What has changed, and how updates reach you.

How releases and updates work

Every app in the catalogue is distributed directly from this site rather than through the Mac App Store. There is no account, no licence server and no activation check, which means a build you have downloaded keeps working regardless of what happens here later. It also means updates are not pushed to you silently. Here is the whole mechanism, end to end:

• You choose a tier and an app. The donation widget on any product page offers two fixed tiers: $10 downloads one app, $20 downloads two different apps. The app list is generated from the published installer manifest, so you can only pick something that genuinely has a build ready.
• Stripe handles the payment. Checkout runs on Stripe's hosted page. No card details touch this site, and no account is created for you.
• You get a signed, single-use link. After payment the confirmation page shows a private download link, and the same link is emailed to you. Each link is cryptographically signed, tied to that one purchase, and valid for a single download before it is consumed.
• Links expire. Download links carry an expiry as well as the single-use limit. If a link expires, or you clicked it and the download failed, reply to the confirmation email and it will be re-issued.
• First launch needs one confirmation. Because the apps are directly distributed and have not been through Apple's paid notarisation, macOS asks you to approve the first launch of each app in System Settings under Privacy & Security. It is a one-time step per app; the full walkthrough is in the Install Information panel on every checkout widget and in the install and safety guide.
• Updates are manual. No app in the catalogue phones home to check for a new version. When a new build of an app you already own is published, email support@macossoftware.com from the address you used at checkout and a fresh download link will be issued. Existing customers do not pay again for an updated build of the same app.

Current requirements

The catalogue is macOS-only. The Mac apps target macOS 14 or later; MacManager, for example, is built in Swift 6 under strict concurrency for that target. A few apps, such as Better Notes, share a codebase with iPad, iPhone and Vision Pro editions. Installers are delivered as .dmg disk images that you drag into your Applications folder. Nothing requires an internet connection to keep running after installation, and the AI features are either fully on-device or driven by a model endpoint you supply yourself.

Release log

This log begins in August 2026, when the installers were first published and the site took its current shape. Changes before that point were not recorded publicly, so they are deliberately not listed here rather than reconstructed after the fact. Entries cover user-visible changes only.

2026-08-10 — Site, checkout and media

• Simpler donation checkout. The platform picker was removed from the donation form — the catalogue is macOS-only, so the platform is now resolved automatically from the installer manifest instead of being asked for.
• The checkout can no longer be hidden. The donation card was taken out of the scroll-reveal animation, so a failure in the animation path can never leave the pay-and-download form invisible on a product page.
• Catalogue search and filtering. The home page gained search and category filtering over the full app directory, alongside a redesign that made the product pages dark-mode capable.
• Product videos. Promo videos were embedded on the first five product pages, hero videos now play in the home carousel, and a video sitemap was published.
• One support address. Every page on the site now points at support@macossoftware.com, replacing the previous mixture of contact addresses.
• Metadata pass. Titles, descriptions, structured data and the sitemap were corrected across the site, and several missing pages were added.

2026-08-07 — Installers and the IndepApps identity

• Mac installers published. Real, downloadable builds went live for MacManager, Gravity, InQ, Verso, DevMonkey, Better Notes and Spider Notes; the remaining apps in the catalogue followed on 2026-08-08.
• The app picker now tells the truth. The donation catalogue is derived from the shared product list on both the server and the checkout widget, so the list of apps you can choose always matches the apps that actually have a published installer.
• Direct-distribution copy. Product pages were rewritten to state plainly that the apps are distributed outside the Mac App Store, and what that means at first launch.
• New brand mark and navigation. The IndepApps mark replaced the old logo, the header "Get the apps" button now goes straight to the donation gateway, and the Apps menu gained a nine-app Searchlight panel with a one-line descriptor under each entry.

Maintaining this page: add each new dated entry at the top of the release log, immediately under the HTML comment in this section’s source, and update the dateModified value in the structured data. Last updated 2026-08-10.

Questions about a build

If you are unsure which version you are running, or you need the current build of an app you have already donated for, email support@macossoftware.com with the app name and your macOS version. The support page lists what to include and the current response-time target.