download the latest release.

Recently the developer incorporated an optional “Community Updates” feature, which anonymously syncs your Mac’s app bundle identifiers and version info with Updatest, so you can spot potential updates that are reported by other Updatest users. This feature is currently free, and will be transitioned to a separate subscription-only service to help support ongoing costs. By default, Updatest does not collect any of your data. The “Community Updates” feature is opt-in.

Updatest has replaced Latest as my Mac updater of choice. (Ironically, the latter hasn’t been updated in quite some time.) Updatest sports a clean, intuitive design, offers more features and is actively maintained. While it’s not free, Updatest is reasonably priced for what it does.

Updatest (currently at version 1.5.2 as of this write-up) can be downloaded directly from the developer’s website, or installed via Homebrew. Updatest is $12.99, which covers up to three Macs. A household license for up to 10 Macs is $24.99. Both options are one-time purchases.