Homebrew Alternatives for Mac

There are many alternatives to Homebrew for Mac if you are looking for a replacement. The best Mac alternative is MacUpdater. It's not free, so if you're looking for a free alternative, you could try WailBrew or CaskHub. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 50 alternatives to Homebrew and many of them are available for Mac so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting Mac alternatives to Homebrew are Nix Package Manager, Brewer X, Mas CLI and Applite.

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Homebrew alternatives are mainly Package Managers, but if you're looking for Software Installers or Software Updaters you can filter on that. Other popular filters include Windows and Mac. These are just examples - use the filter bar below to find more specific alternatives to Homebrew.
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Alternatives list

  1. MacUpdater icon

    MacUpdater

     270 likes

    Automates scanning for outdated third-party Mac software, delivers one-click updates, runs silent daily checks, sends update alerts, and keeps an update history. Free trial scans, while bulk updating beyond ten apps requires a paid license and detailed control.

    23 MacUpdater alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Alerts

    • Discontinued

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • MT flagMalta
    • European Union flagEU
    MacUpdater screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
  2. WailBrew icon

    WailBrew

     12 likes

    A minimalistic and beautiful GUI for Homebrew package management on macOS. Experience the power of command-line tools through an intuitive, modern interface.

    14 WailBrew alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Homebrew
    • DE flagGermany
    • European Union flagEU
    WailBrew screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
  4. CaskHub icon

    CaskHub

     14 likes

    A native macOS app store for Homebrew casks. Browse, search, install, update, and uninstall thousands of Mac apps distributed through Homebrew - with original app icons extracted from the source, categories, popularity charts, and one-click actions, all in a clean SwiftUI...

    14 CaskHub alternatives

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Homebrew
    • EG flagEgypt
    CaskHub screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
  5. Ad
    Screenshot
    Setapp icon
    Setapp

    Setapp is a unified marketplace for Mac and iPhone users to discover hand-picked, trusted apps. Users can access apps in two ways:

    https://setapp.com
    Learn More
  6. Nix Package Manager icon

    Nix Package Manager

     30 likes

    Nix is a powerful package manager for macOS, Linux and other Unix systems that makes package management reliable and reproducible. It provides atomic upgrades and rollbacks, side-by-side installation of multiple versions of a package, multi-user package management and easy setup...

    59 Nix Package Manager alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • BSD
    Good alternative?
     
  7. Brewer X icon

    Brewer X

     13 likes

    Brewer X is a refreshing user interface for Homebrew. Manage your apps, scripts, and fonts with ease and dive into the most comprehensive software library for macOS.

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • IT flagItaly
    • European Union flagEU
    Install, upgrade, or uninstall anything in parallel with bulk actions
    Good alternative?
     
  9. Mas CLI icon

    Mas CLI

     6 likes

    A simple command line interface for the Mac App Store. Designed for scripting and automation.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    Good alternative?
     
  11. MacPorts icon

    MacPorts

     26 likes

    The MacPorts Project is an opensource package management system that simplifies compiling, installing, upgrading, and removal of other open-source software on Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and later, running on Intel or Apple Silicon.

    37 MacPorts alternatives

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • US flagUnited States
    MacPorts screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
  12. Setapp icon

    Setapp

     30 likes

    Setapp is a unified marketplace for Mac and iPhone users to discover hand-picked, trusted apps. Users can access apps in two ways:

    Cost / License

    • Paid
    • Proprietary

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Online
    • iPhone
    • iPad
    • UA flagUkraine
    Setapp screenshot 1
    Good alternative?
     
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  13. Spack icon

    Spack

     4 likes

    Spack is a package manager for supercomputers, Linux, and macOS. It makes installing scientific software easy. Spack isn’t tied to a particular language; you can build a software stack in Python or R, link to libraries written in C, C++, or Fortran, and easily swap compilers or...

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    • Windows
    Good alternative?
     
  14. A

    asdf

     Like

    "asdf" is a tool version manager. All tool version definitions are contained within one file (.tool-versions) which you can check in to your project's Git repository to share with your team, ensuring everyone is using the exact same versions of tools.

    Cost / License

    • Free
    • Open Source (MIT)

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Mac
    • Linux
    Good alternative?
     
  15. Lix Project icon

    Lix Project

     1 like

    A modern, delicious implementation of the Nix package manager, focused on correctness, usability, and growth — and committed to doing right by its community.

    Cost / License

    Application type

    Platforms

    • Linux
    • Mac
    Good alternative?
     
12 of 30 Homebrew alternatives