Permute alternatives: choosing a file converter for the Mac

Permute is good, and that is worth saying plainly

Permute, from Charlie Monroe Software, has been a Mac favourite for years for good reason. You drag files onto a window, pick a preset, and it converts video, audio and images between a very wide range of formats without ever explaining a codec to you. It costs $14.99 as a one-time purchase at the time of writing, is available on the Mac App Store and directly, and is included with a Setapp subscription. For most people converting a video for a client or squeezing a batch of images, it is the obvious answer and it is inexpensive.

So the interesting question is why anyone searches for an alternative. In 2026, the most common reason is mechanical: Permute 4 requires macOS 26 or later and an Apple Silicon Mac. If you are on an Intel Mac, or holding a stable older macOS for work reasons, you are directed to Permute 3 instead — supported, but no longer where new development goes. The second reason is scope: Permute is a media converter first, and people who need documents, archives and data formats in the same tool find themselves opening three apps. The third is philosophical: some people would rather not buy through the App Store, or want to see what the free tools do first.

What to look for in a converter

Does it cover the formats you actually have? Obvious, but worth doing properly: list the five conversions you performed last year before choosing. A video-only tool is useless for a stack of HEIC images, and an image tool will not touch a FLAC.

Does it convert locally? Anything that uploads your file to a server is a different kind of product with a different risk profile, no matter how convenient the web page is.

Can it batch? The difference between converting one file and converting a folder of two hundred is the difference between a utility and a chore.

Can it route multi-step conversions? Some pairs of formats have no direct path and need an intermediate step. A tool that works this out for you saves real time; one that does not simply reports failure.

Does it tell you the truth when it cannot do something? Several proprietary formats have no open decoder. The correct behaviour is to say so, not to emit a technically-valid file with the audio missing.

The free options

HandBrake is the free, open-source standard for video, and for video it is superb: mature encoders, a well-designed preset library, hardware acceleration, and a queue for batch jobs. It is also video-only. It will not convert your audio files, your images or your documents, and its interface exposes far more encoding detail than a casual user wants. If video transcoding is your whole problem, install HandBrake and stop reading.

FFmpeg is what most converters are built on, including many commercial ones, and it is free. From a terminal it will convert essentially any audio or video to anything else, and it scripts beautifully for repetitive jobs. The cost is the learning curve — the flag syntax is genuinely difficult, and a wrong argument silently produces a bad file. Excellent for the technically inclined, a non-starter for everyone else.

macOS itself converts more than people realise, for free. Preview exports images between common formats and creates PDFs; Quick Actions in the Finder convert images and rotate video; the Shortcuts app can build a repeatable batch conversion for images and PDFs with no code. Try this before buying anything if your needs are modest.

VLC also has a convert-and-save function tucked into its menus. It works, it is free, and it is far from the app's strength — the interface for it is confusing and the results are inconsistent. Useful in a pinch.

The online converters, and why they are the wrong default

Web-based converters are the most convenient option and the one worth thinking hardest about. You upload a file to a server owned by someone else, it converts, you download the result. For a meme, fine. For a signed contract, a medical scan, an unreleased recording or anything covered by an NDA, that upload is the entire problem — and it is not solved by a privacy policy promising deletion after an hour. There are also practical ceilings: file size limits, queues at busy times, watermarks and daily caps on free tiers, and a hard dependency on your upload bandwidth for large video. The comparison of Recast and online converters works through this in detail.

Where Recast fits

Recast is the converter built for this site, and its distinguishing idea is how it models the problem. Instead of a fixed list of presets, it treats conversion as a capability graph: you give it a file and a target format, and it finds the best route between them — including multi-step routes where no direct path exists. That covers 58 formats across 589 conversion paths, spanning documents, images, audio and video in one app rather than three.

Everything runs on your Mac. There is no upload, no queue behind other people's jobs, and no file-size ceiling other than your own storage. It converts whole folders in one pass with live progress, exposes quality controls where they matter, and ships a Shortcuts action so a conversion can become part of an automation you already run. Where a proprietary format has no open decoder, it says so rather than producing a corrupt file. It needs macOS 14 or later — notably, it does not require macOS 26 or Apple Silicon, which is the specific gap that sends many Permute users looking.

Pricing follows the site's model: donate once, download the complete app, no subscription, no account, no locked features. As with every app here, it is distributed directly rather than through the Mac App Store, so macOS shows a security prompt on first launch — the install and safety notes explain that prompt.

Which should you choose?

Choose Permute if you are on a recent macOS with Apple Silicon, your conversions are media, and you want the friendliest drag-and-drop experience for very little money. It is a good app and $14.99 is a fair price.

Choose HandBrake if it is video and only video, and you want free plus excellent quality control.

Choose FFmpeg if you live in a terminal and want to script it.

Choose macOS built-ins if you are converting a few images or making a PDF. You already own them.

Choose Recast if you want one app covering documents as well as media, you convert in batches, your files are confidential enough that uploading is out of the question, or your Mac cannot run the current Permute. The article on converting files without uploading them goes further into why local conversion matters for sensitive work.

Every price above was checked in August 2026 and is subject to change; verify on the developer's own site before buying.