The best Mac apps for students are apps that help you improve your productivity levels while providing enough educational advantage. Whether you’re resuming a new school year, preparing for the next semester, or you’re simply looking for apps that can accompany you for the rest of your school year, the apps mentioned in our list below are some of the top apps you can get on your MacBook.
From planning apps to studying, organizing, writing, and even focusing apps, our list contains the essentials you’ll need. Read on to learn the ideal apps you need for your MacBook.
Contents
A List of the Ideal Apps for Students with MacBooks
1. iStudiez Pro
| App Type | Educational App |
| Benefits |
|
| Price |
|
| Platform | macOS, iOS, Android, Windows |
If you find it difficult to stay on top of your school schedule, then iStudiez is an app you want to have on your MacBook Pro and Macbook Air. This app is a student planner app for Mac that is designed to provide you with excellent ways to manage your assignments, deadlines, classes, and more.
It’s like a to-do list on steroids. iStudiez can even help you calculate your GPA; all you have to do is simply enter your grades, and the app does the rest. The interface is well-designed and user-friendly, and the calendar view allows you to stay on top of your weekly schedules.
2. Grammarly
| App Type | Writing App |
| Benefits |
|
| Price |
|
| Platform | macOS, iOS, Android, and Windows |
Grammar errors are some of the worst enemies of a student. Not only do they tarnish your essays and assignments, but they can also lead to a reduction in marks. With Grammarly, you’ll be able to improve your grammar and write as much as you want. This intelligent grammar checker catches most grammar errors and also offers suggestions on sentence delivery, structure, and styling.
It also features a plagiarism checker that scans ProQuest library databases and tons of web pages to make sure your essays meet the required plagiarism score. The web browser extension also has the ability to copy citations so you can write more efficiently. You can download the Word extension to make corrections directly in your Word documents.
However, many of these options are only available on the premium version so you may need to fork out $30 per month to get all the benefits the app has to offer. You can also check with your college or school to know if it’s subscribed to an educational plan you can take advantage of.
3. Mochi
| App Type | Educational App |
| Benefits |
|
| Price |
|
| Platform | macOS, iOS, Android, Windows |
If you’re a student who struggles with recalling what you’ve been taught in class, Mochi may be the help you need for better retention. This app is one of the best Mac apps for high school students as it uses the Spaced Repetition System to help improve your ability to recall and retain information. It allows you to make flashcards and take notes, then repeatedly remind you of what you’ve written down so you can recall them easily.
It’s an app that’s easy to use, and the simple interface is easy to understand. You can group related flashcards via tags and even import online decks. While the free version does provide you with a slew of functions, you can get more features by paying five bucks a month, including the ability to sync across your devices as well as your cloud storage.
4. PDF Expert
| App Type | Utility App |
| Benefits |
|
| Price |
|
| Platform | macOS, iOS, iPadOS |
PDF Expert is another excellent app any student using a MacBook will appreciate. This app is one of the top productivity apps as it allows you to edit PDF files, and convert PDF files to Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Word, or Microsoft PowerPoint, and vice versa. You can use different annotation features and also rearrange the page files to suit your reading needs.
This app also uses Optical Character Recognition (OCR) technology to capture scanned documents and convert them into editable documents. The app costs $6.67 per month and you’d be able to use it across all Apple devices. There’s also a lifetime subscription and an educational plan. You can consider getting either of these plans if you’re looking to get some discounts.
5. 1Password
| App Type | Utility App |
| Benefits |
|
| Price |
|
| Platform | macOS, iOS, Android, Windows, iPadOS |
As a student, it is quite normal for you to forget your passwords since you have your daily school schedule to worry about. Instead of having to remember every password you set up for every website, social media, app, tool, and more, you can leave that task to the 1Password app which acts as a password manager. This app allows you to create different vaults so you can store the passwords for related websites in each vault.
It also keeps track of your usernames, bank account information, login ID, and more. You get access to a password generator that helps you create strong passwords and a feature called Watchtower that provides you with warnings about repetitive passwords. This app comes with a 14-day free trial and once that expires, you’ll have to subscribe to the service at a $2.99 fee.
6. BeFocused
| App Type | Productivity App |
| Benefits |
|
| Price |
|
| Platform | macOS, iOS |
It’s easy to get distracted when using your MacBook to read, research, or carry out other educational activities. BeFocused is an app that helps you maintain your ability to focus by using a Pomodoro timer to organize your study time. You’ll get a 25-minute work time and a five-minute break time.
You can also customize the work time and break time to suit your needs. While it’s a free app that works with the whole Apple ecosystem, it has a pro version that comes with a variety of features, including the ability to sync across devices.
7. Collabio Spaces
| App Type | Productivity App |
| Benefits |
|
| Price |
|
| Platform | macOS, iOS |
Collabio Spaces is a collaborative tool that allows you to work with your colleagues or friends without the need for an internet connection. This tool features a spreadsheet tool, a document editor, as well as a PDF annotator, allowing you to collaborate with your peers in real-time.
It has a simple interface that you can get used to in no time and you can even create different spaces for different projects or subjects. Also, your co-author doesn’t necessarily have to be on a Mac as they can easily join your space via their iPhone or iPad.
8. Google Drive
| App Type | Productivity App |
| Benefits |
|
| Price |
|
| Platform | macOS, iOS, Android, Windows |
Keeping your files safe and accessible is one of the most important things you’ll need to do as a student. Saving your essential documents in Drive can make your life easier as you’ll be able to save files without worrying about them getting compromised by a bad hard drive.
The drive also provides the ability to share documents with others for better collaboration. You also get different office suite apps that are similar to Microsoft Office, a mail client, a note-taking app, and more for free. All you need is the Google Chrome browser and a Gmail account, and you can start enjoying one of the best Mac apps for students free.
9. VLC Media Player
| App Type | Media Player |
| Benefits |
|
| Price |
|
| Platform | macOS, iOS, Android, Windows |
When it comes to playing media files on your Mac, VLC is one of the top apps you can choose. Besides the fact that it can play most media files, this app is simple to use and you don’t need to download multiple codecs just to play your media files.
It even allows users to record live videos and you can capture screenshots of what’s happening in your videos so you can go back and revise them later. It’s also highly customizable and you can do more with the different plugins available for this player.
Conclusion
The apps we’ve mentioned above are some of the best Macbook apps for productivity. Whatever app you choose to add to your MacBook, make sure to keep these tips in mind:
- The BeFocused app helps ensure that you’re not distracted by any other apps or websites on your MacBook.
- The PDF Expert app makes it easy for you to convert PDF files to other file formats and vice versa.
- You can use the iStudiez app to organize your weekly class schedules.
- Grammarly’s plagiarism checker scans the general internet as well as ProQuest’s databases to make sure you have no plagiarism issues.
We hope that the best Mac apps for productivity we’ve mentioned above will help improve your schooling experience. While some of the aforementioned apps have free versions, we recommend getting the pro versions as you’ll be able to experience the apps to their fullest potential.