Utilities · ranked shortlist
Best Utilities software in 2026
20 approved utilities listings, ordered by published rating with the method stated below rather than assumed.
- Tools ranked
- 20
- Entry price range
- $2.49-$42
- Publish a $0 plan
- 12 of 20
How this ranking is derived
The sort key
Published rating, highest first. Ties break on the number of ratings behind the score, then on product name so the order never depends on what the API happened to return first. That is the whole rule, there is no weighting, no score of our own, and nothing paid: no sponsored slot runs on these pages.
Where the ratings come from
No listing in this set carries a rating, so the order falls back to name. Those scores are aggregated from public sources rather than collected here, Softwr hosts no reviews of its own, which is also why no rating on this page is marked up as ours in structured data.
What the pool is
Approved utilities listings, capped at 20 per page; 20 came back for this one. It is not the whole market, and a tool being absent means we hold no record of it rather than that it failed a test. The unranked full set is on the utilities category page.
The ranking
Each entry lists why it sits where it sits, drawn from its own published rating and pricing.
- #1
BetterTouchTool
Highest rated hereMac gesture, shortcut and automation customisation tool sold as a one-time licence with a lifetime tier
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $12 a month, with no free plan.
- 2 published tiers, topping out at $24.
- Billing
- One-time purchase
- Published tiers
- 2 tiers
- Tags
- Gesture Control, automation, Mac Utility, Window Manager
- #2
Calsense
Central irrigation control and water management for municipalities, schools and universities
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- quote
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- irrigation, municipal, water-management, landscape
- #3
CleanShot X
Paid Mac screenshot and screen recording tool with annotation, scrolling capture and cloud sharing
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $8 a month, with no free plan.
- 2 published tiers, topping out at $29.
- Billing
- One-time purchase
- Published tiers
- 2 tiers
- Tags
- screenshot, Screen Recording, Mac Utility, annotation
- #4
Deluge
Free open source BitTorrent client with true thin-client architecture for remote daemon control
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Billing
- Open source, no licence fee
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- Torrent, Bittorrent, Open Source, remote-control
- #5
Dominos
Domino's Pizza ordering app with Piece of the Pie Rewards, built to route orders away from delivery marketplace commissions
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Billing
- Free app, revenue from purchases
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- loyalty, Mobile Ordering, restaurants, Pizza Delivery
- #6
EcoStruxure Geo SCADA Expert
Telemetry SCADA for geographically distributed water, oil and gas assets, formerly ClearSCADA
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- quote
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- scada, Telemetry, Water Utilities, Dnp3
- #7
Find My
Apple's built-in app for locating devices, AirTags and shared people locations
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Billing
- Free, built into Apple hardware and iCloud
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- Device Tracking, location-sharing, apple, Airtag
- #8
Google Lens
Visual search that identifies objects, text, plants, products and translates text from the camera
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Billing
- Free, bundled into other Google apps
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- Visual Search, Image Recognition, translation, google
- #9
Hazel
Rule-based file organisation for macOS that watches folders and automatically files, renames or deletes
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $42 a month, with no free plan.
- 2 published tiers, topping out at $65.
- Billing
- One-time purchase
- Published tiers
- 2 tiers
- Tags
- File Automation, Mac Utility, Organisation
- #10
Kap
Free open source screen recorder for macOS, focused on video and GIF capture rather than annotation
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Billing
- Open source, no licence fee
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- Screen Recording, Gif, Open Source, Mac Utility
- #11
Karabiner-Elements
Free open source keyboard remapper for macOS, working at driver level before the OS sees a keystroke
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Billing
- Open source, no licence fee
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- Keyboard Remapping, Open Source, Mac Utility, accessibility
- #12
Maccy
Free open source clipboard history manager for macOS with no account, sync fee or subscription
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Billing
- Open source, no licence fee
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- Clipboard Manager, Open Source, Mac Utility
- #13
Magnet
Mac App Store window manager sold as a one-time paid app, with no free tier
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $4.99 a month, with no free plan.
- Billing
- One-time purchase
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- Window Manager, Mac Utility, Mac App Store
- #14
McDonalds
McDonald's mobile ordering and MyMcDonald's Rewards app used to drive app-exclusive deals and first party data
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Billing
- Free app, revenue from purchases
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- loyalty, Mobile Ordering, restaurants, Quick Service
- #15
Paste
Subscription clipboard manager for Mac, iPhone and iPad with iCloud sync between devices
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Paid from $2.49 a month, with no free plan.
- Billing
- Per user per month
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- Clipboard Manager, sync, ios, Mac Utility
- #16
qBittorrent
Free open source BitTorrent client with a built in search tab and no thin-client remote mode
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Billing
- Open source, no licence fee
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- Torrent, Bittorrent, Open Source, file-sharing
- #17
Rectangle
Free open source window snapping for macOS, with a separate paid Rectangle Pro for extra features
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $9.99 a month.
- Billing
- Open source, no licence fee
- Published tiers
- 2 tiers
- Tags
- Window Manager, Mac Utility, Open Source, productivity
- #18
Sedaru
Water utility asset management and field operations built on top of Esri ArcGIS
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Its top tier is unpriced and sold by quote.
- Billing
- quote
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- Water Utilities, asset management, gis, field operations
- #19
Shottr
Free Mac screenshot tool with annotation and OCR, with an optional paid tier for extra features
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Publishes a $0 plan, with paid tiers from $8 a month.
- 3 published tiers, topping out at $25.
- Billing
- One-time purchase
- Published tiers
- 3 tiers
- Tags
- screenshot, Ocr, Mac Utility, annotation
- #20
Starbucks
Starbucks mobile ordering, payment and Starbucks Rewards loyalty app
- No rating on record, so it ranks below everything that has one.
- Free, no paid tier is published at all.
- Billing
- Free app, revenue from prepaid stored value and purchases
- Published tiers
- 1 tier
- Tags
- loyalty, Mobile Ordering, restaurants, Stored Value
What utilities software costs
Counted from the published pricing of the 20 listings on this page. A tool counts as free only where it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence or a starting price of zero.
- Cheapest paid plan
- $2.49Paste
- Median entry price
- $8across 7 priced
- Dearest entry price
- $42Hazel
- Publish a $0 plan
- 12of 20
Paid utilities plans in this set start anywhere from $2.49 a month for Paste to $42 for Hazel. The median entry price across the 7 tools that publish one is $8, half of them start below that figure and half above it.
Entry price is not the ceiling. The dearest published tier anywhere in this category is Hazel's at $65 a month, 1.5× the highest entry price on the page. Read the top of each ladder as well as the bottom, because that is where you land after two years of growth.
12 of 20 publish a $0 plan, and 10 of those charge nothing at all. 5 tools have no free tier of any kind.
3 of 20 keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote, which in practice means the number you end up paying at the top end is not on this page or on theirs.
How these vendors bill
The billing model each of the 20 utilities listings publishes, counted. Two tools at the same headline price are not the same purchase if one of them charges per seat.
- Open source, no licence fee
- 6
- One-time purchase
- 5
- quote
- 3
- Free app, revenue from purchases
- 2
- Free app, revenue from prepaid stored value and purchases
- 1
- Free, built into Apple hardware and iCloud
- 1
- Free, bundled into other Google apps
- 1
- Per user per month
- 1
Separately, 3 of 20 publish at least one tier with no price attached. Those are sold by quote, so the top of the ladder is negotiable, and unknowable, until you talk to sales.
What “Utilities” covers in practice
The subject tags that recur across these 20 listings, with the number of tools carrying each. A category label is a filing decision; this is the closer read of what is actually filed under it.
- Mac Utility10
- Open Source6
- loyalty3
- Mobile Ordering3
- restaurants3
- Window Manager3
- annotation2
- Bittorrent2
- Clipboard Manager2
- Screen Recording2
- screenshot2
- Torrent2
Carried by a single tool: accessibility, automation, file-sharing, Image Recognition, location-sharing, Oil And Gas, Quick Service, Telemetry. If one of those is the reason you are here, the category page is the wrong lens, go straight to that product.
How to choose between them
Four things the numbers above should change about your shortlist.
Start with the free tiers if there are enough of them
12 of 20 utilities tools here publish a $0 plan, which is enough to run a real trial without a purchase order. A free tier is worth more than a free trial when you are evaluating: a trial expires on the vendor's schedule, a free plan expires when you outgrow it. The thing to check before you commit is which of the capabilities below sit above the free line, starting with free to join, the single most frequently named capability in this category's published tiers.
Read the spread before you read the features
$2.49 to $42 is a $39.51 spread on entry price alone, and a spread that wide is never about polish, it is about who the vendor built for. Tools at the bottom of this ladder are priced for one person or a small team; tools near $42 are priced for a department with a procurement process. Decide which of those you are before you compare capability, or you will shortlist four tools that were never competing for the same buyer.
Check which tier you actually land on
1 of 20 tools here publish three or more tiers, and the median vendor in this category ships 1 of them. The advertised price is the first rung, and the things teams tend to need, free to join, are named in higher plans far more often than in entry ones. Price your shortlist at the tier that contains what you need, not at the tier on the pricing page's left edge.
The billing model matters more than the headline number
This category splits across 8 billing models: Open source, no licence fee on 6 listings, One-time purchase on 5, and 6 other arrangements across the rest. A per-user price and a flat subscription at the same headline figure are not the same purchase, the first one grows with headcount and the second does not. Multiply by your real team size before you compare two numbers side by side.
Compare utilities tools directly
Every pairing below is a full comparison: the same checklist applied to both, so a gap in one is a gap in the other.
- BetterTouchTool vs Calsense
- Calsense vs CleanShot X
- CleanShot X vs Deluge
- Deluge vs Dominos
- Dominos vs EcoStruxure Geo SCADA Expert
- EcoStruxure Geo SCADA Expert vs Find My
- Find My vs Google Lens
- Google Lens vs Hazel
Go straight to the numbers
- BetterTouchToolpricingalternatives
- Calsensepricingalternatives
- CleanShot Xpricingalternatives
- Delugepricingalternatives
- Dominospricingalternatives
- EcoStruxure Geo SCADA Expertpricingalternatives
Questions people ask about utilities software
Answered from the listings on this page, and nowhere else.
- How is this utilities ranking decided?
- Mechanically. The 20 approved utilities listings on this page are sorted by their published rating, highest first, with the number of ratings behind each score as the tie-break and the product name as a final tie-break so the order is stable. Those ratings are aggregated from public sources, not collected from Softwr readers, this site hosts no reviews, so the order is a summary of what is already published elsewhere, not a verdict of our own. Nothing on this page is paid placement.
- How much does utilities software cost?
- Across the 20 utilities tools listed here, paid plans start between $2.49 and $42 a month, with a median entry price of $8. The most expensive single tier published in the category is $65 a month (Hazel). 12 of 20 also publish a $0 plan.
- What is the cheapest utilities software?
- 10 of the 20 tools listed here cost nothing at all. Among the ones that charge, Paste has the lowest published entry price at $2.49 a month. Cheapest and best value are different questions: check which tier the capability you need actually appears in before you compare starting prices.
- Is there free utilities software?
- Yes, 12 of 20 tools in this category publish a plan priced at $0. 10 of them are free outright, with no paid tier above. A tool is only counted as free here when it publishes a $0 plan, an open-source licence, or a starting price of zero, a free trial does not count.
- How is utilities software usually billed?
- Open source, no licence fee (6), One-time purchase (5), quote (3), Free app, revenue from purchases (2), plus 4 less common arrangements, counted across the 20 listings on this page. The distinction that costs money is per-seat versus flat: a per-user plan at the same headline price scales with your headcount and a flat subscription does not. 3 of 20 tools also keep at least one tier unpriced and sold by quote.
- What does utilities software actually cover?
- The 20 tools on this page do not describe themselves the same way. The subject tags they carry most often are mac utility (10), open source (6), loyalty (3), mobile ordering (3), restaurants (3). That spread is the honest answer to what the category means in practice: it is not one product shape, and two tools filed under utilities may overlap on very little.
- How many pricing tiers do utilities tools offer?
- 20 of 20 tools here publish a plan breakdown, and the median one has 1 tiers. 1 of 20 publish three or more. More tiers is not generosity, it usually means the capability you are buying for sits two rungs above the advertised price, so price your shortlist at the tier that contains it.
- How many utilities tools are listed on Softwr?
- 20 approved utilities listings appear on this page, including BetterTouchTool, Calsense, CleanShot X, Deluge. Each links to a full breakdown with its pricing tiers and plan detail, and the category can be filtered by price and sorted by rating above. You can also read the shortlist view at /best/utilities, which ranks the same set by published rating.
Keep reading
Neighbouring categories
Adjacent in the same taxonomy, not a ranking.