App Defaults 2026

I have been trying the past year or so to to find alternatives to US Big tech products, mostly in my software. It’s been an interesting journey to find what I really need, simplify my tech use and take inspiration from others. It was a bit of change but I don’t find that I miss much.

It meant switching for example from Google Drive to Infomaniak kDrive, Substack to Buttondown, GitHub to Codeberg, or Goodreads to the Storygraph. It’s still a work-in-progress but here are my current App Defaults for 2026.

• 📨 Mail Client : Apple Mail
• 📮 Mail Server : Infomaniak - Gmail
• 📝 Notes : Obsidian
• ✅ To-Do : Apple Reminders (Personal) - taskwarrior (Work)
• 📷 iPhone Photo Shooting : Camera
• 🟦 Photo Management : Apple Photos
• 📆 Calendar : Apple Calendar (CalDAV via Infomaniak)
• 📁 Cloud File Storage : Infomaniak kDrive
• 🖥️ Backups : Borg Backup with Vorta
• 📖 RSS : NetNewsWire
• 🙍🏻‍♂️ Contacts : Apple Contacts (CardDAV via Infomaniak)
• 🌐 Browser : Zen (Firefox fork) (Desktop - Personal) - Vivaldi (Desktop - Work) - Firefox Focus (iOS)
• 💬 Chat : Beeper - Signal - WhatsApp - Messages
• 🔖 Bookmarks : buku
• 📑 Read It Later : Readwise Reader
• 🔗 Link Curation : Shaarli
• 📬 Newsletter : Buttondown
• 📷 Image compression : ImagOptim
• 🛒 Shopping Lists : Apple Reminders
• 💰 Budgeting and Personal Finance : Finary
• 🎵 Music : Spotify - SoundCloud
• 🎤 Podcasts : Overcast
• 🔐 Password Management : Bitwarden
• ☀️ Weather : Yr.no
• 👨‍💻 Code Editor : Zed - Neovim - Claude Code
• 💾 Terminal : Ghostty
• 🚀 Launcher : Raycast
• ✏️ Clipboard Manager : Maccy
• 🖼️ Screenshots : Flameshot
• 📞 Video Call : Google Meet - Slack
• 🍅 Pomodoro Timer : pomo
• 🔍 Search Engine : DuckDuckGo
• 📚 Book tracking : The Storygraph, synced to my bookshelf
• 📖 Book Management : Calibre
• 🎬 Movies / Shows tracking : Obsidian
• 📵 Screen Time App : Jomo
• 🏃‍♂️ Running : Kiprun Pacer - Strava - Garmin Connect
• 🎧 DJing : Rekordbox
• 📹 Youtube Client : Freetube
• 👨‍💻 Git Forge : Codeberg
• 📂 FTP Client : Cyberduck
• 🪟 Tiling Manager : Yabai
• ⌨️ Hotkey Daemon : skhd
• 📁 File Sharing : AirDrop / LocalSend
• 📊 Status Bar : SketchyBar
• 🧹 App Cleaning: App Cleaner
• 🗂️ App Management: Homebrew
• 📹 Video Recording : Cap
• 📺 Remote Desktop : Rustdesk